Spec ops: the line

Normally, I would not have paid any interest to Spec Ops: The line, but considering how slow game releases are at the moment, I actually picked the game and frankly, I’m glad I did.

Spec Ops; the line is setting a unique and creepy environment where madness and violence have taken over. This is a creative team that has a tremendous understanding of how to use both visuals and story telling in order to create a great experience.

The game isn’t perfect, but the qualities it demonstrates are worth enduring the minor glitches of the gameplay.

Not that it is majorly flawed either, it's just that the cover based gameplay definitively isn’t my favorite at this point, however, it seems to be the prime choice for shooter giving particular attention to story and characters, titles like Mass Effect and Gears of War are good examples. Something about seeing your own character seem to create a connection easily, that being said games like Bioshock managed to deliver a strong story, minus the annoying cover based action, but let’s not get sidetracked.

The overall story of Spec Ops clearly has an Apocalypse Now vibe to it, the horror is there and the helicopter blasting classics too, but the good old story of militaries going overboard is presented with a different twist and if the setting of a sand storm ravaged Dubai isn’t enough to get you rattled, the people hanging off lamp posts and others burning alive might. If not, something is wrong with you.

The gameplay is working, an effort was made in order to avoid the one button does it all issue that plagued Mass Effect 3. While your character is swift, if you are used playing previous cover based shooters, the absence of a jumping button might take you a bit by surprise, however, sometimes less is more and I found that removing this option is adding more realism to the game physics. Ever wandered how Marcus Fenix could roll so easily? No ? Yes, me too.

A dark spot for me is the sprinting, which I found really difficult to master, even if it does make a lot of sense once you're their.

The main highlight to the game's gameplay is of course the sand, it is everywhere and can be used to your advantage, a exploding grenade will blind the surrounding enemies and top of the damage it does, additionally you can use structures filed with sand to bury your enemies, lastly Spec Ops does a good job at hiding holes and gaps, keeping you on the lookout before each steps.

While they are interesting characters, your team mates are really dumb and often remain exposed to gunfire rather than getting to cover, preferably when the building you are in is falling on top of you.

For all it’s effort with the gameplay, the cover based action had it’s time and the sand action, while fresh and fun the first few times is quickly turning boring, the game’s strong suit isn’t laying there though, it’s presentation is the real attraction and the morality of your actions are quickly getting blurry and a growing feeling of discomfort is setting, triggering the horrifying realization that you are dangerously heading toward that line, which once crossed will make you no different than the murdering psycho you are fighting. The fact that you are knowingly fighting soldier baring the same colors than you is one more way to stress on the overall madness.

Your teammates are also well used to mark this point, loosing their cool and questioning their very presence in this hell, the usual military morality we are used to see in those games is flipped around mercilessly.

Sometimes a game comes along, under the radar, underrated, but it shows great prowess and brings us to a place where we’ve never been, reminding us that videogames are also meant to tell a story and shake us to our core.

Spec Ops: The Line is aiming for those heights and very few things are missing to take it there, it is a title worth the time and consideration.