Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line is a 2012 third-person shooter video game developed by Yager Development and published by mh:crappygames:2K Games. It was released in June 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It was later released for OS X in 2013 and Linux in 2015. It is the tenth title of the Spec Ops series, and the first entry since Spec Ops: Airborne Commando in 2002.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Deconstruction: While on the surface it appears to be another generic third-person military shooter, in reality it's a deconstruction of the military genre and explores the true of horror of war most games in said genre don't explore. This includes choices on the battlefield, collateral damage, killing of civilians, property damage, PTSD, and etc.
 * 2) A great story about a Army squad going to look for survivors in Dubai that's been hit with a sandstorm only to find that it itself has become a war zone and is run by a US Colonel: John Konrad.
 * 3) Very good musical score, both original by Elia Cmiral and licensed mixed together.
 * 4) The player can use the environment to their advantage since they can shoot glass from under some enemies feet, cause sand to fall on them, and can even blind enemies with sand by using a grenade.
 * 5) The game further enhances the idea of the horrors of war by using choices, something many soldiers have to make on the battlefield. Unlike other games, you don't just a press a button to select a choice, but instead you actively participate in whatever you choose to do. For example, the earliest choice you can make is to kill an American who is acting suspicious.
 * 6) The enemy AI is quite intelligent without being unfair. An entrenched player will get a grenade thrown at them every now and then. Some enemies will suppress you while shotgunners or melee runners will flush you out. If no short range specialists are there, a soldier will move to flank your position while the others continue to suppress.
 * 7) * The same goes for your squad-mates. Unlike other games where your allies are invincible and barely help, you can command your squad to attack enemies and your teammates can even go down in which you can order one of your teammates to heal the other. If they end up dying then it's game over which puts a greater emphasis on taking care of your buddies. Your squad-mates will also notice if you've been pinned down for long enough and you get the option of ordering them to throw a stun grenade.
 * 8) ** Your teammates will also attack depending on whoever it may be as Lugo will snipe far off enemies when ordered and Adams can throw grenades at covered enemies.
 * 9) Amazing voice acting with Nolan North, Christopher Reid, and Omid Abtahi standing out the most. Many have even gone as far as to call Nolan's performance of Walker as his best performance yet. In fact, it's Nolan's favorite performance he's ever done (see Trivia for more details).
 * 10) Great graphics that accurately recreates the setting of Dubai and manages to make you feel like you're walking through a once vibrant city in ruin.
 * 11) The game constantly ridicules the player for wanting to become a hero as everything you do shouldn't lead to you being heralded as a hero such as stealing Dubai's water and the infamous White Phosphorus scene, and does so to great effect, like Nier Gestalt/Replicant, Shadow of the Colossus and Undertale.
 * 12) The White Phosphorus scene is considered one of the most horrifying and best scenes in gaming. Toward the end of Chapter 8, Walker encounters a heavily defended chokepoint that he and his squad need to get past. Luckily, they gain access to white phosphorous artillery and proceed to bomb their way through. They soon discover, to their horror, that they murdered innocent civilians.
 * 13) * This scene also deconstructs levels like Call of Duty 4 's "Death From Above" level where you control an AC-130 and proceed to bombard people. In this instance, it uses white phosphorus and even has a similar screen like that of an AC-130 screen. This scene shows how horrible it is to do so in reality as you have to walk through the destruction you just caused.
 * 14) After this scene, the game starts to take on a more psychological approach with lots of hallucination scenes like when Walker starts to hallucinate a bunch of fire people chasing him, thinking a Heavy is Lugo, and the fact that he thinks he's in Hell.
 * 15) Because this happens after the White Phosphorus scene, this has lead many to believe that Walker died in the helicopter crash that we see in the prologue and that the rest of the game is his journey through Hell. According to writer Walt Williams, he believes this is one possible interpretation of the game and the rest of the game is him reliving the results of his actions in a Purgatory like realm. This is hinted, for example, by Konrad inexplicably showing up in billboards as far back as Chapter 1. He stresses that it is just one interpretation, however.
 * 16) This game also doesn't shy from showing the reality of the war. Unlike many war themed movies that end up unintentionally either romanticizing war or turning into an action movie, this game doesn't glorify it and in fact doubles down on the brutality and portrayal.
 * 17) There are numerous times where the game subtlety breaks the fourth wall to make the player more attached to their actions in the game.
