Out with the old, in with Villeneuve
“Dune is unadaptable!
It could never work as a film,” I cry, placing defiant fists upon my hips.
“But what,” says Denis Villeneuve, “about two?
“, shattering my physical form into one trillion shards.
I have a difficult life.
What about as astrategy game?
Denis glances nervously at the inexplicable open pools of molten steel all around us.
I’ve got him now.
He hasn’t even playedSpice Wars.
I think Spice Wars is about as good as an adaptation could be.Imperiumtoo.
Alright Denis, let’s have a truce and sort this one out.
There have, of course, been games before the Duncening.
Of course big daddy Corrino is gonna take a stab at flatten everyone.
It’s an excuse, really, to have another distinct faction with its own thing going on.
In addition to fighting, everyone has different approaches to the Landsraad, the galactic council.
They’re also purple, so automatically correct.
Although lategame votes and invasions can be intense, it’s seldom clear why exactly an opponent does that.
Nobody has much to say, either.
Oddly, this is something Spice Wars shares with the other big strategy game adaptation, Imperium.
I gave Imperium a go almost out of spite, having shared a screenshot of its impenetrable-looking board.
Within a single game I kind of knew what I was doing even with no tutorial.
In fact, a thorough tutorial might have overwhelmed me with terms and concepts better intuited over time.
It helps too that its modest sound effects are plain enjoyable.
I don’t think you ever outgrow “press button make fun sound”.
It’s strategy, not gimmick.
Despite its depth, rounds are somewhat self-contained, and you don’t need to plan six turns ahead.
Although it could definitely be clearer what cards people are playing and what they do.
I never felt cheated.
But as an adaptation of the book?
It’s… it isn’t Dune, really.
There’s little sense of relationships save where you develop your own grudges.
Spice Wars provides more colours, but both expect you to paint your own picture.
And yet I think both games are successful adaptations.
Paradoxically, by jettisoning as much as possible.
Even prescience is barely in either.
His unstoppable union with the Fremen defines the story.
Without him it’s not proper Dune, but with him it’s a foregone conclusion.
This world was made to tell a story, not to play in.
We already live there.
Maybe an RPG, sure.
Anything else would require cutting out core elements just as every other Dune game has.
Dunc-the-film works because it knows its limits.
I can see what it’s doing and respect it.
Because, you see, Dune is unadaptable.
It could never work as a strategy game.
