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Spec Ops: The Line

Omizzay

By Omizzay,
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(Holds fingers in ears) LALALALALA (Doesnt look at any posts in thread) LALALALALALA

Just picked this up and have blundered my way to erm oh hang on (rest of post in spoiler to avoid any spoilage as I dont know that much plot)

beginning of chapter 6 or 7 I think just about to "save" Gould.

Now I obviously know there is a "twist" that lifts the story to a different level as I read that before I got this, its the reason I got it as the premise is a bit hackneyed and the action is fairly basic but polished pretty well.

So question is... so far there have been some twists and turns between CIA and 33rd and another faction of 33rd. Can I assume that the twist that takes this to the next level hasn't happened yet?

Cos if it has I am not impressed, I had heard it was only a few chapters in you see so kinda expected it by now. Impatient I know but I dont want to play rest of game and be disappointed by lack of twist (for me).

you can simply reply with a one word answer of NO if I havent got to the good part yet smile.png

There’s not really a twist in the sense of a Usual Suspects / Crying Game-type plot development that turns everything on its head, it’s more a process of gradual subversion and slow decay – although there are some shocking moments. It’s a great game that’s well worth playing, but I don’t think you should be hanging on for a twist, because you’ll probably be disappointed.

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Meka

Meka

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Played through this yesterday, clocked just under 6hrs according to Steam.

It's very, Hanneke "Funny Games" ish, the final scenes of that film in the boat, while they're talking about the nature of reality and fiction, that was pretty much my interpretation of the main character and the game's different endings.

You, the player, are playing through this typical videogame with explosions and ultra violence but that guy there you're controlling is real, to him it's all real and he's reacting and affected as a real person would be, and you're putting him through it.

He's sort of like Bob from ReBoot but with post-traumatic-stress.

Hang on, just Googling for the twist of this game, because I didn't think the twist was a twist twist that people expect of a twist, and it seems the game is more straight forward than I'm reading into it. I'll try read through the thread now.

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Clipper

Clipper

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I am immune to spoiler-temptation when it comes to games that interest me :P

part of the reason for questioning is was the introduction of

bullet sponge heavies which I think are cheap in the extreme in this type of game, a "free" way to increase difficulty without any intelligence

So I was seeing if it was worth continuing for the story...

Seemingly it is so I will give it a punt :)

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DocG

DocG

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AVOIDING SPOILERS

I was with Clipper, I stalled around the start of chapter 6 or 7 and so far it was merely OK. I knew greatness had to be coming, mind, based on the reactions in here.

Last time I played I got as far as

dropping white phosphorous on a platoon of soldiers and, I later found out, civilians

which was pretty chilling stuff. I suspect this was my first moment with the game, and there's more such to come. Looking forward to the next time I can turf my wife off the TV so I can get some more of this in (but she's addicted to Far Cry 3 at the moment...)

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Plums

Plums

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But it's the theme that's truly groundbreaking. it's resolutely a game that has something to say.

...

i definitely find shooters fun. a bang-bang-bang sequence of headshots is inherently satisfying in these games.

I think maybe that was my problem with the game. I'm not a fan of shooty war FPS games, so I don't play many of them (the closest for me would be something like Mass Effect or Arma). I did not find the shooting in this game satisfying at all, and I would not have bought the game had it not been for the glowing praise it has received. Some of the locations were stunning, can't deny that. I was blown away by the section with the DJ guy for instance. But it felt like a big slog to get to these interesting parts.

The game's critique of the genre was a bit lost on me because I'm not a fan of the genre. I was left thinking "well I didn't really find much of that fun", so questioning my motivation seemed to me almost a paradox. I killed hundreds of guys because I was waiting for this amazing game I'd heard about, now you have the nerve to ask me why I just killed hundreds of guys? Ok, it might make me think, but it doesn't change the fact that I did not particularly enjoy the core game! "Why did I play it then?" I hear people cry - I played it because everyone said it was AMAZING.

I can't say it was a bad game, not by any stretch. I just got all excited and feel a little bit let down that it wasn't what I had hoped. I'll get over it.

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DocG

DocG

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Last week, I read Heart of Darkness. Tonight, I finished Spec Ops: The Line, then watched Apocalypse Now. Trifecta!

