Spec Ops: The Line |OT| Apocalypse Whenever - Starring Nolan North

Duxxy3 said:
Definitely well worth it. I think what is putting people off is that absolutely terrible, generic, name.
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The name and the fact it's a third person generic looking military shooter. Honestly if I saw this game in the store I would assume it was something along the lines of budget titles like Sniper or the old Delta Force games.

But after playing it up up to chapter 7 or so now, that assumption couldn't be further from the truth. I just had a 4 hour play session...I don't think any shooter has kept my attention that long in the past few years.
 
Well, just played through Spec Ops The Line. SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME.
I give major props to the developers for managing to get this game published (depressing story! player character is not a hero! war really sucks! even people on the "right" side do awful things!), but for a game that's ostensibly about choice, the fact that hardly any of your choices make any real differences in the plot is sort of a let down. I don't really blame the developers for this, since I don't think they could have told the story they wanted to tell if they had given you choices that could have really changed the plot of the game. (Doesn't mean I wish they hadn't tried though - I reloaded that one checkpoint in Chapter 8 about four times, until I realized that the game was going to force me to use the wp whether I wanted to or not.)

Technically, I liked the sand and post-apocalyptic Dubai and wished they'd done more with these things (that one billboard for the indoor ski slope - would have loved a firefight there). The yacht battle was incredibly frustrating (due to bad checkpointing), but also challenging and fun after the sandstorm starts up in the middle of the fight.

Also, Nolan North does a great job. (Has he ever done a bad job, really? Even if the writing sucks, I can't think of one role where it's evident that he's phoning it in (Patrick Stewart in C:LoS, I'm looking at you.))

Worth the $25 for sure, and I'll be keeping an eye out for new games from Yager.
 
I liked how sparse ammo was. I ran dry as a guy was flanking me and my only option was to run straight at him and smash him up to get his gun. Pretty exhilarating. Didn't get a couple things from the ending like
who was actually in charge of the 33rd during your time in Dubai and who was still alive at the end. Did you kill every last 33rd member? Kinda ridiculous.
 
im really curious to how this sold

would love to see sequel to Spec Ops get made as the potential is through the roof.
 
Finished it. Disappointed. Let's talk about the gameplay first which was incredible average and even janky in some parts. The shooting and aiming was alright and I enjoyed the low health of the enemies even at the higher difficulty I was playing at. However, the combat designs are all relatively unexciting and the end of the game turns into a huge slog, with enemies having a bit more pinpoint aiming then I'd like. This coupled with some poor checkpoint placement lead to some much unneeded frustration.

Getting in and out of cover felt very unresponsive at times. That and when Walker runs it just feels wrong. The sand elements, although neat are very sparingly used. None of it felt like it reached any sort of what could be an awesome premise. The sandstorms were pretty cool but these were few and far between. The whole sand gameplay element felt like window dressing instead of a cool core mechanic.

The game has a lot of points for an interesting narrative. Way more then your average shooter and the voice actors did a great job with bringing some real emotion to the scene. Well, more emotion then your average COD storyline. Unfortunately, it never felt like a journey to me and I think thats part in place due to the bad level layout that really gives the story a disjointed feel. Some of the set up for scenes felt unearned as well.

Also, the game ran like dog shit a lot of times on the PS3 with some bad texture pop in (I know its Unreal but man it seems worse here). The game is also quite ugly in a lot of places with the lighting being the only standout feature. It's a shame because this could have been another type of Bioshock with the sand coming in to reclaim Dubai. There is some impressive scope to the buildings but on a whole I was never quite feeling it.

I didn't try the MP but I really don't have a desire to go back. I feel like I wasted my money a bit which is on me but man, I was hoping for something a lot more entertaining. I'd give it a rental to see some of the story beats that go down but nothing more then that.
 
hlhbk said:
FYI there is a way to increase the FOV and make it so the game is full screen at 4x3 and 16x10 resolutions. Also at the link below it tells you how to get rid of the intro movies that take 30 seconds every time.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Spec_Ops:_The_Line

You can also enable FXAA if you have an nvidia card from the control panel and it makes a world of difference.

I have verified all of the above work prior to posting.
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Thanks for the link, I wrote up that article!
 
Finished it. Here are thoughts and probably some spoilers as well.

This game kind of seemed like it was focus tested into oblivion. I'd be really curious to know what the game originally was in the head of the designers before the time/budget/talent/whatever reality kicked in. You don't start making a game with that story and that twist and that chapter 8 with "Oh and you shoot 5 million people in every room you go in, and there's multiplayer!!"also on your agenda. I just don't believe it.

