Developer: Yager Development (Single-player) / Darkside Game Studios (Multi-player)
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: June 2012
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Reviewed On: Xbox 360
Genre: Third-person Shooter
Modes: Single-player, Multi-player
Distribution: Physical CD, Download
Rated: ESRB: M, PEGI 18
Content Warning: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Adult Language, Adult Situations

Blurring the Line Between Peace And War

“What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute. There is no liberty except the liberty of someone making his way towards something. Such a man can be set free if you will teach him the meaning of thirst, and how to trace a path to a well. Only then will he embark upon a course of action that will not be without significance. You could not liberate a stone if there were no laws of gravity, for where will the stone go once it is quarried?” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I have seen the sun settle upon the desert tundra, far from the comforts of home. A sea of crimson and gold, set against the smoky skies of post war combat. It is disquieting, and yet beautiful. Because just beyond this quiet beauty, I know lies death. The aftermath of destruction. The result of nations trampling upon a world that perseveres despite the attempts to destroy. Dwelling upon the thought that man can inflict such devastation upon itself, I think can worm its way into the mind of even the most hardened man. Drive them to perditious thought. Maybe even to madness.

I don’t think it’d be hard to go crazy in a place like this. To be…lost here. The heat. The desolation. The isolation. It takes a certain kind of man to stare into the abyss and, when it stares back, never blink. The kind of man that has already lost some part of his humanity, and is willing to do whatever it takes to survive. No matter the spiritual, or even personal, cost.

I honestly don’t know if I’m that kind of a man.

I honestly don’t think I ever want to find out.

After a particularly devastating stand-storm leaves much of Dubai in ruins, the United States military secretly sends a three man Delta Force team into the city to try and regain contact with Lt. Colonel John Konrad, who had volunteered to help evacuate the city, and then disobeyed orders when told to abandon the stragglers to their own fates.

Now Dubai is a no-man’s-land. A place where not even martial law prevails. As Captain Martin Walker, leader of this three man scouting force, your mission is two-fold. Find out what happened to Konrad and his “Damned 33rd” Battalion, and find out what’s left of the city itself.

Home?! We can’t go home. There’s a line men like us have to cross. If we’re lucky, we do what’s necessary, and then we die…….” – Colonel John Konrad

Despite previous installments in the Spec Ops universe, nothing in Spec Ops: The Line is a continuation of that series. Rather it is something of a new beginning, a deviation from previous expectations. Something darker and more…primal in its delivery.

And in all honesty, this is not a bad thing.

The game itself draws heavily from both Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” and Joesph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness” in both its tone and sense of moral ambiguity. Which, if you look at some of the more popular/generic third and first person military shooters out there, seem to lack that sense of believability because of it. Because let’s face it, war is a dirty aspect of human society. There’s nothing so simple as “Bad Guy” and “Good Guy” in a firefight. You’re still killing. You’re still making the conscious decision to take a life. And Spec Ops plays up that aspect from time to time by playing with your head.

Some times the screen will blink in and out, ala the mind freak that you may have experienced in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. It gives you that sense of tenseness, you know? That certain and unsettling feeling of the unknown. Of the “WTF is going to happen next and am I ready for it?” feeling. Something I only experience in survival-horror games.

Actually, let me restate that.

Something I only experience in good survival-horror games.

So imagine my surprise when I go though that same tense “fight or flight” feeling. From a military shooter of all things. And honestly, I never would have expected the dark themes I was allowed to experience in this game. True, one particular moment in the story (which will remain a mystery for now, unless you’ve read about it in one of my older articles), feels a little forced, but it is an impactful and emotionally poignant piece within the story’s fiction, one that mirrors events in real life in too many disturbing ways.

“This is Colonel John Konrad, United States Army. Attempted evacuation of Dubai ended in complete… failure. Death toll…………too many.”

The soundtrack is almost spot on perfect for the game. Not only are there juuuust enough of the modern stuff (Nine Inch Nails, Bjork, Mogwai) to keep the younger generation out there interested, there are some great pieces included that give it that “Dirty ‘Nam” feel. Things like Jimmy Hendrix’s ‘Star Spangled Banner’, Martha and the Vandellas’ ‘Nowhere to Run’, and Deep Purple’s ‘Hush.’

Graphically, Yager does an adequate job with the Unreal Engine 3 tech to give the aging war machine enough visual punch. But honestly, it’s time for developers out there to either make their own engine or find one with a little bit more of a visual fair. Like the new Frostbite engine. Just throwing that out there. There are some small clipping issues from time to time, or even weird graphical stuttering, like when the game goes in close to Captain Walker’s face and his eyelids don’t open all the way. So imagine this slightly angry sounding, gruff-voiced Delta leader (Nolan North) and visually he looks like he’s about to fall over dead asleep.

Audio-wise Spec Ops, as I’ve stated, is fantastic. The ambient quality, the gunplay sounds, the chaos of battle, all of it meshes quite well with one another. The voice acting is surprisingly good as well. Bruce Boxlietner, Nolan North, even Christopher Reid (Kid from “Kid n’ Play for all you youngsters out there) do an amazing job here.

I think the only real “generic” aspect of the game would be the fairly standard and oddly linear gunplay portion of the storyline. Find cover, shoot until enemies are dead, move on. Wash, rinse repeat. Yeah you can order your squadmates to help out from time to time, but half of that basically means suppressive fire until you get in and take charge yourself. The game does mix it up from time to time allowing you to ride in a Blackhawk, grenade a few insurgents, and so on. Plus, there is one particularly gruesome aspect mid-game that you may (or may not) look forward to. But if you’re expecting something refreshingly different in the military shooter aspect of this unconventional military shooter, sadly you’re going to be disappointed. In fact, the one key aspect of the game that Yager proudly boasted as a positive, the so-called “unexpected use of sand” during combat is, actually, expected. And scripted throughout the game.

“It takes a strong man to deny what’s right in front of him. And if the truth is undeniable, you create your own. The truth, Walker, is that you’re here because you wanted to feel like something you’re not: A hero.” – Colonel John Konrad

The game does have some DLC in the form of co-op campaign missions that occur before the start of the events in the single-player campaign. That’s good, since it’s free, but if you were expecting to delve just a little deeper into the single-player aspect of the game, sadly there are none. Still, the DLC is free, so your mileage may vary.

Story-wise, despite the rough hews around the edges, Spec Ops excels narratively when it delves deep into those dark, gritty, morally ambiguous, and borderline survival aspects that it allows you to experience. In previous military games like Modern Warfare, the lines between good and evil are fairly clear cut. You’re expected to hate your enemy. You’re expected to kill your enemy without feeling like you’ve done something wrong.

Spec Ops eschews that feeling to the point that you begin to understand your enemy almost to the point of hating yourself. For what you’ve done, and for what you’ve left undone. It actually makes you think that maybe, just maybe, pointing that weapon and pulling the trigger isn’t always the answer. And that maybe, just maybe, you’re not the hero you think you are.

Final Thoughts: Spec Ops: The Line is strongest when it tells a story about how brutal war, hell, any war, can really be. It’s not pretty. It never is. It never should be. Taking a life, even one of polygonal flesh and blood, should carry its fair share of consequence. It should provoke some kind of emotional response. And the story, this story, actually does. Despite the generic gunplay that comes with it, The Line’s narrative will hopefully set its hooks deep into your psyche, and provoke that deep “is this the right thing to do” level of thinking the next time you step behind a gun and kill…..anything. And maybe, just maybe, make you remember that, when you do pull that proverbial trigger, what you gave up in the process to do it.

But that’s just my opinion. And I could be wrong.