Charts Genres Community
Charts Genres Community Settings
Login

Spec Ops: The Line

Developer: Yager Development Publisher: 2K Games
26 June 2012
Spec Ops: The Line - cover art
Glitchwave rating
3.51 / 5.0
0.5
5.0
 
 
1,245 Ratings / 10 Reviews
#999 All-time
#34 for 2012
Receiving a distress call from a squadron of US soldiers dispatched to evacuate Dubai in the eve of a sandstorm, Captain Martin Walker and his three-man squad enters the city in order to search for the missing Colonel John Konrad and his men. However, his mission quickly turns into an unmitigated disaster after a series of questionable decisions and Walker must fight through it... even if the truth may be even worse than he thought.
There was an error saving your submission.
Rate / catalog Rate / catalog another release
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
2012 Yager 2K  
DVD
XNA 7 10425 49150 4
2012 Yager 2K  
Blu-ray
XNA
Show all 7 releases
2012 Yager 2K  
Blu-ray
CA 7 10425 47154 4 BLUS-30531F
2012 Yager 2K  
DVD
GB 5 026555 059152
2012 Yager Darkside  
Download
2012 Yager Darkside  
Blu-ray
XOC 5 026555 403757 BLES-01157
Write review
Title
Spec Ops: The Line is a game with a complicated legacy, especially for those who were not around or paying attention during its initial release. As just about everyone reading this is aware, Yager created this game as a commentary and critique of the military shooter genre that had become wildly popular ever since the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007. Historical shooters, like the WW2 shooter craze that lasted for a ridiculous amount of time in its own right, have the story told, and can work around that to create setpieces that match or are inspired by the stories we are taught in school. Making a game about a modern setting, such as the Gulf Wars or the "War on Terror" post-9/11 is a lot more challenging because it's both too recent for the full public to get a handle on the seriousness of, and far more insidious than the US government would like you to believe. There is no draft, it takes place in a far-away place, and the "bad guys" have a totally different culture and way of life - it's a perfectly docile war that does not linger much in the back of the average American's mind.

So what's the challenge with portraying these wars in a game, then? For one, historical accuracy is out of the fucking window, because a lot of the truth of certain battles and engagements won't be declassified for a long time. But even things we do know about are recklessly and blatantly distorted to obfuscate the United States' involvement in the atrocity. Take 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which framed the real-life American-led bombings and killings on the "Highway of Death" just outside of Kuwait as something that Russia did, and that the good guy Americans were acting on to stop. This type of historical revision is much more popular than one discrete example, as even things like playing adrenaline-pumping music and altering the tone of these engagements as "fair" also count as foul play by the developers. Even more disgusting than the historical misrepresentation, though, is that this was the first wave of games, ever, to desensitize the world to violence that was still being actively perpetuated.

In Medal of Honor, one can feel eventually desensitized to the violent acts they are committing against the Axis Forces, as they were bound together by ideals of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and rampant imperialism - by nearly every Western account, they were the enemy of the world. Crucially, though, we as a society had enough time to digest the fallout of WW2 over the last 70 years to arrive at that conclusion. It may have been pretty obvious early on to many or most, but that framing has persisted from generation to generation, which creates context that people are willing to play around in as artists. It's a universal truth that if you see the Nazi swastika in a film, the men bearing it are intended to be villains. Now how do you extrapolate that to an ongoing conflict, especially one as asymmetric as the current War on Terror the US is engaging in perpetuity in the Middle East? Who will history see as the aggressor, the victor, the side deserving of sympathy? My guess, although it's predicated on the good faith of a lot of people that don't always provide it, is that America will almost certainly not be seen as heroes in this conflict. But we don't have the historical context and fallout of the wars to yet engrain that in the modern populous. This gets at the heart of the dangers of these modern shooters - they are proactively creating a framing and context for the public at large, subconsciously, by placing the player of a massively successful gaming franchise in the shoes of American military in these settings, garnering sympathy for their cause and experiences.

So not only do modern shooters lack context to explore their themes properly because of the conflict being on-going, they actively create false pretenses by way of boots-on-the-ground perspectives, historical revisionism, and gamifying the murders of Middle Eastern folks of all creeds and cultures, while the real life equivalent is happening simultaneously. That's a whirlwind of propaganda, especially when you take into account that American schools purposefully do not explain much about modern history in grade school or even in high school. For some kids, these games might be the only serious media representation of the Gulf Wars that they experience, and that severely damages their opinion and perspective on a conflict that has, by and large, been unjustifiable imperialist bullshit.

"Ok, but what the fuck does this have to do with the game?" I hear you screaming.