The bit where you first get separated from your squad and there are guys coming after you, but you have nothing to shoot at them with? That's great. The bit where you are cutting through guys to get to Lugo who is in enemy hands, only to find out it's the civillians who want to murder him? Also great.

What's not great is the shooting gallery this game is most of the time. The enemies just don't stop coming. They said at the end that there were 5000 people alive when Delta came in, but I'm pretty sure I shot more than that. The combat just isn't fun when the encounter design never goes beyond guys running in through a door.

Also, fucking stop putting heavies in your realistic shooters. If an RPG to the face doesn't stop a guy, you are a cartoon.

On a more positive note, this game quietly has the best designed moral choice system out there. You understand your choices without a KARMA MOMENNNNT flashing on your screen and spelling it out, and there's no saint/asshole meter. The choices don't do anything to the plot, but that kind of fit, in a weird way. Walker doing something horrible and then telling his squad to shut up about it and never mention it again, and then they actually don't, kind of added to the grimness in my mind.

The ending reveal could have been designed better and they could have made the situation less immediately obvious. I would have liked it better if Walker had just walked in (heh) and found old Konrad all dead first before imagination-Konrad came in.

Anyways, the potential here is massive. This team should definitely get a chance for a sequel.
 
From the trailers it seems Nolan is just doing his same old voice with a gruffer edge to it. He has excellent range, I wish they would pursue that further.
 
beat the game on hard in about 5 hours.

the gameplay reminded me of uncharted at times, trophies are similar too.
 
Psykotik said:
the gameplay reminded me of uncharted at times
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This. Just played the demo yesterday and I could swear I was playing a Uncharted clone (it also reminded me of Space Marine), but much more rough around the edges. Fun for a nice break, but nothing exhilarating (in the demo I rarely felt I had any control over the other two guys), I'll pick it up for £5 next year or so.
 
It definitely felt like Uncharted in places. And this game is a good example of why Uncharted's platforming, "exploration" and puzzles, shallow as they may be, can really help a third person shooter. The lack of downtime and breathing room in some of these games really numbs me sometimes. I can easily sit down and play through Uncharted 2 for hours, but I can only do a couple of chapters of games like this before I have to take a break. This game had a really compelling setting, and it's not as obnoxiously relentless as Call of Duty, but you rarely get the chance to really take it in and savor it except when you walk out to a new vista and see a 5 second camera pan before a guy tires to snipe your head off, or when you're just holding forward and looking at people burning for a minute.
 
Finished this last night. Love the atmosphere, sense of place, and the state of flux the environments have. The story obviously, great, with a cool, dark, twisted ending. The gameplay itself while slightly rote was well executed. Walker's compadres are limited in what they can do, but still they manage to throw a mean grenade, and the actual selection of targets works well. Cover works great, shooting feels nice, tight, accurate. Game looks fantastic on PC. I stick by my initial impression that this feels like a spiritual successor to Freedom Fighters, a game that had similarly traditional gameplay supplemented with great atmosphere.

On the bad side of things; the constant stream of deaths at chapter 14 got really obnoxious in a hurry, especially since sometimes forward progress felt more like it was based on reaching a certain geographic point on the map, rather than killing a preset number of baddies, which made it confusing/frustrating. Losing 20 minutes of checkpoint domination--arbitrarily--is never cool.

I thought it was longer than four hours, more like seven, I collected just over half the Intel, so definitely not rushing or taking my sweet-ass-time.

It is a "sum-of-its-parts" game for me, that really comes together in an effective and memorable way. Really think it deserves some higher reviews.
 
Ventilaator said:
Also, fucking stop putting heavies in your realistic shooters. If an RPG to the face doesn't stop a guy, you are a cartoon.
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Seriously? This game has heavies? SMH. Super armored enemies are one of my pet peeves with games trying to establish any semblance of realism and it seems that every single shooter has them. Such an artificial way of adding difficulty.
 
Net_Wrecker said:
Seriously? This game has heavies? SMH. Super armored enemies are one of my pet peeves with games trying to establish any semblance of realism and it seems that every single shooter has them. Such an artificial way of adding difficulty.
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two levels of them and a melee dude who runs at you with a knife who can dodge your gunfire.
 
Psykotik said:
beat the game on hard in about 5 hours.

the gameplay reminded me of uncharted at times, trophies are similar too.
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Maybe it's because you heard Drake's voice the whole game...otherwise I cant really see what this has in common with Uncharted besides guns.
 
