Zero Punctuation: Spec Ops: The Line

[mike1921]

Well, I just played through Spec Ops: The Line. And I have to say, it has been a while since a game story gripped me quite like that. Not just because of the bad thing you're told to do by the game itself, but because of how it all feels. It starts out like any shooter available, and give you the time to shoot stuff and hear some smartass dialouge from your comrades.

And then it all goes downhill. You encounter more and more atrocities as you go, even take part in a few of them. Any semblance of happiness is snuffed out by the sheer weight of reality, even the loading screens chastise you for your actions. And soon enough, you realize that Walker may not be as stable as you once thought, leading you to rapidly doubt what is real within the game, until it all comes to a climax that leaves you as emotionally empty as Walker himself.

Overall, I had a good time.

That's what our military's doing. America and the West stood by and let the world turn itself pre-9/11, and it was that day that showed us the true threat terrorism poses to us.

Indeed it did, it showed the threats of morons using terrorism as an excuse to do stupid shit. More Americans will die today than have died on 9/11 from the plane crashes. 9/11 shows how much we could overly react and that's it.

"Stupid shit" being wiping out the camps that trained the bastards who slaughtered civilians in addition to apprehending or killing the bastards who slaughtered our civilians, eh?

No that's a reasonable response, using it as an excuse for a war that we've been in longer than WWII isn't a reasonable response though, using it as an excuse to pass laws that infringe upon your rights isn't a reasonable response, using it to justify torture (making people hate us more, and more likely to attack in the future) isn't a reasonable response, using it to justify a retardedly huge military isn't.

 

[SickBritKid]

Well, I just played through Spec Ops: The Line. And I have to say, it has been a while since a game story gripped me quite like that. Not just because of the bad thing you're told to do by the game itself, but because of how it all feels. It starts out like any shooter available, and give you the time to shoot stuff and hear some smartass dialouge from your comrades.

And then it all goes downhill. You encounter more and more atrocities as you go, even take part in a few of them. Any semblance of happiness is snuffed out by the sheer weight of reality, even the loading screens chastise you for your actions. And soon enough, you realize that Walker may not be as stable as you once thought, leading you to rapidly doubt what is real within the game, until it all comes to a climax that leaves you as emotionally empty as Walker himself.

Overall, I had a good time.

That's what our military's doing. America and the West stood by and let the world turn itself pre-9/11, and it was that day that showed us the true threat terrorism poses to us.

Indeed it did, it showed the threats of morons using terrorism as an excuse to do stupid shit. More Americans will die today than have died on 9/11 from the plane crashes. 9/11 shows how much we could overly react and that's it.

"Stupid shit" being wiping out the camps that trained the bastards who slaughtered civilians in addition to apprehending or killing the bastards who slaughtered our civilians, eh?

No that's a reasonable response, using it as an excuse for a war that we've been in longer than WWII isn't a reasonable response though, using it as an excuse to pass laws that infringe upon your rights isn't a reasonable response, using it to justify torture (making people hate us more, and more likely to attack in the future) isn't a reasonable response, using it to justify a retardedly huge military isn't.

My heart goes out the POOR terrorists who are busy receiving above-average healthcare and accommodations in Gitmo despite deserving far more than the "torture" they're receiving.

Also, I love how you're talking about the Iraq war like it's still going on, even though we've been done with it for about a year, now. And it's not nearly as costly toward this country as the ridiculous spending policies and the waste in our government, much of it courtesy of our present administration.

 

[mike1921]

Well, I just played through Spec Ops: The Line. And I have to say, it has been a while since a game story gripped me quite like that. Not just because of the bad thing you're told to do by the game itself, but because of how it all feels. It starts out like any shooter available, and give you the time to shoot stuff and hear some smartass dialouge from your comrades.

And then it all goes downhill. You encounter more and more atrocities as you go, even take part in a few of them. Any semblance of happiness is snuffed out by the sheer weight of reality, even the loading screens chastise you for your actions. And soon enough, you realize that Walker may not be as stable as you once thought, leading you to rapidly doubt what is real within the game, until it all comes to a climax that leaves you as emotionally empty as Walker himself.

Overall, I had a good time.

That's what our military's doing. America and the West stood by and let the world turn itself pre-9/11, and it was that day that showed us the true threat terrorism poses to us.

Indeed it did, it showed the threats of morons using terrorism as an excuse to do stupid shit. More Americans will die today than have died on 9/11 from the plane crashes. 9/11 shows how much we could overly react and that's it.

"Stupid shit" being wiping out the camps that trained the bastards who slaughtered civilians in addition to apprehending or killing the bastards who slaughtered our civilians, eh?

