Spec Ops: The Line (2012)

I just started playing this. It's rough. As with most games on PS3, it's sluggish and choppy. The environments look nice but the character and weapon models suffer from that cartoonish proportion problem you see in a lot of shooters from this era of development. The gunplay is pretty good though. Enemies aren't bullet sponges which is always a win in my book. Equipment is easy to use and there aren't a lot of complexities with the systems. The cover system is kind of hard for me to get used to, with my muscle memory wanting me to play it like The Division. And the squad commands are simple and helpful. Your AI teammates actually do something!

Nolan North as the main character's voice actor is immersion-breaking like all hell for me though. I just hear Nolan North. I don't hear the character he's portraying.

Also, why the hell are none of these guys wearing helmets, facemasks, shemaghs, gasmasks, or goggles? You'd think a Delta unit deployed to a city engulfed in a sandstorm would have some kind of protective gear but nope. Just CamelBaks. Gotta stay hydrated, I guess.

I'm not sure what's up with the story but one of the intel files was narrated by Nolan North. I wonder if that means his character is the one that wrote it. The game is story-centric so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that stuff. It's clear that something is off and things aren't what they seem. I'm getting serious HAZE vibes so far.

dove back into spec ops because it is one of those few games that like 2/3 the way through really (and very very obviously) makes you aware that maybe you're not exactly The Good Guys. Couple comments after my encounter near the radio tower:

• wow, the controls are not bad!
• the use of your characters' dialogue and the way you hear the 33rd's almost identical dialogue during your engagements is also totally wild.
• even knowing where you stand, your character's motivations vis-a-vis actually progressing in spite of your conflicted feelings is incredibly believable! I both want to keep going, i have a strong motivation to keep blasting my way across the desert, likewise, i hate that i'm not all "hey 33rd, let's just cool it and be a couple of fonzies here"

the part where the game makes your character's motivations obvious to you: "get to konrad" but switches the meaning of your engagement is pretty impressive! i don't need to care about what's going on and i can play a desert shooter. If i do care, i am really searching my feelings about why my choices or motivations are any better or worse than just "gun go boom." In that way, the game goes from 1st person to 3rd person mid-game, giving you a deeper perspective on your environment and your mission while the nature of your gameplay remains the same. if you internalize this, the game's emergent narrative can become really compelling, but if you don't, you're still just blasting your way across the sand and that core mechanic remains fun and challenging!

i'll compare this with rdr2 where you aren't really allowed to "play naively" because the game really wants to rub it in how bad things are and what a terrible situation you're engaged in. there's a kind of game that exists where the narrative/intel in spec ops is used to add depth to Why things are happening to you. I love that if you're playing spec ops while breezing through the cutscenes and ignoring the intel, you just see things as totally effed up, who cares why, but you know, this is the sort of mission you were trained for. and if you really chew on that stuff, you end up with a deeper understanding of why the game world is as absurd as it is. i find that incredibly powerful.

I think I got this game free in a Humbe Bundle sale and just gave it a go. The description on Steam says that the game is "designed to challenge players' morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations", but I've yet to encounter any serious moral quandary even after mowing down hundreds of nameless soldiers.

The heft of any moral choice would be better if the first hour wasn't the same gun-ho, testosterone driven slaughter-fest of brown-skinned foreigners of every brainless military shooter out there.

SPOILERS

Dubai is war torn due to fierce sandstorms occurring frequently and civilians have gained a fight or die mentality, making water scarce. Mission is to extract the 33rd squad survivors and thats when they encounter insurgents with riffles. After trying to rescue them to no avail, Captain Walker has gone insane after nuking and killing hundreds of innocent people with a mortar shot in Dubai with a nuke and has nobody to blame other then himself, and loses his insanity after it. He claims to hear Konrod's voice but it is some other guy in a radio tower. This game depicts the cold side of war. After going insane and having nobody to blame, Walker blames an ex marine, Konrod for doing all these hateful crimes. He blames Konrod for making him kill those innocent people. Not realizing he's gone insane and Konrod has been dead for a long time.