Crossing the Line: A Spec Ops Review

Welcome to Dubai

   Spec Ops: The Line is a modern military shooter developed by Yager Development, with a tacked on multiplayer I didn't play developed separately by Darkside Game Studios. Spec Ops: The Line is a game design to punch the players in the balls and make them feel like garbage. Spec Ops expects a reasonable level of maturity from it's audience, and that they pay attention to the plot of the game that surrounds what is a mediocre cover-based shooter.

   Spec Ops: The Line plays and looks like every other shooter of the recent years. Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Gears of War, and every other game the Abercrombie & Fitch bros are creaming over. Spec Ops is brown, and most of the gameplay consist of you waiting behind chest high walls for an enemy to pop out like a game of whack-a-mole. It's the standard affair, and it does it pretty poorly on a mechanical level as well. The shooting isn't as precise as it should be, and the enemies come from very obvious spawn points, that you will occasionally see. It all feels like a low-budgeted and dated Call of Duty knock-off, which is what the game wants. It does not want to be fun. It wants to engage the audience through it's story, which poor shooting helps reinforce. The game is engaging through the use of its gameplay mechanics to further the story. Everything that is done can relate to the overarching theme of the game.

You were warned.

  
   The game is unique because of the well crafted story. The story is based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which was also the source material to the fantastic film Apocalypse Now. The first 45 minutes or so set up the game like the other games in this genre. You play captain Walker, the generic all American hero, and are accompanied by the sassy black man Adams, and the wise cracking sniper Lugo. These three travel through Dubai on a rescue mission, and shoot brown people in the process. Like every other shooter of the last several years. Then the game starts to portray American troops as the villains and everything turns around. The characters start to ponder the brutality of war, and slowly descend into madness. Descending is a common element in the the game, with constant rappelling sections that lead to the story becoming more and more brutal. The later parts of the story deal with relations of the squad, and how they react to the various morals of the factions currently occupying Dubai. They have these crazy things called characters arcs, which come full circle by the end, which is something that is commonly ignored in gaming. Everything concludes in an emotionally satisfying ending that brings every theme, plot thread, and character arc full circle.

Experience a slow descent into madness

   The game serves as an deconstruction of modern shooters and the line the players must cross. Many of the scenes are taken directly from Call of Duty, but show the player the after math of the destruction. Spec Ops is more about the brutality of war, and how it is not a game to played. The story deals very heavily with the morals of modern shooters and how they glorify the horrific acts of war. To avoid too heavy of spoilers, Spec Ops directly lifts the helicopter scene from Modern Warfare, and directly relates it to the morales of war, the effect they would have on the soldiers, and what it says about the character of player.

   Overall Spec Ops: The Line is a fantastic experience, even if it is a bit mediocre as a game. It's not fun, but the story and themes, make the game engaging. The game is unique and expects quite a bit from the audience. Spec Ops is one of the first major steps in gaming being taken seriously as a medium for mature story telling. Spec Ops will most likely be remembered fondly among the heaps of trash that make up modern gaming.