Reviews Videogame / Spec Ops The Line

There Are Truly No Words That Can Elucidate...

how much I love this game.

There is nothing I dislike about this game. The graphics are spectacular from both a technical and artistic perspective with beautifully detailed models and a fleshed out world that looks and feels lived in while slowly decaying away. The setting of Dubai is extremely important from both a narrative and thematic perspective and the graphics bring it to life spectacularly. Character models are richly detailed and transform over the course of the story. The music is also perfectly suited and contains 1960s protest songs along with hard rock and some more atmospheric pieces to set the tone. They do exactly what they need to and complement both the story and the characters.

Gameplay-wise I've heard this game described as generic and while I would agree with this descriptor, I wouldn't say it's bad. It reminds me of Uncharted without the platforming sections. But the guns, grenades, and cover mechanics work basically the same. The only difference is that the presence of your squad allows you give out some tactical commands. I would say that it surpasses Uncharted, though, in that the combat sections felt like they dragged on much less in Spec Ops and that Walker definitely seems to take more damage per shot (even on the lowest difficult) which makes him feel more vulnerable (a feeling compounded by limited ammo).

The narrative, finally, is superb and THIS is an example of the power of video games as a medium. Walker's story would not be nearly so affecting were it not an interactive journey. The devs used every shooter and action hero convention to create a familiar and comforting environment and then ripped away the narrative mask to completely unsettle the player. It works very potently because of the awareness that Spec Ops doesn't exist in a vacuum and even when the player is "railroaded" into making certain choices, this acts as commentary not only within the game but on the industry itself. In how many other games are players forced to make similar choices? And in how many of those games do we really think about the consequences rather than just accepting it as part of the fun?

Spec Ops: The Line is powerful precisely because it understands the reasons (both good and bad) that shooters are compelling in the first place and has the player examine just what their reasons are to continue playing.