The reason for that wall of context above is that this is the fundamental basis for the existence of Spec Ops: The Line at all. The goal of the game, above all else, is to re-introduce context that portrays these modern conflicts exactly how they are - disgusting beyond belief, with no clear moral victory for American troops, a peak into the un-gamification of war and how even the most remotely disconnected killings (by way of drone, mortar, or other) have massive consequences in real life, and ABOVE ALL ELSE, that any real-world conflict of this kind results in thousands of unnecessary deaths of innocent people, and to portray otherwise is sick and irresponsible. I will say, however, that the way the game goes about this is particularly harsh towards the player (who presumably purchased the game for $60 or so upon its first release), which has caused some backlash in the "second wave" of consumers that played the game as it started to be sold for very cheap or included in 2K bundles and the like. So briefly, we've got to talk marketing.

Spec Ops: The Line, as far as I can remember, was not marketed as a deconstruction of the modern shooter. While it did boast an intense new story, the majority of its marketing appeal was to rebrand the admittedly terrible Spec Ops series into something that looked appealing to the brand new market of players that enjoyed modern shooters. At a glance of the gameplay, almost nothing about it looks all that interesting, either - it's a cover-based third person shooter set in Dubai, and you play with very standard weapon types for the genre and shoot a bunch of guys in face coverings. Pretty straightforward and par for the course. However, the realization that this game was not going to be pleasant and give the player the conclusion of the promised super-soldier power fantasy was, in my opinion, meant to be a surprise. At the time, that deconstructionist switch caused a massive spike in critical reception, with some reviewers calling it gaming's answer to "Heart of Darkness." In the current lens of the game's digital life cycle, where it's regularly sold for under $5 and thrown into dozens of different bundles for the cheap, this bait and switch premise is by far the most widely-known thing about it, which dulls the impact quite a bit in retrospect. In that respect, it's very much gaming's The Sixth Sense, where unfortunately a bit of novelty is baked into the experience that is lost almost immediately after release, and gets worse with time.

Additionally, some of the approaches to Spec Ops' philosophy are a bit heavy-handed. The infamous quotes of peace and historical wisdom displayed upon death in the Call of Duty games are replaced with direct attacks on the player's moral fiber. Just as a sampling of what you might see:

- "To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless."
- "The US military usually does not condone the killing of unarmed combatants. But this isn't real, so why should you care?"
- "Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously."

and most famously,
- "Do you feel like a hero yet?"

This approach leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those who embrace the game's critique on the genre, who sought out the game specifically to experience how one would begin to deconstruct the modern shooter. Many players are very much in agreement with the premise and identify similar industry-wide problems as the developers at Yager do. This is a bit of an oversight by the developers who clearly meant for the game to infiltrate the average consumer's library and then confront them with the reality of their actions. Framing the player as the antagonist is appropriate in that context - if a bit risky considering they just paid $60 for the game - but its new place in history deems it something so far outside the norm of the shooter canon that it's rarely approached with that perspective in earnest, and now played mostly by those that wish to judge the effectiveness and clarity of its critique. By nature, they must experience the game too, and be put in positions where their ideologies are confronted and questioned, even if they do not hold the subconscious beliefs of the original intended audience. This sums up to an experience and critique that, to put it lightly, has not aged particularly well, as its focus was simply too narrow.

There is a case to be made that Yager were going for a hail-mary play that disregarded the longevity of the game, considering the generic look and branding of the title in an oversaturated market, but it holds itself back by not being able to detach itself from the context of its release. Gaming also has an inherent bias toward the player being able to "solve" the situation they are placed in, which has resulted in many clamoring for the ability to always do the right thing throughout the game, and the lack of such moral options proving that it's a weak critique because the player is never able to act in a pious or beneficial way. Adding these options, though, would be catestrophically hypocritical on behalf of the developers, who intentionally present the situation as it exists in the real-world space it emulates - one without any moral clarity or simple, one-man fixes. Not only does Spec Ops: The Line take on the industry in which is is afforded an existence, but also the player for whom it is designed. There is no written contract with gaming that it must always serve as morally reaffirming comfort, but I do empathize with those who try very hard to do the right thing in Spec Ops and are continually rejected. This is, in a very distilled way, the point: even the "best" choice available is sometimes immoral.

