• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
Phthisis said:
It does, very well.
Click to expand...

tGz83.gif


I'm actually starting to get really excited right now!
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
I found the use of melee executions interesting, and did some research into the developer's inclusion of it, its reasoning into the narrative, and how they'll get more brutal later in the course of the game.

Cory Davis [Lead Designer] mentioned the brutal melee executions here:

By having the characters that are with you evolve throughout the course of the combat, throughout the course of the game… we have these executions at the beginning. When you execute someone, it’s very quick. It’s brutal because it’s a more physical way of killing, but it’s more to the point, almost out of mercy sometimes. Towards the end, where [your squad has] built up all this anger and resentment, they’re just beat down and primal. They may shoot a guy in leg, in the knee or in the stomach before they shoot him in the head. They may knock out his teeth with the barrel of their gun. They are expressing their anger through their body language and action and also how they talk. Lugo at the beginning is very jokey and funny. They’re having a good time. By the end, they’re barely calling each other by their names.
Click to expand...

So that might explain this part
5ZFl3.gif
in the trailer.

And here:

But perhaps the most surprising aspect of Spec Ops: The Line’s take on morality is its brutal execution system. In the most recent issue of 360 Magazine, the lead designer of Spec Ops: The Line, Cory Davis, was interviewed, and amongst the various questions asked he had the opportunity to go into more depth about the game’s execution mechanics:
Cory Davis: “In Spec Ops, we play with this element of uncertainty around death. A lot of games want this black and white situation of when you shoot someone, they die. And afterwards you high-five with your buddy and move on. In Spec Ops: The Line, after combat, people are bleeding out on the battlefield, they’re dying in pain in a horrific way, and so we wanted players to have to encounter those situations, and we wanted to provide mechanics they could choose to use in those situations. For example, there’s a real gameplay element here in that enemies don’t give up weapons and ammo until their death.
A lot of times when you feel you want or need to grab some ammo, you’re going to have to kill someone who’s in a horrific situation. It’s been really interesting to see how some players react to that. Some will want to put them out of their misery quickly; others will run away and not interact with them; others will want to take revenge and brutalize them. As we get further into the game, the mental states of the characters break down and the executions Walker performs begin to reflect that. There are a huge range of these things that evolve from the start of the game, because we wanted to keep things consistent between the gameplay and narrative. So that evolution affected a lot of things damaged clothes, bloody faces.”
Click to expand...

Walker won't be such a nice guy. Do I leave the ammo and show mercy? :p
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
I have a feeling this game will have an incredibly depressing ending.

Oh yeah, that's cause I just read the plot summary of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now.
 
T

T.M. MacReady

NO ONE DENIES MEMBER
wasn't even on my radar, but i heard about it on weekend confirmed then played the demo and now am kinda interested. If reviews are good I may bite.

Is the multiplayer at all like Socom? The campaign reminds me of Socom.
 
Karak

Karak

Member
Got to play another 3 hours today before again being kicked off the machine hahaahaha. I have to hand it to the gamestore owner. He lets me play a ton which is cool. But I guess he owes me.

I can say this. Its not worth 60 bucks but it would be a great GREAT rental. Almost done, last bit of battle, and barely over 4-5 hours and it does start to drag as a game...on the other hand the mental stuff that occurs is sort of cool. The only thing is they REALLY spoilered the aspect of the teams breakdown.

I would easily give it a B but almost a B- simply due to what can only be described as FUCKING SHORT length. Damn actually maybe a B- makes more sense. The shooting goes from great to just ok or passable. But again the story is cool. One thing is for certain this game is as linear as possible without just being a movie. Its good for one playthrough but even though I playthrough a shitton of games many times, I could never play this one again.

Pros:
GFX at times is really good
Team mechanics(emotional impact of actions)
Sound design
Its trying to do something a bit unique. Not totally different, I can't hyperbole the story aspects as being revolutionary, but they did try to put a bit more story in there.

