Enter The Sandman | Spec Ops: The Line Review

<p><em>Spec Ops&colon; The Line&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;em>s nothing short of a great game&comma; if not something of an enigma&period; The story&comma; combat&comma; dialogue&comma; and characters we’ve all seen before&comma; but never together in such a smart package&period; When you throw all of these things in a blender&comma; you not only get <em>Spec Ops<&sol;em>&comma; you get a solid third-person shooter like few others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020354&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Sandstorm-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-79536 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020354&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Sandstorm-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spec Ops The Line Sandstorm BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game starts off with a clichéd group of soldiers who wind up in a bad spot&period; They end up making a bad decision and find out that everyone in Dubai isn’t so keen on following orders&period; You play as Captain Martin Walker&comma; a character I can&&num;8217&semi;t say is the best I’ve ever encountered&period; However&comma; he does come along as you progress through the story and evolves from being just another dude-bro to someone relatable&period; He makes one bad decision and all the doors after that lead to even worse circumstances and along the way&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s only doing what he think&&num;8217&semi;s best&comma; but just can’t seem to make things right&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game does a great job of staying realistic&comma; especially in its character development&period; Dialogue simulates how it would actually be during war&comma; and finding out all of the horrors of Dubai creates real shock for the player&comma; as well as the character&period; The way this is presented makes everything very believable&comma; especially the character’s reactions to certain events&period; This makes everyone more relatable and adds to the overall narrative of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020407&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Rifle-Whipping-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-79535 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020407&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Rifle-Whipping-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spec Ops&colon; The Line" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even the gameplay adds a good bit of realism to the mix&comma; giving the player the option to shoot out walls or windows that may lead to sand coming in and stunning or even killing your enemies&period; Also&comma; the game uses very cool mechanics such as throwing a rock to fool your enemies into believing it&&num;8217&semi;s a grenade&period; This tactic may be able to draw them out of cover for a split second&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game&&num;8217&semi;s realism doesn’t inhibit gameplay&comma; though&period; Some of the decisions you are forced to make during the game are harsh and totally gray moral dilemmas&period; There is no right or wrong&comma; and you honestly don’t know if what you’re doing is a good or bad thing&period; This is one of the only games I’ve ever seen that can pull this off with such grace&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another cool feature that <em>Spec Ops<&sol;em> introduces is the feeling of belonging to the enemies and firefights&period; This is the only game that I’ve ever played where I felt like the enemies had a place and were there for a reason&period; They were there because they were based there&comma; or perhaps they had a mission to accomplish&period; For once it didn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like the enemies were put there because developers made them there—as if they only existed to be filler so you can have something to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020545&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Aftermath-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-79527 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020545&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Aftermath-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spec Ops The Line Aftermath BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The firefights have real meaning and are able to invoke relatable feelings of regret for killing fellow rouge American soldiers&period; After every battle&comma; you feel as though it was significant and you regret having to kill your former brothers in arms&comma; but you know that you must walk the proposed moral line and try to do what is right in Walker’s mind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As far as controlling the game goes&comma; the controls feel pretty smooth&comma; except for the occasional time where Walker is sprinting to cover and stops mid sprint despite the fact you’re holding the button down&period; More often than not&comma; this will cause you to get mowed down by a soldier in body armor&period; The game does a fine job of introducing the command features&comma; these allow you to have your squad fire upon and suppress enemies for you&period; This is very helpful&comma; especially on the higher difficulties&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020532&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Airfield-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-79528 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;05020532&sol;Spec-Ops-The-Line-Airfield-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spec Ops The Line Airfield BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The multiplayer for <em>Spec Ops&colon; The Line&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;em>s fairly forgettable and there isn’t much to mention here&period; You have your standard multiplayer modes&comma; and the ones that are innovative just aren’t that fun&period; The multiplayer feels much like Dead Space 2’s did—it isn’t that great and you won’t stick around for it or remember it&comma; at all&period; Mostly&comma; this mode feels a bit tacked on and lacks the real inspiration that the single player possesses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Spec Ops&colon; The Line<&sol;em> is a good game worth experiencing&period; It isn’t going to absolutely blow you away with graphics&comma; gameplay or narrative&comma; but all of these areas are done very well&period; Any shooter fan should definitely check this one out for a bit of variety&period; It’s a very short game&comma; so be wary before your purchase&comma; but the replay value is very high and you shouldn’t worry too much as this game will provide plenty of entertainment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;