Zero Punctuation: Spec Ops: The Line

[GAunderrated]

I bought and finished the campaign in 4 hours and man what a crazy story/ending.I got it for 25 bucks via amazon on sale and it was worth every penny. Yeah I know its not that long of a story but it was very tight and contained. I'll take that over 60 hours of no progression (FFXIII i'm looking at you). I strongly recommend you check this game out if you want an intense story.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I just think about Spaceballs when Jam and Apocalypse are in the same thought.

 

[tehweave]

A) It sounds like you just described Bioshock. Imagine the main character being told to "complete objective A, would you kindly."

B) Holy fuck I have to play this game.

 

[SickBritKid]

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*

 

[Hazy]

The loading screens are the best part.

 

[Aidinthel]

*snip*

Yeah, the little touches like that really made the experience. My favorite part was the way the squad's combat banter descended into semi-coherent cursing toward the end.

 

[Tamrin]

A) It sounds like you just described Bioshock. Imagine the main character being told to "complete objective A, would you kindly."

B) Holy fuck I have to play this game.

1) No. The game makes you do fucked up things but it's different from Bioshock's "would you kindly". I wont go into details.

2) You should.

 

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

That's it, I'm no longer listening to anyone I personally know for game recommendations. They told me this game sucks because "there weren't enough weapons" and "I didn't get it."

I am buying this tomorrow.

 

[CopperBoom]

This was a rather good as always but the reason I wanted to comment was because when I finished the episode all I could think was that if this was under the old format the intro or outro music would have been "Saturday's All Right For Fighting" by Elton John... I am not even sure that makes sense but I cannot escape that thought.

So much so I felt the need to comment.

 

[Gereiam]

WOW! I'm really confused now! Should i be excited that he's given Dubai, my hometown a mention in his show or should i be pissed that he dissed Dubai. Frankly im not really an arab citizen, I'm Indian but i lived here all my life but its still something to see your little city get all rich and infamous. Hey BTW, dubai looks NOTHING like the one portrayed in the game. The developers must have sent a photographer by himself/herself to take a few snaps of dubai and based the design of their game around those few limiting shots.
P.S adding this to the recent Mission Impossible movie, why does american media insist on covering Dubai with sand when a sandstorm has never, in the history of the middle east, ever happened here? Some passive aggressive sentiment hmm?

Dubaiiiii!!!!!!! Your just jealous!

 

[SmilingWorlock]

And the steam gods are vice incarnate.

Well, there IS a demo. I played it yesterday after watching ZP, but I really didn't like it. I came from playing halflife bevor, and the movement felt really obstructed. Why can I jump over that chest high wall, but not over that knee high sand bags?

 

[In Search of Username]

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.

 

[Balkan]

The loading screens are the best part.

Did you remember why you came there ? I thought I did , but on my 2nd play it turned down I was wrong .
I was so happy that the last mission was hard . That way I could see all of the load screens .
Also did you noticed that Walker changes alot in the game ? At first he uses terms like "Tango down" or "Hostile eliminated" and he executes wounded by a simple bullet to the head . And by the end he like swearing alot "FUCKING TRAIDOR " or "got the mother fucker " and the executions start to get blody . He shoves his gun is the enemie`s face and blows it up . Or shots them first in the leg than in the face.
Also I am the only one who noticed that he didnt ranted about Nolan North voicing Walker ?

 

[kingmob]

A recommendation from Yahtzee is pretty much worth an international PR campaign for the developer. Looking forward to seeing "pfffffftt" quoted

 

[5ilver]

I gotta say, the WP scene was AWESOME. I've always been curious about the way that looks IRL, now I know.

I kinda feel the farting noises spoil the ZP episode, though.

 

[jmarquiso]

And this review is why we require that balance of having games that allow developers to explore the more darker parts of our human nature and games that should be allowed to be developed into completely nonsensical characters and stories.

Honestly seeing a first impression I thought this game was pretty good, although I will say that for those saying "ammo is scarce", it wasn't. Ammo was given if you actually took the time to "execute" those soldiers. So while say a simple headshot would suffice and enable you to move on shooting from the hip and going to finish the job yielded a lot more rewards. Yeah, pretty gruesome for a way to get ammo.

Now THAT is a brillant "moral choice"

 

[Vrach]

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.

I haven't actually played the demo, but I can safely say you are 99.99% likely not to get an accurate view of the game from it. The big points the game scores are in the story and the important bits of it are not something you'd put in a demo, or you'd spoil the whole game (also, they're not anywhere near the start of the game, which is usually what you put in a demo).

Also, I heavily disagree on your definition of fun as well as that it's the only important thing in games (although of course, that might be your own definition and why you play games for, which is fair enough). You're not gonna hate SO: The Line, you're just gonna get to a few bits of story where you won't be "oh, awesome!", but "shit, what the fuck did my character (and by proxy, I) just do?!". It's by no means something to hate the game for, it's just something you're "forced" to do because the game is linear and it's not a matter of choice, merely a point in the story of a linear game.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Yahtzee recommended, instant-buy.

I'm not sure how that happened. I think he's got a direct line to my brain.

 

[carpathic]

Trying to decide if I felt this review was thoughtful because it was more insightful than Yahtzee's usual reviews (nope) or just because it dealt with more serious subject matter than usual (more likely I think).

Odd how subject matter can delineate to a large degree, how you interpret something.

Good job sir, an excellent review.

Thank you!

 

[itsthesheppy]

I probably wouldn't have given the game a second glance, but this review put it on my radar, definitely.