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Frank Herbert’s Dune

Score: 3.9 / 10

Frank Herbert’s Dune (FHD) falls apart almost as soon as it starts, which is extremely disappointing considering the richness of the source material.  I’ll admit I never watched the TV show that FHD is based on, but I’ve read Dune at least a dozen times. (The mini-series, I’m told, was very accurate to the book – at least compared to the David Lynch rendering.)  While the story of FHD follows a strong story – Paul Atreides fighting back against the evil Harkonnen and his quest to lead the Fremen out of the desert – the action is far from enjoyable.

Take, for example, the second “stage” where Paul must outrun a sandworm.  At the best of times, outrunning a sandworm is not recommended. (“Stay off the sand” having the same implication as a “Stay out of the water” sign on an Amittyville beach.)  This stage is unnecessarily frustrating as Paul is running toward the camera with barely a few feet visible in front of him.  The challenge is to avoid the loose sand that slows Paul down.  The first few times, it’s a tense situation – this huge menacing sandworm rearing up behind Paul, the roar of thunder and crackle of lightning.  It looks cool but what’s the point when I have to play the same damn section over and over, with the same friggin’ results? (i.e. death)  At first I thought I should just follow Jessica, Paul’s mother, across the sand.  No results there though.  Once she goes off screen she vanishes and so do her footprints in the sand.

 

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Combat is akin to taking part in stop-motion animation but unable to really do what you want.  Which is not to say FHD doesn’t look good and move well.  For the most part, the locations and characters are modeled extremely well.  Exceptions include the constant facial “zoom” that happens during cutscenes.  The camera starts panned out them slowly zooms in on the speaker’s face – reminiscent of those Saturday mornings when Pee-Wee shouted “Let’s 

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look up my le nez!”  As I was saying, combat is pretty horrible.  Paul can use his knife (a krsyt) or a blaster to defend / attack, but the way both are implemented you may start to wonder what the designers were thinking.  You can only target and fire on one enemy at time – no Max Payne shoot-dodging here.  Of course, the action is more focused on stealth and sneaking around than Max Payne.  You can put your back to the wall and wait for an enemy to come by, but if you miss your chance to “spill his water” (and claim some for yourself), you might as well restart the mission.  If you don’t make a one-hit kill with your knife, you can try your luck with your blaster (but be unable to move and wide open for return fire -- although you can duck back for cover) or keep your knife and wave it wildly in the hopes you might land a hit.  The control scheme is not up to par and there’s no option to modify the controls.

Two more big strikes against FHD is the save function and the inability to skip cutscenes.  There’s nothing wrong with console style saving between missions, but when the missions are long and your progress is hampered by the control, you’ll start to curse console style save games.  The cutscenes aren’t numerous, mainly happening between missions, but they are long – and become boring very quickly when you’re forced to watch them again and again.  As far as I can tell there’s absolutely no way to skip them.

By now you’re probably asking if FHD is a console port.  If you think the answer is “Yes” you’ve just won a kewpie doll!  It was a simultaneous Playstation2 release and it shows, right down to naming your new game – you have to scroll through the alphabet, as if the keyboard in front of you has suddenly become extraneous.

FHD isn’t without its positives though.  The environments are great (if you ignore the fact Paul can get caught up on practically everything.)  The sound design is solid, even though the dialogue doesn’t always match up with the subtitles (and never matches the lip movement).  The music, I’m told, is taken from the mini-series.  Even if it’s not, the music is very good.  Sound effects are good if a little sparse.  The ambient noise of sand blowing is sorely missed in the outdoor areas.  Missions are varied, for those with the patience to work through them.  Some have time limits and others border on impossible – I was really ready to just give up about ¾ of the way through the game – but most of the difficulty is owed to the controls and camera positions.

If you can get over the massive short-comings, Frank Herbert’s Dune will serve to delight and challenge.  Everyone else, Stay Off The Sand!

- Omni

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