Dune: Spice Wars early access review: a compact 4X that falters in the middle

Right, housekeeping first. Dune: Spice Wars’ Steam page describes it as a “real-time strategy game with 4X elements”. An odd choice, considering Shiro Games themselves downplay RTS elements in a Steam blog. Spice Wars is as much 4X as the dead eyes of two smiley faces, and one with enough forward momentum as to make such tantalising lies unnecessary. Embrace your grand strategy! It’s like John Dune always said: “Fear is the path to the dark side, Malcolm Reynolds”. Read more