AEREC said:
Maybe it's because you heard Drake's voice the whole game...otherwise I cant really see what this has in common with Uncharted besides guns.
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Another third person shooter with great voicework and banter between and during the action, although of a different nature. I got a similar sense.
 
I just finished the game. I enjoyed it, I'm glad that I picked it up in the Amazon sale. I agree with those that think the checkpoints are frustrating and that many of the encounters aren't all that fun to play. I really enjoyed the story though and I also like the way that Walker moves in and out of cover. It has a smoothness and responsiveness to it that I appreciated.
 
Granted, I'm only four chapters into the game, but I am already beginning to run into issues with the narrative and Yager's portrayal of the city. Here are a couple of problems I have had thus far:

- The signage in Dubai is in Arabic, yet all of the natives speak Farsi. To put that into perspective, it would be like placing the game in France, but having all of the residents speak Italian.
- A CIA field agent is identified based on his "tags". Given that field agents never carry any formal identification when they are outside of the United States, this kind of scenario would be improbable.
- For unexplained reasons, not a single member of the Arab League has, or ever had, any presence in Dubai. The only two countries ever mentioned are the UAE and the United States.

Did anyone at Yager bother to do any genuine research on Dubai before developing the game? From what I have seen, the premise is about as poorly thought out as Homefront. It lacks any kind of nuance or attention to detail.
 
azentium said:
Granted, I'm only four chapters into the game, but I am already beginning to run into issues with Yager's portrayal of the city and the framework of their narrative. Here are a couple of problems I have had thus far:

- The signage in Dubai is in Arabic, yet all of the natives speak Farsi. To put that into perspective, it would be like placing the game in France, but having all of the residents speak Italian.
- A CIA field agent is identified based on his "tags". Given that field agents never carry any formal identification when they are outside of the United States, this kind of scenario would be improbable.
- For unexplained reasons, not a single member of the Arab League has, or ever had, any presence in Dubai. The only two countries ever mentioned are the UAE and the United States.

Did anyone at Yager bother to do any genuine research on Dubai before developing the game? From what I have seen, the premise is about as poorly thought out as Homefront. It lacks any kind of nuance or attention to detail.
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You should probably not worry so much and just go with it. Without saying too much about the plot...the game is not necessarily meant to be an authentic and realistic depiction of the modern world. Many literary devices are at play.
 
azentium said:
Granted, I'm only four chapters into the game, but I am already beginning to run into issues with the narrative and Yager's portrayal of the city. Here are a couple of problems I have had thus far:

- The signage in Dubai is in Arabic, yet all of the natives speak Farsi. To put that into perspective, it would be like placing the game in France, but having all of the residents speak Italian.
- A CIA field agent is identified based on his "tags". Given that field agents never carry any formal identification when they are outside of the United States, this kind of scenario would be improbable.
- For unexplained reasons, not a single member of the Arab League has, or ever had, any presence in Dubai. The only two countries ever mentioned are the UAE and the United States.

Did anyone at Yager bother to do any genuine research on Dubai before developing the game? From what I have seen, the premise is about as poorly thought out as Homefront. It lacks any kind of nuance or attention to detail.
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Plus I haven't heard about any big sand storms that would wipe out Dubai before!
 
On a mechanical level, I think this game would have benefited tremendously from being a realistic, squad based tactical shooter. Putting greater emphasis on realistic gunfights and importance of tactical decisions would make up for bare bones gameplay. As an Uncharted-esque action shooter, every encounter feels too basic and uninspired.
 
I'm really interested in the darker aspect of warrior everyone seems to be praising in reviews. Since i've been interested in stuff like that. However the game still doesn't look like a full price title, so I'll wait for a price drop. Which considering it's already half off on PC shouldn't be to long.
 
Just finished the game, and I have a lingering question
I know the CIA guys were using the insurgents to fight the 33rd and basically have Dubai destroy itself. The CIA guy says this is because if the world learned what happened in Dubai, it would lead to a war between all the Arab countries against the US? What exactly did the 33rd do during the evacuation effort that was so horrible? I feel that I'm missing a crucial intel that explains this. As far as I know the US came to evacuate people, the sandstorms came, the 33rd defied orders to pull out, and their efforts to evacuate "was a failure"
 
azentium said:
Granted, I'm only four chapters into the game, but I am already beginning to run into issues with the narrative and Yager's portrayal of the city. Here are a couple of problems I have had thus far:

- The signage in Dubai is in Arabic, yet all of the natives speak Farsi. To put that into perspective, it would be like placing the game in France, but having all of the residents speak Italian.
- A CIA field agent is identified based on his "tags". Given that field agents never carry any formal identification when they are outside of the United States, this kind of scenario would be improbable.
- For unexplained reasons, not a single member of the Arab League has, or ever had, any presence in Dubai. The only two countries ever mentioned are the UAE and the United States.

