Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Underappreciated"

Spec Ops: The Line is a very special game not because it introduces a new kind of gameplay mechanic never seen before, or because it innovates the genre, but because it contains one of the finest pieces of story in this gaming generation.

And that's the reason why reviewing this game can be a bit difficult, when the gameplay is more of the same we are used to see four or five times every year and the story is something fresh to the sort of burlesque behind every military shooter, and of course you can't rate what exactly is good behind it without spoiling it entirely.

The game had such an easily confusing cliché premise alongside with the marketing behind the product casually showing itself as some sort of Call of Duty in third person or in the vein of Gears of War when there's actually substance deep inside the heart of this game. You take the role of Captain Martin Walker as leader of the Delta Force on a reconnaissance mission inside Dubai. Soon you'll find out your rescue mission becomes more than it is apparent, you will be forced to fight enemy soldiers when you receive a distress signal of a survivor.

The gameplay mechanics are straight forward shoot and run, cover behind objects which sometimes can be destroyed so you have to change your position within seconds before you get gun down to death. There's also a strange implementation of a so called "Squad Tactic" system which didn't serve its purpose that well, you can complete or finish most of the game without using this feature excluding some set pieces and it is nothing really spectacular at all just as the overall gameplay experience you do 90% of the game it feels like been there and done that.

As far as something special beneath a carbon copy of Gears of War and Uncharted cover-shoot and run systems there's nothing here, but it doesn't mean it isn't entertaining or even enjoyable at some points when the enemies have surrounded you and it's imperative to keep moving without hesitation after the events happening around you.

Spec Ops: The Line did zero effort to try and bring something fresh in the gameplay department and that was probably why this game was overlooked and besides the game's story only starts to gain momentum around the half of it when it just becomes a blast to play all around.

Even the lackluster combat can be overshadowed by the game's fluctuation of story at the half of the journey. There's a great sense of affiliation embedded to the main protagonist of the story and his fellow squad mates when they are out there in Dubai.

Spec Ops: The Line might not be a groundbreaking achievement on gameplay, but deep inside, if you wish to try what this game has to offer it is without doubts worth the experience as this is probably one of the best stories in this gaming generation not because of how the narratives moves your actions but because this couldn't have been done in another medium, only in a video game and that is what makes it special.

Gentlemen welcome to Dubai.