Spec Ops: The Line is a fantastic game that can really suck you in if you refuse to sweat the small stuff.
A Review by Chris Camz of UnfashionablyLateReviews.blogspot.com Spec Ops is one game that I found myself looking forward to in the months before and after its release last year. As regular readers can attest, I have a nasty habit of placing a premium on story and character development in my media, and I tend to overlook gameplay faults when I am sufficiently captivated by cutscenes and plot twists. The fact that Spec Ops: The Line was a military shooter with a strong, fleshed out cast of characters set in a sand-ridden city certainly got me excited, and the fact that the game is played in 3rd person didn't hurt either, as I particularly enjoy action from over the shoulder. Still, the clincher that made the game irresistible for me came after its release, when the game was making headlines for a controversial, unexpected, and jaw-dropping twist that would come at some point during the story. After finishing the story twice, however, I find myself with several conflicting feelings.
I played the game on my let's play channel, which is why it took so long to actually play, and, as anyone can see, I enjoyed the game thoroughly for a good portion of the playthrough. The game plays well, despite an especially unique control scheme which combines most of the movement into the left shift key and space bar, which did lead to a few problems, but not nearly as many as I had initially expected to run into. The guns sound good, which I am a stickler for, and aside from some issues finding ammo, I thoroughly enjoyed combat. Surprisingly enough, this sentiment can also be extended to the support characters, Adams and Lugo. Generally speaking, I regard support characters with the same distaste I hold for friends of friends, they are annoying and tend to disrupt the natural flow that you create with regular company. I had very different feelings for my squadmates in Spec Ops. It might just be because the command button sat comfortably between the fire and scope buttons, but highlighting an enemy that was causing me grief, especially from long-range, and being able to simply forget about them and let one of the other guys take care of it and not having to worry about which roundabout method they would choose to take to complete the task took a load off my mind. They also made a big hullabaloo about environmental combat, but it was only useful in very limited capacities, which is why I am going to ignore it completely. Aside from that sentence. And that one that just clarified things.
This is the part of the review that most people look at and say, okay, there's been nothing but positive feedback for a little while now, so he must have been building up to the part where he rips the story apart for whatever reason. Most people would be wrong, however. While the story did have a few apparent plot holes, like the fact that the 33rd get an entire army and I get to lead a squad of three with limited supplies, and several aspects went over my head until the second playthrough due to poor explanations, the overall the story is actually quite good. (Spoilers ahead!) The conflicting feelings I mentioned earlier stem from a terrible ending, which only serves to further confuse and devalue the work achieved up to that point in the story. (Seriously, spoilers, just skip this paragraph.) The villain that had been built up since the mid-point of the game, Konrad, turned out to be dead. DEAD. Thus, all the time Walker, the main character, spent in open conversation with him was revealed to have only taken place in his mind. This is the point when I would have halted developer Yager's relationship with M. Night Shyamalan and given them "the talk" about trusting strangers online. A good twist is unexpected and forces the character or player to change their tactics in order to complete the new objective, a BAD twist is one that is unexpected and allows the player to revisit past actions and choices and devalue their merit or importance. The twist in Spec Ops is an example of a bad one, for anyone not keeping up (Kenneth.) If Konrad was never giving orders to the 33rd, then who was? Apparently no one. If Lugo and Adams saw their commander talking on a walkie-talkie without batteries and shooting dead bodies, wouldn't they have stopped before someone died? Were there really snipers at the scene with the two people hanging? If Konrad didn't tell them to be there, why did they have their rifles trained on a couple of dead bodies? They sure seemed real when they shot at us. How did Adams manage to destroy several choppers, tanks, and a host of troops singlehandedly, allowing you to escape. What the flying **** was the CIA doing there anyway? It's problems like this that just serve to ruin the story that I fell in love with so easily. It's like asking out a pretty girl, finding out she is a great match for you, taking her home, and watching her eat dead body. It makes you second guess yourself and everything you felt before.
Spoilers end here, pals. So at the end of the game, instead of feeling accomplished and being able to pat myself on the back, I am left frustrated and confused. Instead of wrapping up the events and achieving the much sought-after goal, I am left here with more questions than when I began. I then had to replay the game in order to revisit everything I did and see it with a fresh set of eyes, but even in doing so, I have questions that remain unanswered. This isn't what I signed up for, Spec Ops, I had doubts about Walkers sanity throughout the game, but I only meant that as a joke. I was fighting an enemy that I had grown to hate, relate to, and understand. Why do you feel the need to screw that up? Konrad was an excellent foil for Walker, why did they have to ruin that relationship?
So I suppose in the end, that Spec Ops is like watching a fantastic show, with everything well-polished and strong, only to have all the actors come out for the finale and flip us the bird. The gameplay is good, the story is excellent, the environments are spellbinding, but the ending leaves much to be desired. The game is still good, but it leaves a nasty aftertaste. It makes it difficult to nail down a score, but, then again, it's not like I'm paid to do this anyway.
Gameplay…10
The game plays well, and never gets old
Sound…8
Guns sound like guns, sandstorms and combat are loud, hectic, and satisfying
Visual…9
The world really looks like a great city that has fallen apart. It all feels very real.
Replayability…7
I'd play it again for sure
Overall…8.5
Ending aside, Spec Ops is a triumph of gaming and story