Spec Ops: The Line Review

Game: Spec Ops: The Line
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, Windows
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Content Rating: M(ESRB), 18+(PEGI)
Developer: Yager Development
Publisher: 2K Games

For the 100% completely spoiler free version of this review, read the last paragraph.

So, I'd like you to imagine a modern military shooter. Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor. Those kinds of things. From the time I've spent around the internet of late, just the mentioning of those will make you shake your head and tune out. And I'm not necessarily against that. I mean, back when it came out, I fell in love with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I was 12 or 13 at the time and all the guns and explosions blew my mind, no pun intended. I still feel like it holds up today, but the non-stop parade of sequels and imitators it's gotten over the last five years has ruined the magic somewhat. The modern military shooter, along with cover based shooting, has ushered in a somewhat disconcerting glut of uninspired titles with obnoxious military machismo, "gritty" story lines and parades of boring and painfully linear murder arenas disguised as video game levels. All of them seem to be indistinguishable from the rest: chopper crashes, terrorists, nuclear weapon McGuffins, black and white morality, America always saving the entire world, and what seems to be an impossible and frankly ridiculous amount of killing in games that claim to be realistic. And no matter what happens, the moral, righteous soldiers you play as either live through this entire ordeal or bravely sacrifice their lives in the name of truth, justice, and freedom.

If you played the demo or the first level of Spec Ops: The Line, you'd probably think that it was pretty much what I listed. Apart from the fact that the opening credits lists your Steam name, Gamertag, or PSN ID as a "special guest" and that it takes place in Dubai, everything about this game seems uninspired. You play as Captain Martin Walker (appropriately voiced by Nolan North), a rugged Delta Force operative. He leads a squad of three, consisting of the black demolitions expert Lieutenant Adams, the chatty and joking sniper Staff Sargent Lugo, and himself. You three have been sent in to Dubai on a recon mission to find evidence of the 33rd Battalion of the United States Army, led by the heroic Lieutenant Colonel John Konrad. When a series of nasty sand storms hit Dubai and trapped civilians in the city 6 months ago, the "Damned" 33rd stayed behind to help with relief efforts. No one had heard from them until very recently when a distress call saying that humanitarian efforts failed was received. When you and your team find a few Army vehicles and a dead soldier in one, you are interrupted by a few locals clad in balaclavas and wielding AK-47's. Negotiations fail when the locals notice you and Adams lining up shots in case negotiations fail. And thus begins the game.

Gameplay wise, it's bog standard third person cover based shooting. Not exactly revolutionary, but it's reasonably executed. There are a few nifty tricks done with shooting objects to drop sand on your enemies, but it's never really capitalized on. You also have a bit of control over your teammates, being able to order Adams or Lugo to grenade or snipe specific enemies based on situations. It'd be nice to have more control, but little touches where your character uses very contextual lines is nice. For example, in the first level there's a crashed airplane where enemies attack you from. If you order Lugo to snipe someone on the wing, Walker will say something along the lines of, "Neutralize the hostile in the airplane wing." These context specific orders can even show up where you wouldn't expect them to be. Again, it's not much but it's a nice little addition. Other features including execution kills you can do on downed enemies to regain ammo, counters in the top left hand corner of the screen for weapon kill achievements and trophies, and a quick slow-mo displaying gore for headshots and special kills that's oddly satisfying.

During this time, you might notice some things that are an oddity in the genre of MMS. The main menu screen depicts an upside down American flag with Jimi Hendrix's rendition of the National Anthem. At points in the game, the action lets up, and Walker and his squad will actually discuss what's happening. And despite taking place in the dusty Middle Eastern environments taken for granted in this kind of thing, Dubai is oddly beautiful. That may be because there's some actual contrast in the visuals. The sand is more of a golden orange or light tan than straight brown. The sky is deep blue with actual white clouds. The shiny glass and metals of the skyscrapers glitter in the sun. There's a certain vibrancy and beauty to the visuals of the game. That is, until the sandstorms roll in. When sand is flying around the air, everything turns rust brown, your vision is obscured and your accuracy drops immensely, forcing you to find shelter quickly. The music is a mix of original compositions and licensed tracks, including "Hush" by Deep Purple and "Rooster" by Alice in Chains. The voice acting and lip syncing is also well done, even if Nolan North is doing his standard Nathan Drake-rugged-everyman voice. Another little detail I liked is that when characters talk during gameplay sequences, their lips move as well, but with more nuance than that would usually entail. 

