We finally have a shooter with a story!---
The Gist
The Good
The setting in Spec Ops is fantastic. Dubai is a city we are all aware of, but getting into the thick of its opulence—especially with the sandstorms altering the landscape so dramatically—is jarring...almost like being dropped on an alien planet. This does wonders in adding to the general feeling of unease found throughout the game. Think of it like a dream; it's a place you know, only you don't. Level design is top notch whether Walker and his crew are zip-lining over rooftops or shooting out windows to bury enemies/dramatically change the playing field. From the high-rise skyscrapers to the down-low city streets, there is always something new just around the corner, and you never know what will change.
Gameplay is, for the most part, tight. Shooting enemies is a blast (especially when time slows down for a brief moment following a headshot), and character movement/navigation will be familiar immediately to anyone who has played the Ghost Recon or Gears of War games.
Pacing is spot-on thanks to developer Yager's ability to take its time at certain, well-chosen moments, and there's always a new objective around the corner. Even in the brief moments of downtime, we're bracing for the next firefight or learning some tantalizing piece of information. Watching Walker repeatedly get beat down and almost bested says a lot about the resilient nature of mankind, and employing an actual human who feels and bleeds and makes mistakes is an excellent leading man. And though his performance as Nathan Drake has become so iconic at this point, voice actor Nolan North does an excellent job of showcasing the subtle changes in timbre and evolving characteristics displayed by a man pushed to the very edge. It's especially strange to hear such a familiar voice barking obscenities while straight up murdering fools.
The Multiplayer
I can say without a doubt that the online features found in this game are some of the most boring, laggy, by-the-numbers set of game modes and choices I've played in some time. Maps are uninspired, and even objective-based modes seem poorly planned and forced. It's almost as if online play exists only because it's expected but, as Rocksteady Games' Sefton Hill or Irrational's Ken Levine have pointed out, when a game's campaign can stand on its own without unnecessary online features, there's no good reason to include them. Tell you what, nerds, Ghost Recon Future Soldier came out not too long ago, and if you need (and I mean NEED) to play a third-person shooter online, you're better off with that one.
The Bad
While environments and character models are functional they're hardly beautiful. Particle and sand effects are unremarkable, which is odd considering the major role played by sand in the game. Yes, sand looks like sand, but when we compare it to the mind-bending physics of a game like Journey, it doesn't take long before your eye automatically looks elsewhere. In fact, just about anything that you spend more than a moment looking at starts to seem ugly. Guns are a blurry mess and facial animations barely exist. Character design is generic and boring, from the GI Joe-lookin' ass Walker to the hippie-esque and mysterious Radioman.
The minimal music seems to want to serve a dramatic purpose, but comes across as a glitchy problem. If we're supposed to feel lonely or abandoned thanks to the lack of music, we don't. The barren feeling I assume Yager was shooting for mostly creates thoughts like, "Why the hell isn't there any music right now!?" Crappy nü metal tunes pepper the gun battles, but the chug-a-chug of a heavily distorted guitar is little more than a cheap way to add intensity.
There are moments of morality that play a small part in how the game plays out. For example, following a harrowing mission in which Walker and his crew help a CIA operative take out Dubai's water supply, a dude we assumed was a good guy turns out to not be so good after all. He is pinned beneath the fiery wreckage of a truck, and Walker can either put a bullet in the jag-wagon's dome or walk away, leaving him to burn alive. These events certainly surpass the simplified/toned-down/black-and-white ethics lessons found in Infamous, but they don't have the long-lasting ramifications of Mass Effect. There are certain achievements/trophies tied into these choices, but what is presumably included as a catalyst for multiple play-throughs can be easily remedied with a quick checkpoint reload. This seems a little lazy, and by placing many checkpoints at cinematic-heavy moments that cannot be skipped, it's almost like Yager solved the easy achievement/trophy farming conundrum and simply making it too damn annoying to do so.
The Bottom Line
Any gamer with even a little experience can see that most of the mechanics and gameplay choices found in Spec Ops: The Line are lifted from other games. This thing looks like Ghost Recon, plays like Gears of War and tries to examine morality and human fault like Grand Theft Auto. However, those who can look past these minor issues will be rewarded with solid game that boasts a strong and unique experience. Yager takes some pretty big risks writing-wise, and by allowing the story to play out at slower pace than most run-n-gun games, those risks pay off in a pretty big way. Spec Ops gets into the darkness we are all sadly capable of and gives us an accidental anti-hero who is in over his head and slowly becoming an animal despite himself. This is a title that falls just short of greatness, but the inevitable sequel will surely have a larger budget, make even more ambitious choices and has the potential to grow into the type of franchise that sticks with gamers for years.
The Grade
Let it be known to all men and women that Spec Ops: The Line receives 4.2 out of 5 stars.
The Details