Did anyone at Yager bother to do any genuine research on Dubai before developing the game? From what I have seen, the premise is about as poorly thought out as Homefront. It lacks any kind of nuance or attention to detail.
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Jesus. It is a video game. Not an accurate documentary on Dubai. You are over thinking things far too much.
 
PBalfredo said:
Just finished the game, and I have a lingering question
I know the CIA guys were using the insurgents to fight the 33rd and basically have Dubai destroy itself. The CIA guy says this is because if the world learned what happened in Dubai, it would lead to a war between all the Arab countries against the US? What exactly did the 33rd do during the evacuation effort that was so horrible? I feel that I'm missing a crucial intel that explains this. As far as I know the US came to evacuate people, the sandstorms came, the 33rd defied orders to pull out, and their efforts to evacuate "was a failure"
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Basically the failure of the 33rd caused the deaths of over 1000 Dubai citizens. Caused by the arrogance of Konrad due to his over confidence. From that point onward the 33rd were on the defense from the CIA lead insurgents. The only real criminal in the end was the player character. Due to his psychosis he murdered anyone in his path and destroyed the 33rd who were only actually trying to help & protect the remaining citizens (that is why they were at the Gate before you kill them all). As far as the DJ goes if you find the Intel he refers to the dude in London in the Blitz. He was trying to do a similar job, albeit in a rather flakey manner.
 
azentium said:
Granted, I'm only four chapters into the game, but I am already beginning to run into issues with the narrative and Yager's portrayal of the city. Here are a couple of problems I have had thus far:

- The signage in Dubai is in Arabic, yet all of the natives speak Farsi. To put that into perspective, it would be like placing the game in France, but having all of the residents speak Italian.
- A CIA field agent is identified based on his "tags". Given that field agents never carry any formal identification when they are outside of the United States, this kind of scenario would be improbable.
- For unexplained reasons, not a single member of the Arab League has, or ever had, any presence in Dubai. The only two countries ever mentioned are the UAE and the United States.

Did anyone at Yager bother to do any genuine research on Dubai before developing the game? From what I have seen, the premise is about as poorly thought out as Homefront. It lacks any kind of nuance or attention to detail.
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It's more about the themes than a plausible military scenario. It takes quite a while to get going as well, in my opinion: I didn't start to love the story until the latter half of the game.
 
Just up to the second part of the demo of the game. The Edge and before that
I really felt odd when all the friendly fire started coming in, shooting all the soldiers. All the shouting "FRIENDLIES" the writing really shined for me.
Hope it gets better :)
 
Im loving this Spec Ops so much that its my go to game

Im Half way through the campaign and im enjoying every single minute of it. i love the way in which the story is told and the cinematic flow is just spot on, love the nice little touch of metal music when your in intense battles...awesome

The Multiplayer is what keeping me interested me the most, oddly probably the most fun i have had in an online shooter since GOW3 as there is a nice little community brewing online who are mostly older mature players. its truly underrated shooter

finding that im enjoying Spec Ops way more than my beloved GR:FS. i have finally got a strong grasp of the controls and it does take some getting use to. 6 Mp maps is the MP biggest downfall, map count should have been a solid 8 or 10 maps to keep it going without any DLC. Weirldy, i participated in the closed beta in 2010 and there is at least 2-3 great maps missing from the launch lineup.

for the Above comments about Dubai, Yager only went for the Dubai theme and obviously couldn't use any real landmarks.
 
Sojgat said:
For the MP yeah sure, it's ok. The quality of the SP campaign isn't really comparable to Spec Ops though. It's a painful sub-COD jankfest, and that's being kind.
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I thought Homefront's SP was pretty good actually. The graphics were shit but the gameplay and story were pretty neat. Worth a rent for sure.
 
joeygreco1985 said:
I thought Homefront's SP was pretty good actually. The graphics were shit but the gameplay and story were pretty neat. Worth a rent for sure.
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Yeah, I think the reception was a bit harsh, I did play the PC version though, which was better at least from a technical point.
 
No, Homefront deserves the bad reviews. It is a shameless call of duty clone that fails to communicate any of its dramatic intentions.
As edge put it: having a team member slit an enemy throat without second thought and then having her say: "it never gets any easier" is more unintentional comedy than drama.

