That was quick. Less than two months since 4X strategy game Dune: Spice Wars rolled into early access on Steam, developer Shiro Games is gearing up to add multiplayer, alongside some new features built around player teamwork. Shiro Games offered a quick glimpse of the multiplayer at today's PC Gaming Show.
Spice Wars' multiplayer mode will support up to four players, going at each other in free-for-all or 2v2 team matches. It'll also support co-op vs AI factions, which is definitely going to be my preferred way to play. Just me and the homies, ganging up to bully Baron Harkonnen right off the planet.
Alongside the multiplayer update, Shiro will be rolling out "new synergy systems between factions" that it says "will open a vast number of strategies to help you crush your opponents."
That's the kind of thing I was hoping to see more of in Spice Wars when I played it back in April. It's a promising, breezy real-time 4X, and it's full of familiar Dune names, like the Atreides and the Fremen and the Harkonnen's vicious Sardaukar soldiers, but I still felt that Dune: Spice Wars could use more flavor text and more meaningful distinctions between factions. The synergy systems sound like a good start in that direction.
Shiro Games didn't have an exact date for Spice Wars' multiplayer update, but it's coming sometime this June.