The final point I'd like to address is that all of the atrocities seen and executed by the player in Spec Ops: The Line are completely out of self-preservation. If the three soldiers you command throughout the game were killed in the initial confrontation in the outskirts of Dubai, there is reason to believe that hundreds if not thousands of lives would have been saved. The final choice that the game presents you with is to continue playing it. Every fight is perpetuated specifically to keep the player alive and to make "progress" through the narrative, so if you were to give up on making progress, these digital lives could be saved, and you'd have less blood on your hands. This is a completely unprecedented design choice up until the point of Spec Ops' release, and it's a bit contentious due to the consumerist nature of the industry. "You really want me to just stop playing a game I paid money for?" is a question that is commonly discussed. However, in contrast to the game's slowly dwindling "gotcha" that has come to define the genre, this choice posed to the player ages like a fine wine, becoming increasingly more appealing as the price point of entry for the game continues to decrease. Eventually, if this game were to be released as freeware, its most crucial and controversial element may be actualized: choosing to walk away becomes an option that is untethered to the human instinct to feel a sense of ownership over that which their dollars buy.

In closing, I do think that Spec Ops is a very conceptually strong game with good, if unempathetic methods of getting those concepts across. Its execution is shaky at times, and it resides a lot in the realm of satire for its 2012 contemporaries; games are increasingly being perceived as isolated experiences, and Spec Ops is one of the few that truly cannot be detached from the world it was made in. It is highly experimental and occasionally outright confrontational to the player both as a person and a consumer, and as a result is not guaranteed to be a pleasant or even comfortable experience for many. I do think that very few games warrant such discussion and that to alter some of the fundamental design decisions would be to undermine the message behind the madness, even if that means going against some of the most sacred "unwritten rules" of engagement that games have historically had with the player. Spec Ops: The Line will likely stand the test of time as a game studied for both its courage and the controversy it sought to create.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
the_lockpick 2017-12-31T20:00:15Z
2017-12-31T20:00:15Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
commentary
en
Expand review Hide
Title
The game that answers the question 'What if Call of Duty had something to say?'
I unfortunately already knew most of the game's story and big twists but they were still striking and the story was still intriguing, I also really dug the gameplay even if I wish the squad mechanics and the ability to use sand as a weapon were a bit more heavily featured. The fact that this game resonates so hard to this day that there have been countless video essays about its stance on the shooter genre and the morality of these games is very commendable, and I fully believe that if another big-budget game like this game out today, whether that be a sequel or a new IP, it could be even more striking now with the hyper-realistic graphics and violence of today. Still, a great time, I might go back one day to get the alternate ending when I have a PC that can actually run this as a steady framerate.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
boxedinmedia 2023-12-29T13:11:04Z
2023-12-29T13:11:04Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
review
en
Expand review Hide
Title
This is one of those games where I had to listen to a bunch of story summaries afterwards to understand. Maybe I'm overcomplicating it, but this game is a storytelling masterpiece, much more so than most other games I've played.

There are many ways to interpret the story, whether it'd be specifically the in-game story or the direct criticisms of the player. On one hand, this game is a stellar showcase of a delta squad slowly losing their humanity as they travel deeper into the horrifying ruins of Dubai-- on the other hand, it's a criticism against the player... not for playing the game as some misinterpret, but for coming into the game expecting to be a hero. You are not a hero.

On both fronts, this game might not be exactly subdued in its storytelling, but it's enough to leave a noticeable impact after you play through the game, even if you came in knowing the twist at hand.

I think one of the most notable moments (and definitely the scene that defines this game) is the white phosphorus scene, both in a meta and in-game context. The realisation that you were killing the faction of the 33rd that was actually evacuating civilians, and the civilians themselves, is an amazing twist. Walker's immediate denial (though sometimes he acknowledges the situation by a simple "Yeah, I know it's bad,") also sets his spiral into complete insanity. Do note that the original mission of the squad was to confirm there are civilians and get out ASAP. The mission now is to kill Konrad in an act of twisted "heroism".

Another notable moment is the end of the game; the actual encounter with Konrad. The twist that he was dead all along and that Walker was hallucinating his voice is well-made, but I want to focus on a different aspect. Konrad isn't just speaking to Walker, but directly to you, the player, criticising you for thinking you were ever a hero.

There are many more aspects that help make this game even more of a masterpiece... though, as pointed out by many players before, the gameplay is quite lacking. One could argue (and in some cases, one has argued) that the gameplay is supposed to be repetitive to make you think more of the story. While that's the case for some people... personally, I didn't really experience that.

