Emperor adds a true 3D engine to the mix for the first time, but aside from that and a few other noteworthy and not-so-noteworthy tweaks, this is the same game as Dune 2, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Tiberian Sun, Dune 2000, and last autumn's Red Alert 2. All of the basic concepts that fueled both that classic and the subsequent Command & Conquer series have been recycled again and again. Their latest looks all the way back to 1992's Dune 2 (often cited as the first RTS ever developed) for its inspiration. While the rest of the gaming world has moved on to bigger and better things, this formerly innovative company has simply been repeating the real-time strategy past. And someone should tell the good people at Westwood.

We thought they'd never end.īut they have. Or at least as old as the dust blanketing that closet-consigned P75 you once used to play Command & Conquer. For while the title in question is just hitting stores today, the gameplay concepts are as old as dirt. Although it's odd to start a review with a history lesson, such an approach is entirely appropriate when you're dealing with a new game as archaic as Emperor: Battle for Dune.