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holy hell I did not see this game coming
spec Ops the Line is really something
you guys I don't even know how to start
talking about it it is not at all what I
was expecting I think most of us are a
bit Jaded by now if I see disaturated
box art with a grim dude in modern
military gun Holden pose I feel like I
know exactly what I'm going to get when
I pop that disc in in many cases
especially with the lower quality games
in that genre I feel like I could break
them down in a paint by numbers fashion
but man this time I could not have been
more wrong and what's incredible about
it is that the dev team knows exactly
what expectations you're going to be
walking into the experience with and
then they turn those expectations on
their head to make a point so we're
going to talk about spec Ops the Line at
length and we're going to do it with art
assistance by our new friend here arus
brazis we tried to think of a way to do
so without spoilers but that would be
more or less impossible and severely
handicap the discussion we're itching to
have so here's the plan this week we're
going to talk about as much as we
possibly can without spoiling anything
next week will be a spoiler storm cool
okay so first let's talk about the frame
of mind you have to be in to get the
most out of spec op because one of the
things we found Most Fascinating about
it was the fact that it asks you to be
in a totally different mindset than most
any other AAA game you've played it is
straight up not very fun engaging as all
hell but not fun all right so if you
haven't heard of spec Ops the Line a
little bit about the game some of you
might remember spec ops as a middle of
the road shooter series from the
PlayStation 1 era there hasn't been a
new entry in the series since 2002 and
man what a way to restart the franchise
so often we see a series die a slow
death because the teams behind them
decided to play it safe and compete in
the same Arena as Call of Duty in
Battlefield as if that were somehow less
risky while spec ops is many things safe
is not one of them it's based on Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness they even
went so far as to name one of the
characters Conrad just to make sure you
know it and it deals with issues ranging
from post-traumatic stress disorder to
the use of white phosphorus which was a
huge ethical question for the US
military in the Iraq War and most of
your enemies turn out to be Americans
specifically US soldiers that detail
alone had to send some people in
marketing running for the hills I'm just
going to say it greenlighting this took
balls I don't know if the team just
initially convinced people that it was
going to be a you know a Call of Duty
competitor of some sort or if the folks
at 2K were just on board with this whole
crazy experiment from the beginning but
wow hats off to you guys in far too many
boardrooms this game would have been
chopped down to scraps and then pasted
back together as a low-budget Modern
Warfare knockoff it would have come out
no one would have bought it and then a
week later no one would even remember it
existed this is the way to restart a
franchise you know you can't compete
with Call of Duty your Battlefield you
don't have the massive budget you don't
have the installed fan base or the
marketing so you decide to go big or go
home and you go big in a smart way you
don't try to out Call of Duty Call of
Duty the only way to make a shooter that
has any chance of breaking into the
market today is to not compete with
those games to do something radically
different that fills some other player
need because frankly the majority of
Call of Duty and Battlefield fans are
still going to be playing the latest
entry in their favorite series right up
until the next one comes out there is no
competing directly with that now I've
seen a lot of reviews of this game that
dock a bunch of points for its weak
multiplayer mode with all due respect to
the game reviewers who said this many of
whom we know personally and they're
great folks but that's insane come on
don't do that who said every shooter has
to have a multiplayer mode much less one
that's equal or superior to the campaign
we didn't mark down GTA 4 for its
lackluster multiplayer mode we don't
think any less of halflife just because
Deathmatch exists if Silent Hill 2 had
forgettable multiplayer attacked on
would you think any less of the game
today if not if the game isn't worse for
it being there you can't be taking
points off here just take the mode for
what it is Attack on extra like bonus
materials on a DVD any additional
resources they might have poured into
that multiplayer mode would have been
diverted from the solo campaign and the
game absolutely would have suffered as a
result just please don't perpetuate the
idea that every shooter needs
multiplayer the industry actually does
listen to that kind of thing multiplayer
modes are a major investment of
development resources when someone from
corporate wanders in and says we need
multiplayer or the reviewers are going
to hate it other aspects of the game are
guaranteed to suffer take this as a
personal plea from a developer who seen
it happen too many times reviews like
these are the very reason you see tacked
on unnecessary and forgettable
multiplayer in so many shooters on that
note I'm pretty sure that spec Ops the
Line will suffer a great deal from the
fact that it just looks so much like a
modern military shooter on the surface I
think a lot of reviewers went in
prepared to judge spec ops as a Call of
Duty clone just like I did and they came
away saying yep that sure was a mediocre
Call of Duty game rather than evaluating
it on its own merits which is almost
ironic because spec Ops the Line is
actually the harshest indictment of
modern military shooter games that I've
ever seen harsher than than anything Fox
News has ever been able to muster what's
so very strange and in my opinion
Courageous about specops is that it uses
all of the tropes we expect from a paint
by numbers modern military shooter to
point out things about the genre and
help Drive The Narrative which is why
you can't evaluate this as a Call of
Duty game because the reviewers are
right it's a pretty bad Call of Duty
game the Gunplay isn't as good the
enemies come in obvious video gamey
spawn points rather than the chaotic
setpiece moments we're used to seeing
and perhaps most importantly its
principal way of engaging the player
isn't through fun this game is great and
a lot of ways and it can be very very
gripping but it is distinctly not fun
even the running and gunning have been
reduced to a banal slog but even that
helps to reinforce the game's Point
what's really crazy about this game
though and what impresses the hell out
of me is that they spend the first hour
or two of the game trying to look like a
lowbudget Call of Duty ripoff just so
they can pull the rug out from under you
later and turn all of your expectations
on their head using modern military
shooter gameplay to point out just how
ludicrous modern military shooter
gameplay is when contrasted with the
real thing Jagger I don't know how you
folks never convinced people to let you
ship this but wow Bravo all right next
week we rain down spoilers like well
you'll see if you haven't had a chance
to check out spec ops yet I'd love to
say just go out and buy it because I
feel like they deserve your purchase but
admittedly this is a game you can easily
beat in a weekend if you're a little
stretched for cash borrow it from a
friend or see if you can track down a
blockbuster that hasn't closed yet and
rent a copy the game is full of flaws
but we're in the do Drums of Summer here
if any of what I'm saying has piqued
your interest check it out if for no
other reason than to be able to join the
discussion next week I guarantee you it
may not look it but this is something
unique and for those of you who do play
it this weekend when you hear a
character say the line because you
wanted to feel like something you're not
he's not saying that to your character
that line is pointed at you I'm not sure
I've ever had a game punch me in the gut
so hard thank you arus for helping us
out we'll see you guys next week
n
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