This article originally ran under a different banner/website in July of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! After finishing The Last of Us Part II, I, the Video Game Doomsayer, felt a hunger. A hunger for a game that would be willing to look me in the face and say look what you did. A game that is willing to show real consequences for my horrific actions. A game that had something real to say about violence. All of this led me to the criminally underrated Spec Ops: The Line. An experience that at the end had me wishing everyone had played through Spec Ops: The Line before developing The Last of Us: Part II. Now, while that feels like shade thrown at Naughty Dog, I assure you they are not the only ones who should take a look at Spec Ops: The Line. Titles like Call of Duty and anything with Tom Clancy’s name on it are so afraid to say anything as compelling as Spec Ops: The Line. While that is mostly done to avoid offending any potential customer, I will hold up Spec Ops: The Line and continue to ask for titles like this.
Well, maybe not exactly like Spec Ops: The Line. While I was fully captivated during this small seven-hour campaign, it was the writing and characters that had my full attention; while the combat left much to be desired. Spec Ops: The Line is a third-person military shooter similar in style to the Gears of Wars series with a Call of Duty aesthetic draped over it. You will shuffle from one arena with conveniently placed cover to the next arena. You can also command two of your squadmates to take out pesky targets like snipers or enemies out of your reach.
While this combat sounds functional, I can’t exactly say it was enjoyable. Seems like any time I peeked my head out of cover, a thousand bullets would fly my way hoping to turn me into Swiss cheese. I would try to move positions with some clunky controls, but the enemy would still be able to shower me in bullets. While the option to blind fire was available, it felt like it was draining my ammo while not putting down my enemies. There are also opportunities to break glass to send a sea of sand roaring onto your enemies, but you can only do it at certain events that were too infrequent. Also, must I ask why the sprint is bound to the spacebar and vaulting over cover is bound to the left shift? Do I dare ask if the developers have even played a game on PC?
Some of you are now looking at me with confusion. DOOMSAYER, you may cry, IF THE COMBAT IS SO BAD, WHY ARE YOU RECOMMENDING THIS GAME? For the story, my loyal followers. You play as Captain Walker as he and his team, First Lieutenant Adams and Staff Sergeant Lugo, must venture into Dubai brought to the brink of collapse following a devastating sandstorm. They are sent in after receiving a distress call from Colonel John Konard, who led his unit known as the Damned 33rd into the city to try to evacuate the citizens before the sandstorm hits. Your mission is to locate the 33rd and call for evac. Seems simple enough.
However, the simple task of getting the 33rd out of Dubai slowly spirals out of control as you are swept up in the conflict between the Damned 33rd and rebelling citizens. You learn that Konard and the 33rd have seized control over the remains of the city and the squad goes on a revenge mission to end Konard’s reign. The desolate desert slowly turns into a hellish battlefield, as you dive deeper and deeper into Dubai.
Along your way, you will be given choices. They will often come down to whether you obey your initial objective or save the citizens who hate you. While it may seem obvious at first, you will quickly realize Spec Op: The Line has played you like a fiddle. Spec Op: The Line is here to shove your actions into your face and show you that there were no good options. Saving the citizens means you let a soldier, who was just doing his job, get killed. Saving the soldiers means you let the innocent die. Spec Op: The LIne is here to remind you the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I can’t think of a more fitting line to sum up Spec Ops: The Line than Walker’s response to Lugo claiming we always have a choice: No, there’s really not.
As you press forward and witness your actions blow up in your face, both Adams and Lugo start questioning your decisions. Both torn between orders and what’s right, their morale slowly erodes as you try to get closer and closer to Konard. You almost begin to wonder when will they decide to turn on you in an attempt to end the madness, especially after a specific scene that I won’t spoil. At every turn, Spec Ops: The Line will show you the horror and without mercy exclaim … You Did This!!!
While Spec Ops: The Line never outright says it, you can feel the game saying this is the human cost to war. That war has no right or wrong choices. That war is just an endless spiral into a broken psyche and never-ending bloodshed; questioning whether war should be used for entertainment. While The Last of Us: Part II tries to weave similar themes into its narrative, they just feel so hollow next to all the times Spec Ops: The Line pointed to the screen and asks if I am satisfied with my choices. I can only imagine a different game entirely if Ellie was accompanied by Adams and Lugo. I imagine them constantly asking when enough blood had been shed to sate her appetite for revenge. Scenes that have Ellie enact horrific violence could have been more terrifying with Adams and Lugo arguing if Ellie had made them into killers. Alsa a Doomsayer can only dream.
It might seem like I am taking unfair shots at Naughty Dog and The Last of Us Part II; I am doing it as Naughty Dog shows some interest in tackling these themes and ideas. Obviously, themes of war and their effects on soldiers would be more at home in titles like Call of Duty, Battlefield, or anything with Tom Clancy’s name on it, but alas, my loyal followers, we know that will never happen. Companies like Activision, EA, or Ubisoft have become so terrified of saying anything in their games because heaven forbid we say anything that would offend any demographic. So obsessed with profit margins, that their titles have devolved into games that can best be described by a dial tone. Which is a shame since video games make you an active participant in the game’s story. Walker may perform the horrific acts, but he is doing so on our command. The Last of Us Part II could have carried the torch that Spec Ops: The Line carried, but was unwilling to commit to being as honest as Spec Ops: The Line. Leaving Spec Op: The Line in a league that only games like Undertale and This War of Mine reach. A game the industry doesn’t want, but so desperately needs.
