Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line is a provocative and gripping third-person modern military shooter that challenges players' morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices affecting human life must be made.
Spec Ops: The Line unfolds within the destroyed opulence of Dubai. Once the playground for the world's wealthiest elite, Dubai has fallen victim to a series of cataclysmic sandstorms. The city's ultramodern architecture lies half-buried under millions of tons of sand. The very sand that blankets the city plays a marquee role in altering combat situations and serves as a powerful but unpredictable force that will both help and hinder players throughout the course of the game.
While most people have fled the now-barren wasteland before the sandstorms swept through, U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad and his loyal squad remained behind to protect those incapable of escape. Unable to reach anyone in Dubai after the storm hit, the U.S. Army feared Konrad and his team dead until they picked up a weak distress signal and launched a rescue operation. As U.S. Army Captain Martin Walker, you and your elite Delta Force team are sent to infiltrate the treacherous region to bring Konrad home. Players will experience "The Line", that razor's edge known only to men who deal in war. It is the line they cross when death and duty become one and the same. It is the end -- of self and sanity -- when their duty is done and only they remain.

pro

Inspired by The Heart of Darkness, Spec-ops tells a gritty and war-torn story about the darker sides of war usually glossed over in other war games. It forces you watch things you'd rather not see, and attempts to pull you into the minds of your character as well as your AI partners as the story unravels and their sanity degrades. Not even the loading screens lets you off the hook. By this merit alone Spec-ops is a highly interesting game that will hook you enough to see the story through.

pro

As a cover-based game it's good to see some changes done to a stale formula, albeit small. Being able to peek down and around your cover gives you an added strategic layer to keep things as fresh as they can be.

pro

Moral choices are much darker and sinister than you're used to, and they all tie together in a handful of different endings encouraging you to play through it multiple times.

pro

Yes, it's Nolan North, but the overall quality of voice over work done in the game is great, with all characters having something to contribute into the mix.

pro

Dubai is a cool setting featuring sandy deathtraps and tall, deserted buildings. Half buried sports cars and marble floors creates an atmospheric venture into a city usually portrayed as a thing of the future.

con

A good story with great potential is practically ruined by stale mechanics and repeating enemies. Its relentless pace never gives the player room to contemplate or take in what happens around you as you shoot your way out of one encounter and into another. While ambitious, these facts deflates the game and makes this yet another shooter that it so hard tries not to be.

con

Added mechanics, like improvements in the way cover work, are only good if they can be used, which in Spec-ops' case has to be on easy. The game was finished on suicidal and fubar difficulty, and it gave no room at all to be creative.

con

It's easy to impress with a sunset on the horizon, but in most cases the game looks highly regular.

con

The weapons lack weight and sound. A few licensed tracks and weak orchestral track doesn't do the setting of Dubai justice.

TOTAL SCORE

6/10

A dark and worthwhile story ruined by bad mechanics and gameplay choices

By Bård A. Johnsen