Spec Ops: The Line - A Post Preview and Review

SpecOps: The Line (2011)

There was some excitement in my office and at IGN when I heard about Spec Ops: The Line at E3 2010 this year, not only because this game can turn the tables for the Spec Ops line, but also it happens to be based in my current city of residence - Dubai. 

Gears of War 3 was being shown alongside Halo: Reach, Medal of Honor is being revealed – I just like to root for the underdog.  Now Spec Ops: The Line isn’t 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand underdog, but it’s actually a quality underdog that could just take down the big guys.

I got a chance to see a preview of Spec Ops: The Line. SOCOM seemed to be a squad-based tactical shooter, and Spec Ops seemed to be more of a hybrid between Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, which are 2 of my favourite titles, by the way.  It’s more of a linear single-player campaign where you don’t have to worry about where your other squad mates are in relation to you at all times and how they affect the enemies your fighting. You take control of one military dude, and push your other mates forward.

It’s hard for a game to differentiate itself from the big players in the first-person military shooter genre.  The smaller guys are always compared to the mass marketed, big budget explosion-fests everyone knows about. One of the cool features that Spec Ops hopes to do is bring in an environmental element that some of the big dogs lack.  Things react to what you do.  I’ll quote an example from the E3 Demo.

In the demo we saw, our squad entered one of the abandoned temples of Dubai I believe.  The game is set in a desert region that has overrun a city.  You’ll see cars, trucks and buses have all been semi-buried by sand.  As you enter the temple, beams of light shine in through the high windows above the sand layer, and the windows and walls below have gone dark from the lack of sun coming through.  It was really a cool experience.  After a little exploration, we wondered how in the hell we were going to get out?  There wasn’t another door or anything, so we had to think.  About 20 feet up on our right side was a huge facade of windows with sand on the other side.  That was our ticket out.

We shot up the windows until they shattered into a million pieces, sending tons and tons of sand into the temple we were in.  We had literally created our very own ramp back out into the sweltering desert heat.  It was this type of moment that stuck out from Spec Ops:  The Line.  And not only in this way, but in combat too.

As we progressed further into the demo, we made our way through a series of sand channels that made their way through the sand.  The walls of the channel had barricaded the sand back as best as it could, but little clouds of dust continued to fall through.  I almost thought that if I could use this to my advantage against the enemy, why couldn’t they use it against me?  We ran across a few guys and the demo player proceeded to throw a grenade and blow one of the plates holding the sand away.  It buried the few enemies that were unlucky enough to be under it. 

SpecOps: The Line (Game-play)

Spec Ops: The Line also incorporates a moral system for key moments in the game.  But the most awesome feature of the game is supposed to be how one decision of yours can actually have an effect on the subsequent portions of the game. And what makes it even more interesting is that how you make your choices determines how your squad mates refer to you and talk to you.  Make a couple of bad decisions and your teammates won’t look at you the same way, so it actually includes the fun of having a multi-player AI while playing single-player campaigns.  You’ll also get to see some pretty f*%$'ed up shit too.  It is a military game after all.

The music they featured with the game was this sort of post-rock ambient grunge that's really just cheesy.  If they get a few licensed tracks from actual bands that do this type of stuff then they would absolutely have a winner in my book.  The slow flowing, silent guitar picking starting out but giving way to the loud crashing and crescendos later on in the song would be perfect for this type of game.

SpecOps: The Line (2011)

It’s hard these days to come up with a fresh take on the tried and true first-person military shooter.  It’s hard to do.  People try to do it all of the time, and it just doesn’t work out.  You also have to factor in that no matter what you do, you are going up against other shooters with the initials MOH or COD.  To make a name for yourself, you have to really push the envelope to do that.  Spec Ops: The Line doesn’t look to be of the caliber to take down the big guys, but it definitely has some surprise traits to look out for.  I’d say its a good middle ground between Call of Duty and SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals.

Spec Ops: The Line doesn’t have a definitive release date at this time, but we do know it should be some time in 2011.