Tweet
Spec Ops: The Line
Spec Ops: The Line is a mediocre game wrapped up in one of the best storylines I've played in recent memory. As far as the overall gameplay goes, it's your typical cover-based third-person shooter with a modern setting. Chest high obstacles line your path, blind firing is the norm, and balls to the wall action are all quite present. Really, if you've played one cover-based shooter, you've played them all, right? In the case of Spec Ops, the answer is two-fold.
The gameplay itself is a bit dull. It introduces nothing new that you haven't already played out in other shooters such as Ghost Recon or Gears of War. The only real variance comes from a variety of set pieces such as a white phosphorous mortar drop or hitching a ride on a helicopter as you mow down enemies without much fear of death. The real saving grace of Spec Ops is the presentation and the storyline. I won't lie when I say that Spec Ops: The Line features a number of story elements that make some of the biggest moments in the Mass Effect series seem dull in comparison.
As Martin Walker, voiced by the talented Nolan North, you find yourself in Dubai after a horrific series of sandstorms isolated the city from the rest of the world. With the aid of two squad mates, Lugo and Adams, it's up to you to find out what has happened to "The Damned" 33rd, a group of soldiers sent in prior to your arrival that has gone off the radar. As you progress, you find that hostilities between the 33rd and local Insurgents have been reignited. Questions begin to arise as to who the real enemy is as you learn more about the Insurgents, the surviving civilians, the 33rd, a mysterious radio DJ that antagonizes your group through much of the game, and one John Konrad, the commander of the 33rd.
Naturally, nothing is as it initially seems. Questions always arise as to who is spurring on whom to keep fighting. Who is really leading these massive uprising and spurring on the mini-wars being waged throughout the city? That's just the tip of the mysterious iceberg that is the story behind Spec Ops. The crap hits the fan on more than one occasion as Walker faces some incredibly difficult moral choices. Trust us when we say that the choices you make in the game are not all that easy to make. Whom do you choose to kill in this situation: An American kneels before his captors, on the verge of dying but still alive at the moment. Save him and he'll provide much needed intelligence that will help you complete your mission. The problem here is that the same group that is pointing a gun at his head just took a group of civilians off to be murdered. Do you save the American or do you save the civilians, knowing full well that the person or group you don't choose will most definitely result in their death Perhaps there is an alternative, third option here? That is up to you to discover and sometimes it's not always an easy decision to make. We should mention that this is one of the earliest choices you can make and they only get more morally difficult as the game progresses.
Spec Ops is all about showing you the dark side of war. We're talking about civilians murdered in cold blood, or coming across a line of American soldiers who were gunned down in a firing range. Maybe it's the scene of a charred innocent mother clutching her child that will push you over the edge. Maybe it's when you drop down into a tunnel full of rotting corpses that were just disposed of without a thought or care that they were once living beings. Even if scenes like this don't manage to get to you personally, they most definitely start to get to Walker and his squad.
The dialogue interactions between Walker, his crew, the radio DJ, Konrad, and others are incredibly well written. It's a small thing, but it's just amazing that so few games before this have managed to achieve this level of escalation before. Throughout the story, your squad becomes more and more haggard, beat down not only by the physicality of their battles but also the mental wear and tear. They start out as soldiers, strategically calling out targets, acting and speaking as well-oiled machines of war. You know, just like soldiers are in most every other game set in a modern military setting. As the game progresses, however, their mannerisms change. Their mentalities evolve. Walker becomes more reckless. He shows signs of his mentality breaking as his melee moves become more brutal, more primal. His dialogue becomes more and more full of vitriol. Lugo and Adams also go through similar changes, becoming more unhinged, more reckless, and more full of unbridled rage. What start out as light hearted joking turns into short, angry responses to one another.
For as well thought out as the story, dialogue, and plot twists are, I really wish the same could be said for the gameplay itself. Again, it's just full of chest high cover as you make your way from point A to point B, killing everything in your path with a fairly wide variety of weapons. The grenades look and feel weak while the guns feel quite powerful in your hands. There is a squad ordering mechanic in place, which is quite simple to use and doesn't feel like a necessity at any point, but it's quite nice to have at the ready. There are various times where you can order your squad to throw a flash bang to stun a group of enemies in order for you to pick them off. Most of the time, the squad mechanic will be used to target a specific enemy for Lugo and Adams to concentrate their fire on. Perhaps the best part about this, though, is the fact that Lugo and Adams carry different weapons. If you're in a position where an enemy is too far away, a simple squad command will tell Adams to snipe the guy. A few seconds later, he's down for the count. On the rare occasion, you can even order one squad mate to revive the other. It's as simple as using the middle mouse button for every action and is a nice addition to what would otherwise be a run of the mill shooter.
