Spec Ops: The Line Reviews

Hi, and welcome to my review of Spec Ops: The Line

A group of 3 "...ruggedly handsome, stone cold, delta operators..." are sent to investigate the ruined and super sandstorm ridden city of Dubai. What they will find there they don't know, all they know that the 33rd Division of the US Army was sent to help evacuate people and nothing has been heard of since. So Walker, Lugo and Adams have been sent in to see whats going on...

The game starts with mini tutorial come scene setter, where you learn the basic controls of cover etc whilst it fleshes out the story and characters.

So thats the intros all done, so now the key points:

Gameplay
Overall impression a good, solid feel with some neat features that help set it apart from the norm.

The cover system is really something to be proud of. most of time... because for every 10 time you dodge perfectly from cover to cover, sliding into the last one whilst dodging incoming fire and generally looking really cool, theres that one time where you get the stick angle slightly wrong and you just stand up from behind your cover to see what flavour the salad is and generally its lead, and lots of it. Now on the lower difficulties you just quickly tap A and he bobs back down and all is well, but when you crank it up to FUBAR and death is almost instantaneous, you just dont stand an ice cubes chance in hell.

Weapons are varied, well placed and fun to use. sure its the same mix of AK-47's, M9 pistols and RPG-7's, but they also throw some extras in for good measure and nothing wrong the ol' favourites. I think most, if not all, of the weapons have a secondary fire function, from equipping silencer or grenade launchers, to changing from the usual 3rd person to a 4x scoped 1st person mode. i think the only weapon that doesnt have one is the RPG, but not much else you can do with that really.
Ammunition comes from standard weapon pickups or ammo crates, but a nice feature is that if you don't fully kill an enemy you have to option to "execute" him, giving you a boost of ammo in both weapons you're carrying.

Squad Commands, not a new feature by any means, but a less used and very welcome one. You have with 2 other squad members with different specialties, Lugo: long range extermination and Adams: making things go boom. These are used by selecting a target and then they try their utmost to take it out. This is especially useful in the higher difficulties as they can take a lot more punishment than you, but use with caution as they can and will get injured and you'' have to direct your other squad-mate to get them up or do it yourself. All in all a good edition to the game.

Sandstorms, this is one of the things that sets this game apart, yes theyre scripted, yes theyre a pain in the proverbial but they dont half mix things up! one minute your popping heads from 50m away, next you cant even hit a guy 5m away. mixing things up.

Overall gameplay? very sound, apart from sometimes being frustrated at the cover system for doing things you tell it to, its really well thought out and well put together. Apart from ONE thing, when you die several time on one checkpoint, which you invariably will, a little box pops up and says "you have died several time in this section, do you want to lower the difficulty?" and when your going through FUBAR difficulty on purpose, i dont think many people do...

Sound
sound, sound, sound... normally i dont care too much about soundtrack (apart from Halo) but this really got me, its sheer genius. Yes it has the usual instrumental pieces but it also has some classic rock and roll through some of the fights and when blasting away from cover, to the sound of "Nowhere to Run" its just hilarious, I won't spoil how this is made possible without being completely ridiculous, but believe me when i say its very clever.

Story
Not much i can say about the story without spoiling it all. but when you think the mission is to check whether anyone it alive let alone fighting, somethings going to go down, and big time.
I will say this though, it is possibly one of the most immersive, well told and heart pounding stories ive seen. It could just be a movie for the depth, imagination and number of twists and turns. This is no generic run of the mill shooter, this a story first, shooter second.
Oh, what i can say is Choices, lots of choices, whilst the don't change to story at all, apart from the final one, they do give you a sense of control which is nice.

Graphics
errrm, very good? having played this in standard and high def, i can say it looks very good in both... the scenery, apart from being very sandy is beautiful to look at and they worked wonders with making the characters show how far they've come. The fact they get to have Dubai as inspiration makes i great as you get a sense of how rich, architecturally beautiful and splendid it was. and what its now become.

