Whether you secretly love David Lynch’s adaptation or adore Denis Villeneuve’s recent blockbuster iteration of Dune, like many, we were very much looking forward to the arrival of Dune 2. Though the upcoming sequel isn’t due to arrive for months, you can embrace the spice, thanks to Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft is serving up a sandy slice of action from Frank Herbert’s sci-fi universe, as Dune Spice Wars is headed to the subscription service.
If you’re looking for new Xbox games to sink time into, then you’ll be perusing all the best Xbox Game Pass games currently available. You’ll want to mark Tuesday, November 28, 2023, on your calendar, as this is when Dune Spice Wars will be ready to play on Xbox Game Pass. Following a period of early access last year, a full release of Dune Spice Wars emerged in September.
According to a recent Microsoft blog post, Xbox players can experience a “4X real-time strategy game […] set in Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking Dune universe, [where] you must lead your faction and battle for control and dominance over the harsh desert planet of Arrakis.” Dune Spice Wars will be arriving alongside another fantastic title, Rollerdrome, which is a perfect blend of Max Payne and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
But what exactly will you be doing on Arrakis in the game? While farming resources like Spice and minerals is important, you’ll have to put in valuable research to pass through the desert, otherwise, your army will stuck in the harsh Arrakis sun. Dune Spice Wars is split into five factions, which are House Atreides, House Harkonnen, House Corrino, the Fremen, and The Smugglers. To maximize your effectiveness, we recommend looking into your options for selecting a counselor when your adventure begins.
What we like about Dune Spice Wars is the option to harness your dark side. You can be a real a-hole if you want to be. This means you can recruit agents for different factions, learn about each of them, and use your research to attack accordingly. That’s if you don’t get obliterated by Sandworms, which may pop up at random throughout the game, devouring entire squads in one fell sweep.
It could easily be one of the best Xbox games you’ll get to play, especially if you’re pining for the Dune 2 release date to arrive faster. Sadly, we can’t time travel, but we can recommend marking down the Dune Awakening release date too, an MMORPG title as opposed to an RTS.