1. Xborn74

   9

   "Spec Ops: The Line" is the ninth game of the franchise dating back to PC, 98, and is produced by 2K Games, using the Unreal Engine 3. The story is set in a Dubai devastated by a sandstorm, 6 months ago: some of the city's population escaped, but many were left behind in this chaotic and anarchic city; among those who stayed behind, there is a US Army Colonel, who contrary to orders, he decided to stay to help - all thought he was dead, until a weak broadcast is capted, and now, you and your squad enter this anarchic scenary to rescue him, and find several things toward this goal.The graphics are good but not excellent, being comparable to other games like Rainbrow 6 Vegas II or Operation Flashpoint 2 - the textures of characters have a good detail, but nothing to go to minimal skin texture. The same applies to other details such as footprints in the sand, which does not always appear, and the destruction effect, with large pieces - the details of the scenarios in the campaign are very good, and detailed.The colors of the game, that passes in a desert, have many strong colors that are heavy on a color theme, depending on the stage, and abuses of yellows and oranges, and you can opt for three tonal variations when starting the game (Vintage, Exaggerated and Normal) - obviously, the graphics are obscured a greater distance, by sand and wind, or the darkness that spread through the city without electricity.The game has a mixed musical background mixed, the main part orchestrated, with the typical style of action games. The acting is mixed, usually dialogues are good, but the acting is not perfect, and the voices are very constant in volume, whereas the general sound effects are good, especially in the climate of the place.You notice another similarity with Vegas II in relation to the enemies: it is always easy to know if there is any hidden in the stage, they scream incessantly, even when they are alone.The gameplay is of a great shooter in the 3rd person, strategic, but tending much action: there are 4 difficulties, and the most difficult (FUBAR) shall be released only after finishing the game on Hard (Suicide). The highlight is that the controls are intuitive and smooth, with no difficulty to play and enjoy the game.The stages are linear and with physical borders, having a goal, displayed on the screen, with its distance, and generally among them are facing waves of enemies to reach them - and the enemies are plentiful in the game, and are varied among survivors, and other military forces.The importance of the cover system is higher here, two or three shots from enemies kill you - and allied to it, the choice of weapons and the use of certain commands to your squad to ensure that you live longer. The grenades are throw with LB, and you can see the trajectory and possible deviations that they may have hiting objetcs.The life has regeneration, when in cover, and the damage is shown by taking a shade screen over white and black with blood around it - here, the damage in the higher difficulties is higher than in other games, but nothing too extreme.The enemy AI is mixed: generally do not have much strategy, just attack and use some cover, but every once in a while you, being the primary target of them do strange things like running behind our team, not caring that they are there, to kill you. The same applies to your Team AI: in general has a good performance, but are not extremely well-aimed and sometimes make suicidal decisions too, but do not die so much, by what I said above the enemy AI.The highlight if the gameplay is the destruction of certain structures in the game, which can fall or break in the case of glass, and the presence of climatic factors relating to sand in the game, and that much influence on the strategy used (many enemies attack from skylights high above), from the point of obscuring the vision enemy with storms of sand to break the structures of Cover / support of opponents.The variety of weapons is very good, and despite ammunition goes away fast in the action, you can get any weapons of the enemy, and re-supply points are abundant. The game's collectibles are items in the form of intelligence that give greater insight into story and do not always have the same look, with different objects each time.The game has Multiplayer, which can be played on Live or via System Link, and from what I read it is a competitive mode, based on the struggle between teams, in which changes in the scenarios by sand avalanches / storms or destruction of scenery. Seeing the trailer, seemed very similar to the MP of Vegas II .Summary: I found a great 3rd person shooter, being among my favorites: it has good graphics, with great weather effects and destruction, coupled with a strategic gameplay with more action, and well polished gameplay and controls (a detail that many other recent shooters do not have). If you like shooters with lots of action, this certainly deserves to be in your collection.… Expand

   • Helpful? 22 of 27 users said Yes.
2. psbox362

   8

   Going into this game, I was already aware that the story was based on the book, The Heart of Darkness. Knowing this, my interest was piqued as I played through the campaign and was absolutely amazed by the plot of this game. As Delta Squad delves further into the city of Dubai, they are gradually changed by the horrors of war as their mission to save the civilians only gets worse. I'm not going to add any spoilers as I believe this is a story best told through the game itself.
   