 * 18) * After the White Phosphorus scene, Lugo points and looks directly at the camera when saying "this is your fault".
 * 19) * In chapter 13, Adams stops to talk about the turret segment in chapter 12. During this, the camera zooms in, almost as if it's trying to shift into a first-person mode. If the player aligns it correctly, Adams looks into the camera when telling them they "didn't leave them any choice".
 * 20) * Starting mid-game, loading screens (which used to give tips about the game) start giving out lines that makes the player question their actions, such as the famous "do you feel like a hero yet?" line.
 * 21) * The angle that Konrad holds the gun during Walker's ending confrontation isn't at Walker directly, rather to the right of Walker, directly into the player's camera.
 * 22) * If the player decides to shoot Konrad, he would look into the camera and say "No matter what happens next, don't be too hard on yourself. Even now, after all you've done, you can still go home. Lucky you...". Reaffirming that what you went through isn't real, and you should be glad.
 * 23) The game has executions, which are actually useful and not just there to be brutal or to look "cool" as performing one gives the player ammo.
 * 24) The game has collectibles in the form of intel. Unlike Call of Duty, however, where the collectibles are there so the levels don't feel completely barren, these actually give insight on the events that unfolded in Dubai during the start of the storm and expands more on the character of the Radio Man and Konrad.
 * 25) The Twist: After finally getting to the tower and having gone through so much hell, Walker finally finds John Konrad, the mastermind behind everything. But it turns out that John Konrad had committed suicide before the events of the game and it's revealed that every time Walker heard Konrad's voice it was actually all in his head and his way of justifying his actions.
 * 26) There are 4 different endings to the game. After Walker finally discovers the truth behind everything he must make a choice: he can either shoot himself or shoot Konrad.
 * 27) *The first ending has Walker shooting himself (committing suicide), accepting the fact that he's a terrible person and meet the same fate as Konrad.
 * 28) *Shooting Konrad will unlock an epilogue where the next three endings are accessible.
 * 29) **The second ending has Walker calling for evacuation and going with US soldiers sent to bring him home broken (The closest to a happy ending).
 * 30) **The third ending has Walker being killed by the US soldiers with him having a final conversation with Konrad in his head (Some have speculated that this might be Walker committing suicide in a different way).
 * 31) **The fourth has Walker killing all the US soldiers sent to help him, accepting the fact that he's the villain, and returns to the ruins of Dubai.
 * 32) ***There are no actual happy endings, because Walker was badly traumatized, further showing the psychological effects of war on even the toughest soldiers and their consequences.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Executive Meddling:
 * 2) * As a result of the poor multiplayer mode, several reviews marked the game's score down significantly. According to the writing team, the multiplayer was mandated by the publisher and farmed to an outside studio for development. Lead writer Cory Davis describes it as a different game entirely, "rammed onto the disc like a cancerous growth." This is made quite obvious by the fact there are no achievements for multiplayer, and that many of the achievements of the game that would seem to be easier to get by playing multiplayer can only be unlocked in the campaign.
 * 3) * According to an article by Cracked, which Williams contributed to, the reason the entire framing device with having the helicopter sequence, in the beginning, is so odd and barely acknowledged is that it was a last-minute change by the executives while they were recording dialog.
 * 4) Plot Hole: It doesn't really make sense as to why Lugo and Adams kept following Walker when there was clearly something wrong especially when it's revealed that the two hanging men were actually corpses the whole time and even features dialogue that wasn't originally in the scene.
 * 5) Difficulty Spike: There are sharp differences between Walk on the Beach and Combat Op, and even sharper ones from there up. A game that can take a mere three hours on the easiest difficulty can take what feels like three weeks on FUBAR.
 * 6) * Chapter 6. You have no backup, all your guns are gone, you are surrounded by enemy soldiers who can and will flank you any time you are not looking, and three shots from any gun kills you dead.
 * 7) * Chapter 13. You're forced to face off against what feels like endless waves enemies with scarce ammo and little cover. You'll begin have trouble as soon as the first encounter.
 * 8) * Chapter 14, in particular, expects you to push uphill to a guardhouse despite being up against two entrenched turrets. And while Adams himself says that "charging head-on is suicide", that's more or less what the game forces you to do against one of the bunkers…at very close range, with little cover, while well-armored, grenade-throwing enemies vault over the sandbags and melee you. You don't have many options other than bum-rushing the bunker and hoping you last long enough for Adams to help you take it.

