In the game industry these days there are lots of f shooters. Some would argue too many. I probably would agree with that statement. But when friends began telling me how great Spec Ops the Line was; I really had a hard time taking it seriously. I had played Spec Ops the Line way back at the first E3 that it was announced for and while it looked amazing and looked like it was doing some interesting things with sand. I was less than thrilled at another military based third person shooter. In fact, the modern military aspect of the game was my least favorite aspect of it going in. With Modern Warfare, Battlefield, Sniper Elite, Arma, Medal of Honor, etc… I’m filled up on my modern military shooters, whether they come in the first or third person variety. But that was way back in 2007. The game has changed a lot since then. I believe it has changed SO MUCH that if you go back and check out the footage from back then, other than art assets the game is completely different. This is not a game about getting headshots or kill streaks. It’s a game about conflict, military conflict and what can happen to people who are involved in such conflicts. The game riffs off movies like Apocalypse Now and Platoon. Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness was also an inspiration. It takes all these themes and puts them into a modern package that is no less disturbing than those modern classics and maybe even more so.
I played Spec Ops the Line in the worst way possible. All in one sitting and entirely in the very early morning. By the end I was shell shocked and even if you find this a positive review; realize that I never want to even touch this game again. If they put out downloadable content I will not be playing it. So, take that for what it’s worth; perhaps a slight warning. It is very difficult to talk too much about Spec Ops the Line’s campaign without giving too much away. But I will give it a shot.
You play Adam Walker who is voiced with a career ultimate performance by Nolan North, the voice of Nathan Drake and many others. Nolan North has been in many games; but this was the performance of his career. There isn’t anything I can tell you about the performance without giving anything away except that if he doesn’t make you FEEL SOMETHING by the end. You are well and truly dead. Adam is the leader of a small Delta Squad who is going into a sand storm torn up future Dubai to find a Colonel who has gone off the grid with a battalion of soldiers. In the current US military I think if a battalion of soldiers went missing the Army might send in more than three guys to find out why. But that’s neither here nor there. It is important as the player that you pay a great deal of attention to the beginning of the game even though it is by far the weakest part of the whole. Here the ground work is laid for what is to come.
As the player you have a descent interaction with your squad, you can give them fire commands and they can pretty much take care of themselves. Unless of course one bugs out and runs at a turret. Which did happen to me twice in the game. The game checkpoints you often so starting over really isn’t THAT big of a deal. Even on the easiest setting this game is difficult. If you want to get through it you must all ways be aware of your environment and stay in cover. There are certainly times where you can be overrun and only realize it when the enemy is bashing you in the head. The enemies range from insurgents to American Soldiers who have gone rogue. Just by me telling you that I’ve probably said too much so I’ll leave it there.
As a whole Spec Ops the Line is the best and worst possible third person shooter. I love the story in its daring and the feats of development strength it pulls off. As a third person cover based third person shooter it is middling at best, terrible at worst. It’s difficulty swings even on the easiest settings are pretty severe. This mostly has to do with controls and their lack of precision. Perhaps putting the vault and run commands on different buttons wasn’t the way to go. Also, some flat surfaces that should be able to be used as cover cannot be sometimes. Also, shooting out windows should not take hundreds of shots and when those shots come from a 50 cal. probably even fewer. I could get through even the strongest bullet proof glass with just a few shots from such a gun. In the game I overheated the gun twice while trying to do this. Probably fired more than 200 rounds. I assume this was done for dramatic tension; but it was terrible. By the end of the game you have enemy fatigue and while this DOES play into the story. The player’s frustration/annoyance with it probably will overshadow the minimal story reason for it’s existence.
The real star of Spec Ops the Line was the message it was trying to send. Not only about war, conflict, killing, and psychology. But also about what the difference is between right and wrong. How these kinds of matters are never black and white. And finally that there are NO real heroes in war. Just survivors. The game makes much about the modern military war game and some of things that are wrong with it. Not normally directly but indirectly. The game is very intelligent throughout. At least when it isn’t trying to sell you on how good of a shooter it is. I truly enjoyed this game. But I think it should have been half as long and probably a downloadable game for PSN/XBLA with around 10 trophies/achievements that covered just getting through the campaign.
I did play several hours of the multiplayer for Spec Ops the Line and found it a very serviceable multiplayer game with some fun stuff taken from the campaign. However, the disconnect from single player to multiplayer is SO STARK that they could be different games. The multiplayer’s graphics aren’t nearly as good. The tones of the two modes don’t fit at all and the idea of progressing to get perks and new weapons all most spits in the face of what the campaign is trying to achieve. The multiplayer may be in there to extend the life of the game. But on the consoles I think only the hardest of the hardcore are going to be picking this up and they are playing Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield. So I don’t really think this was a good decision by 2K. I would have just put out the game in the form I mentioned above. It probably would have sold several million copies at $15-$20. They could have positioned it as the Anti-Journey. But my revisionist opinion aside I don’t think this game works as a multiplayer game and can’t imagine that it will have a console audience in that space by the time the game is three or more months old.
Finally, I would like to say that I really applaud the developers of Spec Ops the Line for making such a risky game. I think they did an excellent job overall and while many of their choices I didn’t agree with. I think what they did do was top notch. If not for those design choices and the choice to put in multiplayer Spec Ops the Line would probably have gotten a VERY high score. As it stands I have to give it a 8/10 and caution to anyone who purchases this game that it has virtually no replay value and you might not feel like your getting your money’s worth from the multiplayer. So unless you’re a PC player getting this for $25 or less, I would probably pass on buying it and rent it instead. It is probably the high watermark for stories in games thus far this year; so you WILL want to play it. But given it’s visceral nature, you will probably not want to play it again.
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