Expansive Overview: Spec Ops The Line

With this console generation entering its twilight years, I go back and review one of its more controversial offerings.

Spec Ops: The Line Review

Developer: Yager Development
Publisher: 2k Games
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Pc
Released: June 26 2012

Spec Ops: The Line is no ordinary 3^rd person shooter and at the same time, it’s almost identical to any other 3^rd person shooter ever made.

The left trigger aim, right trigger shoot style game play Spec Ops employs is the same as you’ve experienced countless times before within this overcrowded genre, and perhaps of a better quality than Spec Ops can provide.

The majority of enemies you’ll be gunning down are generic Arabic terrorists, only becoming slightly more interesting when the enemies switch to US marines. This introduces a change of weapon load out, but also swaps out headscarf’s for helmets. Still, taking this into account, I can guarantee you’ve never played anything like Spec Ops: The Line before.

Narrative Spec Ops is out to challenge you. You’re going to be running and gunning like you’ve done multiple times before, slaughtering hordes of enemies without hesitation, but this time you’re going to feel bad about it. The game casts you as characterless Captain Martin Walker, voiced by – as with most games in the industry these days – Nolan North. Walker, for much of the game, offers little more than military orders and squad commands; he’s as uninteresting as the game play. Flanked by a ‘bro-dacious’ duo of a wise cracking radio op Lugo and heavy weapons specialist Adams who have a little chemistry between them, filling the dead air between sections of combat and story cinematic nicely.

However, their in-game chatter quickly descends into more than just playful banter between friends. You and your squad are tasked with venturing into a desolate Dubai. The desert has claimed this most modern of cities, reducing it to little more than a Mad Max style apocalyptic wasteland. It makes for a very unique setting which the game makes good use of, offering pretty skylines dotted with ruined skyscrapers; although recycled corridors and hotel lobbies quickly cause this aesthetic to grow old.

The ruined city is still populated, however. Unfortunate citizens who were unable to be evacuated and the ‘33’rd’ a US military force who were tasked with evacuating the city still roam around, but were forced to seek refugee from sandstorms within the city. Following lack of communication for months since the failed evacuation, the C.I.A deployed special agent ‘Daniels’ to make contact with the 33rd. Upon entering the city, however, he is captured by the 33^rd and it’s up to you and your two man squad to shoot your way through the ruined city. Much like the style of Cpt. Benjamin travelling up a river in Vietnam in Apocolypse Now, to go and rescue this ‘Daniels’ from the clutches of the 33^rd.

On the surface, the story seems to offer little depth and the game itself does little to inspire you to continue playing through its overly bland style of gun play. It even has the gall to open with possibly the most generic of game set pieces a ‘turret section’.

However, the further you head into the narrative, you’re faced with difficult decisions. The highlight of which is possibly facing an angry lynch mob and what you previously believed to be harmless civilians.

You and your squad face a steady decline in sanity as you tackle each of these decisions, with each member of your squad offering very opinionated commentary on the choices you make. The Captain Walker you’ll be playing at the beginning is a very different beast compared to the end of the rather long (14 hours my play through) game. This bland character you’re greeted with at the beginning changes. The cold cut military ‘Move Up’ quickly becomes little more than curse words breathed through ragged breath as he slowly degrades both mentally and physically over the course of the narrative. This makes for an extremely interesting ride, culminating in what is a baffling array of multiple endings depending on the choices you’ve made earlier in the game.

Spec Ops the Line isn’t pretty. Its shooting is dull, offering nothing new. Any longevity it offers comes from how hard it can be. Even when being played on Normal mode, enemies will quickly cut you down if you spend to long out of cover.

But the latter stages of the game are worth baring the rather dull earlier stages and the narrative twists alone make Spec Ops the Line a must play experience for anyone who’s ever played a Modern Warfare. As a single player experience, there really is nothing else quite like Spec Ops the Line.

If we get more stories in the coming console generation like Spec Ops can offer, then we’re in for an emotional console cycle. One I’d be very much looking forward to.

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