No that's a reasonable response, using it as an excuse for a war that we've been in longer than WWII isn't a reasonable response though, using it as an excuse to pass laws that infringe upon your rights isn't a reasonable response, using it to justify torture (making people hate us more, and more likely to attack in the future) isn't a reasonable response, using it to justify a retardedly huge military isn't.

My heart goes out the POOR terrorists who are busy receiving above-average healthcare and accommodations in Gitmo despite deserving far more than the "torture" they're receiving.

Also, I love how you're talking about the Iraq war like it's still going on, even though we've been done with it for about a year, now. And it's not nearly as costly toward this country as the ridiculous spending policies and the waste in our government, much of it courtesy of our present administration.

Have they had a fucking trial? If no then fuck you for assuming that if the government says you're a terrorist that you are. It amazes me that the conservatives, the ones who claim to hate big government are the first to advocate for a government that they trust so much that they could just label you a terrorist and torture you without a fucking trial.

Because we're not at war in afghanistan or anything, it's not like our military budget is by far the highest in the world or anything.

Great, yes we have problems just blame Obama because why the fuck not. The president is obviously the main force behind policy not the actual ..you know..LEGISLATIVE branch of the fucking government. We are wasting so much fucking money on the military which doesn't fucking help anyone and wasting too much potential revenue with tax loopholes that we refuse to fix.

 

[Tradjus]

This game didn't have much impact on me for one specific reason.
The "Bad thing" that you do didn't make me feel bad about myself at all, because unlike Walker and his buddies, you as a player -literally- had no other choice than to do the "Bad thing" if you wanted to move on.
It would have had a massive impact if I had had the option to not do the "Bad thing" yet had done it anyway for the sake of convenience, then found out later the horrible truth of the "Bad thing". But that wasn't the case, it was the only way to finish the game, and if a game company tries to make you feel bad for finishing the game you dropped 60$ on, well.. that's something I would openly and honestly -laugh in their faces- for.

 

[Absimilliard]

"Do you remember when games were about killing demons from Hell?"
Ironically, I picked up Shadows of the Damned at the same time as I (finally) bought Spec Ops: the Line... I play those games when I'm in very different moods...

I agree that the gameplay was pretty forgettable, but egads the story was genius, I can see why it made Yahtzee's no 1 game of 2012.

 

[lostlevel]

I like the cabin in the woods explanation, nothing about the game play is un-remarkable- it plays like the usual but I thought I'd give it a go.

I can't think of the last time a game made me step back from the action of being enthralled playing it to think of consequences at points this was demoralising as often I had no choice between the wrongs I committed and the character(s) bear the weight of all these decisions. I also liked the fact that the characters aren't simple stereotypes which is pretty rare.

I can't remember the last time a game genuinely impressed me and moved me so much (but then I haven't played the Walking Dead yet) however I might not play it again for a while though, I'm pretty drained now.

 

[Aptspire]

My thought process: Hey, Yahtzee said good things about this game... and it's on sale on Steam! I'll buy it!
*One playthrough later* (warning: memetic image below)

Spoiler

 

[Latias418]

I realise I am very late here, but I would like to add my comment anyways. For a long while I forgot about Zero Punctuation, and I spent yesterday catching up on the past year and a half of episodes. On Yahtzee's strong recommendation of Spec Ops, I picked it up. Unfortunately, I found myself extremely disappointed.

Yahtzee never makes the gameplay out to be anything more that just another generic modern FPS, and it isn't. It has no features of any kind to make the gameplay mechanics stand out from the other fifteen modern FPS games released in the past year. The squad command is incredibly half-baked and ultimately useless, as Yahtzee says. Of course, the gameplay is not why Yahtzee recommends the game.

The storyline... did not capture me. At all. I find myself emotionally invested in media quite easily, but Spec Ops was not a video game I found myself invested in. The goal seems to be to make you feel guilty for the horrors of war you've committed, but... you didn't commit any horrible acts. The character you play as did, but you had no choice in the matter. How am I supposed to feel guilty for what another person did? For a video game to invoke guilt, you must be given the choice. You have to be immersed in it, to feel like it's you making the choice, not the avatar you control. Following a linear script doesn't make me feel guilty. Outside of trying to force a guilt trip, the storyline was not special in any way. It was just another generic modern FPS story.

I doubt anyone will read this, but if you do and are thinking about purchasing Spec Ops, I recommend that you don't waste the money. I don't know how this game enamored Yahtzee so, but it was a waste of time and money to me. It had nothing of value to separate it from any other modern FPS game released in the past five years.

 

[lolcatize]

No, I just told you what happened: the game cheated. It respawned enemies making it impossible to choose any other option than using white phosphorus,

So the whole 'too numerous to kill by conventional means' thing went right over your head, I guess? From the sound of it, you started shooting, and as soon as another soldier filled the place on advantageous highground left vacant by a downed comrade, you threw up your hands and screamed "Impossible!" then quit.

