I finally got the chance to play through “Spec Ops: The Line” the other day (I know I’m a year late, so sue me).
Like a powerful movie that you can’t stop mulling over even days after you saw it, I can’t get this game out of my head. I know there have been complaints about some control issues, and a few graphical problems, but I don’t care, this is an important game. It’s the modern war shooter for people who hate modern war shooters. It lets you live out every “heroic” moment you could ever ask for, then unflinchingly shows you the consequences of your actions. Never before have I felt bad about winning. Never before have I honestly wondered if maybe I was the bad guy after all.
I won’t spoil anything more, story-wise. The writing is superb, the voice acting is excellent, and despite a few glitches here and there the graphics, audio design, and enemy AI are fantastic. The real star for me though (aside from the story) is the level design. The environments are gorgeously conceived and executed. The action flows through them as well as any game I’ve played, and the chilling spectacle of a gleaming metropolis buried by sand storms and ravaged by war is yet another act of psychological warfare against the player. Hats off to the level designers and environmental artists.
I would recommend this to anyone who dislikes the mindless heroic fantasy of most modern war shooters (or most shooters of any kind for that matter). Like the most recent Deus Ex, Spec Ops: The Line refuses to talk down to its players. It isn’t subtle, but neither is it patronising as it foists upon the player questions of ethics and morality, of the nature of war and survival, and of what it really means to play and enjoy this sort of sadistic power fantasy.
As I said, this is an important game. Games are capable of so much more than most suspect. Just as they can be art, simply existing as beautiful experiences (Dear Esther, Journey), they can also tell compelling stories and pose challenging questions (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Spec Ops: The Line). I would go so far as to suggest that this is a step towards games as literature.
Even if it wasn’t entirely successful among its intended core audience, this is how entertainment mediums mature. This is how games finally, truely grow up.