The first strategy game I seriously played and loved was Dune II: Battle for Arrakis. Before that, I was absolutely not interested in this genre. I never found it particularly exciting to virtually push some combat units around on a map. But Dune 2 nevertheless cast its spell on me and has not let go of many of us to this day. A whole bunch of successors poured over the audience in the years that followed. However, these clones soon lost the appeal of the new. Perhaps I would have found these fresh ideas in other – less well-known – representatives of the genre back then. In search of such pearls, I enter the famous hexa fields of The Perfect General II.
Errol Flynn sailing the Caribbean with a band of buccaneers. Facing Basil Rathbone in a fencing duel to free Olivia de Havilland from the clutches of this rival pirate. Battling two warships at once. Then, employed by the English, overthrowing the French garrison of Port Royal. The inspiration for a certain ultra-famous game going by the name of Pirates! Which makes it into the grand adventure of a heroic individual. Nobody, on the other hand, made a movie about the "adventures" of Lionel Atwill as the colony's original governor in the movie. A week in the life of the head of local administration? Though that is exactly what some German game developers tried here.
A beginning is a very delicate time. So, how to start? With some dunes, which shall be stabilised by planting grass on them? With megalomaniacal visions for a cinematic realisation of a highly sophisticated science fiction novel? At the source of a flood of real time strategy games, or one step further at the archetype, which got copied ad nauseam? All of this led, on more or less direct ways, to Dune 2000, a remake of its predecessor Dune II: Battle for Arrakis, with an updated interface, strongly inspired by Command & Conquer, and aesthetics that look like taken right out of Lynch‘s take on the space opera. A melange of many great examples, but does it live up to them? Does it dare to step out of its source’s shadows? Does it offer anything new? Or is it just an unoriginal rehash, simple cash cow cosmetics for a classic game? Let’s take a look!