Spec Ops: The Line Review

Version tested: PC

Developed by Yager, Spec Ops: The Line is basically a third-person cover-based and squad-based shooter. That’s on the surface of it, but what Spec Ops: The Line tries to do differently is to make you feel bad about shooting the enemy. A shooter making you feel bad about shooting? While it fell a little short of replicating the narrative found in Apocalypse Now or Heart of Darkness, it still managed to make me doubt my actions and made me feel that I’m playing a murderer more than a hero.

In terms of gameplay, Spec Ops: The Line was a little disappointing and frustrating. It’s cover-based gameplay was unrefined, cover-to-cover movement didn’t feel like it was done properly and more often than not you will be popping out of cover when you’re trying to move resulting in you standing in the line of sight of all the bad guys being thrown at you, of which are at ridiculous numbers. You will die a little playing this game and after a few times dying at the same spot the game will promptly ask you if you want to reduce the difficulty which was a little insulting.

You also don’t have much control over your squad mates other than telling them who to focus their fire on and in certain situations they can throw a stun grenade at your command but nothing more than those two that I’ve mentioned.

When it comes to the plot, it is probably one of the few games I actually want to progress through just to know what happens next. The Apocalypse Now influence is pretty obvious, you head into Dubai searching for a high-ranking military officer named John Konrad and in the middle of your mission you start learning that there is something else happening behind the scenes.

The game tries to put weight and doubt in every bullet you fire and succeeds to do that to a certain extent. As you continue playing, it is apparent that the enemy you’re killing and the civilians you’re trying to save are looking at you, Delta Force captain Martin Walker as the bad guy.

In the end, it probably succeeded in what it set out to do. Make you doubt yourself as you continue on your quest to stop Konrad’s “tyranny”. So is this game worth your money and time? This one is more of a rent or if you can get it real cheap. Not worth at its full asking price. The game is available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.