My Retrospective and Re-Review on Spec Ops: The Line (for PC).
INTRO - 02-02-2024:
Given all the sad news of licenses expiring (probably of the licensed music in the game for songs from Alice in Chains & Jimi Hendrix, for starters) and this game (Spec Ops: The Line) being pulled from digital stores (Xbox Store, GOG, Steam, etc.), I'm going to do a retrospective & re-review (on a replay) of the outstanding military-style third-person shooter (TPS) by Yager, which certainly is one of the most memorable of these type of Gears of War-like cover shooters ever made.
CROSS(-ING) THE LINE.
In this game, you play Walker from the military, a soldier who has a squad that goes into Dubai for a recon mission. That doesn't same much and I'm not going to much further into that, as that's the set-up and you're likely better off not knowing much going in here. That is just the start of the game's descent into brutality & madness, in which this game eventually becomes something else entirely in so many ways, without going into spoiler turf here.
This is not an easy game for many people to stomach, given its commentary here & also the grisly and brutal of the content in this game & some of its scenes. This game's well known for some players not finishing the game at a certain common "quitting point" in the game, due to its nature - but for those that can see it through even after that point, that quitting point (QP) is not just the only brutal part of this game; it still gets brutal in other ways here after that QP, too. The game is both a physical and mental tour de force here, for both gamers & the characters in this game, without spoiling anything here.
Basically, Spec Ops: TL is gaming's Heart of Darkness & Apocalypse Now (for all you movie and book buffs here), without really heading into spoiler turf here, as it has so much to say about its subject matters - i.e. military, war, violence, morality, Gov't agencies, patriotism, and more.
GAMEPLAY.
The set pieces and shoot-outs here are outstanding, along w/ the licensed soundtrack & voice-acting. The combat's intense and really good, if you love those Gears of War type of TPS's, but instead it's more realistic than that. The script's a total cinematic & gaming masterpiece, all rolled into one here. If you like military games and Gears of War type of TPS cover-shooters, you're going to really like the combat & gameplay here, as it certainly does its thing & plays very well. Just, you know...don't expect to battle bugs and robots here, as this is not a sci-fi game; this is a military game aiming for realism.
On a replay here at 1080p and maxed-out on my 6gb VRAM RTX 3060 laptop here - in which that laptop's loaded with also R5 5600H, 16gb RAM, 1 TB SSD, W11 - this game has no problem running on modern systems here for me. Runs super-smooth and very rarely goes under 60fps, which is great. Amazingly, the game still looks great & that stuff still holds up to very well to this day, due to also the game's art direction and also the number of details in the game-world. I also shouldn't forget this game's own immersion factor here, with the way it depicts Dubai, war, and others things here - and not to forget the outstanding soundtrack of licensed music, too.
LICENSE TO REMOVE, FIX, OR SOMETHING.
This is the point where I state this about licenses in games: I wish" forever-licenses" existed for games so games can be sold w/ their original & proper vision w/ key songs intact (same could go for cars in racing games, too). But, this is how musicians and/or the music industry makes money, where companies need to re-license a track so it keeps getting sold.
So, as much as I hate to say this: I wish more games pulled a Hi-Fi Rush, having a back-up plan in place so streamers can stream the game without NDA strikes & without licensing music playing, instead using generic and/or music from the studio - which also seems like a great back-up for plan for the sad moment when key songs for the game sadly might need to get pulled b/c it's still being sold on a digital service & b/c said publisher don't want to pay for the license anymore.
It's sad to see Michael Jackson tunes removed from classic GTA's and all of the great tunes from Mafia 1 (original) have to get pulled; and/or sad to see games like Specs Ops: The Line & Alpha Protocol disappear from purchasing b/c of this madness. At least w/ Mafia 1 (on Steam and GOG), that game is still being sold, even if it's sadly without its OG licensed tunes. I'll be sad for the day all the great licensed tunes from Vampire: Bloodlines need to get pulled, too.
OUTRO, FOR NOW.
It's a shame to see such a great TPS game with tons to say & still very relevant - and it probably always will be, TBH - get pulled from digital stores. Though I do see Xbox 360 & PS3 copies from retail on EBay now going for over $70-150. So, yeah - "Wow! Just wow!" It's not a long single-player campaign, which can go for around 8 hours or so - but with multiple difficulties here & it's a extremely well-executed right & perfect in length, it rocks. It never lets go of the player in so many ways & is definitely being thought-provoking from start to finish.
For those that can stomach it, this really should not be missed; this descent into its theme of War is that place below us here is just gripping, brutal, and loaded with tons to say.
Spec Ops: The Line is a crazy roller coaster ride of a TPS cover-shooter game that is unforgettable.
This is an unforgettable masterpiece of a game.
