Dune: Spice Wars Reviews
A solid 4X that fails to capture the spirit of its colourful setting.
A wide range of systems make Dune: Spice Wars an enjoyable 4X, but the depth of Frank Herbert's world-building is largely lost in translation.
Dune: Spice Wars is a clever, multilayered, challenging RTS that skillfully translates so much of what is cool about Frank Herbert's universe in its interesting mechanics.
Dune: Spice Wars is a layered, clever, generally well-balanced RTS with great faction diversity that feels more or less finished even in its current early state.
This realtime 4X makes great use of Dune's furniture in crafting a compulsive, busy, and well-made strategy game, and its new campaign is a great addition. But the soul of Dune remains elusive, leaving its desert planet feeling barren in the wrong ways.
A compact, complex 4X with attentiveness to the source material. But an inconsistent midgame and lack of narrative decision making hold it back from maximum spiciness.
Dune: Spice Wars pays homage to the source material but lacks a story mode that with almost 3000 pages at one's disposal is hard to justify. Fortunately the gameplay depth and flexibility make up for it almost completely.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With a haunting soundtrack, great sound effects, a great visual style that stands out from the crowd, excellent commanding gameplay, and the plethora of options that you'll be able to take to achieve victory, you'll find yourself excited to try to take command of the Spice, even if you end suffering a crushing loss.
Dune: Spice Wars is a solid strategy experience that allows players to win or lose through politics, not just combat. The game clearly uses Dune as a setting, not just an aesthetic. The Xbox controls can be convoluted to learn, however, and the tiny UI elements could present a challenge for some prospective players.
I cannot lie, the world of Dune is one of my favorites, and any chance to visit Arrakis is a welcome one. Despite a its significance to gaming as a whole, there aren’t a lot of Dune games out there. Spice Wars is the kind of power struggle fantasy game that we’ve been seeing for decades, but its a winning formula. Sure Spice Wars might mostly be porting over a lot of the mechanics from Northgard and dressing them up with a new coat of paint, but it’s an incredible court of paint. If you were distraught to learn that the second Dune movie will be pushed back into next year, Spice Wars will probably hold you over until the big day for the big worms.
Dune: Spice Wars is an excellent Dune-licensed RTS. The approach to the game mechanics is fresh and functional, net of some various imbalances.
Review in Italian | Read full review
If you are passionate about the work of Frank Herbert, Dune: Spice Wars is the ideal game to live adventures and explore the setting of one of the most important sagas in the history of science fiction.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Dune Spice Wars pays homage in a clear and often effective way to the source material.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Dune: Spice Wars from developer Shiro Games is the ultimate experience for any Dune fan looking for a well-designed and respectful translation of the sci-fi series into an RTS gaming form. It has all the intricate details and power moves that are featured in the books, while at the same time crafted to be a familiar real-time strategy experience at its forefront. The only downer is the amount of gameplay element juggling a casual RTS fan might have to do to enjoy the game, which could turn them off from playing it.
An extremely well crafted RTS that, despite the lacking of an actual and traditional campaign, shines thanks to a layered and smartly designed gameplay.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Unfortunately, it didn't improve as much as expected during the early access period, and even regressed a bit, especially in the scenario mode. As it is, we have a good game, a strategy game that is fun to play. But it must be said that it failed a bit to meet expectations.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Dune: Spice Wars tries to be both 4X and RTS at the same time, but it failed to competently combine the advantages of the two genres. The games stretch at a snail's pace and do not develop in any way, do not change during the match. The game quickly shows everything that it is capable of, after which there is simply no need to return to it.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Dune: Spice Wars is a deeply thematic 4X-RTS hybrid that captures the political and strategic intrigue of the Dune universe, offering multiple paths to victory, from warfare to diplomacy and economic dominance. While the game’s depth and variety make for a compelling experience, the lack of a true story-driven campaign slightly limits its long-term appeal.
Review in Finnish | Read full review
There is no campaign quite yet, and there is no information as to whether or not there will ever be one, but as it currently stands, Dune: Spice Wars is a game that could entertain you for a few hours until you get bored of it (or finish victoriously) and move on. It is a fair game, great for newcomers, and based on the Dune franchise: What more could you want?
Dune: Spice Wars is perfectly poised to be the meta-defining 4X real-time strategy game in the market. However, the lacklustre amount of game content as well as the repetitive gameplay does hurt the game’s replayability. There also seem to be some performance issues, albeit mild, which hinder the player’s experience. I would definitely recommend waiting out for a sale for this one if you are really keen on trying out another new addition to the strategy genre. If you’re not a big fan of strategy games and just wanted to try the game out because it’s set in the Dune universe, I’d reckon you’d have to look elsewhere.