Multiplayer
Whilst only having played a little bit of the MP, i'm pleased to report a good experience that represent the game very well keeping all the good feature whilst keeping in with what the masses want and demand. Whilst not a fan in general myself it feels a lot like CoD MP but 3rd person and with cover. whether thats a good thing or not im not one to judge.

Achievements
Now, as this is a review for an achievement site, its only reasonable i talk about the cheevos. Personally i think they've done good. No MP ones, which is nice as the focus is mainly a single player game with MP as an added bonus. Now theres the usual story progress and difficulty ones along with a few weapon kill tallys. The main bulk of the rest are choice ones. Now i mentioned earlier about the choices, and for better or for worse both options for each choice have an achievement, now this isnt too much drama as some you can reload checkpoints for it or you can just choose the other on a later, inevitable, playthrough. A very good bunch of achievements to be honest, nothing spectacular but nothing really too hard.

Finale
So to finish; I think that this a really well put together game, with a great story, nice look, lovely sound and solid set of achievements.
Now if this was out of 10, id give it and 9 [edit - which with the addition of the half scores i can! woo] due to a few little things that can be annoying, but are actually fairly menial, unless you're all worked up from dying loads.

Recently i read an article on IGN proclaiming the death of shooters due to lack of imagination and their eventual stagnation. and i was inclined to agree, till now. This game take the shooter genre on a different and much need tangent through superior story telling and drama, rather than how many explosions can we get in.

Thankyou for reading and feel free to leave comment with any feedback you have!

Gazhibs

When it comes to the shooter genre, few mechanics have changed since the early days of Doom and the like. You have an objective to complete, there are a bunch of angry dudes in your way and you have to kill them all in order to advance in the game. Regardless of linearity, artificial intelligence or several dozen innovations increasingly improved over the past two decades, the approach to a game’s story hasn’t really lent itself to being truly exceptional. Every few years we get a Half-Life 2 or a Bioshock that really engages us but when such titles come along they really don’t seem like shooters. No, these titles lean more toward being an RPG as some incorporate that type of game’s gameplay elements. For me, it seems that the shooter really only receives a quality story once in a blue moon on a Friday the 13th of a leap year.

To that notion, 2K Games, one of the more developer-conscious publishers out there, decided to revive Spec Ops, a relatively mediocre shooter series whose last title came out a decade ago. Development of the game was handed to Yager, a German developer whose repertoire has been exclusively focused on sci-fi titles and hasn’t released a game in nine years. With any revival though there is potential for greatness for both the game and the developer. Does Spec Ops The Line achieve this or should the series have been left out to pasture?

Paved with the Best Intentions
In the world we live in today the city of Dubai, nestled against the Persian Gulf within the United Arab Emirates, is widely considered to be one of the biggest architectural, financial and cultural phenomenons of the 21st century. Built on the backs of the Arabian oil barons, Dubai is a grand city that’s home to millions and a skyline dotted with skyscrapers and rivaled by fewer metropolises than a man has fingers. Truly, if there was ever a modern day Babylon this would be it and, in the story of Spec Ops The Line, it meets the same fate.

Six months ago, in an almost biblical manner, a sandstorm of unparalleled size swept through the city of Dubai before stabilizing and creating a sort of permanent “storm wall,” separating it from the outside world and effectively trapping its citizens within its sand-swept domains. A battalion of the US, on their way home from active duty in Afghanistan, attempted to aid in the evacuation of the city but it only ended in failure. All communication with the city dropped off and, in a matter of weeks the world declared the city lost to nature and all of its occupants dead. That is until our story begins when a radio message sent by an American battalion commander named Joseph Conrad breaks through the storm wall, giving hope to the possibility that life still exists in the doomed city. Special Forces operatives Captain Walker, Lieutenant Adams and Sergeant Lugo are covertly sent in to investigate the origin of the transmission and, if possible, rescue survivors.

The story of the Delta force operator’s journey into the remains of Dubai is, simply put, a remarkable one. Though it begins in a very traditional way for the genre it slowly skews in a direction that’s both exciting and enjoyable. Indeed, by the time you have completed half the game you find yourself more invested in the story than you could have conceived of. The game begins to make you question the ethics of a soldier and presents many morally gray choices that have no true right or wrong answer. The game is said to be very reminiscent of the classic novel The Heart of Darkness and while this writer has never experience this work of fiction, after having experience The Line, I’m very much intrigued by the notion of reading it.

