Conrad : home heh we can't go home
CONRAD : There is a line men like us have to cross
CONRAD : if we're lucky
CONRAD : We do what's necessary and then we die?
CONRAD : No
CONRAD : All I really want Captain is peace
Spec ops the line should be a mandatory
Experience for anybody who considers themselves a gamer
granted various elements of the game aren't very
Remarkable like its gameplay or its graphics both of which have been perfected in titles that came before and after its release however
I will argue that only a handful of games have ever perfected
Storytelling like Spec Ops the line it is the reason why the game is still discussed and analyzed five years following its release
very few pieces of Art Via games
or otherwise
Have ever violently ripped you apart by the scene and left you broken and alone as you try to put yourself back together
I know that might sound hyperbolic to some people hell, it might be hyperbolic to most people who play this game
But those who understand the game its moral message
And what that message communicates to us about what it means to be human [will] never be the same again
The most important thing to note as I begin my analysis is that this video is one part of a three-part series
I am doing on the heart of darkness literary motif the heart of darkness [in] the most basic terms
Describes how every human being born into this world has the capacity for evil and despite our best attempts
Not all of us can suppress our savage
tendencies look to the description box for more information on that at your leisure the heart of darkness
Manifests in Several ways in my opinion the heart of darkness manifests itself as a state of mind
Spec ops the line our main character [Captain], [Martin] [Walker]
Experiences the state of mind through all 15 chapters the game offers because I want to be as clear as possible
in explaining a complex subject
I'll shy away from the heart of darkness concept for the next few minutes and do an analysis of some key moments in the game
Needless to say there are spoilers ahead
the story of the game
Focuses on walker leading a rescue squad into dubai after it has been ravaged by freaks and storms in his own words
He needs to determine if there are survivors and call for backup
That's it however if you did what you were ordered to do Spec Ops would be a contender for a shortest game of all time
So of course you disobey the game begins with your standard turret sequence that you'll find in most action games
Captain Walker is tasked with shooting down several enemy choppers for a couple of minutes until eventually one spirals out of control and hits you
Fade to black then the word earlier pops up on screen
Suggesting that what we just witnessed happens later on in the game and what we are about to witness for the next few hours
Transpires before that current sequence simple enough, right
Simple enough Right? Standard to the point where it is almost
boring
Well according to Walt Williams the lead narrative designer behind Spec Ops the line there is a lot more to this turret sequence than we
might realize in an interview with Several news outlets
Williams drew attention to the Turret sequence specifically the second time we play it later on in the game at this point
Walker says something a bit odd
WALKER : wait
WALKER : Wait, this isn't right
ADAM or LUGO : Well its to late now!
WALKER : nah nah i mean we did this alreardy
ADAMS OR LUGO : what do you mean
WALKER : AHH FUCK ITS NOTHING JUST SHAKE THESE FUCKIN GUYS
ADAMS OR LUGO : YOU GOT IT
To a first time player this can be interpreted as a wink to the audience and easter egg
Yet Williams has a much more disturbing view on walker's perceptions quote when you get to it the second time
Walker directly calls out that. You've done this before. It's specifically designed
So you would maybe read it as the prologue is the only part of the game where you're really alive
and you die in that chopper crash and
everything after that is walker kind of working through his guilt and
Forcing him to go through with what he has done and face up to it. This is his own personal hell
he is creating for himself
Admittedly I'm jumping ahead of myself because the second turret sequence happens 12 chapters into the game
There are a lot of important things that transpire and the preceding chapters nevertheless keep what I just said in mind
Another thing that williams points out in the same interview is the game's use of transitions
Specifically fades to white and fades to black quote every time the game is doing a normal transition
It fades to black whenever walker is hallucinating it fades to white with this information in mind
It gives you a completely different perspective on the game if you do a second playthrough
There are several times where the game fades to white
But what is most concerning is the first time the game fades to white?
It's when you first gained control of walker. Now is the game suggesting that everything between now and the twelfth chapter is a hallucination
I suppose that would make sense considering the events that happen in those 12 chapters seemed, so surreal at times
I will list these events for you in a moment
But I want to remind you of this video secondary purpose to demonstrate how the heart of darkness motif
Manifests as a state of mind and the following examples that motif manifests several time
in chapter one we notice
Conrad's face on a billboard in chapter four we see a security
Advertisement displaying a family the eyes of the family members have been scratched out as if they are
reacting to the horrific murder of the soldiers
We see Conrad's army the 33rd rounding up civilians and walker presumes
They are doing this to execute them without enough supporting evidence to make this conclusion this next one is my favorite and [chapter] [five]
We see a banner out in the cityscape with Conrad's face on it
Yet after we make our way through the level if we look on the same banner again
His face is gone in chapter six an objective that was never given to us keep going down
Shows up as completed now this next one might be a technical glitch rather than a product of walker state of mind
It's hard to tell nevertheless it still works in the stories favor in chapter seven before getting to the highway
We see several light poles. It's nothing particularly special customary for a highway right yet as we get closer to them
Hanging bodies appear as well. We find another billboard with Conrad's face on it
There's also a sign that says free water suggesting early on that
The 33rd is trying to help the civilians
but the game just goes along with the killing not even
Acknowledging it in chapter 8 we come across a tree filled to the brim with healthy-looking leaves
After you pass it and proceed [to] go up the steps if you look back at the tree it is now completely dead