Cons:
Feels shorter than this post
Cover system is more like a suggestion than a feature. Prepare to have it fail randomly then suddenly work.
Ai for the enemies can be REALLY spotty.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
I can't find my gift card :(

Don't wanna pay full price if it's that short :/

But if the story's really good, then I'll end up grabbing it. After this, there's no games I want till Sleeping Dogs and the fall deluge.

Edit: I've torn my room mostly apart and I've not found it. I think someone threw it away :(
 
C

CloakedPuppet

Member
I hate when embargoes lift on the actual release day. Total horseshit. Seems like a lame attempt to cash in on spontaneous, uninformed consumers. Especially when you have a developer with an unproven track-record.
 
S

smik

Member
TeethMummy said:
Is the multiplayer at all like Socom? The campaign reminds me of Socom.
Click to expand...

Closet thing to Socom and GRAW you can get, participated in the private MP beta/alpha and i did enjoy it alot back in early 2011 irc, Multiplayer has improved ten fold since then and today it was confirmed to have a no respawn mode :)

i hope it develops a nice steady online community as the MP looks promising, could be a nice sleeper hit of 2012.
 
D

D23

Member
smik said:
Closet thing to Socom and GRAW you can get, participated in the private MP beta/alpha and i did enjoy it alot back in early 2011 irc, Multiplayer has improved ten fold since then and today it was confirmed to have a no respawn mode :)

i hope it develops a nice steady online community as the MP looks promising, could be a nice sleeper hit of 2012.
Click to expand...

color me interested!
ive been craving for socom like mp! ghost recon future soldier is a letdown so im hoping this would be good! please be good
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
Well, looks like I'm going to be picking this up. If a developer can make a shooter with a compelling campaign that tries to be a little different I'm up for it. Hopefully it'll sell decently and set a precedent.
 
H

HamPster PamPster

Member
PSNation: B+

Spec Ops: The Line was not the game I was expecting and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I was looking for something that would put me into uncomfortable situations and force me to make difficult choices and it does just that. Unfortunately, the impact is lost amid the noise of all the relentless killing. Maybe that really the whole point of the game, war is hell, morality can be flexible when your own life is on the line.
Click to expand...

They review it on the latested podcast too
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Edge said some really interesting things about the story.

Edge : One of the most subversive shooters yet made.

The Line even makes good on Haze’s promise of morally complicated entertainment – a game that understands its own ugliness and base urges, undermining the thirdperson shooter even as it adheres to its formula.
Click to expand...

The game then sets about these expectations with something sharp, and soon your trio of all-American asskickers look like raw burger meat. Then, shortly after that, not-so-raw burger meat. They do extremely bad things, only some of them unintentionally. They become wild and distraught, their combat patter adopting an unsettling tenor. At first, ‘targets’ are ‘acquired’ and ‘neutralised’, but by the game’s closing hours Walker can barely choke out a maniacal “Fuck you!” as he riddles someone with bullets.

Even the tips displayed on the loading screens begin to take on a darker hue. Suggestions for using cover segue into hectoring: “Do you feel like a hero yet?” asks one screen. Then it ventures into the metaphysical: “You cannot understand, nor do you want to.”
Click to expand...

o_O

Periodically, your squaddies will pull you in different directions. Sergeant Lugo, the sniper, insists you must save a dodgy CIA fixer from execution, while Lieutenant Adams begs you to intervene on behalf of some civilians – neither resolution offers a moral safety line. Later, such choices become less clearly signposted: your reaction in the face of a lynch mob of civilians caters for multiple outcomes, some bloodier than others.

This is the only instance in recent shooters where a civilian presence is shown to be complex. By making them both human and potentially hostile, it attempts to demonstrate just how easily such a situation can compromise high-minded military intentions. This is a visible phenomenon of military intervention and yet its representation within military-themed games has thus far been vanishingly small.
Click to expand...