Nowhere in the The Line is this sense of darkness and depravity made more apparent than an event that occurs mid-way through the game. Not to put too fine a point on it (lest I give way to spoilers) but, at this point in the game, the player does a very terrible thing, an atrocity that, although done unknowingly, is easily one of the biggest sins anyone could ever commit. Spec Ops drives the point home strongly, leaving your mouth (and controller) on the floor and making you fell absolutely abysmal for. This event, however, plays a key role in the development of the player character (Walker) and spurs him on in a quest that yields tremendous consequences for both him and the survivors of Dubai. By the time the game comes to a close you find yourself on the edge of your seat in a way that only gamers who understand the meaning of the phrase “would you kindly” understand.

Though the game ends up being roughly eight or so hours in length Walker’s journey to end the madness that has engulfed the once prosperous city, you will definitely want to experience the story a second or even a third time thorough the witness all the endings and possibilities that occur. It’s not a story you could ever hope to share with your kids in the room but it’s an emotional tale that you’ll be talking about for some time to come.

Defining the Edge of Morality
As a traditionally-played third-person shooter, Spec Ops The Line shares very common, run-of-the-mill mechanics and gameplay systems seen in countless others. Like many other shooters it has a strong focus on cover-based firefights as well as AI compatriots who need your help far more often than they help you. You’ll engage most firefights the same way, the enemies offer little in terms of variety and the game has many staple elements such as turret sequences and moments when you are separated from your allies. Despite this, Spec Ops does have a few interesting elements to shake things up.

One of the most touted gameplay elements is the game’s use of sand. Rather than relegate it to being what you are trudging through for the majority of the game, sand can play a a role in combat. Windows and doors holding back torrents of sand can be destroyed to engulf your enemies in it and a well-placed grenade can create a screen of sand by which to stun them. Unfortunately the mechanic isn’t utilized nearly as often as it should be and the moments that they are usable end up being very transparent and seemingly only put there to remind you that it is a part of the game.

Another point of interest, and one that is far more interesting, comes in the form of player choice. At certain instances throughout the game players are given the option to make choices that directly affect both the storyline as well as your relationships with your AI companions. The choices can range in nature anywhere from having to save one person or the other to committing to an action that makes you question your humanity and with no clear good or bad option to be had. It’s a testament to a game when a choice makes you stop and ponder just how to handle a situation the way you would if you were actually there instead of your character and The Line pulls this off fantastically.

Probably one of the most interesting elements, and one that had this author intrigued about the game, is Walker’s descent into madness that occurs throughout Spec Ops. As Walker continues along in the story the choices he is forced to make begin to take a toll on his psyche, making him begin to lose touch with reality. One instance, for example, has Walker reflect on the game’s opening sequence as if he’s done it before, almost breaking the fourth wall for the player. Another has him taking on a tough enemy as a strobe light flashes off and on in a room full of mannequins, the enemy slowly advancing on him and with each flash suddenly appearing at another location. These sequences range from being chuckle-worthy to really unnerving, almost scaring the player as they desperately fight for their lives. It’s very well done and many of which come out of nowhere with little predictability.

Unfortunately, as is the case with most shooters these days, 2K made the judgment call to include a multiplayer component into the game. Handled by another developer (Darkside Game Studios), the effort is sadly wasted as the result is decidedly par for the course and ultimately unremarkable. Only the most curious should investigate the multiplayer component and, even then, you might as well go back to your favorite online shooter as there’s little here to be found and, of that, very lacking in an audience. It’s a shame too given that the singleplayer is remarkably enjoyable.

