An incredible single-player narrative and solid-third person shooting action sets Spec Ops: The Line apart from other recent modern shooters.

Background

Spec Ops: The Line is a fictional third-person shooter that takes place in Dubai six months after deadly sandstorms claimed the city. The 33rd Battalion of the U.S. Army was sent into Dubai to evacuate the city. The last known transmission from the 33rd showed they were leading a caravan out of the city.

Players are dropped into the boots of Captain Martin Walker, leader of a three-man squad called Delta Force. Delta Force has been sent into Dubai to investigate a transmission intercepted two weeks ago from the city, a transmission from Colonel John Konrad of the 33rd.

Things go from bad to worse for Delta Force.

The Line falls into the Spec Ops series, a series that hadn’t seen a sequel in a decade, but The Line follows no continuity from any other game in the series. Spec Ops: The Line was developed by Yager Development and Darkside Game Studios, and was published by 2K Games. The game was released on June 26 for PlayStation 3, Windows and Xbox 360.

The single-player campaign was developed by Yager Development, whilst the multiplayer component was developed by Darkside Game Studios.

The Line runs on the Unreal 3 Engine, and its visuals are on par with other games using the engine.

Solo

The single-player campaign in The Line is a nail-biter. The game starts off as a typical third-person shooter, but after about an hour or two everything changes. Your one mission always remains the same – evacuate the people out of Dubai.

When you’re not blowing everything up, the decrepit city is oddly beautiful in a queasy kind of way.

The developers got it right as far as ambiance is concerned: Frequent sandstorms will change the field of battle, rock riffs will send shivers down your spine and a mysterious radio DJ broadcasting throughout the ruined city will make you second guess your every step.

Unfortunately, The Line falters when it comes to its cover system. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work, which often leads to frustrating deaths. Frustrating deaths with lengthy load times leave you with a very bad mixture.

The Line claims that it’s a squad-based shooter, but the squad commands leave more to be desired. Calling out shots for your teammates is the bulk of any commands that you will give. It would have been nice to order specific positions for your teammates.

Although you can’t order your squad around at your heart’s desire, that doesn’t mean they’re not fun to listen to. The Line does a great job at character development; in fact, about half of the narrative is character development. As the game progresses, the choices you make will affect the way your squad thinks and reacts, all of this accompanied by a killer voiceover cast, including Nolan North and Jake Busey.

The Line will give you choices throughout the game; these are choices you never want to make. Most decisions lead to death and cruelty, and there is never a right or wrong answer. You will feel emotion whilst playing this game. The second half of the game takes your pre-conceived notions about the story and flips it on its head. Some events are very disconcerting. Spec Ops: The Line shoves the brutality of war down your throat with a tightly clenched fist.

All in all, Spec Ops: The Line takes about six hours to complete. The game has four endings; don’t worry, only your final actions will determine which ending you earn.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer portion of Spec Ops: The Line is serviceable. Game modes include deathmatch, team deathmatch and objective modes. It will prove difficult to find a match outside of the DM and TDM.

I noticed the visuals in the online portion were significantly worse than the single player; there were a lot of pop-in textures.

The maps are pretty good, but nothing above average design-wise. Positioned turrets and an occasional sandstorm blast help mix up the gameplay.

It seems like Darkside Game Studios put a lot of effort into trying to beef up the multiplayer. There are a plethora of upgrades available along with a creatable class system.

The multiplayer in Spec Ops: The Line isn’t bad, it just isn’t anything new. It’s a shame after playing the single-player campaign, which was so original and kept me at the edge of my seat, that the multiplayer is so bland.

I had the same issues regarding the cover system in the multiplayer portion as well.

Round Up

Spec Ops: The Line is a winner. You wouldn’t have guessed it from the box art, but The Line brings something new to the modern shooter: narrative. The storyline of this game is the best of any other modern shooter title I’ve played.

The multiplayer segment of the game is semi-polished and has a bit of depth to it, but it’s not going to drag you in for long. Spec Ops: The Line is worth the purchase.

Trailer