Spec Ops The Line Review.
CPU: intel-core i7 3820, 3.8 GH.
Memory Ram: Corsair Vengeance 16GB.
Video Card: AMD 7800 series, 2GB.
Motherboard: Gigabyte X79-UD5.
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Spec Ops The Line is a very good game, although it suffers from major flaws, I was even skeptical to play this game as soon as I was recommended by my cousin. Also, the storytelling and presentation of the game is vastly beautiful, but gameplay mechanic ruins the fun and becomes frustrating. I wasn't expecting Spec Ops The Line to be so interesting and bad at the same time.
Presentation and Storytelling:
You take a role of a soldier, a US soldier called Captain Walker, alongside you, your comrades, Lugo and Adam. You are sent to the United Arab Emirates, Dubai to investigate a distress signal from the communication tower that is based in the desert. During your investigation, you encounter a US rogue soldiers called the 33rd. "Yes a number" Those rogue soldiers get in the way and then you start fighting those guys. While fighting, you discover many things about Dubai and the things that's been happening all this time. Also you will encounter many memorable moments along the way.
The storytelling at first is slow but progesses quickly after two to four chapters. After that, weird things really happen everywhere. At first you may be confused of what you see but it is explained well especially in the end of the game. You will see the truth of what your real mission is supposed to be like. Few choices to make and they're very tough. Who wil you choose to kill? A man who stole a bottle of water for his family? Or a solider who killed the man's family? This reflects the kind of attitude you apply in the game's story. I'm not talking about major decision-making here, but because how great the story is told, makes you consider your actions beforehanded.
Conclusion:
I think the story is well-told, actually more than I hoped for. Because we didn't shooters with good stories to tell. Especially famous games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. As for a single-player gamer as myself, I would like to enjoy a gaming stoytelling and great action at the same time.
Score: 9 out of 10.
Soundtrack and Voice Acting:
Unlike most shooters on the gaming market seen these days, this one is a little bit different. They may have some stereotypical characters impression at first, but then you see the character development while progressing in the game. The voice acting gives an enormous impact on how they characters develop during the story. Also, when things get heated among characters, they act like as if they were real people fighting arguing with one another. During fire fight with enemies, you'd see how characters interact with each other. Even when killing a target, they react to how strong the enemy is, to how big he is, to what weapon he's equipped with. It's so awesome to see this kind of details in the game.
Music plays a role when the action gets heated as well during gameplay. Rock music tracks are awesome and I think for Rock Music fans such as myself would want to listen to soundtracks alone. It gives this feeling that you're really fighting for your survival in this city. It complimetns almost every aspect of the environment seen within the game.
Score: 9 out of 10.
Graphics:
Beautiful desert looking and beautiful environment as well. However, it's been there and done that. Everything looks the same in later chapters. I like how artistically and technically the game looks but repetitive environment looks really isn't a good thing, not in this game, not in other games. I dislike this kind of reptitive looking. I understand that the game is based in the desert and you won't find anything but sand, but Dubai is more than just a desert. They could've added more varieties; but it's not big of an issue and doesn't ruin the fun at all. It's just my personal take on this.
However, the game runs smoothly and softly. No framrate issues and no slow downs except for in-game load times while checking up points. Not a big deal at all.
Score: 7 out of 10
Gameplay Mechanic:
Here's the biggest flaw of the game, the mechanics are third-person cover-based shooter, while games with cover-based system are more likely to be so frustrating. Spec Ops mechanics are the same. They're bad, I wanted to throw the keybaord and mouse several times because of the bad covering system. Most of my kills are because the character I'm controlling doens't really respond, doesn't react fast and doesn't take cover. Also, sometimes, you have to many actions, like you have a fallen ally who needs to be revived, a weapon and a refill ammo box. You get confused and it becomes hard to choose the right key. Also, actions pop in and out and most of the times I had to adjust myself into a position to perform an action like reviving and switching a weapon.... which leads me to get killed.
There are no bosses found here, however, boss-type enemies like heavy troopers are vey hard to kill, not to mention that you're kiled easily and they're not. You can't even go out in the open for a second. You leave the cover for a few seconds, you're dead, reloading the last checkpoint*.
It may be a simple gameplay mechanic like Gears of Wars, Uncharted, and Binary Domain, but the shooting mechanics are the worst thing that happened to this game. Yes, I don't deny it, it becomes difficult when reaching advanced chapters of the game, but it's not because of the difficulty that frustrates me, it's the bad mechanics filled up with flaws everywhere.
Conclusion:
All and all, the action in general is good if you're looking for a fun game to play. But bear in mind that the game has many flaws that you might scare you away from playing it.
Score: 5 out of 10
Replayability and Value:
After I beat the game, there was nothing to do except for replaying it agian. You can go collect items and you have no reason to go back doing that. Other than that, you might want to consider playing the multiplayer.
Score: 5 out of 10.
General Pros and Cons:
+_+ Excellent Storytelling and Presentation
+_+ Gorgeous, Artistically Environment.
-_- Bad Gun Mechanics.
-_- Bad Cover System.
Conclusion:
I don't recommend this game for the sake of playing it, although I recommend it if you're still hoping for a shooter game with good storytelling and memorable characters. Other than that, stay away from this one and pass it up. There are better shooters in the market, gameplay wise, but story wise, that is another thing.
Spec Ops The Line gets ....
7 out of 10