Staring Into the Abyss
Looking at Spec Ops The Line you’ll find a more par-for-the-course presentation before you. This is to be expected over six years into a console generation and while it doesn’t necessarily mean this is a bad thing but, at this point, it stands as a demonstration of the graphical limits of the Unreal 3 engine. Body animations are stiff at times, textures seem flat and the lighting scheme leaves a bit to be desired at times. Character facial animation only appears moderately worked on during cinematic sequences as, for the most part, your character doesn’t seem to emote at all throughout the course of the game. The game’s focus on sand doesn’t really stand up either as, since the use of sand is few and far between in firefights, seems to be a specifically-generated trigger event that lacks any sense of being organic for the experience. The presentation gets a few noteworthy bumps during Walker’s psychological events but, for the most part, isn’t a visual splendor to behold.

One thing you will find enjoyable about the game is the audio portion of the game’s presentation. The Line features an enjoyable soundtrack that’s surprisingly interspersed with licensed tracks such as Deep Purple’s “Hush” and the classic “Nowhere to Run to Baby” by Martha and the Vandellas. These shake up what would otherwise be just another firefight and turn them into rather enjoyable ones. Nolan North, probably the most prolific voice actor in video games other than Charles Martinet, takes on the role of Walker and while he does it using the same tone and pitch of voice as was utilized for Uncharted character Nathan Drake he does brings a very convincing take on a supremely stressed and mentally exhausted to the character.

Drawing the Line in the Sand
During the development of Spec Ops I was intrigued by this revival but, other than the initial trailer for the game, I couldn’t find myself getting excited by it. It remained elusive for the two years since it was initially announced, hidden behind wave after wave of other larger, more PR-driven titles like Saints Row, XCOM and The Darkness II. It is a shame that Spec Ops was relegated to being the kid in the back row rather than standing in the spotlight with these other great-looking games as it is probably one of the best Summer-release titles in the past few years.

Spec Ops The Line, though presented in the form of a traditional third-person shooter, takes the player on an adventure into the darkness that happens when civilization has ended and does so in a rather fantastic manner. Though the multiplayer is rather forgettable the game’s story has several ‘wow’ moments and a twist ending that leaves you stunned. It’s a solid modern shooter experience that brings to the table a great, memorable tale of survival and desperation. We need more stories like this in our games with guns that stand on par or higher than those that wield swords and bows and Yager delivered on this.

Spec Ops: The Line is a definite sleeper hit for me!

I was aware when this game came out with how much potential it had to be a stunning experience and mesh well with my gaming tastes. Sadly I had to wait until December 2012 to finally buy it and play it!

Anyways, I'll only touch on a few things...

This game has a very stunning, refreshing setting. It takes place in Dubai after a massive disaster has ravaged the cities and landscapes immensely in mountains of sand. The sand effects and how they tie into gameplay with traps and sand storms is marvelously portrayed. The hotel settings you meander through along with huge rolling dunes add a destroyed overtone showing nothing has been spared by the weather.

The setting is rich and colorful but also showcases its darker side with shadows and electricity absent hotels and buildings. The game never gets repetitive with where you have your firefights as one minute you are on a destroyed highway then at a ravaged building and suddenly you are in a dark pit with piles of dead soldiers and civilians.

The character presentations are tangible as well. The game doesn't get overly involved with character development but you certainly see inside your squad's minds as they slowly get more of their humanity destroyed along the way throughout the chapters. It does a good job with showcasing how War wears down on both your body and your mind. Without spoiling too much, I will say that the story is constantly raging forward and features quite a few ways on how you want it to advance and take its toll on Walker, Adams and Lugo.

The gameplay is relatively tight. I'd put this up there as one of the best third-person shooters I've played, alongside the Gears of War franchise and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The cover system is easy to use and seamlessly powerful at hiding your weak spots. The guns are plentiful (enough...) and the hit detection is spot-on with where you shoot and don't shoot. Enemies are smart as well, even on lower difficulties. The enemies tend to charge, flank and rush you to overwhelm your position. The Battle Management system, where you can control your squad's actions and concentration of fire upon your choosing, is also a nice and easy to use feature...don't rely solely on them though. ;)

Multiplayer is run of the mill third-person shooter chaos but steps down from the single player experience and largely dead for the most part. It may be for the fact I didn't play or own this game until 5 months after release but who knows. There is also apparent lag that makes walking about 10 feet forward a nearly minute long task. Skip the multiplayer if you get this game, thankfully there are no achievements for it. Huge plus for that fact.

