The Line

 Spec Ops: The Line isn't a very long game. Just like any other typical shooter, the campaign is about six hours long and can easily be beaten in a lazy weekend. The gameplay works, but is nothing to write home about. The graphics are good, but not exceptional. But the story, plot, and message it gets across is done so well, everything else can be overlooked.

  In Spec Ops: The Line, you play as Captain Walker with his two squad mates, Lugo and Adams. You are ordered to go to Dubai to help citizens evacuate the sandstorm-stricken city. The game starts off with a foreshadowing set piece where you fend off your helicopter from other enemy helicopters before making a crash landing. It flashes back to the beginning of the whole scenario with a trek through the desert sand before arriving at an almost post-apocalyptic Dubai. Though the damage was expected, the sight was still a surprise. After realizing that there were dead American soldiers littered about the streets, Walker calls an audible and focuses on finding the "fighting" 33rd infantry (the original rescue team) and rescuing them from the hellhole that is now Dubai.

 
   If you look around the internet enough, you'll find just how much of a cult hit Spec Ops: The Line is. Developed by Yager, a relatively unknown developer that worked under the supervision of 2K. It never really sold well commercially, in fact, you could likely find it in your local bargain bins nowadays. The game is a standard third person, cover-based shooter. When viewing the combat out of context, it doesn't do anything special. When putting the combat side by side with Gears of War or Uncharted, Spec Ops actually feels like a copycat. Even some of the set pieces don't have the same "Michael Bay" feel as the Uncharted series.

   The graphics are another low point for Spec Ops. Though it does have some beautiful set pieces, the textures are rough and they pop in constantly (at least on the PS3). The frame rate is usually constant but slows down when the action gets too hectic. You spend most of the time in a desert, so the colors don't necessarily pop either.

Beautiful, beautiful orange...

  Lastly, Spec Ops multi-player was uninspired and tacked-on. It was even stated in an interview with Yager writers and developers that it was a requirement by 2K to have a multi-player mode. Multi-player not only sucked but it also completely destroys the game's narrative. Uncharted's and Gears of War's multi-player modes were executed very well because they were thought up while trying to be consistent with the single-player experience.

   These three reasons are probably the main points why Spec Ops: The Line never achieved commercial success. No one wants to spend 60 bucks on a brand new game that only has a 6-hour campaign and a crappy multiplayer. From a gameplay standpoint, it didn't have anything unique to offer those who were hooked on the Gears of War or Call of Duty craze, but looked so much like the generic shooters out there that most of the "hardcore" gamers didn't want to touch it.  

Cover? Check. Guns? Check. Lots of bad guys on top of a crashed plane? Yeah, check. 

   I wish most people would sit down and give this game a whirl. It's not a hard game and there so many points where the game provokes thought and emotion that makes you wonder if what you're doing is really right. You're not always the hero and your squad mates will even give you flak for all and any decisions you make. You'll end up doing things that make you feel like a monster. As your evacuation mission goes into a search and rescue and then into a manhunt, the desperation and fatigue (and maybe even the post traumatic stress) sets into not only your character but also in the gamer themselves. Subtle things like how your character's model gets more and more beat up throughout the game or how the protaganist's lines during firefighters go from calm and commanding (almost heroic sounding) to desperate and chaotic make the plot more believable. Basically, they were able to successfully merge the combat with the story-line.

What...what have we done?