Frank Herbert's Dune

Pros • Faithful to the classic novels • Good graphics, solid frame rate • Excellent character animation	Cons • Enemy field of view very limited • Sticky walls and people • Not enough information during mission • Can't skip cut scenes
Bottom Line It's Tomb Raider without the puzzles. Metal Gear Solid without the toys. Dune Raider? Maybe, but Frank Herbert's Dune, by French Developer Widescreen Games, draws heavily on the novels for a much deeper story than Tomb Raider or even Metal Gear. Played from a third-person perspective, you guide Paul in his attacks against the Harkkonnen and earn the trust of the Fremen to fulfill your prophecy as Maud'Dib. Fans of the books will instantly recognize many of the subtle references (for example, Paul's blue-on-blue eyes), but if you don't know Dune you'll be more than a little lost. Obviously crafted by dedicated fans, Frank Herbert's Dune is a solid title with advanced graphics, decent gameplay, and a great price.

Both Dune (the movie) and Frank Herbert's Dune (the mini-series) were based on the classic science fiction novel Dune. Frank Herbert's Dune (the game) is based on the mini-series, but if you've seen Dune (the movie) or read Dune (the book), you'll know most of what's going on. Confused? If you don't know anything about Dune, you'll be even more confused playing it.

The game takes place in the two-year period Paul spends among the Fremen on Arrakis. The story progresses quickly to the point of the run-in with the sandworm after Paul and his mother crash in the desert. Played from a third-person perspective, most of the missions see Paul hugging walls and peeking around corners (a la Solid Snake) to steal Harkonnen plans or blow up harvesters in an effort to disrupt the flow of spice and eventually free the Fremen from their dusty existence. The wall-hugging works fairly well, but the peeking usually exposes Paul too much, drawing the attention of nearby guards. A target lock feature works well when you're facing an enemy, but a misplaced tap on the keyboard will have Paul locked onto a wall taking enemy fire in the side or back. Some tweaking with the camera in these areas would have removed much of the frustration factor and made for an overall better experience.

Health is handled by your distiller, which purifies water you collect in the game. Water can be collected by picking up other suits or by disabling enemies. Water can also be turned into life (health), but once your health runs out it's over. Later missions allow you to use "the voice" to temporarily stun nearby enemies so you can get away, but only when your health is low. Progress is saved automatically, usually right before a mission starts and immediately after. An in-mission save would have been very helpful, especially since you'll need more than a few tries to figure out everything you have to do in order to fulfill the mission objectives. Playing an entire level for half an hour and then getting blown up as you try to leave because you didn't know you had to turn off the anti-air guns just ain't right.

There are several code panels throughout the game, which are workstations where a special five-character symbolic code must be entered to unlock a door, program a security device, or whatever. You'll need pen and paper to keep track, because the symbols are tricky and the location of the code is not always viewable from the panel. Codes can be hidden on ceilings, wall charts, or on coded disks that must be placed in a nearby reader. Mission objectives are vague and without sufficient instructions as to your goals, you'll spend a lot of time retracing your steps looking for a code when in fact it may not be a code you need at all.

The voice acting is flawless and doesn't sound like acting at all. However, some sort of lip-synch software was used that synchronizes lips and cheeks to the spoken words, but it clearly doesn't work very well, and sometimes not at all. Orchestral music plays throughout and adds great feeling and tension to some of the more stealthy missions. Plenty of in-game cut scenes move the story along, but there's no way to skip them. Since they are numerous and some are quite long, it gets a little annoying.

Character models are highly detailed and very well animated. Disabling moves in particular are numerous and based on the angle of approach to the victim. In the Sietch (cave), where Paul spends time between missions collecting information and weapons, there are several NPCs that he can talk to that reveal key story points and provide additional information. Getting away from them is a bit "sticky," as are many of the corners in buildings and tunnels. Collision detection in general is a little too unforgiving, and there are some places you can walk into that you can't walk out of, requiring you to restart the level.

A faithful retelling of an epic story by developers who are obvious fans of Frank Herbert's epic works, Dune is a slightly above-average third person action adventure with some frustrations that shouldn't take too much away from an otherwise decent game. Not the next great thing, but certainly worth the extra time on your hands over the Christmas holidays and more than worth the $30US price tag.

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