It's hard to truly define what set story this game is telling, and I think that's because it's more open-ended than it presents itself. No matter how you look at it, though, I believe it'd be quite hard to think this game is anything short of amazing.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
swoopedd 2023-07-07T19:27:15Z
2023-07-07T19:27:15Z
5.0
1
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
review
en
Expand review Hide
Title
Imagine be American
Apocalypse Now Video game, it's a nice game give it a try
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
degurechaff 2022-12-26T16:03:58Z
2022-12-26T16:03:58Z
8.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
draft
en
Expand review Hide
Title
Amazing
Spec Ops: The Line is the kind of game that could, as others have said, only be a video game. Everything I could say in a review has been done to death already - so, I’m not going to review it with just a bunch of thesaurus ass words, I’m going to just talk about my experience.

I knew the whole “twist” of Spec Ops before I played it. A friend spoiled it for me when I got it, but I still played it anyways, figuring it would be kind of like Undertale in a way. I wasn’t expecting anything past that twist.

When I started playing, I actually was kind of having fun. The story started unfolding pretty quickly, but all the atrocities didn’t affect me - even the white phosphorus scene felt like just a passing moment, the big “gotcha!” I had been expecting.

And then I got to the moment where you can choose to put the CIA operative out of his misery as he’s trapped under the water tanker.

It didn’t matter whether I did or not. I could have shot him or couldn’t have. But it felt like the first decision that I could make - no consequences, not out of self preservation. I just could decide. Shoot him or don’t?

It took me three minutes to decide. Would it be the right thing?

And then, when I finished the game and all the twists had happened, and I went back to the main menu, I saw the screen.

It was a big “HOLY SHIT!” for me. That whole sniper on the menu screen thing was a very unique moment; tiny, but I had just realized how bad everything looked once it was all destroyed in the menu screen.

And that’s the experience of Spec Ops: The Line. The only game that can give this experience.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Planet_Telex0609 2022-10-06T12:26:42Z
2022-10-06T12:26:42Z
5.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
draft
en
Expand review Hide
Title
A Posturing yet Essential Work, 10 Years On
Spec Ops the Line could only be a video game—this is an obvious fact, that’s what it is. It is a third person shooter based in the “modern world” of warfare. But beyond that, to make its narrative and effect works, it requires the autonomy of a player with the plastic trigger in his hands. The power of its message lies not in the choice between what you do, whether you choose to play or not—but in the simulative ways it mechanizes the player, how it utilizes its player’s engrained mechanisms. It makes testament to the industrialization that games program through the screen into the human mind.

Of course, as many have said, it is a ‘regular third person shooter,’ but that’s where it finds power. Through simple yet intense gameplay characteristic of the genre, it enables a bloodlust and stimulation in the mind to truly indoctrinate the player into its rhythm, and properly lead to the reflective qualities it begs for as it steps away; as the true question isn’t whether to play or not, it’s how these “toys” make effect to your psyche—something ignored by many, many mindless portions of the gaming community.

With all that stated, and have many as pointed, it could be far more nuanced. It uses real & accurate portrayals of combat and technology to enforce itself, but as a game, it comments on the actual medium’s interpretation of such only as much as it sees fit to its own uses. To really substantiate the work, it could have made more use of the potentials and history of this medium as propaganda in a far more explicit, didactic way woven through the gameplay. This could have made the work far less fallible than it is, and really allowed a strong foundation to subvert the retroactive criticism and simplification to be easier to argue against.

Overall, it still stands to its reputation as a great and deeply effective use of the medium. even with some designer vapidity apparent in the active experience, and in the consideration of it past the fact. I’d argue that I even gained more from it than the developer’s truly intended for, but that’s fine. Art is given new life when it is borne into the mind of the consumer.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Bashkesh 2022-09-29T05:41:34Z
2022-09-29T05:41:34Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
review
en
Expand review Hide

Catalog

SockShadowPuppet Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-27T02:04:15Z
PS3 • XNA
2024-03-27T02:04:15Z
4.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
noyade Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-25T12:17:51Z
2024-03-25T12:17:51Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Diertz Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-25T11:07:30Z
2024-03-25T11:07:30Z
3.0
1
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
GuySamstag Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-20T21:21:26Z
Windows / Mac / Linux/Unix
2024-03-20T21:21:26Z
2.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
ArpeggiDivision Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-20T17:22:17Z
2024-03-20T17:22:17Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Awdrfs Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-19T06:35:31Z
2024-03-19T06:35:31Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
nangtec Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-18T23:04:45Z
Windows / Mac / Linux/Unix
2024-03-18T23:04:45Z
2.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Kluwenblauw Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-15T15:28:21Z
2024-03-15T15:28:21Z
2.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
nachovidal Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-15T07:52:17Z
2024-03-15T07:52:17Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
kortoshechka Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-13T21:14:50Z
2024-03-13T21:14:50Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Lynn_Arai Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-13T02:35:41Z
2024-03-13T02:35:41Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
toukopouko Spec Ops: The Line 2024-03-11T18:15:33Z
2024-03-11T18:15:33Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Media
Download
Multiplayer modes
Cooperative , Deathmatch / FFA, Team play
Multiplayer options
Online
Franchises

