Spec Ops: The Line

Ladies and Gentlemen. I sit before you at 1:50 in the morning; on the 3rd of January; a broken man. I had previously been under the impression that any game associated even loosely with the concept of war always boiled down to a simple game of "shoot the foreigners because 'murica". Crass I know, but no game release within the past few years has been able to convince me that this trend wasn't something that the games industry churned out like the human metabolic system churns out turds.

From the uninspired (see any sequel to CoD Modern Warfare) to the genuinely insipid (see Medal of Honour: Warfighter) I had all but lost hope that there was a single developer that had any idea of what made a game experience involving or entertaining.

This Christmas, I was gifted with the game Spec Ops: The Line. Truth be told, I had shown little to no interest in it, believing that it would be a similar sort of experience that I had come to expect from the genre.

Words cannot describe how wrong I was.

Right from the opening of the game nothing felt particularly invovative or unique; true the setting of it was a post disaster Dubai, but I was still playing as a generic ragtag bunch of vanilla soldiers made up of the emotionless "orders first" protagonist, the wise-cracking sniper, and (for lack of a better description) the black guy.

But shortly into the game, and it became apparent that this was my intended reaction; the game very clearly intended for this to be my response to meeting them, and with every similar criticism I had for the game, it would always come back and surprise me with a knowing wink and a nudge that this was in fact what I was supposed to feel. The developers over at Yager clearly knew what they were doing; sly bastards that they are; and created both characters that could initially be mocked for sticking to generic conventions, and a mission that could have fit in well with any of the later Rambo movies.

It was however, about halfway through the game, that something changed. Without spoiling anything, something happens which shifts the tone from "BOOM headshot" to "oh god more murder", and I don't know whether to praise the game for it or beg it to stop. Ultimately from this point on the game explores the very depths of human depravity, as well as the idea that when the chips are on the table it's easy to lose sight of the reason you even do something to begin with.

I understand that it may be hard to comprehend from this why exactly it is I feel so broken by this game, but truly it's one of those things that needs to be experienced. You should never be TOLD why exactly it is that this game is good, because playing the campaign through is possibly the most darkly rewarding experience I've had since playing Silent Hill 2.

I suppose the best way to look at this game would be as a criticism of the shooter genre as a whole. Whilst the main objective in most situations is to shoot all enemies on screen, you never feel particularly gratified for doing so. Not that the shooting is bad, more that you feel as though you aren't achieving the initial (and ever overarching) objective of "saving" the city. It's a thoroughly intellectual twist that even at the current time (4:07 in the morning) I am still unable to escape thinking about.

As a whole the game is intelligent, well designed, and more importantly, self-aware that killing hundreds of enemies can't be accomplished without suffering mentally for it in the long run.

If you haven't played this game already for reasons similar to my own scepticism, then I implore you, buy it, experience the true brutality of war, and never judge a shooter by its cover again.