Just wanted to collect all the reviews in one place.

Edge - One of the most subversive shooters yet made. (7)

Eurogamer - There are such a lot of shooters these days, and so many tend to blur into each other if you're not careful. This one won't, however - and that's quite an achievement. (8)

The Sixth Axis - It blends a brilliant story with strong characters and gameplay mechanics that rival much more established franchises. Yes the difficulty spikes can be a grind, but push on through and you’ll find one of 2012’s best games. (9)

Polygon - Spec Ops' narrative goes so far beyond other shooters it seems necessary to play. (8)

IGN - Spec Ops is a daring experiment worth celebrating. For the first time, a game with guns doesn't want you to be the hero -- it's wants you to feel terrible about trying to be one. (8)

Destructoid - Walking that long sandy, bloody road through Dubai is one of the most captivating gaming experiences of 2012 because of it. (8)

CVG - But while Spec Ops is tonally confused across the board, it's not brainless - snatches of well-paced story and snippets of existential battle-chatter show hearts and minds at work. The higher aspirations don't always pay off, but underneath is an always-entertaining shooter. (8)

OXM - Yager should be commended for what it has tried to do here, which is a third-person shooter packed with thrilling set-pieces that tries to make you think about why you are doing the shooting. It's utterly bleak, occasionally gruelling and falls just short of the thought-provoking masterpiece it was aiming for, but it's still a relentlessly compelling experience if you've got the stomach for it. (8)

Jesus. This game actually sounds pretty great.
 
I had low expectations, even after playing the pretty cool demo, but there hasn't been a shooter in forever that tries to shake up the old formula. It's great that this one tried, and succeeded.

X360A Gave it an 80.

This is the first game in along while that reviews alone have sold me on. Plus, Heart of Darkness is one of my favorite novels

Wow. Even if it's not what I'm looking for in a game right now, I feel like I should get it just to support creativity in the subgenre.

Finally a good game. Where's my wallet....

Wow, wasn't expecting this.

This seems like a really weird thing to say, but I never actually thought this was a real game.

I've seen the name floating around for a while, but it doesn't seem like there's ever really been any kind of hype; I just figured that it was just some kind of fake parody thing which someone made up =/ somewhat like this...

Hmm... to buy or not to buy?

I played the demo and thought the gameplay was fun and the graphics and art style really nice, but the story bits seemed kind of cheesy. Glad to here that's not the case in the full game.

I'll probably end up picking it up.

Color me interested, downloading the demo on Steam right now.

Yeah, this is definitely a big surprise for me as well; I don't have the money to commit to this right now, though.

Maybe I should try to rent this. I never rent games anymore, though... but maybe I can make an exception for this!

Edge gave a third person shooter a positive review? Those bastards are the pitchfork of games. Seems interesting.

Huh? But I saw the ad and it looked like another generic brown modern military piece of shit. Is it actually good then? Not just another CoD-clone?

this game sounds almost sadistic, the user controlled character does not sound like a good guy. Will get it after i'm finished with the 3 games i'm currently playing

this year's Darksiders (sleeper hit wise of course)?

I am pleasantly surprised by the reviews. After playing the demo it could have gone either way. Definatly picking this up now.

I was first really excited about this game and following it forever. Then I became a skeptical hater with the release of the demo. This is fucking great news! I may pick it up.

Much better reviews than I expected. still expect the game to tank though. Will pick it up on sale :D

Actually kind of interested now. Giving a military shooter such a generic name really hasn't helped this game.

Odd, none of those reviews reflect what I got out of the demo. At all.

@Mnemoidian, I think the demo is set fairly early in the game. In the IGN review the guy says the game doesn't start strong. might explain it.

I've been interested in this game since I heard Jeff and crew's explanation and opinion on the game.... It was surprising to hear their interest in game, that at its very core is another third person shooter, which is not exactly a genre they or the general gaming public are up in arms for these days..

Nice to see good reviews, I'm currently updating to the newest firmware (First update in a while if I'm not mistaking) and then itnitial install on my PS3... can't wait to start playing

@Mnemoidian said:

Odd, none of those reviews reflect what I got out of the demo. At all.

