"Dune" is not a household name, but as the first huge production to win both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, the book's status in the science fiction world is similar to the status of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" in the fantasy world. From today's point of view, the plot as a novel and the setting as a science fiction are somewhat boring and even clichéd (interstellar travel, foreknowledge, political struggles). Science fiction is particularly time-sensitive. But the discussion of religion, culture, and humanistic thought still has a strong vitality to this day (and will always have such a life).
The plot and setting of Dune is not complicated, and the world consists of an interstellar background + medieval political structure. The main stage is set on this planet known as the "dunes", full of desert and spices. As a waste of sandworms, spices have become a specialty of the planet and are precious because of their ability to transform the human spirit and enable people to foresee the future. Spices became an indispensable necessity for interstellar travel after the Crisis of Wisdom and the destruction of all computers by humans. The tone and main setting of the whole book is as simple as that.
Unlike the "hard science fiction" of the same era, which insists on interesting settings, the prominence of "Dune" is not how sci-fi the setting of the future world is, and how traceable the theory of technological progress is. The real greatness of this work is that it creates a world on another stage, in another background. It is now often called "space opera". The world has its own operational logic, religious beliefs, history and culture, and international situation. Compared with the plot and brain hole setting, the novel pays more attention to the portrayal of the world view, not only telling a story, but also creating a world, which is also an important reason for comparing Dune to "Lord of the Rings".
The stage built by "Dune" - interstellar, religious, high-tech world without artificial intelligence, inspired countless works in later generations, derived countless new IP, the most famous three are nothing more than the "Star Wars" series, "Warhammer 40k" series and "Game of Thrones", it is not difficult to imagine the book's grandmaster status in the science fiction world (after all, there are not many fans of domestic Star Wars and Warhammer 40k, and the status and influence of these IPs in Europe and the United States are far greater than we think).
Similar to the IP of "The Lord of the Rings", although the "Dune" IP has gone through more than sixty years of ups and downs, the movies and games have been constantly adapted, after all, the interstellar stage is so vast, and the stage left for many creators to create is really incomparably broad. But the filming of "Dune" movies is too difficult, after all, the film is too small, and in the thousands of years of "Dune" history, there is too little content to carry, and many exquisite and philosophical settings cannot be reflected. The plot of the novel itself does not have a very good and bizarre twist and turn in a relatively short period of time. Today, when the setting is no longer fresh, the filming of the film is naturally very difficult.
After watching the latest "Dune" in 2021, I only feel that the performance is average, and the plot can only be said to give the story a head, and it is necessary to make three movies just to take out "The Prince's Revenge". See what the Lord of the Rings movie next door is all about: after the trilogy is made, it's released in order. In this way, the unity and integrity of the whole can be guaranteed.
The level of cinema was still 60 years ago. The picture performance in the whole film is a good highlight, but it is a pity that Hollywood does not lack pictures. The film's fight scenes and battle logic are almost impossible to see and understand. As for the philosophical thinking of the novel, it is even more gone. Considering the difficulty of the adaptation, the overall production can still feel the conscience, and the second part can barely be expected...
In addition to novels and movies, Dune has also been adapted into a game. The IP's grand worldview, rich religious and political system, and relatively weak "hard sci-fi" setting as a whole, adapting a typical CRPG would be an excellent choice, but The Westwood Studios that took over the IP at the time did not do so, instead, they let the player play God.
In 1992, Westwood Studios launched the games Dune and Dune 2, and the producers first coined the term "real-time strategy," turning the page on RTS games. Dune 2 is also known as the first RTS game ever (not strictly speaking, but it did kick off the golden age of RTS).
The game screen of "Dune 2" has a terrain distinction compared to the previous generation
In fact, "Dune 2" is not much improvement over the previous game in the series, and its ascension to the altar is not a great innovation compared to the previous game in terms of gameplay, but more because its producers formally proposed the concept of "real-time strategy", which made RTS officially established, so it has a profound impact on the history of games.
As the predecessor of Command & Conquer, the game's system doesn't require much introduction. Even with the limitations of the time, Dune 2 was guaranteed to be a complete game — building infrastructure within limited resources, dispatching troops, and defeating other forces. The resulting economic system, construction system and combat system have all achieved stability and pure fire in "Dune 2".