Spec Ops on the other hand, starts out looking like a CoD clone, but then starts to pervert every trope in the book, which is very different from Homefront, it also uses third-first person switches, and has a proper line of feedback between ludonarrative and 'framed narrative' (cutscenes).

Aside from mechanical difficulties, this game deserves to make the same shortlist that includes Bioshock.
 
Just finished it on hard (PC). Was not expecting at all for this to crack my running top 3 of 2012 list after the first hour or so - it's the definition of slow burn, narratively and design wise. Mechanically, [if you're willing to get used to some very minor quirks] it easily stands alongside Gears. The way the game part of this game has been brushed aside by critics, in true bandwagon form, is laughable.

Will most likely never even visit the multiplayer menu, sadly, but for the campaign alone: highly, highly recommended.
 
EatChildren said:
On a mechanical level, I think this game would have benefited tremendously from being a realistic, squad based tactical shooter. Putting greater emphasis on realistic gunfights and importance of tactical decisions would make up for bare bones gameplay. As an Uncharted-esque action shooter, every encounter feels too basic and uninspired.
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The opposite of this, actually. Its combat scenario design puts a finer point on just how rote, unbalanced and unfun most of Uncharted 3 was to trudge through.
 
bluedeviltron said:
Just finished it on hard. Was not expecting at all for this to crack my running top 3 of 2012 list after the first hour or so - it's the definition of slow burn, narratively and design wise. Mechanically, [if you're willing to get used to some very minor quirks] it easily stands alongside Gears. The way the game part of this game has been brushed aside by critics, in true bandwagon form, is laughable.

Will most likely never even visit the multiplayer menu, sadly, but for the campaign alone: highly, highly recommended.
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You know, when I think about it I agree with you. When I finished the game I thought back on it and agreed with most that the combat wasn't good. But the more I thought back on it, the more I remembered little moments where it felt really cool and was done well.

There are some really shitty things, like the knife guys and heavy armor dudes who seem like they were only really thrown in as a cheap gimmick to say "we have more enemies!" but aside from them the combat was actually pretty fun.

Playing with mouse and keyboard, it felt great to get a chain of headshots one after the other with the first shot putting you into slowmo and staying in it until you popped the last one off. When I first noticed the slow-mo it seemed like a dumb addition, but in gameplay it's actually pretty helpful and cool as long as you're quick enough to take advantage of it.

Man, the more I think about this game the more fond I grow of it.
 
While the game wasn't really stellar in terms of combat, it is one of the best shooters I have ever played.

The whole game runs on one fuckup after another, and the only reason I kept playing was the hope that Walker (and by extension, I) eventually winds up doing something right, hopefully getting killed in the process.

The voice work is also well-done. You can hear Walker's mental state breaking down as his comments for getting hit and taking down an enemy change as the game progresses. This is also reflected in your partners' dialogue.

The defining moment for me was not when I accidentally slaughtered the civilians, but when Ludo is hung by a civilian mob. I tried to peacefully move my way past them, but when one of them shoved me back, I lost my shit and fired on them. Not because I particularly cared for Ludo, but rather because of the sheer frustration of the situation. And really, no game has really made me feel that way before.
 
Lesath said:
The defining moment for me was not when I accidentally slaughtered the civilians, but when Ludo is hung by a civilian mob. I tried to peacefully move my way past them, but when one of them shoved me back, I lost my shit and fired on them. Not because I particularly cared for Ludo, but rather because of the sheer frustration of the situation. And really, no game has really made me feel that way before.
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That part was really frustrating yeah.
I really was trying my hardest to not be a bad guy. As much as these civilians were pissing me off, I didn't wanna kill them, so I tried to walk through and the guy pushed me back. I tried again and he pushed me back. So the third time, I walked up and hit him with the butt of my gun because he was getting on my fucking nerves. Afterwards Adams starts firing in the air and I felt really bad that I hadn't thought to do that, and let my frustration allow me to attack one of the civilians. I was actually genuinely surprised at myself.
 
Chapter 8 spoilers
Is there anyway to do the gate without using white phosphorus? I tried shooting/sniping but I get chewed up way too quickly.
 
Finished the campaign about an hour ago, not loving it like most on here.

Gameplay is real outdated and the story itself just not seeing why it is getting so much praise. Price drops that are happening are knocking it down to what it should have been priced in the first place. If you can grab the PC version cheap, it is something to consider if you are just looking for something to play.
 
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