But it was ultimately overshadowed by Westwood's game, which reviewed better, sold more, and laid the foundations of an entire genre. It's a great (and underrated) game, perfectly capturing the spirit of the novels-a result of the development team being made up of Frank Herbert superfans. Cryo's Dune is an interesting take on the source material: part 4X-style military and economic strategy game, part point-and-click adventure, and part dungeon crawler. As the Baron Harkonnen memorably says in the film: 'He who controls the spice controls the universe!'Įarlier in the same year, French developer Cryo released its own Dune game, which is why Westwood's was named Dune 2-even though the games are not connected. This is the only place in the entire universe where a valuable substance known as Melange, or the spice, can be found: a powerful narcotic that makes space travel possible. Dune 2: Battle For Arrakis is a real-time strategy game where three warring factions battle for control of the desert planet Arrakis. In the winter of 1992, Westwood Studios-a Nevada-based developer best known for later creating the Command & Conquer series-released a Dune game loosely based on David Lynch's 1984 film adaptation of the weighty sci-fi novel.