Spec Ops - The Line

This game is not fun.  Graphically, it's rather dated.  In terms of gameplay, it's rather formulaic.  So why am I joining thousands of other critics in hailing it as the best game of 2012?


The answer is simple.  Gaming simply does not need to be about those things.  Those are aspects of why we play games, but they are by no means the core of what gaming is about.  Gaming as a storytelling medium is a gradually expanding artform.  Spec Ops: The Line represents a leap forward on the level of Citizen Kane.

The action takes us through the ruins of Dubai, destroyed in a massive sandstorm that continues to periodically grip the city in a choking grip.  It's here we've come to to stand as witnesses to the destruction of Captain Walker and his men.

The idea of saying a game succeeds by not being fun sounds counterintuitive, almost blasphemous to existing thoughts about games.  But it's absolutely essential here.  Spec Ops is not supposed to be fun.  Indeed, it's supposed to question the idea of why we find the mass military slaughters of Call Of Duty and it's clones so fun.  After all, with this medium that offers such capacities for storytelling why is it we're so preoccupied with murder?

Deconstruction is the word of the day here children.  Spec Ops looks at characters who go rogue, who use military training and weaponry to bring justice as they see it to evildoers.  They're right.  They're heroes, unbound by authority to do what's right.

Except in the real world, the chain of command exists for a reason.  One of those reasons is that it's almost impossible to see the true shape of a situation when you are stuck in the middle of it.  It's that lesson that Captain Walker struggles with and rejects again and again before succumbing to despair when the weight of his sins are laid at his feet.

It's difficult to talk about to many details from this game because spoilers would ruin the experience of play.  Because Walker's sins are our own.  The game never fails to ensure that the questions being asked of Walker are questions that the player is equally answerable to.  Walker's errors are our own.  His flaws are ours.

Why does Walker want to be a hero?

Why do you?

Why do you keep pushing forward when everything you do makes things worse?

How many "bad guys" do you have to kill before the idea that perhaps you're the bad guy gets too big to overlook?

Again, not too many details, because I would hate to spoil it for you.  It is the best game to come out in years.  It might be the best game ever.  If you find yourself wondering why it's not particularly fun, perhaps you should question why you find these activities fun in the first place?  When did mass murder become entertainment and why did we make heroes of those who do it?

These are all important questions and ones gaming needs to confront.  But more importantly than that, Spec Ops shows that games are capable of asking those questions.  We've gotten very good at presenting scenarios like Saving Private Ryan or the Expendables.  With Spec Ops, we've got proof that we can do Apocalypse Now or Platoon as well.

Posted in: 2012, Apocalypse Now, Game, Game Review, Spec Ops, Spec Ops: The Line, video game