Because otherwise, it wouldn't matter if the game was 'cheating' or not. That wasn't my question. I asked whether or not your encounter ended with A) you running out of ammo and dying or B) dying before that point. And if you were up against infinitely respawning enemies, that would've been the case.

an option which I would have not taken in real life. I would have sooner run away and hide. And then the ending blamed me for not doing exactly that.

So in 'real life,' you would have simply proven yourself to be a terrible soldier undeserving of the prestigious ranks of Delta Force? Okay. I'll accept that.

About the walker calling evac you missed the point. Objective was scouting and calling for evac but walker went to far ahead. towards the end of the game Konrad says this : 5000 people were alive in dubai the day you arived, how many are alive today? how many will be alive tommorow? I though my mission was to protect city from the storm, but in reality it was to protect it from you.
basically walker failed the mission, during one of the loading screen the game even says ''alpha failed their mission its all about revenge now'' so in the end there was no justifieble act in this mission was failed dubai died.

 

[lolcatize]

No, I just told you what happened: the game cheated. It respawned enemies making it impossible to choose any other option than using white phosphorus,

So the whole 'too numerous to kill by conventional means' thing went right over your head, I guess? From the sound of it, you started shooting, and as soon as another soldier filled the place on advantageous highground left vacant by a downed comrade, you threw up your hands and screamed "Impossible!" then quit.

Because otherwise, it wouldn't matter if the game was 'cheating' or not. That wasn't my question. I asked whether or not your encounter ended with A) you running out of ammo and dying or B) dying before that point. And if you were up against infinitely respawning enemies, that would've been the case.

an option which I would have not taken in real life. I would have sooner run away and hide. And then the ending blamed me for not doing exactly that.

So in 'real life,' you would have simply proven yourself to be a terrible soldier undeserving of the prestigious ranks of Delta Force? Okay. I'll accept that.

About the walker calling evac you missed the point. Objective was scouting and calling for evac but walker went to far ahead. towards the end of the game Konrad says this : 5000 people were alive in dubai the day you arived, how many are alive today? how many will be alive tommorow? I though my mission was to protect city from the storm, but in reality it was to protect it from you.
basically walker failed the mission, during one of the loading screen the game even says ''alpha failed their mission its
all about revenge now'' so in the end there was no justifieble act in this mission was failed dubai died.

I gotta post an apology to you char this was ment for Blood but due to my own incompetens i somehow fucked it up, i hope no harm was done.

 

[charliesbass]

I actually played the demo for this and found the gameplay quite lacking if being utterly annoying. The chemistry of the characters was lacking (maybe it's because it's the demo) and frankly I couldn't feel invested in it. But that being said, I did enjoy this review since it has something Yahtzee is very good at and that is the juxtaposition of being funny. Grim games can work, but really, if it's not fun to play (and I would even go sofar as to say if a horror game isn't fun) then really what is the point? Immersion? Not on my count. It's impossible to get immersed in a game you're hating. The shooting is bland, the contextual flashbang is mind-boggling and I hadn't the feeling the plot was up to much.

Yeah, the demo sucked, but that was only the demo. It was my GOTY, but I couldn't even completel the demo. After all, you didn't reach the white phosphorus bit..

 

[charliesbass]

Yahtzee, is there just something about your limeys and your inability to appreciate the military putting their asses on the line so that you don't have to? Y'know, protecting your freedoms, preventing your own slaughter at the hands of those who despise you and want you to eat the soles of their boots?

Look, I'm a conservative and I dislike the shit we've gotten into with our wars and our expended blood and treasure.

I still love and support my military, however, as those men and women are out there defending my freedoms.

I'm not proud of what's been committed in the name of god and country, but as one legendary general once said: "War is hell." And there comes a time when war is needed to ensure that the decent folk of this world don't wind up getting shat upon by that flaky *****, Fate.

That said, this is easily one of your best reviews, Yahtzee, and excellent job on that.

*farting noise*

The fact you keep saying someone's 'protecting our freedoms' doesn't make it true. And even if they are it's at the expense of the freedoms of people from other countries, so I understand people finding it hard to respect soldiers as much as the media assumes they should.

If they're fighting for freedom, where the hell is it?

So I'm guessing you're one of those morons who think that 9/11 was an inside job and that our military should be ashamed for a proper response to a wanton slaughter of innocents?

That's what our military's doing. America and the West stood by and let the world turn itself pre-9/11, and it was that day that showed us the true threat terrorism poses to us.

Those men and women are out there risking their lives so you don't have to. That, at least, warrants some sort of respect.