Co-op challenge mode I've yet to try but it's free DLC that I'm sure will be fun for additional playtime!

This is definitely a fun game but also contains a dark story you won't forget from 2012 gaming.

Spec Ops The Line

Things you need to know : it's a third person shooter, with a cover system which borrows from the likes of Gears, GRAW and Splinter Cell but unfortunately doesn't surpass or match these games for the effortless manner you get into cover. 

It's set in Dubai after a major catastrophe, and it's stunning. 

Shooting out windows to engulf enemies is a great amount of fun.  Just as it was in Hydrophobia to shoot out the windows and wash folk away. 

Starting the game with a turret mission was always going to be a bold move. Especially as I hate turret missions and usually need a couple of levels of fun before I get lumped with one. But as you are shooting stuff the title credits roll so it's more a interactive opening sequence, fine I'll let you off with that one. 

The game starts with yourself and two other "ruggedly handsome stone cold tier operators" making your way into Dubai. 

The gameplay is good fun, the set ups as well get you going. Storming the tv station as Hush is blaring out some speakers actually sets a really good atmosphere. 

Shooting folk in video games should always be fun, if it's not then its obvious you are playing Hour of Victory or Duke Nukem Forever and not Spec Ops the Line. Heads pop, bodies explode and cartwheel past you. Joy. 

To unlock FUBAR difficulty you have to play on suicide difficulty. As with most games these day developers assign difficulty to how many grenades can be thrown at you in quick succession rather as AI that flank or suppress you.  It's at this point the cover system controls fail you. Not to the point where the game is broken and unplayable but to the point where your wife comes down the stairs to ask who you are swearing at. 

On Suicide difficulty I was done in 4 hours & 18 mins. I'd collected all but 3 pieces of intel. Going back for those pieces of intel it became obvious I'd done a Han Solo and sprinted after enemies and not taken notice of my surroundings. 

For those interested(I know you are reading for this piece of info) after five & a half hours I had 950G the last achievement (FUBAR difficulty)I'll leave  for a rainy day. 

The multiplayer, day 1 couldn't get a full lobby. Played 1 round(20minutes) and quite frankly it's very dated, very slow and not very fun. For my multiplayer fun I'll stick with Ghost Recon Future Soldier. 

All in all it's a good game, there are frustrating moments (the juggernaut in the strobe room who tried to defeat me by having me have an epileptic fit-that's not a joke either it was ridiculous) there are truly thought provoking moment (the aftermath of the white phosphorous assault) unfortunately this isn't worth £35. Sub £20 or as a rental and you'll get a 6-8 hours of solid shooting fun.

One quote to describe the game:
"I've never shot so many american soldiers in my life"

I wasn't expecting much when i looked up the game,
but then i heard they adapted the book "Heart of Darkness"
(which the movie apocalypse now, and the game Far Cry 2 also where inspired from)

This is the best adaption from an book taken in our time and Zeitgeist
i've seen in a long time.
Buy this game, you will play an epic and realistic military shooter with big critic on the modern military you'll ever see.

The voice acting (English) is awesome,
graphics are good but you see how old the UT3 engine is.
This shooter does everything right to give you an aftershock and longer lasting of decisions and raises questions.
A game that makes you think, and let me tell you the story is really like an kick in the guts, the ending twists are reasonable not just for the shock.
But i have to warn, the endings will shock some people,
because there are different choices along the way to make,
which will end up in different endings.

I was expecting a cool and good military shooter, but i was so wrong, thankfully, this game is so much more, and after the first playthrough there is so much so see if you get the "right" ending, so much which forshadows everything,they've done a lot to hide some cool stuff, please to all who like shooters, this is the best shooter of the year 2012.

One of the best and most moving stories i've ever seen in a videogame.
This game proofes that games are no longer soft and fluffy kiddie entertainment, a wake up call, a punch in the face, and i enjoyed every minute of it.

