Anyone who has played and actually paid attention to Spec Ops probably already knows this, but as more and more people start to really dig into the game and what it says/does, I think that it is becoming increasingly apparent that Specs Ops could be the most IMPORTANT game of this year.

Brendan Keogh is writing a book of critical analysis of the game, looking closely at the narrative and mechanics of the game to analyze its message.

In a fledgling industry like this, which is still struggling with artistic expression and meaning, games like Spec Ops are extremely important to allowing people to understand the larger scope of meaning that games can bring. The game could become one of the seminal tentpoles of the entire "Games as Art" argument simply because the mechanics and gameplay are not dissonant with the narrative. Spec Ops, unlike BioShock/Braid/Limbo, cannot be split into its game parts and its narrative parts. The art is cohesive and whole.

For those that want an overview of what I am talking about, here is a fantastic video on it. Spoilerific, but massively interesting.

20-30 years from now, we could all look back on Spec Ops as one of the most significant titles in the "Games as Art" movement.

[QUOTE="tagyhag"]Man I beat the game and think people look too deeply into it, just because it's a video game. It was a mediocre game with a mediocre story. [/QUOTE]

Watch the video.

It is totally a retelling of Heart of Darkness, but then again so is Apocalypse Now. The game is a very, VERY strong indictment of the entire modern FPS Genre.

People aren't looking too deeply into it... The game is totally doing everything that is being brought up.

[QUOTE="seanmcloughlin"]

I had no idea the story was so good. I really should give it a shot, I had heard people say it was good before but after reading up on it just now it seems like it's really something.

[/QUOTE]

Frankly, it would be best if you came into it expecting it to be COD-Clone-102, so ignore what I say below.

It is good in the sense that what it is doing is really reflexive and critical. The game almost hates itself and you for playing it. But that is what makes it so interesting.

[QUOTE="Slashkice"]

All the talk of the game is making me interested in playing it, though it seems like half the people who've played it say it's a Heart of Darkness rip with pedestrian gameplay. But I've enjoyed divisive games before, and loved them (Nier comes to mind), so I'll likely check it out during a Steam sale or something.

[/QUOTE]

Those people aren't wrong necessarily, but the game has a lot to same about the Games Industry, which is sort of what makes it interesting. Apocalypse Now is a "Heart of Darkness rip" at its core also. And a pretty sloppy "rip" at that. Doesn't make that film any less of a classic or any less outstanding.

In the case of Spec Ops, I'd argue that the mundane/pedestrian gameplay is a significant and vital part of the game in that it helps to provide much of the meaning to its thematic and narrative tones. There is another video by Extra Credit (the Penny Arcade-based series) which discusses that and points out that it is as if Yager(the developer) looked at what they could do with their budget and timeline, and decided not to try to fight the fact that they were not going to be able to make a game as mechanically sound as Call of Duty, or with gameplay as interesting as Halo 4. Instead, they embraced the mundane/pedestrian gameplay design, and decided to take that as an opportunity to level a massive critical assault on the state of the modern game industry.

[QUOTE="tagyhag"][QUOTE="KingsMessenger"]

[QUOTE="tagyhag"]

Watch the video.

It is totally a retelling of Heart of Darkness, but then again so is Apocalypse Now. The game is a very, VERY strong indictment of the entire modern FPS Genre.

People aren't looking too deeply into it... The game is totally doing everything that is being brought up.

[/QUOTE] I applaud the game for trying to be different. But if we were to put the game alongside other mediums where stuff like Apocalypse Now is...It's going to look like sh*t. [QUOTE="WTA2k5"]

No.

[/QUOTE] Well you convinced me.[/QUOTE]

Gaming, comparatively, is still very young.

And when you consider that the technical limitations of gaming hindered progress/slowed for like twenty years, I'd say of course Spec Ops isn't going to compare favorably with Apocalypse Now... Spec Ops also was underfinanced, overly ambitious, and had too little time. Doesn't make its impact or thematic core any less significant. The game did what BioShock, Half-Life, Halo and countless other games failed to do. It had a coherent and cohesive unity, whereby the gameplay reinforce the narrative and was in fact part of the thematic core of the game, rather than just being the dissonant distraction that players embark upon for no reason other than "Because it is a game." Without the gameplay design that the game has coupled with the narrative that it tells, Spec Ops wouldn't mean the same thing. Separate one from the other; tell this story in a different game or tell a different story in this game, and the result wouldn't be the same. BioShock's story would mean the same thing with any other gameplay design. BioShock's gameplay design would feel the same with almost any other story... Can't say the same about Spec Ops. The game's meaning comes from its WHOLE.

[QUOTE="GeoffZak"]

[QUOTE="tagyhag"]Man I beat the game and think people look too deeply into it, just because it's a video game. It was a mediocre game with a mediocre story. [/QUOTE]

^This

Spec Ops: The Line a work of art? XD Is this a joke?

[/QUOTE]

No. Seriously, watch the video.

I am not saying it is the best game... I am merely saying that it is important. It legitimately does something -- which almost every other game that everyone like to laud in the "Games as Art" discussions likes to whip around -- unique. It is coherent and cohesive. It thematic meaning is truly rooted in the GAMEPLAY, combined with the narrative... In that way, it is more of a piece of "art" than BioShock and the like, which are at best interesting narratives framed around a run-of-the-mill shooter, with a ludicrous amount of cognitive dissonance surround everything you, as the player, do.