Spec Ops: The Line Review

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Spec Ops: The Line isn’t your average everyday war game when you take a look at Spec Ops: The Line, it looks like just your run of the mill everyday shooter war game. On the surface, it is. It’s a nice looking game, three solders mowing down the enemies, same old same old. But, when you actually play Spec Ops: The Line, there’s more to it than shooting enemies and becoming a hero. In Spec Ops: The Line, story matters, something that really hasn’t been tapped in army/war games. Yager, the developer of Spec Ops: The Line, does a fantastic  job in making the player care about the characters, and the story.

Story- I’m going to be really vague and not get too specific, but it’s a strong story. If you want a really good, strong story, Spec Ops: The Line is a game for you. Yager really did a fantastic job in this aspect. As you continue through your mission, you find out more and more of what’s going on and. Again, I don’t want to go into too much detail and really give anything away, but it’s good. The writing is well done the dialogue is top notch, and there are a lot of memorable quotes throughout the campaign.

The story isn’t perfect though. After finishing the story and seeing the events unfold, I did have a couple of issues with it. There were a couple of questions that I would have liked to have seen brought up. During the mission a couple of things happened that I wonder why it wasn’t questioned at the time. Not too big of a deal, but worth noting, and definitely not a story breaker by any stretch.

Overall, Yager does a great job of storytelling and also, during the load sequences, does a great job of filling you in of what’s going on right now and even taunting you at the same time. It’s sort of a unique job of storytelling in that way during load times.

Presentation- To me, the presentation of Spec Ops: The Line is the strong suit. Yager does a perfect job in this department. Starting with the graphics, it is a good looking game. When you start the game, everything is vibrant. The sand is good looking, the sky, the colors of orange, red, and blue are stunning. Spec Ops: The Line separates itself from the other games in it’s genre as well. Other war games are just brown, everything is brown, dusty, and pretty boring to look at. Spec Ops: The Line has a lot of colors when you are outside. When standing atop of a building, it’s a nice sight just to look out and see everything and just soak it all in.

The soundtrack to Spec Ops: The Line is one of the best I’ve heard. The music just fits every single time. When you first load up Spec Ops: The Line and you’re staring at the main menu while Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” to when a situation breaks out and Mogwai’s “Glasgow Mega-Snake”. It just fits the moment of what you are doing in that particular situation. The outstanding soundtrack just adds to the game and really makes it that much better.

Last, but not least, what makes the presentation portion the perfect package is the voice acting. Nolan North voices our protagonist, Captain Martin Walker, and much like every other performance by Nolan North, this is top of the line stuff. Not to be out done, though Christopher Reid and Omid Abtahi do an outstanding job as well. They voice over the supporting characters of 1st Lt. Alphanso Adams, and SSgt. John Lugo. As mentioned, the dialogue is great, and the lines are delivered just so well.

Gameplay- Unfortunately, the gameplay really holds Spec Ops: The Line back from being a really great game. Spec Ops: The Line really nails just about everything, as mentioned above, but the gameplay just isn’t good enough. When playing Spec Ops: The Line the best comparison I could come up with is it plays like Resident Evil 5. Remember Resident Evil 5? If you don’t, or didn’t play it, the controls were pretty bad. The cover system was frustrating, the shooting mechanics aren’t there, basically, the controls were clunky. And that’s what Spec Ops: The Line is. The controls just aren’t polished and are quite clunky.

Longevity- Spec Ops: The Line isn’t a really long game. If you play it on one of the easier levels, you could probably run through it in about 5 hours. If you care about trophies and play on the highest difficulty to start, Suicide Mission, it’ll probably take you a good 7 hours to finish it. It’ll be quite frustrating at times, but it’s worth it once you finally get past it. If you choose to replay it, which I strongly recommend, FUBAR is extremely tough. This mode will definitely test your skills and patience. Unfortunately, with the mediocre gameplay it adds on the frustration level.

So, longevity, I don’t view it as that important. The story, the pacing is fine at 6 hours or so. Some might find that to be to short and after they finish it, they’ll put it away. It’s a balancing act, if you care about trophies, finishing the game, completing everything, it’ll take you a good 15-20 hours or so with a couple of playthroughs. If not, it’ll only be about 4-7 hours.