Comments

Rules for comments
  • Be respectful! All the community rules apply here.
  • Keep your comments focused on the game. Don't post randomness/off-topic comments. Jokes are fine, but don't post tactless/inappropriate ones.
  • Don't get in arguments with people here, or start long discussions. Use the boards for extended discussion.
  • Don't use this space to complain about the average rating, chart position, genre voting, others' reviews or ratings, or errors on the page.
  • Don't comment just to troll/provoke. Likewise, don't respond to trollish comments; just report them and ignore them.
  • Any spoilers should be placed in spoiler tags as such: [spoiler](spoiler goes here)[/spoiler]
Note: Unlike reviews, comments are considered temporary and may be deleted/purged without notice.
  • Previous comments (77) Loading...
  • mickilennial 2024-01-02 21:48:27.254628+00
    Do you feel like a hero yet?
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • AidanAlva 2024-01-04 03:31:44.872526+00
    You can't be serious comparing this to Vanquish in any way. It has options, sure, but the actual playing of it is clunky and will only continue to age. Vanquish is actually fun and fluid, and I don't even particularly care for that game.

    As far as games on the dark, weary futility of war and the cynical disregard of colonialism go, Far Cry 2 definitely beats this. Actually engaging gunplay, lots of mechanical choices that hone in on its themes, and a more measured tone that isn't trying to scream "You are smart if you understand this game" in your face. And "war isn't fun" is not an excuse for making a straight-up shitty-to-play game.
    reply
    • WinterMirage 2024-01-04 10:22:19.797528+00
      I'll be honest, the whole "war is bad" was never the most interesting angle about Spec Ops for me. Rather it has always come across as a game about choices and searching for them even in moments when you feel like there aren't any.

      There's a reason why the most morally straight character in the game utters the phrase "there's always a choice". Besides "that moment", many scenes in the game's allow to make small decisions that, while they don't change the through line of the narrative, are reacted upon in small ways in the game. All this culminating in the scene with the angry mob, which stands as one the best moments in any game simply because it presents the player a difficult situation but never tells them that there actually is a different option in how to handle. So many games, especially RPGs, go out of their to gamify choices instead of just letting the player naturally make the. through the game's verbs and then reacting to them. And Spec Ops is a major example of what can be done through this type of design.

      And listen, I like Far Cry 2 quite a bit but that game is like 2x longer than it needs to be ok. You want to talk about a game that isn't fun, the second half of FC2 is dull.
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • Exitstencilist 2024-01-04 17:33:28.853735+00
    Genuinely makes me happy to see that, even over a decade later, this game's still filtering people who insist "war is bad, shame on you, bad man" is the main takeaway here :')
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • mrelectric 2024-01-07 19:27:51.91529+00
    kane & lynch 2 without the subtlety
    reply
    • Previous replies (4) Loading...
    • WinterMirage 2024-02-03 16:20:44.511649+00
      For the record, my attitude towards MGS2 isn't rage or hysteria. I mostly just troll about its Rick and Morty level intellect fanbase. The game itself doesn't really evoke much strong emotions. Y'all act like I gave that game a 1/10.

      As for the whole "it's outwardly about other military games", I'm gonna need proof of that from something that's in the game itself and not some extratextual link that anyone can make up in their mind. This isn't like Undertale which is outwardly about RPGs in how it reconfigures combat and the meaning LVs. Spec Ops is way more straight forward and non meta-textual aside from I guess the loading screens and your name appearing in the opening credits.
    • renegadexavier06 2024-02-08 04:57:20.365376+00
      kane & lynch 2 was subtle?
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • babyclav 2024-01-24 23:09:35.479839+00
    if this didn't have the obnoxious obvious fourth wall breaking this would've been as hipster hyped as Kane and Lynch
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • packtsardines 2024-01-31 00:31:05.783452+00
    heads up: game is getting delisted from all storefronts but gog still has it for at least a week. get it while you can
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • Crazystone 2024-02-09 15:50:37.191657+00
    Funny how other games in series are just mundane 2000-th tactical shooters. Waiting for Project I.G.I. with social commentary
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • More comments New comments (0) Loading...
Please login or sign up to comment.

Suggestions

ADVERTISEMENT
Examples
1980s-1996
23 mar 2015
8 apr - 12 may 2015
1998-05
Report
Download
Image 1 of 2