Is there any point in playing Spec Ops: the Line now?

[Matthew Jabour]

Everyone has heard of Spec Ops: the Line by now. It's clever subversion of FPS tropes and how it forces you to think about the trouble you cause in your attempts to play hero. But my question is this: is there any point in playing it now, since I know it's going to try and guilt trip me?

Since I know using the white phosphorus will hurt innocent people, can I opt out of it? If not, can I still say that it's my fault? Will I be forced to take actions I know are a bad idea, and then still be guilt tripped for it? Are my actions still my fault if I can't avoid doing them?

This is the problem with this kind of twist in any medium. At one time, it may have been the surprise of the century that Darth Vader was Luke's father; now, thanks to pop culture ubiquity, that's probably the first thing anyone knows about Star Wars.

Opinions?

 

[raeior]

I guess it's worth it for the story/atmosphere alone but the shooting is pretty bland. The white phosphorus scene still works even if you know it although I must say that even without knowing of it beforehand it is far too obvious that you are killing civilians. The first enemies are clearly soldiers moving somewhat organised and trying to find and kill you and then you have several persons cowering in a trench who are obviously no soldiers. Still, there are a lot of other pretty intense scenes.

 

[Evonisia]

I'd say it was still worth playing. Most people (from what I've read) were most effected by the WP scene, but honestly I just see that as the beginning of the best part of the game.

You're forced to use the WP because of the infinite spawning enemies (and an invisible wall, but story versus gameplay). Once that is done, Walker and his crew start to go into a spiral towards despair and ruin. It's a beautiful story and the final three missions are simply wonderful in that regard.

Basically just go ahead and play it, the WP is just the catalyst for the story to get really good.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

You can choose to turn off the game and do something else. I think the game kind of considers that a valid option. Basically turning off the game is equivalent to completing your mission.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

If you're curious about the game, I'd say it's worth playing just to satisfy that curiousity. I myself played the game despite having its biggest twists spoiled and didn't enjoy it (short version: I found the narrative blatantly manipulative and the subtext highly hypocritical), this despite the fact that I've enjoyed plenty of other works despite knowing the big twists beforehand (Bioshock for instance).

 

[DataSnake]

Since I know using the white phosphorus will hurt innocent people, can I opt out of it? If not, can I still say that it's my fault?

No and no.

There's an invisible wall which prevents you from progressing and the enemies come at you in infinite waves unless you use the white phosphorus and kill all those innocence people....You also have to kill those civilians if you want to progress.

Unless someone has a gun to your head IRL, you could always play to that point and then say "...and then Captain Walker left the area and called for backup, like he had been ordered to do." Sure, it's a less satisfying choice than pressing on and being the Big Damn Hero, but that's the point. You choose to ignore orders and indulge your messiah complex, you live with the consequences. Incidentally, the WP scene isn't the biggest twist in the game, so I'd still say you should play it anyway.

 

[carnex]

There is a point to playing the game since there is so much more going on than just white phosphorous. That said, story gets a lot naive and contrived but at the same time it dos not affect it too badly. I mean i annoyed me but you can go with not identifying yourself with protagonists but intellectualizing it.and you are on a good path to reading a good book in game form (for bloody once). White phosphorous was one of those points, I even engaged soldiers with guns but it's not the only one. All I kept telling myself is that if those guys kept firing at me, my morals would be really loose at that point IRL.

 

[Bad Jim]

The WP thing is obviously going to affect you less but there is other stuff that I won't spoil. It's a very interesting game to play. The gameplay is rather bland though. It's also quite hard, so don't be ashamed to play on easy difficulty.

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah, I'd say it's still worth a look. There are scenes other than the phosphorous one.

It's not an overly long game and it'll be dirt cheap by now, so you don't stand to lose much.

I say this as someone who wasn't a huge fan, so I'm not recommending it on the basis of "OMG it's my most favourite game EVAR!" At the very least, it's an interesting experiment.

 

[Username Redacted]

I think that the game does enough interesting things with the choices you make throughout it AND your squad members reactions to your decisions that even knowing one major event within the game won't undermine the overall experience. So that's a 'Yes' from me with regards to it still being worth a look.

 

[TheKrigeron]

Well I never knew about the White phosphorous thing before reading this post. As you can see, it's a problem of people refusing to write Spoiker Alert for some reason.

 

[hermes]

Since I know using the white phosphorus will hurt innocent people, can I opt out of it? If not, can I still say that it's my fault?

No and no.

There's an invisible wall which prevents you from progressing and the enemies come at you in infinite waves unless you use the white phosphorus and kill all those innocence people....You also have to kill those civilians if you want to progress.

It is also worth pointing out that you will kill those civilians even if you try to avoid it, since the phosphorus will spread if you shoot it near enough of them... And you can say its not your fault, in fact, the protagonist does it all the time. But since you/him pushed the buttons, is not very convincing.

It is still worth a look. I knew about the WP scene before I started the game, and I was still able to appreciate it, flaws and all. The game was recently on humble bundle and playstation plus, so I guess it can be found fairly cheap...

 

[Mimic]

I didn't feel particularly guilt-tripped by the game myself although it did affect my perception of playing games where you would mow down vast numbers of enemies along the span of the game and the main character was never seemingly affected by it. The next game I played was Uncharted 3 and I have to say it marred the experience for me.

