Title speaks for itself. Got the ending spoiled for me from the Bombcast--not complaining, knew what I was getting into--and was wondering if I should still play the game? Was thinking about bumping the game down to easy and just cruising through it. Thoughts?

@Gearhead said:

Title speaks for itself. Got the ending spoiled for me from the Bombcast--not complaining, knew what I was getting into--and was wondering if I should still play the game? Was thinking about bumping the game down to easy and just cruising through it. Thoughts?

Sure.

I read everything about the game and watched all cutscenes prior to playing it, and it was still an intense and inpactful experience. Plus, I usually dislike shooters and avoid them, but this game is really worth it.

Depends on how dear your time is / how much you have to spend on games. Spec Ops seemed interesting in the podcast, but I've yet to hear a recommendation on gameplay beyond generic not super great 3rd person shooter (which is most of the thing you doing over the course of it). I would go with titles that have the interesting mechanics + story before going for the sort of combination Spec Ops offers if your time is relatively limited (depending on how much you like man-shooters).

But it certainly sounds like its worth a spin in the right context. Especially if you have played everything good that was released up through 2012 already and had not gotten around to something more well regarded (misc GTAs, Uncharted 2, Saints Row the Third, The Walking Dead, XCOM, Alpha Centauri, Skyrim, Starcraft, etc).

@Zekhariah said:

DI've yet to hear a recommendation on gameplay beyond generic not super great 3rd person shooter

Ain't gonna happen. Because the gameplay is just generic. But the whole setting, atmosphere and the plot will suck you in so hard you're going to forget about the generic gameplay. At least in my opinion :)

Nope. Only thing going for it is the narrative, and that's coming from someone who considers it in their top ten games of the year. If that's been spoiled for you, all that's left is a mediocre bordering on poor third person shooter.

@Morrow said:

@Zekhariah said:

DI've yet to hear a recommendation on gameplay beyond generic not super great 3rd person shooter

Ain't gonna happen. Because the gameplay is just generic. But the whole setting, atmosphere and the plot will suck you in so hard you're going to forget about the generic gameplay. At least in my opinion :)

Generic, but still competent. In fact I was surprised at how totally OK the shooting was and it managed to enhance the style and tone. The long, drawn out fire-fights eventually started to feel downright draining, and intentional or not, I think the generic shooting scenarios actually worked in the game's favour.

Yeah. Even with spoilers, the story is one hell of a ride. Set the difficulty to Easy and enjoy yourself.

I would say that the ending isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. The reason that I think that game is so good is because of the actual arc the character goes through to get to that ending. I actually thought the resolution of the Konrad stuff was kind of trite and predictable (thought the epilogue was great though), but the things that happened along the way to actually get to that point and the metamorphosis of the character are really worthwhile.

I played it on easy just to burn through the story and I loved it. The game's shooting isn't exactly fantastic so I think that this is one game that setting it to easy actually made it better. It's still worth it dude.

Yes. You may not be as shocked by the reveals, but it's still a very impactful, emotional experience. The shooting is mediocre, but fuctional - and I'd say that the genericness of gameplay here actually enhances the experiences on a meta level.

@Yummylee said:

@Morrow said:

@Zekhariah said:

DI've yet to hear a recommendation on gameplay beyond generic not super great 3rd person shooter

Ain't gonna happen. Because the gameplay is just generic. But the whole setting, atmosphere and the plot will suck you in so hard you're going to forget about the generic gameplay. At least in my opinion :)

Generic, but still competent. In fact I was surprised at how totally OK the shooting was and it managed to enhance the style and tone. The long, drawn out fire-fights eventually started to feel downright draining, and intentional or not, I think the generic shooting scenarios actually worked in the game's favour.

I don't know, generic doesn't really encapsulate the gameplay being "bad". It's just wading through a ton of enemies in a competent third person shooter.

@Napalm: Eh? I never said the gameplay was bad. In fact you quoted me right there in plain text stating that the shooting was ''totally OK''. Unless you're trying to say you thought the shooting was bad?

Having just finished it last night I would say knowing this isn't necessarily the kind of game where knowing the ending is going to lessen the experience. For one thing, I agree with @Damodar: that the ending isn't really what matters, it's the culmination of all the shit you've been through that really matters. Of course, some of it depends whether you can play the game without letting what you know about the ending distract you.

@Yummylee said:

Generic, but still competent. In fact I was surprised at how totally OK the shooting was and it managed to enhance the style and tone. The long, drawn out fire-fights eventually started to feel downright draining, and intentional or not, I think the generic shooting scenarios actually worked in the game's favour.

agree 100% about the fights adding to the tone. I was playing through on normal and by the end some of those fights started to get downright frustrating, but as you say it added to how I drained I felt in the end. I believe it was intentional and I'd go so far as to say maybe playing the game on easy isn't the best way to experience the game.

God damn it I had this all worded better in my head before I sat down and started typing and saw other people made the points I was hoping to make.

I'd like to add I think I kinda loved Spec Ops. Saying that feels weird though, as it's kinda odd to proclaim my love for something that left me feeling so shitty in the end.

@Yummylee said:

@Napalm: Eh? I never said the gameplay was bad. In fact you quoted me right there in plain text stating that the shooting was ''totally OK''. Unless you're trying to say you thought the shooting was bad?

No, I was stating that just because the person above you used the term 'generic', that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad (as it sounded like you indicated that by clarifying it as 'competent'). So, I agree with both you and @Morrow. I was just clarifying what 'generic' actually meant. The gameplay is just run of the mill, not necessarily bad.

Absolutely. It'll still hit you hard guaranteed. Some of the level designs in sand-buried Dubai are unique and interesting, and you'll still have some decisions to make that are difficult and will leave you thinking afterwards.

It was mostly impactful for me because I had no clue as to what this game was before going in. For academics sake if you really just want to see what this game is from curiosity sake, I think it's on sale on Steam.

I would say to continue even if the ending was spoiled for you. The ending was spoiled for me but i decided to continue to keep playing and I was still in for a HUGE surprise when the ending hit even when knowing what was coming.

I'm trying it out thanks to the game being free this month on Playstation Plus. The story has potential though there's also been a lot of weak dialogue and I'm not at all clear why I'm in Dubai, what happened to it or why our squad wouldn't yell out to any of these soldiers to see if they wanted to talk. There's the one soldier you have a conversation with, and then suddenly everyone wants to kill you?

Story quibbles quickly building aside, once the knife guy (from the Quick Look) shows up I just shut the game off. The combat feels terrible, A.I. on both sides is ridiculous (I'm playing on easy) and the scarcity of ammo makes no sense considering in an hour of gameplay I've probably killed as many enemies as I did through the first half of Uncharted. Combined with all the other insanely gamey stuff like the knife guy and those weird rappelling stations having to face wave after wave of clueless (but even on Easy highly deadly if you're out in the open, unfortunately) and I'm not as eager to see what's up with this game as I was.

If anyone comes across this, it'd be cool to know how long the game is.