I played Spec Ops five years ago so I can't remember any specific examples to explain my feelings towards the game. All I remember is that when I finished the game I thought it was below average, not much fun to play (by design, apparently) and that the story was quite predictable (because Heart of Darkness, obviously). I didn't outright hate the game or anything, just thought it wasn't very good. I did like the desert setting for the game though, as that's a fairly unique thing it had going for it.
I'm not singling out this game either. I played Homefront around the same time and I really disliked that game but I couldn't tell you a single specific reason for that all these years later. I played Binary Domain and I loved that game but again, aside from a couple of memorable characters, I wouldn't be able to tell you why I liked it so much. Maybe my memory is just rubbish.
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Looking at the Steam recommendations, it looks like all those idled games are going haunt me forever with what Steam ends up recommending based on other games I've 'played'