There's more to the game than the white phosphorus scene, there's the back story of what happened/is happening in Dubai that was quite interesting and the game's take on war and choice I found pretty novel; so I think its worth picking up for that. The game seems to be a bit hit-or-miss with people but it was a pretty important game to play for me.

It's got a pretty good soundtrack too.

 

[hermes]

Unless someone has a gun to your head IRL, you could always play to that point and then say "...and then Captain Walker left the area and called for backup, like he had been ordered to do." Sure, it's a less satisfying choice than pressing on and being the Big Damn Hero, but that's the point. You choose to ignore orders and indulge your messiah complex, you live with the consequences. Incidentally, the WP scene isn't the biggest twist in the game, so I'd still say you should play it anyway.

I have no clue on what you're on about, lay off the drugs? Are trying to justify that bullshit argument that "you can stop playing any time"? They didn't even bother implementing the illusion of a choice.

They pretty much spelled out for you:

Spoiler

- Walker: What happened here was out of my control.
- Konrad: Was it? None of this would've happened if you'd just stopped. But on you marched. And for what? ... The truth Walker, is that you're here because you want to feel like something you're not. A hero.

Did you thought the game was addressing the protagonist? No, it was talking to you. The good thing about that game illusion of a choice was that it was never obstructed by a prompt "press A to kill NPC 1. press B to kill NPC 2."

 

[bbchain]

Even if you know about the White Phosphorus scene there's a lot more to see in the game. At this point it probably won't have the same shock value as when it came out but it's still a valuable game to play if only for the story aspect. Though the gameplay itself is a little irritating at times I think every gamer should give it a playthrough. It's definitely one that'll have you thinking for a while.

 

[Mike Richards]

Whether you feel guilty or not it's still an incredible story. Surprisingly deep, nuanced, powerfully written, with some pretty fantastic acting and some stunning locations and direction. It's one of my favorites, and surprise or no surprise I'd definitely call it worth checking out.

I have no clue on what you're on about, lay off the drugs? Are trying to justify that bullshit argument that "you can stop playing any time"? They didn't even bother implementing the illusion of a choice.

Lame game mechanics, lame plot/story but decent parody even though it's a parody of itself. There's nothing inherently good about this game.

There's no choice because the protagonist doesn't believe he has a choice. He says it isn't his fault because he firmly believes there is no other option. So there's no other option. You're basically saying exactly what he did. 'I am not responsible for my actions because I had no other choice, so what if I did horrible things, I had to'.

"What happened here was out of my control!"
"Was it?"

I don't know that it necessarily buy the 'you can turn the game off' argument, but it's irrelevant. It's a tragedy, a downward spiral. We can't choose to make that better, that defeats the point.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Unless someone has a gun to your head IRL, you could always play to that point and then say "...and then Captain Walker left the area and called for backup, like he had been ordered to do." Sure, it's a less satisfying choice than pressing on and being the Big Damn Hero, but that's the point. You choose to ignore orders and indulge your messiah complex, you live with the consequences. Incidentally, the WP scene isn't the biggest twist in the game, so I'd still say you should play it anyway.

I have no clue on what you're on about, lay off the drugs? Are trying to justify that bullshit argument that "you can stop playing any time"? They didn't even bother implementing the illusion of a choice.

They pretty much spelled out for you:

Spoiler

- Walker: What happened here was out of my control.
- Konrad: Was it? None of this would've happened if you'd just stopped. But on you marched. And for what? ... The truth Walker, is that you're here because you want to feel like something you're not. A hero.

Did you thought the game was addressing the protagonist? No, it was talking to you. The good thing about that game illusion of a choice was that it was never obstructed by a prompt "press A to kill NPC 1. press B to kill NPC 2."

Alright that's some Metal Gear Solid level mindfuckery, I played the game the whole way through and never thought of that as being directed at me, the player, instead of the guy I was playing as.

OT: Like others have said the game is worth playing for more than that one scene, there's some other brutal moments and decisions (yes you are given options at some points) and you'll still end up feeling like shit at the end (I know I did).

 

[MrBaskerville]

You could always play it for the gameplay, but if it doesn't have more to offer than what the demo implies, then it probably won't be particularily interesting, unless it has some exciting mechanics hidden up its sleeve (or if you enjoy bare bones cover shooters like Uncharted^^).

 

[HannesPascal]

You can choose to turn off the game and do something else. I think the game kind of considers that a valid option. Basically turning off the game is equivalent to completing your mission.

Then wouldn't it be an even better choice to never buy the game in the first place.
Wasn't the mission to find survivors in Dubai which means that when you meet the first guys in the game you should just turn it off saying and then Walker called backup telling them there were survivors. Making the game a walking simulator with an approximate length of 30 min.

I would say no don't buy it.
The gameplay is bad, a boring cover shooter that feels kind of sluggy. Your allies have a tendency of ignoring cover and running into enemy fire which you have to save them from. It has some weird mechanic where executing a wounded enemy gives you more ammo to your weapon than just shooting them from afar.
The story has been way overrated, it was kind of ok (I never finished it) but community feedback hyped it up and it just felt disappointing.
If you care about it there's some blatant gameplay and story segregation (I refuse to say ludicrous patronus or whatever some people call it) when the message is how you shouldn't enjoy violent video games while you can get achievements for killing 500 people with shotguns etc.

If you buy it, don't believe the hype if you don't expect too much from it you might enjoy it.