Up till now we have solely recognized concerning the Atreides and Harkonnen factions in Dune: Spice Wars, the veritable Mario and Bowser of any potential Dune videogame. In an update posted to Steam on March 11, Shiro Video games unveiled the sport’s third faction: the Smugglers.
Within the books, the Smugglers have been a faction positioned between the galaxy at massive and the Fremen of Arrakis. Ultimately, they allied with Home Atreides and offered protected harbor for Atreides retainer (and one of many faction’s advisors in Spice Wars) Gurney Halleck. Within the books, the smugglers’ chief, Esmar Tuek, died throughout the Harkonnen coup in opposition to Home Atreides.
Tuek, who was tailored out of Denis Villenueve’s latest adaptation of Dune, sees an expanded function in Spice Wars as the pinnacle of this playable faction. Right here, the Smugglers vie for management of Arrakis itself, with a watch on seizing the ability and status of recognition as a noble home on the galactic Landsraad.
In gameplay phrases, the smugglers appear to have an espionage angle, with their mercantile, cloak-and-dagger focus resembling Home Ordos within the traditional, Westwood Studios video games. The Smugglers have a singular affinity for “parasitizing the event of their neighbors ” via infiltration, and the put up additionally outlined the distinctive items out there to them:
- Scavengers are opportunist killers, who’ll do something for a simple buck. They like to assault weak, ravenous items with their sharpened blades. Their energy will increase when their goal provides diminish.
- Wreckers use chemical weapons to scale back the availability of enemies of their space of assault, which makes them the proper harassing unit, permitting their allies to comfortably loot the spoils.
- Snipers, lethal marksmen with modified sniper rifles, have the longest assault vary on Arrakis. Factoring of their camouflage, they’re adept at ending fleeing items.
- Free Firm are essentially the most well-known assassins and bounty hunters within the Imperium, geared up with twin swords and spectacular stealth gear. Their versatility comes primarily from their skill to imitate the talents of their targets throughout fights.
- The fight drone is a powerful, extraordinarily agile mechanical unit conceived for autonomous combating, to assist the Smuggler troops.
There’s yet another faction for Shiro Video games to disclose previous to Early Entry, with a fifth coming to the sport a while after that. The Fremen are definitely one possibility. In earlier video games, they’ve had a job as an NPC faction for gamers to woo and win over, because the Atreides did within the books, however Shiro has demonstrated each a willingness and a want to interrupt with Dune’s gaming custom in Dune: Spice Wars. Home Corrino (the Emperor’s faction) could also be an alternative choice, but it surely sometimes operates at a take away from Arrakis with the Harkonnen largely performing as a semi-loyal arm of the Imperium.
These seem to be apparent decisions although, and the Smuggler reveal is a little bit of a curveball. We’ll discover out both approach quickly, as Dune: Spice Wars has its Early Entry launch deliberate for later this yr.