I've always been interested in civilians' inclusions in shooters. Kane and Lynch Dead Men did this to a subversive level where in the first game, Lynch (who you play as in co-op) hallucinates civilians as cops holding guns with pig masks, and the other player just sees you shooting innocent people. In Dog Days, you can just kill civilians, no penalty, and if you got headshots, all you see is a blurred region around their head with blood pouring, which just made it more disturbing.
e814b7290e3aae555d6664ec8f0b1b94f5b3b601.jpg__620x300_q85_crop_upscale.jpg



The first shot has been fired in the battle for a smarter, morally cognisant shooter. The numbers aren’t in its favour and its foes are both relentless and well-armed but, if the genre has taught us anything, that’s never a reason to surrender.
Click to expand...

It'd be great if we had this new wave of post-macho shooters where they're a little more introspective about your character's in-game actions and tackling the narrative dissonance found in such games like Uncharted where in cutscenes you come off as a good guy but really you're a smirking mass murderer psychopath in gameplay. Far Cry 2 was a good start, too.
 
K

Kusagari

Member
Did I see someone in this thread compare the game to Blood on the Sand?

That's extremely high praise, to me anyway, and means I now want this game.
 
I

IronRinn

Member
Have been interested in this since it was first announced, but still felt like I was taking a chance last night when I bought it from Green Man Games. Reading these reviews though, I'm really looking forward to getting home and firing this up.
 
Diseased Yak

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Wow, after reading some of these reviews, I want to buy this game just to support a shooter that's not in the same vein as all the rest.
 
D

Derrick01

Banned
Kusagari said:
Did I see someone in this thread compare the game to Blood on the Sand?

That's extremely high praise, to me anyway, and means I now want this game.
Click to expand...

That's the 50 cent game right? See that wasn't taking itself too seriously but this is, I don't think the comparison sticks.
 
M

Mulligan

Banned
I managed to get myself two PC versions for a reasonable price, if anyones interested i'll sell one for £15 once i have them.
 
D

DaBuddaDa

Member
Super excited to see these scores. This sounds right up my alley.

undoubtedly to be completely ignored by the gaming community it's targeted to and fail miserably
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
DaBuddaDa said:
Super excited to see these scores. This sounds right up my alley.

undoubtedly to be completely ignored by the gaming community it's targeted to and fail miserably
Click to expand...

The problem is everyone looked at the game and thought generic brown military/Gears clone shooter. There was never much indication that the story was something out of the ordinary so it's probably going to pass under the radar for a lot of people. Reviews on release don't help much either.
 
S

smr00

Banned
So is it really 3-4 hours? if so then ill just wait for the inevitable $29.99 sale within the next month or so, i am really really excited for the game but make it a point to have a gaming budget month to month and to never go over it and this will cut into next months budget.

A 6-8 hour game is easier to swallow at $60 but 3-4? Does it have online coop? just competitive MP?
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
smr00 said:
So is it really 3-4 hours? if so then ill just wait for the inevitable $29.99 sale within the next month or so, i am really really excited for the game but make it a point to have a gaming budget month to month and to never go over it and this will cut into next months budget.

A 6-8 hour game is easier to swallow at $60 but 3-4? Does it have online coop? just competitive MP?
Click to expand...

Not a single review has mentioned 4 hours (I checked), it was only a Youtube playthrough who was also playing it on the easiest difficulty.

Every review has said 6-8 hours.

It will be getting online 4 player co-op soon post-release.
 
S

smr00

Banned
Messofanego said:
Not a single review has mentioned 4 hours (I checked), it was only a Youtube playthrough who was also playing it on the easiest difficulty.

Every review has said 6-8 hours.

It will be getting online 4 player co-op soon post-release.
Click to expand...
Coop intrigues me, but i play on normal mode so if normal is 4 hours that is still to short for $60.

Any word on when the coop gets implemented?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Jacob Geller: What We Don't Talk About in "Spec Ops The Line"
Opinion Spoilers Trailer
6
791
SJRB replied
LTTP: Spec Ops: The Line | Dubaicalypse Now
18
1K
CamHostage replied
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | Review Thread
31
2K
Bungie replied
  • Locked
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 | Review Thread
Analysis Review
2
652
CyberCali replied
Star Wars Outlaws | Review Thread
Analysis Review 8 9 10 11 12
583
46K
midasmulligan replied
Top Bottom