Spec Ops: The Line

There are typically different people making different parts of a game, so if one part seems to outclass the rest, it should not seem to be a mystery. The writer of this title did a damn good job, creating an interesting tug-of-war that we rarely see in games. The narrative will have you questioning the choices you've made; wondering if you should have picked differently. Like I've heard elsewhere, Bioshock may have been the last game I've played that has these types of interesting thematic elements.

So the story side is great; graphically and gameplay-wise is it also great? Mostly.

While you won't be blown away by the uniqueness of the gameplay, you will find that the graphics are a beauty. There are times when I just pause to look at the scenery. The gameplay I'd say is comfortable. Much like playing BF3, Gears of War, or COD feels familiar every time you play it, in that "comfortable" way. Similarly Spec Ops is pleasant, you can dive right into the narrative without fumbling with controls for the first couple of hours.

The music and score throughout the game are pretty nice as well, however the sound effects feel lackluster. Bullets and weapons just don't have the audio impact that they should. Having been in the army, I can tell you that when you fire a weapon, it's a powerful thing, but in Spec Ops (as with many games), these sounds are glaring because of their lack of impact.

Overall though, this is a fun to play, harsh to consume game. And its great.

8/10

I have played video games for ages and played lots of them. I like games a lot but every time someone claims that video games and movies are kindred spirits I laugh. To compare games and movies are, in my humble opinion, to give games way too much credit. The story lines are always juvenile at best, boasting scripts that wouldn't even fit the worst b-movies. Characters are usually shallow if not nonexistent. In order for games to elevate themselves, the developers really really need to dare write mature stories and present plots that engage us on a deeper level.

And along came Spec ops: the line, a seemingly run off the mill shooter with nothing new. The setting was somewhat original though, A recon mission into a Dubai, laid to waste by sandstorms. But I was still expecting the usual macho-soldier patriotism, thinking with your trigger finger-stuff. Boy was I wrong.

Someone at Yager has made some truly bold decisions, slowly, the story turns from the standard crap to a story that haunted me. Some of the visuals seriously shocked me and I both wanted to and did not want to find out what would happen at the end. The story is one of the best i have ever experienced in any video game. Ever.

The voice work is excellent, and does not get worse by the fact that Bruce Boxleitner plays the colonel. I still have a soft spot for him since Babylon 5.

I will not comment on the visuals, except to say that they have used it do present some of the most horrendous scenes i have seen in video gaming. The game play is OK, but seems like an afterthought when compared to the story. The game play mostly serves as a method to get us under captain walker's skin, to connect with him, only to make the second half of the game so much more powerful.

Play this. Its good. Really good.

This game is /intentionally/ marketed as a generic arcade shooter, but will in fact take you through an emotional and psychological horror experience.

DO NOT play this game like you play any other arcade shooter, pay attention to the characters' mental state, the details in the environment around them, the dialogue, all that. This game will deliver a different message to everyone, depending on one's personal philosophy, what details one picks up and how one perceives the game's story.

Gameplay-wise, cover system is clunky and gunplay is too arcadey for my taste but it isn't worse enough to affect how you experience the game.

Very, very, very underrated. Hope there would be more similar games in the future.

Greetings from Lithuania.

So i have recently invested 8-10 hours of my lifetime into "Spec Ops: The Line" (2012). It was worth every minute of it.

This is a 3rd person shooter with an amazing story (Seriously. In a Shooter!), gorgeous graphics (played for the first time in the end of 2015), very solid game-play and mechanics. The highlight of the game and the actual reason why i have played in the first place 3 years after it's release (haven' t got a chance at the moment of it's release) was a story that i read was great. It is great, based on a "The Heart of The Darkness", on which material the masterpiece "Appocalyose Now" was made - it takes you to the deeps of modern warfare and place you in a shoes of "Captain Willard" who has to go trough hell to kill "Kurtz". Although the ending left me a bit confused, i loved the whole experience nevertheless.

Overall, "Spec Ops: The Line" is a highly enjoyable game (still) in regards to 3 main factors: amazing story and mood, great game-play and superb visuals. Maybe it's not as polished as "Gears Of War", but it is a rare gem - shooter that actually makes you FEEL.

While most war games out there tend to glorify the violence, this game (it's hard to call it a game when it isn't exactly fun and it's so narrative-focused) shows the player the reality of war in all of its horror. In fact, it may even be safe to say that this could be considered a horror game by definition. After going through the campaign on this game, I found myself more appreciative of what our men and women on the frontlines go through every day, because this game, as I said, shows you the reality of war and not its glorified state like in so many others such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. How? It removes the "hero" aspect. This time you're not killing Nazis, Al-Qaeda, or aliens; you're going into the beautiful Middle- Eastern city of Dubai to help evacuate its refugees from the worst sandstorm in recorded history. I won't spoil who the enemy turns out to be. While that does sound well-intentioned, the way the plot unfolds takes Captain Walker and crew into an extremely brutal fight for survival. Unique to video games, there's also non-linear storytelling in the game as well when the player is forced to make some remarkably unpleasant decisions. One may even argue that some of these said decisions are things that real soldiers must make from time to time, just to be called war criminals for doing what they HAD TO DO. There needs to be more (not games) interactive experiences like this. the game is a masterpiece