Spec Ops the Line revolves around a group of Delta Operatives who have been sent in Dubai to investigate a radio message received from the 33rd Battalion, a group of soldiers who lost contact six months prior to the games opening sequences. Captain Walker of the Delta Operatives is sent in to search for the leader of the 33rd Battalion, John Konrad, who had saved him in Kabul years ago. Upon their arrival, they notice things are awry and are surrounded by death and despair. The team of three push on witnessing and experiencing things that should tear at the human soul, but in an effort to find answers, they continue the trek to find Colonel Konrad.
Whereas in most shooters the characters themselves never change throughout the story, Spec Ops The Line has you witness the wear and tear of the characters emotional state. What starts out as friendly banter between the protagonists ends with them almost blowing each others heads off. The things they run across throughout the game causes them to slowly crumble and it is evident in the dialogue and behavior of the characters. Instead of calm tactical speak like they do in the beginning, the end has each of them barking expletives and frustrations. Their bodies gain soot and burns from their journey, and you genuinely feel terrible for what the characters are going through. Gamers who want a change of pace from the usual bad ass they play as, Spec Ops The Line use the emotions, look, and dialogue of the characters in a way that games in the shooter genre (first or third person) should take into consideration.
The gameplay, however, isn't anything groundbreaking. It's solid, handles well, and I couldn't find any complaints with it. Everything felt fine. One would suspect that the actual shooting may suffer due to the focus on narration, but all of the staples are there. You run forward in linear levels with more open areas for bad guys to shoot as you hide behind cover. You poke out and shoot or blind fire before moving forward. Let me tell you, there are a LOT of people to shoot and kill. But that's the point of that, and you realize it later on in the game. More on that in a bit.
When asked about what separates Spec Ops The Line from other shooters, the folks at Yager would inform you of how the setting can play a large part in the game. In a way they are right. Some levels have enormous dust storms crop up in the middle of battle causing firefights to be a tad more intense as it's more difficult to pick out enemies. So you risk moving forward at easier shots. Luckily, the same trouble you have with seeing, the enemies do as well. There are also many parts in the game where the sand from Dubai can change the outcome of a shootout. Since the dust storm that cut off the 33rd Battalion was the biggest one in recorded history, many places in Dubai are covered with sand and sometimes buried in it. This allows for players to shoot out vents or windows that cause billows of sand to flood into the room and daze or even engulf enemies. While this option sounds good, I found myself using it very little and it rarely crossed my mind during my time with the game. More often than not, it was mainly used as the way to get from one moment to the next.
There is also one other thing that caused some people to be off put by the game. The executions. Melees in the game do not kill, they stun. Enemies fall to the ground, and if nothing is done, they regain composure and stand back up to continue their assault. So you can run up to the enemies while they are on their ground and given a prompt to execute. Depending on where you are in the game, the executions vary. These executions take the form of the emotions the character is going through at the time. Butting the rifle in the head of the enemy is one thing, but near the end you shove a shotgun to their head and let go a round. While it feels like the violence is going a tad far, it's just one more extreme Yager takes to show the state of the players.
But if there's one thing that was touted above everything else, it would be the choices made in this game. We were told that repercussions would occur based on decisions made by the player and the ending would be different based on them. Well...yes and no.
There are really only two choices that matter, and four endings for the game. Both choices come in the last chapter and the epilogue, and the rest do nothing to affect the storyline of it. Instead, they are shown as flashbacks as what you did when confronted with those situations, but don't warrant the back of the box bullet point. The choices help put you in the shoes of the character, forcing you into difficult decisions that will make you feel lousy regardless of the choice. Of all the choices, there is one in particular near the end that I knew I shouldn't do...but damnit I wanted to. Just let loose with a barrage of bullets to teach these folks a lesson. Either way, it doesn't matter. Nothing changes because of what you do, it only effects how you feel when you do it.
The ending itself is predictable. When weird things start happening, it felt like there would be one logical conclusion to it because it's the same safe conclusion games like this make. It's the lead-up to it that makes it worthwhile. There are moments where the character and game itself breaks the fourth wall and they are great moments. Some are during actual gameplay, that if you die and replay, are not the same. I don't know if this is an error on the games part for not loading up the same experience correctly, but if so, I hope it's not patched. The loading screen illustrates a moment where the fourth wall is broke when, instead of tips on how to play the game, they ask the gamer questions like "The US Military does not condone the killing of unarmed combatants, but this isn't real so does it even matter?" or "Do you feel like a hero?" Just little touches like that really help nail the point home that yes, there are a lot of people to kill, but the game wants you to feel that. It wants you to question what you are doing and why you do it. Does it even matter how you feel while doing it and whether you should get joy out of killing the people you do on a video game? Little things, not even part of the game, that really left me looking at the screen like a five year old in Philosophy class. Other moments don't break the fourth wall, but have you questioning how much of a "realistic" approach this game takes. One section of the game has you by yourself and a heavy troop notices you. As he attacks, the lights overhead start flickering and you are trying to take out this armored man in the flashes of light you can. But something happens during it that causes you to freak out.
And it's moments like that, that pain me to say that Spec Ops The Line is a sub-par game hidden by one of the better stories a shooter has provided. The veil of choices-make-a-difference that the developer alludes to in interviews is pretty much a joke, but do put the player in circumstances that they don't feel like a winner with regardless of the outcome. If you enjoy shooters but would like them to have a campaign that feels like it matters, Spec Ops The Line is a good choice. Where it lacks in gameplay, it makes up in story, characterization change, and one hell of a roller coaster ride up to the end...where it sadly falters.
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