The other innovation here is the sand mechanic. Despite what you may believe, the sandstorms and such are not really dynamic. Everything is scripted to occur at specific points, which typically lead to a progression of the story in some form or another. You can, however, shoot out various places where sand has built up in order to take out enemies or at least make their lives a living hell by blocking off various pathways. Grenades, while weak overall, can be thrown into areas of sand to kick up blinding clouds that work as a great flash bang alternative in a pinch.
The game progression itself is quite linear in nature. Small side branches do present themselves here and there, depending on the moral choices you make. Side with Lugo, and Adams may get more ticked off at you down the road. Dialogue does change enough that it may be worth your while to replay through sections a few times to see what you missed the first time around. Areas of the game sometimes force the player to go without his squad for a short bit of time to build up some tension as you fight to survive. While it's not a terribly difficult game overall, there are points where you almost assuredly die one or more times. The checkpoints could be a bit more frequent than they are, or at least placed in spots following a cut scene. It does tend to get a bit annoying when a checkpoint comes before an unskippable sequence that you must then sit through each time you die in that area.
That does bring up a few more minor complaints here. Given the fact that your squad mates can rescue the other from death, why then can they not do the same for you when you are "killed"? This has always bugged me in games that have a mechanic like this and just doesn't make a bit of sense. Instead of being revived, you have no choice but to load back at the previous checkpoint and do it all again. Also, another minor complaint is the fact that most games seem to include collectables of some sort. Spec Ops is no exception to the rule here. On the plus side, however, there are usually only about two collectables per chapter and most are typically staring you in the face as you progress through the main areas. These pieces of intel do provide a bit of additional exposition and back story and while not necessary, it is nice to learn a bit more about what's going through the minds of some of the game's major players. Finally, the AI could use a bit of work. At times they show signs of brilliance as enemy soldiers leap atop thrown grenades to save their buddies. They often employ flanking techniques to flush you out from your current position. Yet at other times they may just end up running straight towards your squad as you fire round after round of hot lead in their direction.
Clocking in at just about five hours, the game's single player offers nothing new in terms of gameplay but certainly shines brightly with one of the best storylines I've encountered in quite some time. Multiple endings that are actually quite different from one another will ensure that you will at least play through the last chapter more than once, if not the entire game.
The game does offer up two main multiplayer modes, one competitive and one cooperative. The coop is a series of special missions that pit you and a buddy in a variety of scenarios. If you think back to the coop missions found in Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, then you have a good idea of what these are like. Again, nothing special but they do add some additional gameplay variety here.
The competitive multiplayer is quite bland in almost every regard. I would have rather they not even bother with this and instead focused more on adding some variety to the single player gameplay. Modes include the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Rally Point, and Buried. The latter two being the objective based multiplayer modes. Select your class, select your load out, and dive into arena like maps that are inspired from the game's single player campaign. The visuals are toned down a bit from the rather terrific looking visuals found in the game's single player. Though some of the textures in the single player could be a bit higher resolution, it's nothing that can't be overlooked. The maps themselves are crisscrossed with zip lines that facilitate movement and mounted machine guns that can be used to camp a specific spot before you're taken out. The problem lies in the fact that if the enemy sees you, you're essentially dead as soon as they look at you. It doesn't help matters that the multiplayer scene is already quite small on the PC, furthered hindered by the fact that there are no dedicated servers for the game.
It's difficult to quantify a game like Spec Ops: The Line. On one hand the story and presentation are almost in a league all their own. On the other hand, the gameplay is simply a rehash of what we've already seen before in other games. I don't mean to say it's bad, it's just that there's nothing really new or fresh being offered here as far as the gameplay itself goes. Spec Ops: The Line shows the brutality of war. It shows you what hell is really like in more ways than you can possibly imagine. Not to mention that this is probably the most angry you will ever hear Nolan North get in any game.
It should be noted that the story and some plot devices are quite similar to classic works like Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness. I mention this only if you were still wary about how truly crazy the story can get. Welcome to Dubai.
Relevant Links
Spec Ops: The Line on Steam
Spec Ops: The Line Official Page
Spec Ops: The Line was reviewed on the PC. The game was published by 2K Games and developed by Yager Development (Single player) and Darkside Game Studios (Multiplayer). It is available now for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms. It is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.
