Spec Ops: The Line takes you on a trip to Dubai, following the steps of Captain Martin Walker and his two teammates. Sent to find a lost regiment after a sandstorm ravaged the once lustrous city, Walker and his men will face adversities they were never prepared to confront. Spec Ops: The Line PC takes story hints from Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and it's most famous movie counterpart "Apocalypse Now".
Shooter unlike any other Spec Ops: The Line takes an approach that runs contrary to most shooters modern or otherwise. It doesn't revel in the carnage, but forces the players to look at things from a different perspective and face the severity of wanton destruction usually expected of such games. Many times the game will force you to make choices, but neither of them will be about what is right or wrong.
They are all wrong, the question is, which kind of wrong Walker, and by extension the player, is able to deal with. Impressive visuals Spec Ops: The Line carries its distinct look in more than just raw graphics. While impressive, they serve to highlight the detail and design choices made by the developer.
Travel through lush apartments right after fighting among the dunes, see dirty camps set up in once splendid halls of the best location of Dubai. The game's image of the sunburned city is a though-provoking and disturbing picture of survivors trying to live on after a catastrophe. Intense gameplay Spec Ops: The Line uses the environment to improve the challenges posed to the player, and an occasional sandstorm may well stop dead any plan.
Many locations are covered in sand, often held at bay only by a fragile window. Shoot it and drown your enemies in tons of sand, ending the fights as abruptly as they started. Stick to cover made of abandoned cars, old crates and other remnants of the city life and survive the attacks from local forces.
Make life-and-death decisions without breaking away from pure gameplay. Inspired by the classics of literature and film Spec Ops: The Line is a video game adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" with a militaristic bent borrowed from Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". Sent to a hostile land in order to find and retrieve a lost unit, Captain Walker's Delta Force squad will face events and decisions defining their very humanity.
Like few other shooters Spec Ops: The Line draws a sharp line between a protagonist and a hero.
Were it not for some technical issues and console-related shortcomings (gamepad controls and no anti-aliasing), Spec Ops: The Line would be one of the best games for 2012. But, things being as they are, it remains merely a diamond in the rough, destined for wicked crazy status within the following years. Definitely superior to the related series of Kane & Lynch, it proves that, with a steady vision and soul, a genre so clichéd like military shooters, can not only surprise us pleasantly, but totally overwhelm us. [August 2012]
It does not forget the madness of war.
A solid third-person shooter that delivers intense action and a compelling setting, but relies too much on established mechanics, rather than delivering something new. The story however really stands out - a grim and challenging reflection on violence is something you won't find in any typical shooter. Fortunately it's also missing that dull patriotism you've come to expect from today's military action games.
A big surprise among military shooters. Spec Ops will present you a dark story that's opposing the well-known clichés of the other military games. It's a pity, however, that the action part doesn't go along with the game's storytelling.
Expectations were greater than game could have achieved. Yet the new Spec Ops game is a good excuse to stay home and play. [Issue#220]
As it is, the story must be commended for tackling the horrors of war and the effect it has on the human mind, and the techniques it deploys to accomplish this. It tries things no other modern military shooter has even come close to, boldly stating that shooters don't always have to be wrapped in mundane and convoluted storytelling, and that's quite the accomplishment considering the oversaturation of the genre.
The disconnect between the gameplay and the narrative elements of Spec Ops: The Line is numbing, which makes it more difficult to contemplate the murky morality of war in the way the game wants you to.
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