Spec Ops: The Line

It's a campaign that merits multiple playthroughs, and a story as strong and daring as those of Bioshock, Shadow of the Colossus and Dead Space 2. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that it achieves this in spite of mechanics that are noticeably dated and bereft of innovation. For that reason, the game is best taken as a whole, and not as something that can be played simply on the strength of its mechanical composition.

It blends a brilliant story with strong characters and gameplay mechanics that rival much more established franchises. Yes the difficulty spikes can be a grind, but push on through and you'll find one of 2012's best games.

Good or evil doesn't really exist in The Line, most of the time you have to choose between doing something bad or doing something very bad. Just don't expect any branching story paths, because The Line is about as linear as it gets. [July 2012, p.82]

The gritty story supersedes the game's mediocrity elsewhere, and finally delivers something outside the box. It dives into a disturbing realism that war, racism, and the psychological repercussions that could ensue, going far beyond the dramatic fluff that we've seen in other shooters.

Spec Ops: The Line forces the main character Captain Walker to be a killer. It forces you to be a perpetrator as well as it shows perfectly how Walker is to collapse because of that violence. A very good story for a game.

Spec Ops: The Line is a solid, action packed shooter that sets itself apart by demonstrating the brutal realities of war. The fragile lines of morality are easily blurred, and sometimes, only visible when crossed.

While it's marred by frequent visual pop-in and frustrating checkpoint placement, Spec Ops is nevertheless a pretty significant achievement. [Sept 2012, p.79]

As a shooter, Spec Ops: The Line disappoints. The coversystem is a constant source of frustration and the hit detection is way off. On top of that, the multiplayer is generally uninteresting. However, as a story-drive singleplayer experience, the game shines like few have before it.

Spec Ops: The Line is one of the better shooters of 2012, and shouldn't be missed. With an interesting and well told story the game offers a journey through a horrible situation that shows how fast a civilized society can crumble under extreme circumstances.

There are no heroes here and it´s not up to you to be one. This is as far away from the shiny-happy shooterindustry as you can get, as long as you still want to sell a few units. The 'fun'-part lies in the excessive shooter-sequences, that will spare The Line from the fate of being a highly praised but commercially unsuccessful case of auteur gaming.

Fun even if the pretensions to thinkiness flounder. [Aug 2012, p.96]

A deeply engaging narrative set in a unique sand-dusted Dubai, Spec Ops: The Line is a terrific adventure that lacks a bit in the gameplay department. It's certainly worth a spot in your summer playlist.

The line between an outstanding game and a very powerful game but without shine is in this Spec Ops. The story of Walker, Adams and Lugo is deep and interesting, as are the situations they will be exposed too. But the multiplayer is not very inspired and other areas have shortcomings.

Yager deserves credit for trying something bold and different, with an adult narrative and that, maybe for the first time on a videogame, shows the real horror behind war.

From the moment I turned it on, it took me by surprise. The setting of a once luxurious, sand-covered Dubai is a true stroke of genius, and makes for both gameplay and story situations that are a cut above the norm-especially when it comes to cookie-cutter military shooters.

For the first time, a game with guns doesn't want you to be the hero -- it's wants you to feel terrible about trying to be one.

Spec Ops makes an admirable attempt to inject morality into a standard shooter experience. The narrative unravels at the end and the controls are subpar compared to the top-tier competitors, but the journey into madness is unlike anything I've played before.

Spec Ops: The Line spurs you through the eight hour campaign thanks to some incredible cut-scenes and storyline progression, but sadly makes every interactive experience in-between fairly mundane.

Spec Ops: The Line has a great story and manages to show a gruesome, yet beautifully destroyed Dubai. It's just a shame that the moving sand is all scripted and that the campaign doesn't last for more than 6 hours.

A brutal, cruel, and impactful trip in the frail psyche of a soldier, and a brilliant re-imagining of the Heart of Darkness story, that unfortunately falls short in the gameplay department due to lack of real innovation, the lacking companion AI, and a badly-calculated challenge level. Truly a pity - could have been an amazing game.

Where Spec Ops succeeds – just – is with its themes of the end justifying the means, the ravages of war on a man's psyche and its portrayal of extreme violence. This is simultaneously its downfall as the team haven't quite nailed the execution until the final moments, where the full extent of what's happened over the last eight or so hours dawns on the protagonists. We wish Yager had teased and fleshed out the concepts sooner than leaving it to the beguiling endings; we doubt many players will bother reaching the credits. A year and half ago we might have been more impressed with The Line, but its poor presentation and boring shootouts completely let it down. [August 2012, p70]

Spec Ops: The Line is a game that tries to be different, and succeeds somewhat at doing this. It's enticing story and great design only goes so far though, and gameplay-wise the game is hampered by clunky controls, thus feeling very much like your average third-person shooter.

Spec Ops: The Line tries to offer new ways to play third person shooters. It's a more adult attempt to reach player's feelings but sometimes it fails in mantaining the tone of the production. Yager's game also lacks a strong multiplayer experience, without which it can't be a must buy.

There are several great ideas here, but they're sort of mired beneath the weight of a generic shooter. The multiplayer isn't overwhelmingly great, either, and despite a really solid story with a lot of potential, a few compelling characters, and an immersive, challenging environment, Spec Ops: The Line doesn't make good on its lofty claims.

Unfortunately the system chokes as things get more frantic. Manoeuvring often means accidentally popping off cover, and performing tasks like reviving downed teammates whips the camera around wildly – minor complaints, but ones that are frustratingly at odds with the fragility of your character. Later stages see you downed by two or three hits, and it's impossible to keep a lock on foes or stay tucked safely away from bullety harm.