On a superficial level, you'd be forgiven for writing off Spec Ops: The Line as another 3rd person war shooter. I did for years, however, thankfully I've since picked up the game and it's represented one of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming.

The combat is a very "paint-by-numbers" 3rd person, cover-based shooter. The mechanic around dropping mounds of sand on enemies is interesting in theory, but in practice, it was highly contextual and only occurred a handful of times throughout gameplay. Ammo is also surprisingly scarce in this game, something that can't be said about the Call of Dutys and the Battlefields of the gaming world. This forced me to break from cover and scramble to recover more ammo, creating some high energy moments.

Where Spec Ops: The Line really shines is in it's storytelling and overarching narrative. The game takes a rather dark turn when Walker and his squad mates do a REALLY bad thing (no spoilers) as the game shifts to exploring the horrors of warfare and the mental deterioration of it's main character, Cpt. Walker as he commits one atrocity after another while trying to justify his actions, much to the chagrin and distrust of his squad mates.

The game offers player choice moments, some choices are presented rather obviously, where as others are a bit more inconspicuous and present a real "a-ha" moment when you discover them.

Spec Ops: The Line has some genuinely unpleasant moments that aren't fun to play through, but that's exactly why I recommend this game. It's made me feel things in a way other modern war shooters can't.

Spec Ops: The Line

Description

It's been 6 months since Dubai was wiped off the map by a cataclysmic sandstorm. Thousands of lives were lost, including those of American soldiers sent to evacuate the city. Today, the city lies buried under sand, the world's most opulent ruin. Now, a mysterious radio signal is picked-up from Dubai, and a Delta Recon Team is sent to infiltrate the city. Their mission is simple: Locate survivors and radio for Evac.

Gameplay

The best way I could describe the gameplay of Spec Ops: The Line would be to say that it's a 3rd Person Call of Duty. Now is that a good thing? Maybe. It has awesome campaign elements and tells a pretty good story. There is hidden Intel scattered around the games lengthy levels for you to collect, all of which are voiced and add a deeper insight on the story. The scenery is absolutely stunning and characters develop in a subtle but good way. The weapons for Spec Ops: The Line look like they were taken straight out of Call of Duty's Modern Warfare Trilogy. But again, that's not a bad thing. But any game should try to bring something a little different to the "Tools of the trade" to make combat kind of stick out. But Spec Ops: The Line makes up for this by having an "Alternate Firing Mode" for a majority of weapons. This could be as basic as a burst fire setting (Which is on the AK47 and feels really out of place.) or attaching a silencer to your weapon, or adding a first person scoped view or variable zoom to your weapons. Sadly this is locked into a certain gun and can't be changed (Oh how I would prefer to put a burst fire on my M4A1 and grenade launchers on my AK47.) but this does add a little balance to the games combat. But where Spec Ops: The Line really stands out is in its combat. More accurately, using the beautiful desert environment to your advantage. You can shoot glass and other fragile structure to let a flood of sand take your enemies out. You can also through a grenade into the sand and cause a dust cloud, stunning and blinding your enemies like a smoke grenade. Sandstorms also happen periodically during the game, making it difficult for you and the enemy to see what you're doing. The best part about all of these environment features is that they all carry over to the multiplayer, promising something slightly different. Sadly, the multiplayer is dead. Which also means it's free DLC content, a Co-Op mode, is dead as well. But if you're lucky enough to even get with one other player and play some 1v1, it's a fun experience.

My Opinion

I have been almost addicted to Spec Ops: The Line. The Campaign is completely awesome and worth playing if just to experience the story. But as soon as I finished my first play through on normal, I started again on a higher difficulty, going back for achievements, Intel, and handling decision differently. But I'm sure I won't stop there either. Considering Spec Ops: The Line doesn't have a super long Campaign (Roughly 6 hours) you can easily go back and play it a little differently but have a totally new experience. Especially after you know the major twists and turns of the game.

Review

Spec Ops: The Line is an awesome game. It has its flaws, but comes out on top with a great story, beautiful scenery, and a fun combat system. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes the Shooter genre or a good military story.

