Spec Ops: The Line boasts some fantastic visuals.
2K Games. The masterminds behind awesome games such as the Bioshock (soon to be) trilogy, the Borderlands franchise, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Mafia II and The Darkness franchise. They’re also responsible for Duke Nukem: Forever…but we won’t go into that. Spec Ops, as some of us will remember, was a series from the 90s/00s that halted in 2002 after the cancelled “Spec Ops”. But 2K have taken over, and my God have they done it well.
Usually I review each game mode and then make a generalised comment, but this time I’m going to briefly mention the online and focus mainly on the campaign. The reason for this will become clear.
The online is alright. There, that’s the online done, now for the campaign.
Spec Ops: The Line has a silly name, but I like it, unlike Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2. Ken? Ken?! As in, the doll? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, I digress, The Line didn’t sell too well, and mainly because we were all saving pennies for BLOPS2. The advertising was minimal and the hype was non-existent. Usually games like this fail miserably, such as Rogue Warrior and Mindjack, some of the most negatively received games ever. But The Line avoided complete catastrophe, and for one reason only…the story.
I expected a typical “Hero fights army on his own. All his friends die. Kills bad guy. Victory.” storyline. But what I got was so much better. You play as Captain Martin Walker, a soldier who almost got killed in Kabul but was saved by Colonel John Konrad. The same Colonel is now trapped somewhere in Dubai and has sent out a distress signal. You volunteer your squad of three to search and evacuate Dubai’s survivors, something which should have already been done. As your hunt for Konrad becomes a fight for survival, you are forced to attack CIA operatives and members of the US Army, make decisions that question morality and try to keep your sanity.
It really is a mindfuck of a game. One minute the CIA is your enemy, then it’s the army, then it’s some of the army that have disbanded, but the more you play, the easier it becomes to understand. In essence, it becomes a firefight between four parties: CIA, Konrad’s loyalists, Konrad’s defectors and you and your team. The whole mindfuck can be summed up in one moment. Walker (yourself) orders a mortar bombing of white phosphorous upon Konrad’s loyalists who had previously been attacking them, only to discover that they were hiding civilians to keep them safe. The outcome is pretty grim. I’m very surprised it wasn’t banned, especially in the US. By the way, if you don’t know what white phosphorous does, and you’re not squeemish, a quick google search should satisfy your sadistic curiosity.
You’d imagine all this atrocity and confusion would take a toll on some of the characters, right? It does. The complex plot quickly becomes an insight into the mind of a soldier suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Vivid and sometimes beautifully crafted hallucinations take over and turn the desolate waste into a living hell. Just when you think you can trust nobody but yourself, you can’t trust yourself.
To understand and appreciate the magnificent plot and narrative you really have to play it for yourself. My description was actually devoid of spoilers and some of the most vital plot points to avoid said spoilers, even though it looks like I’ve explained it all. Aside from the story, the gameplay isn’t that bad, especially for a pretty low-budget game. The third-person military-esque style is quite refreshing in this first-person shooter obsessed world. Whilst it doesn’t quite live up to Gears of War‘s cover system, especially with ease of access, it is simple enough to grasp and is bearable. The aiming system isn’t bad either. The crosshair is accurate and doesn’t take up half the fucking screen like it does on Gears, whilst cover fire is very accurate, perhaps too accurate, but that’d be nit-picking.
Overall, the gameplay is a bit jaunty and takes a while to do what you actually want it to do. The amount of times I was killed because it wouldn’t get into cover was far too high, but the amount of enemies I killed was higher, so I can’t complain. Despite this, The Line will live long in the memory for its story. Combining a unique and risky setting with a compelling, twist-filled narrative has made this a hidden gem that easily outperforms its nearest rivals, of which there are many and all of which are obvious.
Campaign – 10/10
Online – 5/10
Gameplay – 7/10
Replayability – 7/10
Originality – 8/10
Overall – 74/100
Prepare to be Bloggled! 