One Life Left: "Spec Ops: The Line"

Looking at the cover for Spec Ops: The Line, I see another generic military shooter: there is a gruff-looking soldier, in brown, with some action going on behind him.

It is almost an exact replica of the cover art found on the Modern Warfare games. After reading some good reviews, I decided to give it a go, and quickly found that Spec Ops: The Line might just be the sleeper hit of the year.

Spec Ops tells the story of the Delta team: Walker, Adam and Lugo, a rag-tag team of marines who are shipped out to Dubai. You see, sandstorms have been ravaging the city for some time now and the U.S. army sent in a battalion to help with the evacuation effort. The problem is they never came back, so it is up to Walker and pals to figure out just what is going on. While it begins like a generic Tom Clancy novel, the story of Spec Ops quickly transforms into a psychological military thriller about the true horrors of war.

Walker, along the way, is faced with tough decisions as he finds himself fighting and killing the very men he was sent to rescue. He observes what power does to people, and the price some individuals are willing to pay to maintain this power. Torture, terrorism and the slaughtering of civilians are all tools Spec Ops uses to show the player that war is not something that should be glorified.

This is an interesting contrast to the fact that you are still playing through the events of the story in a game that, by its very nature, glorifies war in order to allow you to become a part of the combat.

Spec Ops chooses to go beyond the over-simplified idea of “America — good, everyone else — bad,” that other similar entries in large budgeted military-themed entertainment would strictly adhere to. Spec Ops does an amazing job in humanizing its enemies and even installing a certain twinge of guilt into the player in response to the atrocities he or she has committed against these soldiers.

If you sneak up behind them, you can see soldiers discuss things like their families, baseball and other such topics that remind you these people aren’t just mindless grunts — they have their own lives to take care of. These soldiers in combat situations will react similarly; I once tossed a grenade into a group of three soldiers, and the soldier in the middle of this group actually dived on top of the grenade to save his buddies. It was not a scripted event or a cutscene — just an enemy’s reaction to the current situation and my actions.

I was completely taken aback by this seemingly insignificant moment, but the thing is, Spec Ops is full of these moments that quickly culminate to a depressing conclusion and well-implemented plot twist. It’s a game that successfully makes you feel like a terrible person for playing it, which is something I have never experienced in a game before. That alone sets it apart from the pack.

Despite all the positive feedback Spec Ops is getting for story, it’s a shame to say that the game-play is largely mediocre. It is your standard third-person cover shooter fare with some awkward controls, sudden difficulty spikes and cookie-cutter gunplay. You find cover, wait for the enemies to expose themselves and shoot them; it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before.

Yes, there is a sand mechanic where one can shoot the environment to rain grainy, sandy death onto your enemies, but these instances are so obvious, there is almost no joy in figuring out how to exploit it.

While I was motivated enough to drudge through the game-play to find out what happens to the Delta squad, and while this is one of those games I want to recommend, I still feel that it isn’t worth the hefty $60 price tag. If you can find it for $40 or less, give it a go. This game is more Heart of Darkness than it is Modern Warfare.

Spec Ops gets a modest 6/10.