Originally posted on my blog at http://takeaimandgame.blogspot.com/

I'm a sucker for a good story, but games have this annoying tendency to build up a wonderful plot only to collapse in the final act. Spec Ops: The Line is unfortunately one of those games, with excellent storytelling heading towards a pretentious climax in the last chapter. Oh, I guess it's also a decent shooter, but that's not why you'd play this game.

Spec Ops takes place in a world where the glamorous city of Dubai has been buried by unrelenting sandstorms. After a failed attempt to evacuate the city, a trio of Special Forces operatives (that's you) enter the city to figure out what happened and look for survivors.

The setting is fantastic. Dubai is an unusual location for a game, and it allows for a wonderful mixture of sandy exteriors, apparently war-torn slums, and opulent plazas. It leans a little on the desert side of things (given the basic plot, that much is to be expected), but it's still pretty sweet to explore an underused real-world city.

The plot itself isn't too compelling, mostly because there's just not enough content to make sense of everything that's going on (perhaps by design), but the details are phenomenal. I was particularly impressed by the characterization - the banter among the three protagonists is well-written with impressive voice acting, making them each unique and believable characters.

In fact, the best part of the story is the evolution of the characters' responses to events as the game progresses. When you start the game, they're mostly professional and detached with a nice dose of playfulness; by the end, they are clearly exhausted and frustrated, and that professionalism is replaced by raw anger.

That slow change is fantastic, and it's supported by visuals along the way. The protagonists' faces become increasingly caked with sand and blood, adding a surprising level of immersion. It's all wonderfully presented.

On the other hand, the game's conclusion is a huge disappointment. It goes completely off the rails, capping off that gradual psychological devolution with an over-the-top twist. The last chapter is definitely the most memorable part of the game, but not in a good way.

The let down at the end is a problem because the story absolutely carries the game. The gameplay is exactly what you'd expect from a third-person shooter in the post-Gears of War era: a cover system, long battles with waves of enemies, and a small array of available weapons fill out the majority of what you'll be doing throughout the 5-8 hour campaign.

A few features try to mix it up a bit, but at best they feel like underdeveloped gimmicks. The biggest is the ability to issue orders to your squadmates. You can have your allies focus on a particular target or, sometimes if you're lucky, you can get one to snipe a distant foe. More often than not, though, they'll just run into the fray, becoming a liability instead of an asset (you'll hit a game over screen if a teammate is downed and not revived quickly enough).

It makes for a very repetitive gameplay experience. You're just fighting waves of identical enemies in arenas with different arrangements of walls and debris.

In fact, the most damning part is that the game can get incredibly frustrating on higher difficulties. There are segments that seem to require more luck than skill or strategy, as your allies get themselves killed constantly. The frustration really hampers the replay value of what is already a fairly short campaign.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the multiplayer mode. I tried searching for a match every time I booted up the game and never found one. So it's there, but the community is completely dead.

As for achievements, there's nothing too surprising. Completing the game on higher difficulty settings is terribly frustrating, but everything else either comes naturally by playing through the game or is easily earned through the convenient chapter select.

And that's all there is - fantastic storytelling bundled with acceptable gameplay, at least until the last fifteen minutes. It's decently fun and excitingly immersive, but the disappointing conclusion and overall lack of replay value knock it down a few notches.

My Rating: 6/10 - decent.

(For more info on my rating system, including overall stats, see http://takeaimandgame.blogspot.com/p/reviews.html)

Hello everybody, here is my latest review video I haven't done one for a while and it was my first live one so be kind please. I did enjoy the game and thought very much of the story, the graphics and to top it off it was quite hard a lot harder than I expected aswell compared to other games this year. It does contain strong language and black metal be careful if you have young children around as it does get bad. So thank you for your time and if you like it please sub and share with your friends thanks.

Spec Ops: The Line


About the Game (taken from IGN)


"Spec Ops: The Line unfolds within the destroyed opulence of Dubai. Once the playground for the world's wealthiest elite, Dubai has fallen victim to a series of cataclysmic sandstorms. The city's ultramodern architecture lies half-buried under millions of tons of sand. The very sand that blankets the city plays a marquee role in altering combat situations and serves as a powerful but unpredictable force that will both help and hinder players throughout the course of the game.