Atredi (Blue Hawk), Odos (Green Snake) and Harkenny (Red Bull). This is the selection screen of Dune 2000
In terms of factions, the game chooses three families in the novel: Atridi, Odos and Hackani, and plays freely in the plot. There is a high degree of restoration of the environment in the background of the novel. Buildings require the player to build foundations in the soft sand before building them above. If you build a building directly into the sand, you will lose half of your health, and you should also pay attention to whether your mining vehicle will be attacked by sandworms because of its own sound.
If you don't escape the sandworms, your vehicle will be swallowed by the sandworms (here's a picture from Dune 2000, Dune 2 is too mushy)
In terms of operation, Dune 2 is relatively simple. There is no standard framing function in modern RTS, you can only send commands to target units one by one, there is no double war fog, and the characteristics and characters between the various families are not well highlighted (you can only feel the evil side of the Hackani family from some buildings and weapons). But beyond that, the game's core system framework and AI are perfectly up to the test.
The game inspired the then-obscure Blizzard's Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994, which improved gameplay and enhanced race features and RPG elements based on Dune 2. Also a leader in the RTS field, Blizzard has also become a strong competitor of Westwood. After that, together with Nishiki, with Command & Conquer, Warcraft and StarCraft, the era of RTS was opened. (That said, Blizzard originally wanted to take the "Warhammer" and "40k" IP from GW to do video games, but after being rejected, he made "Warcraft" and "StarCraft", and GW's intestines were remorseful.) ）
Warcraft focuses on the performance of the characters, with character frames on the side to enhance the performance of the characters
After "Dune 2", Westwood launched the monument of real-time strategy games in 1995, the spiritual sequel of Dune 2 - "Command and Conquer", and countless Chinese game enlightenment "Red Alert" is a sub-series of CNC. This series also allowed Westwood Studios to fight a battle, and RTS games exude endless brilliance in a number of games.
In 1998, Nishiki Studios launched Dune 2000, and it can be seen from the pictures that the UI and graphics are very different from the second part of the CNC series" "Red Alert" that followed. In the cutscenes, the form of live-action performances is also adopted.
You can't say similar, you can only say exactly the same
Compared with the previous game, the game greatly simplifies the UI and highlights the characteristics of different factions and units. For example, the three-way ultimate tank that has been upgraded to full level, the technologically advanced Yatridi tank can be laser strafed, the vicious Odos tank can control enemy units, and the brave Hackani tank is fierce and fierce, and will explode after death. In terms of unit details, infantry can pass through rough terrain and will be slowed down, while vehicles such as tanks will only have to take a detour.
Supposedly, such a game should have sold well, but Dune 2000 was really not in time, before StarCraft and Age of Empires exploded, and after this, their own "Red Alert" came out, and the final sales were not ideal. Dune 2000 uses an engine based on command and conquer 95. Sound, image detail and artificial intelligence are slightly better than the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert 95, but it is still difficult to hide the reality that its technology has fallen behind in 1998 (compared to works such as StarCraft, which launched at the same time, with a new engine and game model). It can only be said that the RTS market at that time was really a fairy fight, and Dune was excellent, but they were better.
"Dune 3000" has been transformed into a 3D picture, which reminds me of the domestic "Freedom and Glory"
At this time, There was a major turning point for Westwood Studio, and in 1998, the studio was photographed and acquired by EA. Under the IP of "Dune", Ximu finally launched a "Dune 3000" in 2001.
This was the final singing of the Dune series and Westwood on the RTS stage, but unfortunately, the imbalance between the three camps made the game sell poorly. The more important reason is that after entering the 21st century, the RTS game genre is no longer thriving, and a large number of more advanced and interesting games continue to pour out.
Nishiki, the Taishan Beidou of the RTS, also left the scene, and was finally disbanded by EA in 2003, and a generation of legendary studios was annihilated in the torrent of the times, and the classic IP of "Dune" was also hidden. EA, there really is yours. (Playing the terrier to play the terrier, in fact, there are some stories to write about The dissolution of Nishiki by EA, and the tragedy of Nishiki cannot all be blamed on EA, I can only say that it is a pity.) ）