Spec Ops: The Line is a mediocre game wrapped up in one of the best storylines I've played in recent memory. As far as the overall gameplay goes, it's your typical cover-based third-person shooter with a modern setting. Chest high obstacles line your path, blind firing is the norm, and balls to the wall action are all quite present. Really, if you've played one cover-based shooter, you've played them all, right? In the case of Spec Ops, the answer is two-fold.
The gameplay itself is a bit dull. It introduces nothing new that you haven't already played out in other shooters such as Ghost Recon or Gears of War. The only real variance comes from a variety of set pieces such as a white phosphorous mortar drop or hitching a ride on a helicopter as you mow down enemies without much fear of death. The real saving grace of Spec Ops is the presentation and the storyline. I won't lie when I say that Spec Ops: The Line features a number of story elements that make some of the biggest moments in the Mass Effect series seem dull in comparison.
As Martin Walker, voiced by the talented Nolan North, you find yourself in Dubai after a horrific series of sandstorms isolated the city from the rest of the world. With the aid of two squad mates, Lugo and Adams, it's up to you to find out what has happened to "The Damned" 33rd, a group of soldiers sent in prior to your arrival that has gone off the radar. As you progress, you find that hostilities between the 33rd and local Insurgents have been reignited. Questions begin to arise as to who the real enemy is as you learn more about the Insurgents, the surviving civilians, the 33rd, a mysterious radio DJ that antagonizes your group through much of the game, and one John Konrad, the commander of the 33rd.
Naturally, nothing is as it initially seems. Questions always arise as to who is spurring on whom to keep fighting. Who is really leading these massive uprising and spurring on the mini-wars being waged throughout the city? That's just the tip of the mysterious iceberg that is the story behind Spec Ops. The crap hits the fan on more than one occasion as Walker faces some incredibly difficult moral choices. Trust us when we say that the choices you make in the game are not all that easy to make. Whom do you choose to kill in this situation: An American kneels before his captors, on the verge of dying but still alive at the moment. Save him and he'll provide much needed intelligence that will help you complete your mission. The problem here is that the same group that is pointing a gun at his head just took a group of civilians off to be murdered. Do you save the American or do you save the civilians, knowing full well that the person or group you don't choose will most definitely result in their death Perhaps there is an alternative, third option here? That is up to you to discover and sometimes it's not always an easy decision to make. We should mention that this is one of the earliest choices you can make and they only get more morally difficult as the game progresses.
Spec Ops is all about showing you the dark side of war. We're talking about civilians murdered in cold blood, or coming across a line of American soldiers who were gunned down in a firing range. Maybe it's the scene of a charred innocent mother clutching her child that will push you over the edge. Maybe it's when you drop down into a tunnel full of rotting corpses that were just disposed of without a thought or care that they were once living beings. Even if scenes like this don't manage to get to you personally, they most definitely start to get to Walker and his squad.
The dialogue interactions between Walker, his crew, the radio DJ, Konrad, and others are incredibly well written. It's a small thing, but it's just amazing that so few games before this have managed to achieve this level of escalation before. Throughout the story, your squad becomes more and more haggard, beat down not only by the physicality of their battles but also the mental wear and tear. They start out as soldiers, strategically calling out targets, acting and speaking as well-oiled machines of war. You know, just like soldiers are in most every other game set in a modern military setting. As the game progresses, however, their mannerisms change. Their mentalities evolve. Walker becomes more reckless. He shows signs of his mentality breaking as his melee moves become more brutal, more primal. His dialogue becomes more and more full of vitriol. Lugo and Adams also go through similar changes, becoming more unhinged, more reckless, and more full of unbridled rage. What start out as light hearted joking turns into short, angry responses to one another.
For as well thought out as the story, dialogue, and plot twists are, I really wish the same could be said for the gameplay itself. Again, it's just full of chest high cover as you make your way from point A to point B, killing everything in your path with a fairly wide variety of weapons. The grenades look and feel weak while the guns feel quite powerful in your hands. There is a squad ordering mechanic in place, which is quite simple to use and doesn't feel like a necessity at any point, but it's quite nice to have at the ready. There are various times where you can order your squad to throw a flash bang to stun a group of enemies in order for you to pick them off. Most of the time, the squad mechanic will be used to target a specific enemy for Lugo and Adams to concentrate their fire on. Perhaps the best part about this, though, is the fact that Lugo and Adams carry different weapons. If you're in a position where an enemy is too far away, a simple squad command will tell Adams to snipe the guy. A few seconds later, he's down for the count. On the rare occasion, you can even order one squad mate to revive the other. It's as simple as using the middle mouse button for every action and is a nice addition to what would otherwise be a run of the mill shooter.
