General gaming

General gaming

Spec Ops: The Line's Literary Aspirations Complement Its War Crimes

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 05:00 AM PST

I don't shock easily, but Spec Ops: The Line hits a nerve. 2K Games' entry into the military shooter genre drops the jingoistic glee of cutting down enemies of freedom for a more sedate story that its makers say is "inspired" by (I might say copied from) Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. The change in tone, along with the addition of a subtle moral choice system, makes this more than a grab for Call of Duty's crown -- it forced me to consider moral choices in ways that Mass Effect never could.

I feel Spec Ops' impact from the opening moments on Sheikh Zayed Road leading into a Dubai destroyed by massive sandstorms. I control Captain John Walker -- accompanied by two other Delta Operators assigned to track down a missing US officer conspicuously named Colonel John Konrad. Unlike most video game settings, I've actually traveled along that road. To me, it means family vacations and sightseeing, and witnessing that place convincingly rendered as a warzone feels somehow uncanny. As Walker and his team walk down the abandoned highway with Dubai's imposing skyline in the distance, they find themselves ambushed by a group of Iranian refugees -- developer Yager did a great job of ensuring that the civilian population matches the diversity of the real Dubai and United Arab Emirates, a country where expatriates make up 80-percent of the population. A quick firefight serves as a tutorial, and over the next ninety minutes, Spec Ops funnels me down Sheikh Zayed Road and into the city.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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