Spec Ops: The Line
Microsoft Xbox 360
Developer: Yager Development; Darkside Game Studios
Publisher: 2K Games
Rated: M for Mature
Released: 2012
Completed: 3 March 2016
Video games have always had a fascination with war, but few actually delve into the psychological effects of it. Most of the time, combat is portrayed with a hefty dose of machismo and explosions straight out of an action movie to dilute the fact that you're killing virtual representations of people or things. Spec Ops: The Line bucks this trend with an unforgettable, haunting story about the horrors of war and the things men are forced to do on the battlefield.
Captain Martin Walker and his squadmates Lieutenant Adams and Sergeant Lugo are sent into Dubai on a search and rescue mission. Their primary objective is to locate survivors of the city ravaged by sandstorms and war after the 33rd Battalion, led by Walker's former commander John Konrad, seemingly failed in their evacuation attempt. Walker's team is there mostly for reconnaissance, but they soon find themselves fighting for their lives against not only hostile enemies, but their own soldiers when it seems like the 33rd went rogue. Of course, not everything is always as it seems.
As a game, The Line is little more than a Gears of War clone - a cover-based third-person tactical shooter. It plays nearly identically, giving you the option to issue simple commands to your squadmates, and sprinting between cover points to advance on the field as you pop out to fire a few rounds between enemy fire. Heck, even the icons displayed on screen are nearly identical. Just about the only things missing are Gears' signature chainsaw-bayonet and the active reload system. There are even those on-rails segments where you man a turret as another member of your squad pilots a vehicle of some kind.
What separates The Line from Gears is its absolutely incredible story. As your mission becomes more complicated, so do the choices you have to make. Do you allow Konrad's men to kill a civilian who stole water, a capital crime, or a fellow American soldier who slaughtered the man's family as punishment? More importantly, the game questions how you live with the consequences of your actions.
One particularly horrifying moment comes in the aftermath of a life-or-death situation. Heavily outnumbered beyond measure, Walker issues the order to his comrades to fire mortars of white phosphorous into the battlefield. The gruesome outcome leaves a lasting impression, even in a video game, because it drives home the old adage that war is truly hell, and those who've survived it have likely seen and done things the rest of us can't even imagine.
The game's finale is a stroke of genius that ranks right up there with Bioshock's most famous plot twist, and left me chilled to the bone. There are four possible outcomes of the game's ending, and they're all worth seeing, but don't expect any of them to be happy.
Ultimately, The Line is still a video game at heart, with all the tropes that entails. Ducking behind cover will regenerate your health upon being riddled with bullets, and you can inject your fallen teammates with a syringe that instantly has them back on their feet. You pick up weapons and ammunition from fallen enemies, though you can only carry two guns at a time, and if you see a rare heavy weapon, you can bet it will be useful in just a few seconds so you'd better take it.
To its credit, the AI is aggressive and keeps things exciting. They're excellent at using grenades to flush you out of cover, good at flanking, and they're fairly skilled marksmen as well. This makes every encounter a primal fight for survival, which serves the story.
There are also a few great setpieces that, while not really in line with the game's sobering themes, are exciting nonetheless. Bringing down a giant tower from a helicopter's mounted turret or covering Adams and Lugo from the opposite side of the field while they fight for their lives were both thrilling moments. The game even opens with a high octane helicopter escape that sets the tone for the action.
There are some hiccups too. Vaulting over or ducking behind waist-high cover doesn't always work when you want or need it to, and this will likely force a few reloads for most players. It's not quite as refined as the Gears games it apes.
One major issue is that the gameplay that drives such a thought-provoking story is often unabashedly similar to other macho war games. The firefights are often intense and thrilling, but the game's execution moves stand at odds with its desire to tell a meaningful story about the brutality and inhumanity of combat. One moment we're expected to be conflicted about letting a supposed ally with ulterior motives burn to death or shooting him to spare him that pain, then the next we're getting ammo bonuses for finishing off a man crawling on his stomach on the battlefield.
In the technical department, The Line looks OK, but not great. Dubai itself is pretty, from the rolling hills of sand to its opulent hotels and office buildings, but the character models and their textures look rather low-res. As the game progresses, Walker's face becomes more bloodied, burned, and scarred, but the textures are just an ugly mess.
The audio is also just OK - meaning perfectly serviceable, but nothing special. Though it does feature some great licensed tunes that fit the sequences they're placed in - specifically one of my favorite Mogwai tracks during an intense and long firefight - most of the original music is forgettable. The voice acting is mostly good, as one might expect from gaming staple Nolan North in the lead role, and Tron himself, Bruce Boxleitner, gives an inspired performance as Konrad.
It may look and play like a Gears of War ripoff, but Spec Ops: The Line manages to distinguish itself thanks to the superb, memorable story. Some of the more typical design choices are distracting, but never enough to dull the impact of the game's phenomenal ending. It's hard to say The Line is a "fun" game in the traditional sense because the story is so entwined in the gameplay that you start to think about all the virtual soldiers you're shooting, and as the casualties amass, it begins to make you feel a little sick - and that's the point. Games often portray killing as a meaningless act; The Line wants to remind you that's not, even when it's your duty as a soldier. With each life you take, you stand to lose a little of your own humanity, and when the dust has settled you have to live with your choices. I'm just glad I only have to make them in a video game.
Spec Ops: The Line was completed on an Xbox 360 with no cheats.