Reception
Spec Ops: The Line received mostly positive reviews, with many critics praising the narrative, themes, and the provocative take on violence in video games, but noted that it failed to innovate or present a strong multiplayer component. Many critics consider the game to be underrated, or overlooked.

In 2014, Former IGN Senior Editor Colin Moriarty included Spec Ops: The Line in his list of Top 25 Favourite Games of All Time. He wrote, "What I found underneath its bro-shooter façade was perhaps one of the best stories I've ever experienced in a game, all built around an entirely awesome third-person cover-based shooter. Spec Ops is underrated, and it will never see a sequel (nor should it), but it's a must-play for the story alone."

Sales
The game debuted at No. 3 in the UK retail sales chart during the game's first week of release, behind Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and The Amazing Spider-Man. Spec Ops: The Line was a commercial failure, selling less than anticipated by Take-Two. The sales of Spec Ops: The Line, combined with Max Payne 3, were lower than the combined sales of L.A. Noire and Duke Nukem Forever. The low sales of the title contributed to Take-Two's disappointing financial results in fiscal year 2013.

Accolades
Spec Ops: The Line was nominated for Best Shooter, and the White Phosphorus scene was nominated for Best Gaming Moments at the Golden Joystick Awards. At the 2012 Inside Gaming Awards, the game won for Best Narrative and was nominated for Best Game Cinematography. At IGN's Best of 2012 Awards, the game won for Best PC Story and Best PS3 Story, and also received nominations for Best Overall Story, Best PS3 Action Game, Best Xbox 360 Shooter Game, and Best Xbox 360 Story. It was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Story at the 16th D.I.C.E. Awards.

Trivia

 * 2K Games didn't give Yager any restrictions, meaning they had full creative freedom.
 * The voice acting was all done in one day to help express how exhausted the characters are.
 * The game was banned in the United Arab Emirates for the depiction of Dubai in a state of destruction.
 * This is Nolan North's favorite game, which is evidenced by him recommending it on multiple occasions.
 * The story was originally going to be an even greater homage to Apocalypse Now then it ended up being. According to Walt Williams, Konrad was going to be like Colonel Kurtz conducting illegal search and destroy missions in nations that the US was not supposed to be at war with. In the same way, Kurtz was in Cambodia and Laos, Konrad would be infiltrating Iran using Dubai as a base of operations. The U.S Government would then send Walker to assassinate Colonel Konrad and terminate his command just like Willard did to Colonel Kurtz. This was changed mid-development so that Walker would simply be sent to conduct recon on Dubai, with Konrad actually trying to help Dubai.
 * Several members of the team (including writer Walt Williams) have stated that they would have preferred had achievements not been present in the game, as they thought they detracted from the emotional force of some sequences. In the end, all the achievement pictures used in the game are pictures of the developers mocking the player.
 * At one point in development, Josh Homme was attached to compose the game's score.
 * Walt William wrote and released a book that went into a lot of detail about the development cycle of Spec Ops called “Significant Zero”. According to Significant Zero, there was going to be a DLC for the game that would have had Adams surviving his final stand with the Damned 33rd at the end of the game, albeit horrifically scarred and trying to help out a 33rd member escape Dubai.
 * Originally, when confronted at the end, Konrad was alive, but killed himself by jumping off the Burj Khalifah, leaving Walker the victor only by default. When the game's long production cycle forced a story rewrite, one of the writers came up with the twist that Konrad was dead all along in less than an hour, changing everything without changing anything.
 * Earlier builds gave players other options for getting through the infamous white phosphorus incident, such as fighting through normally or leaving when ordered to — these were removed when testing showed that almost every player would take those options, ruining the narrative.

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