Maybe this is walker trying to project ideals into this hellish reality he finds himself then in chapter 9
Walker finally decides to shift the blame to Conrad despite expressing his admiration for him throughout the game he cannot bear to accept
responsibility for killing 47 innocent civilians with white phosphorus, so he snaps
also in Chapter nine if you go to the back of the room at the start you'll notice lugo and Adams whose names on the
memorial wall further suggesting that they died in the helicopter crash in chapter 12 and
Everything we're witnessing now isn't real we also see a hanging man in the window as we rappel down
Yet as we look back up to try and get a second glimpse the man is gone and of course the two hanging men down
The Road are products of Walker's imagination as we find out in chapter 15 in Chapter 11
we are given the choice to either shoot rigs or let him burn to death if
You shoot him and continue on you'll notice a wall of graffiti
Displaying them with a bullet wound in the head further on you'll notice a pair of Golden statues
One pointing their finger in the shape of a gun at the others at you
if you acknowledge the statues in any way the screen fades to white and
Statues assume their original position if you choose to let rigs burn to death the graffiti changes to a man's face burning ACHIEVEMENT : DEER HUNTER
The Golden statues are now Molten rock the famous Mannequin scene happens in chapter
11 where the Heavies turned into mannequins and the pre-existing Mannequins move around this is obviously a
commentary on the players Mindless killing of Potential Innocents Walker
Also threatens the staff sergeant at this point in the game you are forced to wonder when did walker go from justifying
Attacking the 33rd is self-defense to openly denying them finally in chapter 12
We project Adams his face onto an enemy soldier right before smashing his face in
We still have three chapters to go all of which have some sadistic surreal elements
But before I do that, I want to come back to the heart of Darkness motif given the right circumstances
Human beings will kill people in the most brutal sadistic ways however
This is an element of ourselves that we'd naturally want to ignore and suppress in favor of a more
Civilized state of being in the case of walker he cannot accept that he killed 47 innocent people with white phosphorus
So he suppresses his guilt and casts it on somebody else [CONRAD]
[nevertheless] he remains guilty and the guilt claws away at him seeking horrific revenge for its suppression
Remember earlier in this video where I quoted walt williams saying that walker likely died in the opening prologue
It is my belief that Chapters 1 through 12 are entirely in Walker's head
It's not real he is reliving the events leading up to his death
This is why we see all those Surreal things happening
The surreal elements are that suppressed part of Walker's mind trying to rear its ugly head
Trying to remind him that he is an obsessed
insane
Cold-blooded murderer thus like I said the heart of darkness manifests in this game as a state of mind
so if chapters 1 through 12 are a
Hallucination and everything comes full circle with the second turret scene where does that leave walker for the three remaining chapters?
allow Conrad to sum it up succinctly
CONRAD : Welcome To Hell Walker...
We've back waiting for you
Walker is in hell
Literally the bloodshed the surreal elements they all become maximized to the point where it's needlessly excessive
After all the previously murdered lugo comes back to life albeit briefly
It's not very pleasant for the gamer controlling walker either if you die the loading screens, Begins to taunt you
"Do you feel like a hero yet?" "You're still a good person "can you even remember?
Why you came here? my personal?
"Favorite is this one to kill for yourself is murder to kill for your government is heroic the kill for entertainment is harmless"
these statements and questions are supposed to make the character feel a cognitive dissonance similar to Walker's
they are supposed to make us consider the
psychological struggle Walker's having with his own heart of darkness
And how that struggle mimics our own struggle with our primitive self is walker really the good guy if not
What does that say about our choices after all we're the ones controlling walker?
We are the ones who have been making all of his decisions
But before you consider those difficult questions further let's discuss the final chapter
After 14 chapters of fighting Conrad's army they surrender to you even though in the previous chapter his army literally had you cornered
To me this seems
So illogical that this could only happen in a hallucination walker travels up the burj Khalifa to meet Conrad almost
Symbolically it feels like walker's traveling upwards into his mind when walker finally confronts his nemesis he learns the horrible truth
Conrad has been dead all along
And walker has been projecting a false reality to cope with the fact that he is an evil
Cold-blooded murderer, so walker has to make a choice does he accept responsibility for what he has done or does?
He choose a more favor all reality if he and by extension you choose to accept responsibility
you commit suicide and the game ends there
however
If you don't accept responsibility and shoot conrad there are a couple of interesting things that happen Conrad's Corpse and the wheelchair
Disappear one of Conrad's soldiers magically appears behind Walker, but when walker addresses him he disappears as well
Finally if you choose to hand over your weapon to the soldiers at the end you'll get a fade to white
Suggesting that walker is hallucinating again the soldier asks Walker. How survived and walker replies
PUNISHED WALKER : Who said i did?
My opinion this confirms that everything in the game is inside Walker's head or at the very least Chapters 13 14 and 15
Unless walker turns the gun on himself or has Conrad shoot him he will forever be stuck in this hell
He is creating for himself he will forever try to suppress his own heart of darkness and ignore his capacity for evil
But it will always come back to torture him
WALKER : You're not real... this is all in my head
Conrad : are you sure maybe its in mine
to conclude I want to propose an
Experiment to those watching this video
If you know somebody who knows nothing about Spec ops the line I obviously recommend
You find some way to give them a copy of the game?
then I suggest you record them playing the final chapter of this game when it comes time to kill yourself or
Conrad see what choice. They make ask them. Why they made that choice in my opinion
Depending on what choice. They make it might tell you something about their personality
About their capacity for introspection about their own heart of darkness
CONRAD : THREE
CONRAD : FOUR
CONRAD : is this what you really want walker
i'm sorry
BANG!
thanks for watching