Should I read Heart of Darkness first?

#1 Posted by notdavid (542 posts) - 1 year, 15 days ago

After playing the demo, it's obvious that The Line took a lot of inspiration from Heart of Darkness. My only familiarity with the story comes from Apocalypse Now, and I don't remember anything about it other than it having something to do with Vietnam. And cows. I remember a scene with a cow getting fucked up.

Do you think I would get more out of the game if I read Heart of Darkness first?

#2 Edited by runcrash (218 posts) - 1 year, 15 days ago

Heart of Darkness is not about Vietnam. It's over a hundred years old and is about the European colonization of Africa. It has the same basic story that Apocalypse Now has, someone is sent into the jungle up a river to find a man named Kurtz who has gone insane. Honestly, I'd recommend watching Apocalypse Now again. I'd bet that influenced the developer's of Spec Ops a lot more than Heart of Darkness. It's a fairly quick read if you do want to read it though.

#3 Posted by MarkWahlberg (3960 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

I mean, you should read Heart of Darkness regardless, but I doubt it'll be necessary for playing the game in any way. We can't say for sure until it's actually out, of course, but this seems more like it's an instance of 'inspired by' than 'based on', I think, so you should be able to just jump in.

Trivia time: Apocalypse Now was partially inspired by HoD, updating the story from turn of the century Africa to the Vietnam War, but it was also drawn from another, nonfiction book called Dispatches, which is by a reporter who was in Vietnam at the time. The author of that book, Michael Herr, worked on the screenplay for AN, and Full-Metal Jacket. Dispatches is totally worth reading as well.

And if you decide to watch AN again, make sure it's the normal version and not the redux, which changed a bunch of stuff and is stupid.

#4 Posted by JasonR86 (7755 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

I guess. It wouldn't hurt.

#5 Posted by TruthTellah (3588 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

Not necessary, but you should read Heart of Darkness anyway.

#6 Posted by MikkaQ (9720 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

You can read the book in a day, easy. It's just a novella basically. It's worth reading too.

#7 Posted by SlightConfuse (3963 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

Heart of Darkness takes palce in the congo and is really good. read it regardless

#8 Posted by CH3BURASHKA (3918 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

I think you should read it regardless.

I think I should read it too.

#9 Posted by ShadowConqueror (2571 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

It's about 100 pages, so it's not a tough read at all. But no, I don't think you need to read it.

#10 Posted by HistoryInRust (5953 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

@MarkWahlberg said:

I mean, you should read Heart of Darkness regardless.

This.

#11 Posted by Commisar123 (1760 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

I'd say no. That book will keep, the game may actually be better if you don't read it first.

#12 Posted by Phatmac (5263 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

Read it for your own good, but not for an average third person shooter game. Wasn't impressed by the demo at all.

#13 Posted by notdavid (542 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

Turns out that Amazon has the Kindle version for free. I clearly need to read more literature-ass literature, because my vocabulary is shit and I had to look up what interminable meant, even though it's obvious if I just took the time to look at the god damn word. Any suggestions for what to read after this?

#14 Posted by allworkandlowpay (862 posts) - 1 year, 14 days ago

Just watch Apocalypse Now. It'll save you the headache of having to dredge through such a shitty book.

Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line is a narrative-driven modern military third-person shooter set in Dubai during the aftermath of a series of destructive sandstorms.

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