Lots to ponder here. I've read a chunk of the thread, but not all of it. Not seen much speculation about

why Walker says "wait, we already did this" during the helicopter battle. Except for the "he's already dead and this is purgatory" theory.

Also, is it me, or

does the radioman deliberately look a lot like Dennis Hopper's photojournalist in Apocalypse Now? He's the same character, of course, and the same character as the German in Heart of Darkness.

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stefcha

stefcha

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Posted

Started this last night on PC, however I get some annoying stuttering when it checkpoints - it's just a very brief but large drop of framerate and it's pretty jarring given it seems to checkpoint every 10 seconds. Moved it to SSD but not had chance to see if that helps it yet. Just me?

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  • 2 weeks later...
danbot

danbot

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One of my favourite beats in the game was that Walker saw Konrad as a good man simply because he had saved Walkers like in Kabul. That in his mind managed to vindicate Konrad of all sorts of atrocities before him. Keep your squaddie alive at all costs, even if it means dropping WP on civvies, and you're a good man. Of course Konrad laughs this off dismissively later.

You probably know this but

No he doesn't. If you see what I mean.

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Nagrub

Nagrub

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So I finished this last night. Looking through the thread is interesting reading, but I probably don't have much more to say that hasn't already been said in the last twenty something pages.

For my part I thought it was brilliant. It's maybe the only game I've ever played that made me actually consider my actions. I cant stop thinking about the game. On the white phosphorus section, I saw what it was doing and I didn't want to burn all the civilians who were hiding in the trench. That was grim.

Generally I don't play military man-shooters because they're all so fucking generic and what they do just isn't that interesting to me. I wouldn't have even considered picking this up unless I knew that there was something special about it. Playing the white phosphorous section reminded me of a bit in one of the Call Of Duties/Medal Of Honors (honestly who can even remember which one) and raining death from above. I think its really interesting how this felt completely different to that. (was a nice touch to see walker's face reflected in the screen of the console you're using I thought) This part also reminded me of some gunship shooting game I downloaded on my iphone a while back which I had to stop playing and delete because it felt too real.

Elements of the gameplay felt fairly cumbersome - all the hyped up sand etc for instance, and some frustrating sections here and there, but generally I found it pretty easy to overlook all that.

Great game. More people should play.

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DocG

DocG

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Playing the white phosphorous section reminded me of a bit in one of the Call Of Duties/Medal Of Honors (honestly who can even remember which one) and raining death from above.

I suspect you're thinking of the Death From Above mission in CoD4, where you control a gun turret on a AC-130 and shoot moving dots on a thermal cam while your co-pilot dispassionately says "that's a kill" over and over again. Lots of people found that part uncomfortable, including myself. I believe the Spec Ops devs are on record saying that the white phosphorous attack was a conscious followup to that, designed to really confront you with the consequences to your flippant actions.

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Nagrub

Nagrub

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I suspect you're thinking of the Death From Above mission in CoD4, where you control a gun turret on a AC-130 and shoot moving dots on a thermal cam while your co-pilot dispassionately says "that's a kill" over and over again. Lots of people found that part uncomfortable, including myself. I believe the Spec Ops devs are on record saying that the white phosphorous attack was a conscious followup to that, designed to really confront you with the consequences to your flippant actions.

Absolutely. The ios gunship game I mentioned in my previous post was exactly the same. Once you slap on a grainy filter, it's all in black and white and people are the size of bugs on screen it just looks chillingly realistic. I remember having a moment playing that in the COD and feeling 'oh, this is actually how easy it is to kill someone from a mile away with a telephoto lens'.

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therearerules

therearerules

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Loved this. Not the game per se, but, you know, everything else. I think I lost a lot compared to some by not being a fan of duck hunt modern shooters, and only playing COD:MW2 once as my single reference. As a result, and my incompetence, I did end up dieing and restarting enough times to detract from the story.

At first I was a bit annoyed that it doesn't make sense and the ambiguity, but I like the idea that you're a clueless idiot who thinks killing more people will equal knowledge. We'll never know what really happened, and that's the point. Would have preferred to see a bit more compassion to the middle eastern males between the ages of 16 and 50 though. I didn't really get shocked when I was fighting US troops, may as well be fighting Russian troops or any other countries', but it did kind of depend upon the murder of woman, children and Americans to push through the point that this is all bad. Still, loads has been said, and I've still a lot more to digest.

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