Final Verdict

Emperor: Battle for Dune is a lot of game for your money. The 150 single player missions alone are enough to justify the cost. The gameplay is solid if you like Westwood RTS games, and it really makes you think about what units you need to produce to counter your enemy since all of the units are so different. Multiplayer has a lot of potential, but more people need to play online if Emperor is going to get a following.

The game certainly is not perfect though. The graphics are blocky as units and buildings are rendered with low poly counts. Despite this, it will really bog down your system if you try to play with all of the bells and whistles on. If you don't mind turning down the graphics and focusing on the gameplay then it's not a big deal. Westwood could have worked on the unit AI for another few months. It's basically the same dumb AI from the previous C&C games.

Who would I recommend this game to? Westwood RTS fans will eat this up. It's the same concept of the C&C games with three races and 3D graphics. General RTS fans will probably like Emperor, as long as they can stomach the cheesy cut scenes. Avoid this game if you don't like a lot of micromanagement. You don't have a choice but to hover over offensive and defensive battles to make sure your troops aren't killing each other. Also avoid this game if you have a slow system. It's not worth playing a game at five frames per second. Diehard Blizzard fans may not like this game, but if you want a new RTS while you're waiting for War3, give this a shot (but only if you've tried Sacrifice and Ground Control already).