Same. I think disinterested would be a good word to describe what I thought of the demo.

@Mister_V said:

@Mnemoidian, I think the demo is set fairly early in the game. In the IGN review the guy says the game doesn't start strong. might explain it.

It's weird that they would choose that bit of the game as the demo, then. I can imagine a nontrivial part of their potential customers being turned off by the demo and not even read the reviews SO:tL is getting.

AHA! Them's good numers!

I had a feeling...But when Steam paired this with Duke Nukem Forever it seemed to me those feelings might be asking for some $50.00 butthurt. Seems to me I have an unwrapped copy of DNF lying around on my gameshelf, lesson learned. Maybe I could have gifted it to my nephew and have my brother ban me from being any influence for his son for like, Forever. This steam pairing seems more strange, now, like what were they thinking? A dark joke?

Anyways I am interested now....

I have to say that I didn't care for the demo too much, but maybe I should at least give this game a rent. It sounds pretty interesting.

@Mister_V: Maybe. Terrible demo then - I went into the game interested, came out extremely skeptical, to the point where I'm not sure what to make of the reviews.

@bybeach: Ah yeah, thanks for reminding me, that might be another reason why I'm so negative towards it: The Halo effect of DNF.

@Ravenlight I guess they didn't want to spoil any of the story, Still it was a bit of a gamble though, maybe some of the people who where turned off by the demo will see the reviews and give it a second chance.

I didn't expect reviews to be this good. I might get this game just based on what they're saying about the story alone.

I am genuinely shocked to see such high praise for this. I was expecting it to be swarming in a load of 5-6's, 3*'s and C's. After reading through some (notably eurogamer and destructoid), it's now been knocked up a little higher on to-check-out list. I'm still not so keen on getting it for full price since a 4 hour story is still far too short for £40 regardless, but I'll be keeping a closer eye on any sales or price drops or any additional incentives for me to get it

This is surprising.

I'm not even planning on getting it but I'm glad it turned out good. It sounded interesting from early on.

Well this is a surprise, especially after the demo. Not that it was bad or anything, it just felt really generic. I doubt I'll play this any time soon but at least now I've got something to look forward to later.

Damn, from the PS3 demo I figured this would be getting 5s, 6s and 7s with occasional 8s. May try out the PC demo as I'm a bit more interested now.

So I was simply disgusted by how bad the demo was, yet these reviews are making it sound like a masterpiece. I feel confused.

I'm definitely interested, especially with these reviews stating that the story is the best part of the game. That's a big anomaly for a shooter: especially if they go about treating the massive amounts of violence and murder like it has consequences on the characters; it's kind of a fitting counterpoint that Nolan North is doing the voiceover for the main character, considering the dissonance between the amount of killing in Uncharted and Nathan Drake's affable personality and mental stability.

Both myself and my girlfriend are huge fans of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. If nothing else, I'll rent it so she can watch me play the campaign (she plays some games, but doesn't care for shooters).

After listening to the Bombcast I'm kinda shocked how much Jeff didn't really like this at all.... So far from what I've played I've enjoyed it.

Guys, this game is really good and intense. It's not a feel-good game, but the story bits are there to engage and involve you like nothing I've seen before. Get it.

@Napalm said:

Guys, this game is really good and intense. It's not a feel-good game, but the story bits are there to engage and involve you like nothing I've seen before. Get it.

Gots it! I need to sit down and play today sometime today. So what did it take you like 6-7 hours? Did you play on Hard? I was recommended to play on Hard and its been pretty intense so far. Granted I'm still really early in but hey.

@Demoskinos: I played it on easy because you die very easily, and a couple of frustrating spots even made easy a bit of a struggle. I played it more for the story, and I didn't want to get hung up on restarting checkpoints over and over again, because that would have eventually detracted from the psychological impact of the story. Go for the story, not the gameplay. Take it down to either easy or medium.

First I was like naaaah. then I was like maaaaaybe? Now I'm like, yeah I'm pretty sure I'll get it sooner or later.