Spec Ops mixes below average gameplay with a banal story that is only deep compared to a summer blockbuster.
As far as the gameplay, the cover-based shooting is below average. The aiming is imprecise and you often get stuck sticking to cover or flailing about out of cover. The squad commands are nice, but more often than not you have to sit behind cover waiting to heal due to stupid AI and faulty cover. It just isn't an engaging gameplay experience.
Some of the set pieces are cool, with a few unique experiences. Yet others are the same tired "take cover, fire, heal, fire more" sequences over and over.
STORY:
Then there's the story. Seems like many love it. Well, it isn't good. It is, in fact, a big trick, deceiving you the whole time, trying to gin up emotion. It wants to show the horrors of war but is so heavy-handed that only the most simple of minds will be "moved".
The entire game you are only doing what is necessary to defend yourself from the enemy. Yet the game wants you to feel the "violence inherent in the system". Well, it doesn't work. And the stupid plot twist at the end is so banal and foolish as to trivialize the real brutality of war.
Without spoiling it, the game seems to want to paint all soldiers as psychopaths who can't determine friend from foe. That isn't how real war is. Blah…it is concerning how many gamers seem to think this game tells such a grand story…sigh. I give this game a 4/10, it has below average gameplay mixed with a banal story.