   I'll just go right ahead and say this first. The gameplay is NOT the focus of this game. This is a thinking man's game in the sense that it has it's own message and acts as one big commentary on the modern war genre of shooting games. If you're coming at this game thinking that this is some extravaganza of guns and fun in the sand, think again. The gameplay does what it's supposed to and not much more. The guns feel rather "meh" with the exception of a few overpowered hand-cannons that you wouldn't want to drop if it weren't for the scarcity of ammo throughout the game. The AI is also functional but prone to moments of stupidity. You do have the ability to give your squad orders, but it's rather limited for the most part. Everything works fine, but it's easy to tell that it's the story that's the highlight of the game.
   
   As you continue to play the tones throughout the game gradually shift, turning darker, cynical, and more violent to reflect the squads' (especially Walker's) degrading mental states. The executions, which start as basic neck stomps and a quick shot to the head soon turn into savage beat downs and forcing a gun barrel into the struggling victim's mouth. Walker's orders also shift from being a professional to him breaking down to barking orders with no shortage of profanity.
   
   To put things simply, this game gets disturbing. You're often forced into moral choices with no positive outcome and you're made to live with the consequences. And boy, are there consequences. There are moments in this game that hit you like a hammer as the game brutally ( and mockingly) reminds you that everything that has happened is entirely your fault. The game even outright tells you to stop playing if you don't want things to get any worse. The ending in Spec Ops is one of the best of any video game that I've seen in a very long time. Despite being based off a book (that I've read, no less), it's still so well executed that I can't help but be amazed by it. Definitely not something you want spoiled for you.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
3. joey-clemenza

   7

   For a fan of shooters, the ease of gameplay may be a big deterrent. However, and seeing as today's games are further breaking the boundaries of story, this one reaches for the sky and beyond. A well orchestrated story with character, fleshed out and at times dramatically surrendering. A simpleton with a pension for KVD and the Call of Duty series could never enjoy a game like this. Though for those who want a little experimentation in exposition, as well as an interesting Apocalypse Now aesthetic, this game may very well be for you. *4 out of 5 stars."… Collapse

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
4. RedBike

   2

   I was kind of looking forward to playing this game. But now that I have finished it on the hardest difficulty setting, I can say that this is the worst game of 2012 so far. Extremely disappointing would be an under statement.
   
   The game is essentially one big escort mission. Your two buddies constantly get killed. I do not think that I died on my own accord at all through the entire two playthroughs. It was always one or both of my buddies getting killed, forcing me to try and rescue them, and getting me killed in the process. When you design a game where your buddies gets hurts, make sure that you can control them so that you can hold them back from harms way. You can't have the buddies rushing forward all the time to get hurt. And make sure that when you are saving them, that you are invincible during that procedure. Also when you rescue your buddy, the camera spins around so much that you become disoriented and gets you killed.
   
   For a game that makes you die so often, and so swiftly, make sure that the loading times are short. The loading time for this game is atrocious, even when it is installed on the xbox 360 hdd. I've spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the actual game.
   
   Do not have unskippable cut scenes. Why do people still make games that forces you to watch stupid cutscenes. I've seen it once, and I don't want to see it again. And do not put forced save points before a cutscene. This is what happens. I die. Watch loading screen. Watch cutscene. I die. Repeat. This is poor game design.
   
   Why does it take a whole clip to take down a baddie, when all it takes is one bullet from a baddie to kill you? The unbalanced nature makes your bullets pretty much useless. Especially when they are in such a short supply. If you are going to make a game that requires lots of bullets to kill a baddie, give us more bullets. If you only provide small amounts of ammo, make it so that the enemies die in one shot. This isn't a 3rd person shooter, it's a 3rd person hider because you spend most of your time hiding behind cover waiting for your buddies to take our the enemies. And why have a cover where your enemies can shoot you? It makes the cover system useless. There are also lots of 'traps' where it looks like you can take cover, but the game doesn't allow you to.
   
   The controls are also super sluggish. It takes forever to take cover, come out of cover or do anything. And it only take one bullet to kill you. This is what happens. I take cover behind something. Enemy throws a grenade. The time it takes for the game to take you out of cover so that you can run away from the grenade is longer than the grenade fuse so you die. Sometimes, the grenade icon doesn't even show so you die anyway. Enemy nade spam was extremely aggravating.… Expand

   • Helpful? 5 of 38 users said Yes.

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