Fantastic Story with a few kinks.
Spec Ops: The Line kind of comes out of no where. It successfully re-establishes a dead franchise, but going a completely different route. The original series of Spec Ops games were developed as budget titles for the original PlayStation , but Spec Ops: The Line goes an almost Gears of War route, telling one of the best stories I've seen in a video game in 2012. But the game isn't without it's faults.
Removing the fantastic story, Spec Ops is just another typical third-person action shooter. The mechanics are identical to Gears of War, only the work much less successfully. The game allows you to press and hold the A button to run, but then you can release it and continue to run. You also use A to take cover, but if you are already running sometimes it can take as many as three button presses of the A button to make this successful. This is especially maddening on higher difficulty settings, where enemies have impeccable accuracy. The higher difficulty settings makes some of the more recent Call of Duty's on veteran mode look like a joke as well. Two to three hits from most enemies will put you down, and you can forget about running in front of any kind of turrets. I also found several instances of enemies taking more then one headshot while I was using a sniper rifle, and that's never acceptable. If you want to create a modern military shooter that's realistic, let's make it realistic. I will also put out there that while the game's story is fantastic, it took me under five hours to complete on the second hardest difficulty (as the highest difficulty has to be unlocked).
Putting those faults aside, the reason you should check out Spec Ops: The Line is its excellent story. If you haven't had the story spoiled for you already by the number of reviews or mentions on podcasts out there, this is a great game, in a story sense. I applaud everyone behind the story here for going the dark route this game takes, as it feels like in 2012 we've breached some sort of new ground for stories in video games, from the excellence seen here, in Call of Duty, Halo 4, and especially the Walking Dead game. The game does allow several instances of choices that do lead to different endings, and while I've seen both, I think that both endings are fantastic. The game leads you down a dark and winding road, with you and your squad as they are sent into Dubai to save a band of lost infantrymen as their Captain. The greatest aspect of Spec Ops: The Line is the way your character's demeanor deteriorates over the course of the story. At the start of the game he and his squad are not without a joke or two, but by the end they've seen so much that they have already broken down a dark path, and there might not be a way to climb out. All of this was fantastic, and quite simply blew me away.
There's some replayablity after the game is over, but honestly you can load up the few choice active chapters, make the other decisions, and be on your way in about twenty minutes. There are some collectables, and they do offer insight into some of the story elements, making them not just another simple achievement.
The multiplayer is a robust mess, and nothing anyone should even bother with.
At the end of the day, Spec Ops: The Line is a fantastic experience for story, and is a great title now that it is under the initial $60. I was able to pick up the game for $15 in a Black Friday, and if you can get it for a budget price, it is totally worth your time.
