Spec Ops: The Line

[Syt]

I've mentioned playing it in the "What are you playing" thread, but this is one game that has kept me thinking for the past few weeks.

Spoiler free review: adequate military shooter in beautiful, sometimes surreal setting (Dubai buried under mountains of sand). Dark, with a "Heart of Darkness" inspired story that's not always plausible but that I found rather gripping. Length of campaign: 5-6 hours. MP: tacked on and negligible. Recommendation: get it for a tenner on sale. This is no light hearted CoD/MoH romp, though it does have its own way of silliness.



Spoiler review:

Dubai has been buried under sand after huge sandstorms. Plausible? Who cares. A U.S. unit, "the Damned 33rd" has been sent for relief effort during the storm, but all communication with the city has ceased. A Rangers team, you (Nolan North), a big black heavy gunner (a surprisingly badass sounding Christopher Reid) and your radio guy are sent to investigate a radio signal that has come from the city after weeks. Mission: see if there's survivors and report back.

The game starts as your typical buddy military shooter, with the typical banter and cool lines. You find Arab survivors, but when they see your uniform they open fire. It seems the 33rd has made a not so good name for themselves. You decide to investigate. Your team mates tell you to return - there's survivors, so go and report them and let a coordinated effort get underway.

Because the situation is iffy, though, you continue to investigate, hoping that you can resolve the whole matter yourself. You find hints about atrocities from both sides, and it seems the commanding officer, Col. Konrad (Bruce Boxleitner) of the 33rd has gone of his rocker. You ally with shady CIA types, though it turns out they want to destroy the city's remaining water supply to eradicate any witnesses to what happened. At one point you come across a massive compound of the 33rd, full with hundreds of soldiers and APCs it seems. You have no choice to turn back - or use the convenient mortar with white phosphorus that's right there. After the carnage you realize the 33rd were trying to get survivors to safety, and you've just killed a couple dozen survivors along with American soldiers.

Walking through the charred and moaning bodies after the carnage was kinda sickening.

The main char rationalizes that Col. Konrad left him no choice and, despite the repeated protestations of his comrades, presses on to receive answers. You find a radio, through which you keep contact with Col. Konrad. What follows is more carnage, destroying the "radio man" (Matthew Lillard), a mad journalist who kept broadcasting, mostly to taunt you. In the end, you're a bloody wreck, your comrades dead, and you prepare to meet Konrad . . . only to realize he was a hallucination all along. The radio was broken, the "tests" he put you through were imagined, and all the dead soldiers and civilians in your wake died for your madness. In the end you ca either kill yourself, get rescued by Marines, killed by Marines, or kill the Marines come to rescue you.



There's some implausible stuff (why did your team follow you, though you were obviously insane), but I can live with that. What I've realized later, though, is that a lot of time, the dialogue in the game addresses the characters but is actually aimed at you, the player. Konrad's line at the end sums up the game: "You (the player) are only here because you wanted to be something you were not - a hero." Whenever the protagonist says he presses on because he needs answers, it's most likely the player's thoughts. (it sure were mine). Everytime the team tells you to turn around and stop it's an offer by the game to stop playing.

I think the white phosphorus scene best symbolizes it. The protagonist rationalizes that Col. Konrad left him no choice but to use it - and that he presses on, hoping it was worth it. Similarly, a lot of players have complained on forums that the developers left them no choice but to use the white phosphorus. However, your team tells you to stop, and turn around - basically, the winning move is not to play.

The game adds little tricks to the whole descent into madness. The opening scene (shooting loads of helicopters with a minigun) returns later, and your protagonist has a deja vu. All through the game, your characters move down, never up. Konrad's face appears throughout the game on billboards. There's the occasional moment where an enemy suddenly looks like your team member. Or in a sequence in a shopping mall, in a room with flickering lights, the manequins seem to shift position all the time. Headshots start out as relatively bloodless affair and turn into blood explosions later in game. Etc. etc. Nolan North turns in a great performance going from macho adventurer to broken, mad wreck. The "intel" bits you find add more backstory. Was there a conspiracy to let the people die in Dubai, while the rich made it out? What really happened there? It just raises enough questions that you want to press on to find answers, no matter what, and the enemies just happen to be obstacles on that way. The loading screens frequently break the fourth barrier. They start out with combat tips, but later ask, "How many Americans did you kill today?" or explain cognitive dissonance.

Is it a fun game? To me, no. Was it engrossing? Yes. It raises questions about why we play FPS games (though it doesn't really answer them), what we find fascinating about violence, and makes a point that those gams and reality have little in common.

There's lots of analysis out there by now, some of it pretty good, and you have a lot of naysayers, who say this is a boring bit of pretentious crap. Be that as it may, it's one of the few shooters I've actually finished and that I felt compelled to play through.

[jimmy olsen]

Sounds fucking brilliant.

Also, reminds me of this.

[Tamas]

excellent review Syt, but make sure it has bigger SPOILER ALERT for the folks who haven't yet played.

Everyone should pick it up for 66% off on Steam.

[Tamas]

So Syt what do you think when did the protagonist brake, when did he create the Konrad in his head? The posphor incident? The executed officers?

Uh, wait, not, the scene with the two hanged guys was before that, right?

[Syt]

I'm not sure - at the very least since he found the (broken) radio, possibly a bit before that - probably the white phosphorus thing.

[Syt]

Excellent 43 minute critique of the game with what it did well and what it didn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dzstxE_5Rc&t=1s