The overhaul wasn't merely cosmetic, as the controls were updated to an interface that made the warfare much easier and more intuitive. In fact, the things that bothered me about Emperor: Battle for Dune were that they ditched many of the familar elements, and replaced the lush score with rock music. I cannot praise this enough, as the score in the original and the remake is not only epic and immersive, it also adapts to the situation (e.g. The music, easily one of the best parts of the original game, is also kept, but now in all its orchestral glory. The buildings and the units retain much of their old designs from Dune II, but with better graphics, as do the surroundings. The clever thing about this remake is that it keeps things recognizable, and improvements were made where they were due. Fortunately, the video game community is much more forgiving to remakes than movie fans, and we got what we wanted. So kudos to Westwood for not giving in to the false dogma of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', often purported by purists who think that everything is perfect beneath the veil of their nostalgia. Dune II was of course the game that defined the modern real-time strategy game, but 6 years and a similar number of Command & Conquer/Warcraft games later, it is hard to imagine that there was once a time where commanding a large squad of tanks in unison was not an option. Even though Wikipedia says that game remakes are as old as the late 80s, I remember Dune 2000 as one of the earliest examples where the developers could no longer watch how the passage of time had made their classic nearly unplayable for modern audiences. It is commonplace now, but remakes of high-profile video games were much less prominent in the 90s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |