Review: Spec Ops: the Line

Spec Ops: the Line is a third-person cover-based shooter for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It was developed by Yager Development and Darkside Games Studio.

Walker, Lugo, and Adams looking upon a ruined Dubai.

Dubai has been completely destroyed by sandstorms and declared a No Man’s Land by the world governments, leaving the people who were stranded there to fend for themselves. A U.S. battalion, the 33^rd Battalion led by a Colonel John Konrad, was sent into Dubai to find refugees to evacuate, but something happened to the battalion, the only clue a radio message from Konrad saying that everyone was killed. A three person Delta team, Lieutenant Alphonse Adams, Staff Sergeant James Lugo, and led by an old friend of Konrad Captain Martin Walker, are sent into Dubai to investigate, but find the locals under attack from the 33^rd Battalion. The team takes it upon themselves to help the locals and find out what is going on with the 33^rd.

In Spec Ops: the Line you, as Walker, go through fourteen levels fighting the 33^rd with Lugo and Adams. Walker can hold two weapons and several grenades, and has regenerating health, but cannot take much damage, which is why you have to take cover.

Then peak out from behind cover to shoot people and throw grenades.

Enemies put up a fairly decent fight. They can hide behind cover as well, though they are sometimes prone to walking out in the open. Groups of enemies are good at spreading out over the battlefield instead of hiding all in one place, but do not move out of the way if you shoot them, though if you are shooting them they will not last much longer anyway.

Lugo and Adams AI is not that good. They can shoot accurately when you direct them to kill someone specific, but as far as I could tell they did not hit anyone any other time and only served as distractions. They also ran into the middle of fights and kept getting gunned down and I would have to go rescue them. They did not do this all the time, but they did it enough to be annoying. You can direct Lugo and Adams to kill an enemy, and they will do it, but there are only a few times when it is more practical to let them kill someone instead of you doing it yourself.

The Line uses its setting well, taking full advantage of a ruined Dubai to send Delta into as many destroyed places as possible, like a ruined sand-filled mall, a ruined sand-filled aquarium, and a ruined sand-filled TV station, when the team is not zip lining from skyscraper roof to skyscraper roof.

The main theme of the game what is the right thing to do. The 33^rd, Walker’s team, and the locals all do awful things in the name of saving Dubai. It can get annoying at times, especially when everyone yells at Walker, and by extension the player, for doing awful things, and Walker never defends himself with a reasonable argument.

Lots of "War is Hell" messages too.

The game is also making fun of people who play video games for violent escapism, which could have been handled better. There are a couple of moments in the story when you can choose to handle a situation in a less violent manner, but the game does not remember that and always acts at the end like you were playing the game for sick thrills, which is rather presumptuous.

The story itself is pretty good. It is interesting to slowly find out the awful things the 33^rd has done and learn about how Dubai went to Hell. Delta Team are initially a bunch of unlikable macho jerks, but soon start soon start freaking and fighting with each other over what they should be doing, which makes them much better characters. The best part is watching Walker go insane from all the killing he sees and participates in, which is refreshing to see in a military shooter. There is a big plot twist near the end that I believe is unfair because there are not many hints to the revelation at the end, and it makes almost the entire cast’s actions nonsensical.

The single player can be completed on normal in a little less than ten hours, and there is no reason to play it again for a while unless you want to find the rest of the pieces of intel that explain the backstory.

There is a multiplayer, with all the character customization/unlock new weapons and armor the better you do/deathmatch fights system that are apparently standard for all shooters now. I did not enjoy my time in multiplayer, because in every match there was one guy who hadunlocked all the best armor already and mowed down every else. The cover system was pointless since the level design let everyone circle around and sneak up behind you. Even when I was fighting people my own skill level we could only take a couple of bullets before dying, so we all just ran in circles hoping to stumble upon each other and kill them, since there was nothing anyone could do to defend themselves.

Spec Ops: the Line does not do anything extraordinary except for the setting, but there is nothing really wrong with it except for a couple of parts with the story and maybe how long it is. This is definitely a rental, and a fairly decent shooter to buy if you want something different, and care more about the experience than really good gameplay.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to add that Spec Ops only has two player co-op (which you have to download), instead of three player co-op, which I think is a wasted opportunity.