The other innovation here is the sand mechanic. Despite what you may believe, the sandstorms and such are not really dynamic. Everything is scripted to occur at specific points, which typically lead to a progression of the story in some form or another. You can, however, shoot out various places where sand has built up in order to take out enemies or at least make their lives a living hell by blocking off various pathways. Grenades, while weak overall, can be thrown into areas of sand to kick up blinding clouds that work as a great flash bang alternative in a pinch.
The game progression itself is quite linear in nature. Small side branches do present themselves here and there, depending on the moral choices you make. Side with Lugo, and Adams may get more ticked off at you down the road. Dialogue does change enough that it may be worth your while to replay through sections a few times to see what you missed the first time around. Areas of the game sometimes force the player to go without his squad for a short bit of time to build up some tension as you fight to survive. While it's not a terribly difficult game overall, there are points where you almost assuredly die one or more times. The checkpoints could be a bit more frequent than they are, or at least placed in spots following a cut scene. It does tend to get a bit annoying when a checkpoint comes before an unskippable sequence that you must then sit through each time you die in that area.
That does bring up a few more minor complaints here. Given the fact that your squad mates can rescue the other from death, why then can they not do the same for you when you are "killed"? This has always bugged me in games that have a mechanic like this and just doesn't make a bit of sense. Instead of being revived, you have no choice but to load back at the previous checkpoint and do it all again. Also, another minor complaint is the fact that most games seem to include collectables of some sort. Spec Ops is no exception to the rule here. On the plus side, however, there are usually only about two collectables per chapter and most are typically staring you in the face as you progress through the main areas. These pieces of intel do provide a bit of additional exposition and back story and while not necessary, it is nice to learn a bit more about what's going through the minds of some of the game's major players. Finally, the AI could use a bit of work. At times they show signs of brilliance as enemy soldiers leap atop thrown grenades to save their buddies. They often employ flanking techniques to flush you out from your current position. Yet at other times they may just end up running straight towards your squad as you fire round after round of hot lead in their direction.
Clocking in at just about five hours, the game's single player offers nothing new in terms of gameplay but certainly shines brightly with one of the best storylines I've encountered in quite some time. Multiple endings that are actually quite different from one another will ensure that you will at least play through the last chapter more than once, if not the entire game.
The game does offer up two main multiplayer modes, one competitive and one cooperative. The coop is a series of special missions that pit you and a buddy in a variety of scenarios. If you think back to the coop missions found in Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, then you have a good idea of what these are like. Again, nothing special but they do add some additional gameplay variety here.
The competitive multiplayer is quite bland in almost every regard. I would have rather they not even bother with this and instead focused more on adding some variety to the single player gameplay. Modes include the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Rally Point, and Buried. The latter two being the objective based multiplayer modes. Select your class, select your load out, and dive into arena like maps that are inspired from the game's single player campaign. The visuals are toned down a bit from the rather terrific looking visuals found in the game's single player. Though some of the textures in the single player could be a bit higher resolution, it's nothing that can't be overlooked. The maps themselves are crisscrossed with zip lines that facilitate movement and mounted machine guns that can be used to camp a specific spot before you're taken out. The problem lies in the fact that if the enemy sees you, you're essentially dead as soon as they look at you. It doesn't help matters that the multiplayer scene is already quite small on the PC, furthered hindered by the fact that there are no dedicated servers for the game.
It's difficult to quantify a game like Spec Ops: The Line. On one hand the story and presentation are almost in a league all their own. On the other hand, the gameplay is simply a rehash of what we've already seen before in other games. I don't mean to say it's bad, it's just that there's nothing really new or fresh being offered here as far as the gameplay itself goes. Spec Ops: The Line shows the brutality of war. It shows you what hell is really like in more ways than you can possibly imagine. Not to mention that this is probably the most angry you will ever hear Nolan North get in any game.
It should be noted that the story and some plot devices are quite similar to classic works like Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness. I mention this only if you were still wary about how truly crazy the story can get. Welcome to Dubai.
Overall: 7/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Audio: 8/10
Multiplayer: 3/10
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Audio: 8/10
Multiplayer: 3/10
Story: 9/10
Relevant Links
Spec Ops: The Line on Steam
Spec Ops: The Line Official Page
Spec Ops: The Line was reviewed on the PC. The game was published by 2K Games and developed by Yager Development (Single player) and Darkside Game Studios (Multiplayer). It is available now for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms. It is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.
Comment