Spec Ops: The Line

[bitWISE]

One of the best single player campaigns I've played in a shooter. It looks your typical generic modern shooter, and it starts out that way too. But don't let it fool you. The story is dark and fucking awesome (very similar to Apocalypse Now or Heart of Darkness). It's short (~6 hours), but its good for at least a second play through given the number of choices you're given to make. It's got this really fluid system of presenting you with choices and they aren't your typical good/evil scenarios. Usually, the game presents it as if you have no choice at all so I'm curious to see just how hard it is to pull off some of the alternatives. The voice acting is stellar and the script for the most part is very well written. The in-game banter is pretty awesome but can get repetitive. Weapon selection is impressive but a lot of them feel pretty similar and don't feel terribly powerful (expect the AA12, jesus).

The one downside is that the cover/action/vault/sprint/melee combat that it has can be a bit clunky since very different actions share the same keybinding and are context sensitive. You'll try to melee and jump over cover. You'll try to stick to cover and sprint around it. There also isn't anything new gameplay wise. Wasn't really that bad though.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2233084/

[Mat Linnett]

I loved it.
And it's great to hear Nolan North doing something serious in tone for once. At first, like in many games, I thought his voice was going to keep dragging me out of the experience, but instead he put in what's probably his best performance.

I'm curious though.
Do you think that section is do-able any differently?

And ye gods, when people started turning round and shouting "Murderer!"?
Yep, I felt a little guilty.

It's getting a lot of flak from some quarters though for being pretty linear and having not the best combat, with even some people saying the combat's completely broken.
The linearity I can kind of agree with, but the shooting, while by no means stellar, was perfectly playable.
Heavies can suck a fat one though

[bitWISE]

Yea, some of the sections I'm really wondering how you could do it another way. But then again I didn't try. I was basically a complete asshole the entire time. I love how by the end you're one of the roughest sounding/looking SOB in a game.

I'm curious if I enjoyed the combat more because I played on PC, where shooters are always better. Like I said, I had some issues now and then with the keybindings doing the wrong thing but that's my only complaint. That and the weapons feeling really weak towards the end.

[bitWISE]

lol

[Tsakali]

is that your desktop?
there better be a daemon troll on that background, tearing a bunny apart and using its guts as puppet strings to lure in other bunnies.

[bitWISE]

Reddit repost.

[feedback]

Don't get it

[bitWISE]

The product ID is boobs n tits

[SoM]

The product ID is boobs n tits

he's more of a dick n balls lad

[Deathshroud]

Does it have any MP? If not I'm assuming this must be a budget title.

[bitWISE]

Does it have any MP? If not I'm assuming this must be a budget title.

According to reviews, it has shitty generic MP. I didn't bother to check it out. The game isn't worth it for $60 but at a discount the story is definitely worth checking out. An xbox rental would be perfect for this one.

[Mat Linnett]

You would be surprised Memph. The name does it no favours and they would have been better off dropping the "Spec Ops" bit, and I'm seeing a lot of people dismissing it because it's a contemporary shooter, but it's far, far more than that.
Maybe wait for a sale if you're not sure, but this one deserves to be played. To put it in terms people might understand, the setting is just as strong as Bioshock's Rapture, yet the narrative is a lot less ham-fisted.
In fact, I'd say Bioshock is the nearest and best game to compare Spec Ops to.

[Plan B]

Just finished it. Good shooter.

I don't understand the ~6.0 ratings it gets.
Much better than shooters like GOW, imo, which gets ~9.0 ratings.

[Eraser]

I played it through the game as well. Picked it up for like 30 euros or something. Well worth it. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone.

I must say that at first it disappointed me a bit. I had read lots of things about this game showing some pretty confrontational stuff, but the first 2/3rds of the game didn't really deliver on my expectations. I felt that the things the characters in the game saw didn't have any emotional impact on them. But afterwards, I realize that may have just been another element in the statement this game wishes to make. I guess that if I expected another Call of Duty like game, it would have had a much more profound impact.

However, as I progressed further into the game it started to get to me more and more. I feel that when the game asks "Can you still remember why you even came here?" it's not talking about the characters in the game. It's not asking why Walker and his squad are in Dubai. It's asking you, the player, why you sat down in front of your TV, turned on the game and continued playing it. What were you hoping to gain from it?

After the scene where you end up in this hellish psycho world of Walker where the spirits of the people you killed come at you, right after you crashed with the helicopter (select that to read it), I had to start shooting people again. At that moment, I really felt like turning off the game because I didn't feel like shooting people at all anymore (I didn't, another blood stained victory for the game, I guess). I mean, at first the game gives you tools to do some massive destruction, then it basically pushes your face in the dirt and says look at what you did. How could anyone be capable of enjoying that? And right after that, it puts a gun in your hand again and goes like Ok, continue what you were doing.

I guess the game gave me a form of PTSD as well, although I hesitate to call it that. While playing the game, I didn't realize the impact it had on me, save for those few moments like the one I described before. It definitely kept my mind busy for the next day or two, something few other games have done. In fact, I was standing in a games shop last Saturday looking for something new to play and I held both Max Payne 3 and Far Cry 3 in my hands, but looking at the boxes I kind of felt like I wasn't in the mood for mindlessly shooting people anymore. I'm weak though, so I caved and bought Max Payne 3 (it was discounted, dammit!)

As for the gameplay itself, I don't see why everyone criticizes it for bad gameplay. I didn't think the gameplay was particularly bad. I sometimes had trouble getting my character to actually run, but that was all. I didn't think it was noticeably worse than Gears of War or Call of Duty

[Eraser]

I'm curious though.
Do you think that section is do-able any differently?

I know for a fact that it isn't. The only way to progress is to use that one thing. I read somewhere that the game just spawns infinite numbers of snipers to prevent you from shooting your way through.

[Don Carlos]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/spec-op ... am-1438770

£4.99 on Steam home sticks

[Eraser]

Buy it. You won't regret it.

[YourGrandpa]

Just bought it. For $7.49 how can you go wrong?

[Captain]

You'll find a way.

[Don Carlos]

[Eraser]

Just bought it. For $7.49 how can you go wrong?

I'm pretty sure this isn't a game for gun lovin' rednecks.