"Gentlemen, welcome to Dubai."

At the end of the first chapter, you find a dying American soldier proving that the 33rd are still up and running. Walker decides to investigate further against the recommendation of his squad. The game continues with its good presentation, average gameplay, and generic story until about two and half chapters in. At that point, you discover that an American FBI agent is working with the insurgents you've been fighting for a while. Later in the third chapter, you're put into a situation where you are forced to fire on American soldiers. And it's about then that you wonder if the "Damned" were the best choice for humanitarian aid and evacuation. And then all hell breaks loose.

I really can't stress how different The Line's narrative is from your average shooter's. A refreshing thing about it is that it's not about saving the world or country or other objectives with immediate global ramifications. It doesn't take place over a long amount of time or feature several military branches and a huge cast of characters. It isn't really something that would generally be considered "epic" by the shooter crowd. It's very small story, happening only over around two days and nights. The focus stays on Walker and his squad, with each of them having actual character arcs, rather than staying the stock military tough guys they appear to be at the beginning. Their appearances and voices change over the course of the game to reflect their inner being, becoming ragged, worn, bruised, and broken. Dubai itself even seems to warp from an actual city into twisted mindscape. Rarely does something good happen, as each step taken ends up feeling like the wrong one.

The other tropes that are common in military shooters begin to fade as well. Black and white morality falls apart into true gray/gray, where literally no one the plot can truly be considered righteous or correct besides the unfortunate citizens of Dubai. "Grittiness" becomes absolute atrocity, with scenes that actually made me feel disgusted and horrified. Masked Arabs as enemies soon become unmasked and soon give way to US soldiers as the enemies. Loading screens stop giving gameplay tips and start asking you what you believe in. Actions that might earn you medals or respect in other games are frowned upon. Survival, futility, and morality are the true themes of this game, not heroism nor honor nor duty. Meta-commentary on how truly absurd and unrealistic war games, video game violence, and binary moral choices are is made and the game asks us to accept the consequences for the actions we and our digital avatars make. A dark sense of humor is revealed that is confrontational in the wake of horrific events. It ends up as a brutal satire of the genre it masquerades as. And after all is said and done, it's not very fun to play.

“To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless.”

Yet that's the best compliment I can give it. It's incredibly engaging and I had to stomach both the banal gameplay and the dark implications of my role as a player just to see where the game would throw at me next. When the facade falls away, The Line has more in common with survival horror than it does with military shooters. Dark themes, engagement through something other than whiz bang fun, characters losing grip on their own humanity, and an emotional draining and masochistic sort of satisfaction from getting through. At the same time, the implications of this game aren't going to endear to it some people. "Games are supposed to be fun. If it isn't fun, it's not worth playing." "You can't combine a narrative that demonizes violence with inherently violent gameplay." "Why do games have to take themselves so seriously nowadays?" "This 'games as art' thing is stupid." "Stop all this pseudo-intellectualism crap." "Violence in games isn't wrong at all."

I can't fault others for their views. Hell, I even agree that violence in video games doesn't affect your brain and make you a more violent person and that kind of twaddle. But at the same time, if games never evolved to be something other than just "fun", we'd still just be playing games like Tetris and Space Invaders. Don't get me wrong, those are great games. But there wouldn't be your Silent Hills, Final Fantasies or Deus Exes. There wouldn't be your Journeys, Portals, or Metal Gear Solids. Hell, Spec Ops: The Line doesn't always succeed. It's not perfect. The fact it's very specifically about American soldiers might mess up the narrative if you're not from the US and aren't expected to immediately care about them, but it might not as well. But it does something so radically different from the norm and becomes so engaging without having to even actually be enjoyable, that it deserves to be celebrated, at least a little. Maybe I'm wasting my time, trying to convince you. But hell, I truly believe this game is worth it.

If you like narrative in gaming that's cohesive and well written, try this. If you want to some very biting commentary on the nature of video game narrative, try this. If you want to see something take down modern shooters a notch, try this. If you want something that's fun, lighthearted, or at the very least, not so damn bleak, you might want to try something else. If you really, really hate shooters and can't stomach the idea of playing one, go on and play something else. It's okay. I can't really say that you're in the wrong.