Spec Ops: The Line----Review (Xbox 360)

As I sat in my room one night I was going through one of the most frustrating occurences that gamers will experience, yearning to play a game, but not wanting to play a game that I owned. I went into Xbox Live's marketplace and went through the games they had on demand. I searched through the games some of them caught my attention, others not so much. I then stumbled upon Yaeger Developement's: "Spec Ops: The Line." I've seen this game advertised but really had no desire to purchase it. After scrolling through the games I went back to Spec Ops: The Line and purchased it thinking, Meh, hopefully it won't be too too terrible.Well luckily for me, it wasn't the worst decision I ever made.

*Machinima Trailer

Overview

Spec Ops: The Line is a thrid person shooter set in modern time in the city of Dubai. It is available for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. Offline Single Player, System Link and Online Multiplayer are available for this game. Published by 2K Games.

ESRB Rating: M.


Story

The City of Dubai is being threatened with a series of sandstorms that have the potential to wreck the city. Dubai's politicians and leaders downplay the storm as if it is nothing to worry about, but before it is too late these men leave the city and leave most of Dubai's residents to fend for them selves after the city is engulfed with sand. Stationed near Dubai is the United States Military's 33rd Battalion. Commander of this Battalion, Commander John Konrad, volunteers his men to help with relief efforts in Dubai. The giant sandstorm however, seems to be too much for the "Damned 33rd", as they are referred to throughout the game, and they decide to evacuate Dubai, but the 33rd never make it out. Due to a giant storm wall surrounding Dubai, the 33rd are trapped within and can not send any type of radio frequences outside of Dubai asking for help. Months pass until a scrambled radio message is able to puncture the storm wall and be recieved by a nearby base in it seemed to be the ramblings of a crazed Commander Konrad.

You play as Captain Martin Walker of Delta Force, who is a assigned to lead himself and his two man team, consisting of Lt. Adams and Srg. Lugo, into Dubai, make contact with the 33rd and their commander, and radio in for Evac. As you enter Dubai though, you find out that something bigger than a sandstorm is tearing this city apart. As you progress through the game you find out that when the evacuation of Dubai was deemed a failure, The 33rd Battalion, under the commandment of a crazed John Konrad, has decided to overthrow the city and rule it's citizens. Many crimes of war transpire after the city is sacked and the 33rd lay down martial law on Dubai and it's citizens. When these events transpire various militant groups form within Dubai. First there is the 33rd Battalion led by John Konrad. Second there is a faction of 33rd Battalion soldiers who defect from their former comrades to fight against the horror's that have transpired in Dubai, these men are referred to as "The Exiles." The third and last faction are residents of Dubai who are deemed "Insurgents", who are coaxed by the C.I.A to fight against the 33rd and Exiles to try and reclaim their city.

As you and your team fight through the city of Dubai shocking truths are revealed, tough decisions are made, and many lives are lost in this epic story to find out what has truly happened in Dubai and bring those responsible to justice.


Gameplay

Spec Ops: The Line is a cover-based and tactical third person shooter. If you are comfortable with the gameplay from Gears of War, this game will be an easy transfer for you. Sand in this game has what I believe to be a fairly reaslistic feel to it, whether it be a sandstorm you have to fight through or the effect sand has when a grenade explodes on top of it. Commands can be issued to your squadmates, but the depth of commands you can give is very slim. There is a decent variety of guns you can aquire throughout the game. Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Assault Rifles, Submachine guns, Handguns, and Launchers all have a variety of weapons you can aquire from each type through out the game. Graphics in this game is nothing to celebrate nor mourn over. Par would be a good term for the graphics. The game has an impressive playlist that comes on during gameplay. A variety of artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Alice in Chains would play throughout the game.




Multiplayer

The Multiplayer for Spec Ops: The Line was developed by Darkside Game Studios and is class based Multiplayer set up. I am sad to say that my review of Spec Op's multiplayer is very brief due to the fact that since this game isn't really notorious for its multiplayer, it was next to impossible to find a game with more than one person in it. So more or less it seemed like not that many people were playing it. From my brief experience with the multiplayer I saw that you could not only unlock weapons and "perks" as you level up but also clothing and appearance accessories as well.


My Two Cents. For what it is worth..

Now I know what you people have been thinking for this whole review. Gonzo enough with all these boring details! We really want to know what you think of the game! Well I appreciate you guys valuing my opinion so here I go:


Well lets get the cons out of the way first!

Cons

-A nice dodge roll in this game would have done wonders for me in some situations. The fact that his was absent was very frusturating and I believe made this game a little more frusturating than it needed to be.

