Spec Ops: The Line review

As I said, Spec Ops has fairly standard gameplay. It's your typical third-person squad shooter where you travel through linear corridors, ducking behind cover and popping up to shoot dozens of enemies. Along the way you will pick up several different types of weapons that are all similar to those found in other shooters. It's nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done — for the most part.
There were some questionable gameplay decisions, like the inability to roll or dodge. Oftentimes, I'd be safe behind cover only to have an enemy toss a grenade to where I was. Instead of rolling away, I'd have to get out of cover and sprint to the next one, often leading to me getting gunned down along the way. Another questionable decision was having vault be the same button as the melee attack. If I were to be in full sprint and attempt to vault over the next cover, if I pressed it too early I'd stop completely and attempt a melee attack, even if no one was near me.

These, of course, are just me nitpicking an otherwise solid gameplay experience. Run and cover is smooth for the most part as Walker will effortlessly slide to the next barricade without the need for you to tell him so. Issuing orders to your squadmates is surprisingly easy with just the touch of a button, and they are surprisingly good at what they do. I can't even count the amount of times they saved my ass when I got pinned down or caught in the open in the middle of gunfire. Unlike most games where your squad is just there for look, Lugo and Adams deserve an award for their intelligence and capability.

Gameplay and narrative is aided by a marvelous soundtrack that serves as more than just background music to the game. The rock music of the early game, similar to something you'd hear in Vietnam, quickly fades into somber acoustic melodies as the Delta crew begins to lose control of the situation and their sanity. At times, the vocals are lost to the soundtrack or other background noise, but this is easily fixed with subtitles or adjusting the volumes.

The transformation and digression of your crew is also visible through the very actions you perform throughout the game. Executions performed to enemies get more gory and Walker increasingly violent to the point where he's just shouting obsenities in each encounter.

Last but not least, Spec Ops is a visual spectacle. Despite the desert locale of Dubai, Spec Ops refrains from the traditional "brown military shooter." Instead, the game relies on a vibrant pallete of reds, purples, blues, golds, and greens. The grand architecture of this once magnificent city is a fun setting as you traverse through skyscrapers, sand-submerged buildings, and even open area sandstorms that spring out of no where, severely limiting your visibility. The one setback to Spec Ops beauty is that it makes you want to explore more, which is disheartening given the games major linearity.

As with all shooters these days, Spec Ops: The Line does have a multiplayer component, but as I said, story is the major draw to this game. That's not to say multiplayer is awful, but it pales in comparison to the compelling campaign. Where as in singleplayer you are fighting for a reason — or so you think — there really is no reason in multiplayer. You are fighting in mulitiplayer to unlock new weapons, perks, and gear. It's there if you enjoy multiplayer, and it's a standard for many of today's shooters, but the real fun is in the campaign.

Spec Ops: The Line won't make you feel like a hero. War is not a fun thing; it's not something that should be celebrated. Spec Ops: The Line addresses that quite well; it's not about defeating some evil being, but about exploring the various aspects of war and the effects it can have on you. The endings, while providing closure, are open to interpretation. What will yours be? Are you just some killing monster or will your actions throughout the game be justified…?

Take a bad situation and make it worse — a lot worse — and that's what you have when you play Spec Ops: The Line. What starts off as a standard search and rescue in the sand-blasted lands of Dubai quickly unravels into a downward spiral that not only has you questioning why you are there, but who you are fighting for… or who you're fighting against… or why you're even there in the first place… or what the hell is going on? To put it simply, Spec Ops: The Line is a complete mind f*ck.

What starts off as a few moral dilemmas quickly escalates into you second guessing each of your decisions — decisions that at the beginning of the game seem so easy and simple — and rethinking your morals. At the beginning, everything is so clear, but at the end you will not only second guess your decisions, but your sanity as well. Are you a monster? Are you doing what it takes to survive? These are the questions you'll ask yourself as you play Spec Ops: The Line, and ultimately, it's the questions you will be left to answer when the game concludes.

Most of today's shooter games have that macho-man, Americans saving the world mentality. They make war seem fun and exciting, without really exploring the toll it takes on you not just physically, but mentally. Spec Ops: The Line is refreshing, not because of its innovative gameplay, but because of the way it explores war and depicts the mental breakdown of soldiers caught in a situation that goes from bad to worse.

Story is Spec Ops' strongest aspect. Playing as Captain Martin Walker, you are sent in to the ruins of Dubai after a series of cataclysmic sandstorms cut the city off from the rest of the world. Your mission is simple: search the city for Colonel John Konrad and his battalion, The Damned 33rd squadron of the U.S. infantry, and rescue them.

Upon entering the ruins of Dubai, you are soon met with strange radio signals that peak Walker's interest, leading him deeper into the city, and ultimately further into the rabbit hole. Walker, along with his two squadmates Lugo and Adams, soon discover that things in Dubai are not what they seem, and that the very men sent in to keep the region stable has abandoned their duty. It's now just a fight for survival for everyone in the war-torn lands of Dubai. Civilians, CIA, The Damned 33rd, and now the Deltas are all fighting for their lives.

Up until now, I've talked mostly about Spec Ops' story and dilemma. That's because story  is where the game truly shines. While many games rely on action gameplay as a crutch to aid the story, Spec Ops does the complete opposite. Rather, Spec Ops' standard third-person gameplay serves as a setup to the next cutscene, where Walker and his squad question the very actions that just took place. Combat is in the game simply to facilitate the narrative.

You won't feel like a hero at the end of each firefight; instead, you will feel like a monster who slaughtered dozens of people just trying to survive. Through these cutscenes, you will watch as Walker and his men quickly deteriorate, questioning their judgment and morality.