While most people have fled the now-barren wasteland before the sandstorms swept through, U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad and his loyal squad remained behind to protect those incapable of escape. Unable to reach anyone in Dubai after the storm hit, the U.S. Army feared Konrad and his team dead until they picked up a weak distress signal and launched a rescue operation. As U.S. Army Captain Martin Walker, you and your elite Delta Force team are sent to infiltrate the treacherous region to bring Konrad home. Players will experience "The Line", that razor's edge known only to men who deal in war. It is the line they cross when death and duty become one and the same. It is the end -- of self and sanity -- when their duty is done and only they remain."

Gameplay ( 6 / 10 )

I didn't find the game very impressive. I felt like lots of elements of the game were very rushed. Other parts of the game I felt were done fine, just VERY repetitive. Most of the game I found to be quite boring. I felt like I was playing Terminator: Salvation many times when I went through this game. I also felt like the game was very glitchy at times, like going in and out of cover. For example, I would run into one cover and try to go to a different cover using "press A for swap" or "press A to swing to cover." Once I pressed A, the game would just stand me up and I would get rained on by bullets. I even tried using the left stick for better direction to no avail. GRENADES. Don't even get me started. A enemy would chuck a grenade at me, and I would run around trying to avoid it using the game's glitchy cover system, and would just get continually shot. Grenades lacerated me constantly. Hated them. At least in other games I have played you would have a valiant shot to avoid them. Overall, the gameplay pretty much sucked. Too choppy and glitchy, not very smooth at all.



Graphics ( 8 / 10 )

Graphics in this game were fine. Nothing over the top, but nothing special. The characters were well done, and a lot of the scenery was well made. Games like Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire blow this game away though.


Sound ( 7 / 10 )

The sound was alright. I felt like a lot of the game the characters said their lines over and over again. Seemed like they only had 3 or so choices for dialogue. Nothing much to expand on here. Play with your speakers on. Nothing much to like or hate.

Replayability ( 4.5 / 10 )

I felt like going through on "Suicide Mission" got to be an absolute chore after a while. Once I finished with chapter 9, I got very bored with the same old, "Pop out and shoot" and then "take some cover." By the time I got to Chapter 13, I was bored out of my mind. Had to somehow push myself to finish the rest of the game. Once I finished the game I had 34/50 achievements and 640G, and that was plenty for me. I immediately drove it down to my local post office and shipped it right back to Gamefly. I had no intention of beating the game again on FUBAR or getting any of the other achievements I had left to get. My advice is to not expect replayability because the game gets to be a grind about midway through your first playthrough.

Story ( 8.5 / 10 )

If there was anything that I would take good from the game, it would be the story. I felt the story was very gripping and was very action packed at times. I don't give it a full 10 because I found the vaster majority of the game to be boring, and the cinematics lacked enthusiasm. I felt like the all out battle in Dubai with main character Martin Walker and his team made the story rather compelling. The game has a great story to it, so enjoy that.

Multiplayer ( 1.5 / 10 )

The multiplayer is an atrocity. It is plain and simple horrible. The multiplayer is insanely glitchy and is no where near where it should be. It is like a knockoff of the most recent Ghost Recon game. It is so bad. Don't even touch if you decide to get this game.


Pros:
Good character development
Good storyline

Cons:
Glitchy cover system
Extremely repetative
Short Single player, horrible MP


Recap:

Gameplay ( 6 / 10 )
Graphics ( 8 / 10 )
Sound ( 7 / 10 )
Replayability ( 4.5 / 10 )


Overall ( 6 / 10 )

I was expecting this game to be a lot better. News of this game first brinked in 2009. With having nearly 3 years to improve their game, I felt like 2K could done a whole lot better. With a horrible multiplayer and a mediocre single player doesn't make this game what I thought out it to be. If you really want to give this game a go, DO NOT BUY IT. Give it a rent if you must.