-Commands. You can issue commands to your squadmates in this game. Err check that. You can issue Commands to your squadmates in tihs game. Basically you point at an enemy and say "Kill that mofo!"(more or less) and your teammate will do it. Every now and then you can tell them to flash and clear but only when the game allows you. Simple Commands such as "go to this position" or "stay here" would have helped alot.

-Stealth. This game is no Splinter Cell. Some parts would have been a lot easier if every time an enemy heard you blink they didn't send everything they had at you.

-Characters. There aren't very many characters in this game which isn't neccesarily a bad a thing, but when the minor characters are brought up they are almost "too minor" as in they seem important but really aren't. Would rather have them not been introduced or atleast a little more in depth with them.


Pro/Con (Hear me out...)
-Choices! As mentioned before there are choices in this game. This is nothing new to games, but the fact that they dont make it blatantly obvious on which choice is good and which one is bad is rare. This is a pro because instead of looking and seeing which choice is good and which one is bad the game forces you to go with your gut and what you believe to be the best choice. See this game isn't like mass effect or Walking Dead where it physically says you can do/say "this" or you can do/say "that" you just sort of react.

With that being said there is a flaw to this....(Try to stick with me here) It seems that when a choice situation does rise it presents itself with an obvious choice on what you can do, but there is another choice you can always do except....the game...really...doesn't...explain to you...what you have to do....to do that choice. Just let that computer for a while, but in the mean time I'm going to have to say advantage: PRO!


Pros

-Gameplay. Though sometimes frusturating, the gameplay does offer some neat stuff to do. Sand can always be used for your advantage. Whether it be a simple grenade kicking up sand and blinding your enemies to shooting out a window or blowing up a wall holding back sand and burrying your enemies in sand.

-Weapons. This game does well at spreading weapons out. You won't see some weapons till later parts of the game so instead of making them all available at once and getting bored with them.

-Music. This game has an awesome score to it. It seemes as if the most appropriate song was playing at the perfect all the time. Just imagine being in a firefight while Here Comes the Rooster from Alice in Chains in blasting in the background. Get goosebumps thinking about it.

-Progression of characters. Very seldom do you see this in a game, but the characters changed dramatically from start to finish. When you first start and you think it is a simple locate and extract mission your team seems to be in high spirits, but when things start to get out of control your teammates and even your character start fighting with each other and somewhat go crazy. Your character's executions become more brutal as he starts to become more engulfed in the surrounding chaos. His commands are said with more malice intent and just the wounds of war you suffer physically stay on your character, making him look 20x more badass. Which is always good.

-Story. The story in this game is really the standout. I can say I was not expecting this game to go as deep as it does. Riddled with twists and turns the game, though starting out a bit slow, will soon engulf you to the point in which you can't stop until you get to the bottom of what is going. Quite frankly I can talk all day about the story and not do it justice.

-Multiple Endings. I always love a game that has multiple endings, though this game only having a few, still makes you wonder what the other ones were and simply makes you want to play it again just to see. It does a nice recap of what you did to get to the position you are out now and leaves you with one last choice to make. SPOILER ALERT: With this game being so dark I wasn't expecting a happy ending. Though there is always an ending that is less sad than the others I felt every ending was strong in it's own way.

My overall opinion.

Spec Ops: The Line is a very solid game. I mean is it going to win any "Game of the year" awards? No. But it did have the formula to make a very well rounded game. It provided a challenge yet not impossible. It was intense without overkill. The story was a lot deeper then I thought it was going to be. It focused on the horror's of war. This is especially important when you have to make decisions that will stay with you even after you turn off your system. This game was part of a trend that I noticed in 2012. This trend being the games with lose/lose scenarios. This made more realistic for me because war is not a pretty thing, and quite frankly no good comes from it and you experience that throughout the game. In case you have realized it yet. This is not a game where the good guys ride of into the sunset and thats that. I don't really know how to describe it but I felt this game had strong similarities to the movie "Apocalypse Now" (If you are not familiar with this movie, go to the closest establishment were movies are sold or rented and BUY IT..............or rent it.)



When all is said and done not only did I find this game suprisingly fun, I also found it to be surprsingly powerful. It shows the mental and emotion anguish that come from war. It shows that there is not always a right or choice, but more of a "lesser of two evils" choice and I believe that nothing explains this better than the best LINE you hear in Spec Ops: The LINE: (Pun INtended.)

"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."
— John Konrad


Final rating for this Game is 7/10!






This has been a Review by Gonzo. Post your thoughts below!