PlayStation 3

Spec Ops: The Line

Released 6/25/12

Genre

: Shooter

Also On Xbox 360

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Content Descriptors

Blood and Gore
Intense Violence
Strong Language

Interactive Elements

No Interactive Elements

7.5

GameFly

from 3139 users

metacritic

Based on 27 critics

You may have played military shooters where you explored a sandbox world, but you've never seen one like this. Lead your team on a search for survivors in a city buried by sand in this tactical third-person shooter. A sandstorm of epic proportions has wiped Dubai clean off the map. Six months later, a radio signal blips on the radar. Delta Recon Team is sent to investigate. Expecting a routine mission and an easy evac, they instead find themselves caught in a war sparked by an out-of-control madman. Make hard choices as you try to survive a dizzying combat zone where out-of-nowhere sandstorms and avalanches can shift the battlefield in an instant.

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Media (48)

News (2)

Spec Ops: The Line Delisting Reason Revealed, Director Comments On Removal

Spec Ops: The Line Devs Also Don't Know Why The Game Was Delisted From Steam

User Ratings (3139)

7.5

9-10

7-8

5-6

3-4

1-2

User Reviews (132)

Most Helpful

Most Recent

Story is this shooter's strongpoint

"Spec Ops: The Line" appears, on face value and in terms of gameplay, to be just another military shooter, though this is in 3rd person instead of the favored FPS. As a shooter, it works well enough. The aiming doesn't always snap to its target, but it works more often than not. Same with the cover system, which only fails on occasion. Shooting and using grenades are easy enough and use familiar controls to anyone who's ever played a COD or a Battlefield. you can only carry two weapons, but they can be a similar type, as you not limited to one pistol and one long ranged weapon. Melee is okay, though you won't use it often, and your team's AI is generally competent. The enemy AI isn't the smartest, but they're not the dumbest either. The game's 15 chapters (plus an epilogue after the credits) will take most about 6 hours to play through. There's intel to be found, which is worth finding in that it adds to the story. And then there's the story, and what a story it is. Inspired by Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" and the film "Apocalypse Now", the story takes you on a dark journey through the sand ravaged streets of Dubai (which is rendered beautifully). What starts of as a recon mission quickly turns to a rescue mission and then an all out fight for survival. On your journey you'll be confronted with making choices, but none of these are your typical right or wrong moral options. In each case you may find your choice and its consequences disturbing, which is the game's intention. Good as this was done I would have liked to see a bit more options, but it was effective nonetheless. The choices affect how your teammates react to you and the game's ending, so that may be incentive to replay the campaign. I only played the single player campaign, but there is multiplayer for those who enjoy that. All in all, this game is well worth playing. The graphics are terrific, the voice acting superb, and the soundtrack is great. A must play at least.

tjsmoke (member since 2008)

reviewed on 6/28/12

23 agree

Spec Ops: Draws the Line.

Spec ops is one of those games that make you go through all of the motions but more importantly and shocking, too me at least, is that it makes you go through all of your emotions as well. You will feel enraged, sad, guilty, and happy and you won't know when it hits you..until it comes across your chin like a hammer. The story in Spec Ops is by far one of the most gripping, confusing, and intense experiences I have had with gaming in a long time. The moral decisions you must make are gut wrenching, even the ones you have no control over. Spec ops pulls you right in, chews you up, spits you out, and goes for seconds. My emotions were messed with so bad...and I loved every minute of it. Forget the shooter aspect for one moment and immerse yourself in the dialogue. Listen..very carefully. Even though the visuals are great, it's the sound, the atmosphere draws you in. The radio man messing with you, your squad mates losing faith, your mission getting more and more irrelevant, Dubai truly becomes (h)ell. The mechanics are a bit flawed, the controls will take some getting used too. None of that matters. Get yourself ready for one of the best story shooters I have ever played. Spec ops takes itself very seriously and draws a major line not yet set in shooters of the past. (you kill A LOT of American soldiers). When all is said and done, when the smoke and the dust clears, Spec ops will have sent you on a rollercoaster of emotions, make you actually THINK, and the ending ties everything up very nicely. Yager has some true talent on their development team and I cannot wait too play more from them. If there was ever one game you should not miss just for the campaign, this is it. Multiplayer is bland on the unlock system will keep you around for a little while. Nothing new there. Where Spec ops really shines, is the single player, your jaw will drop harder then a bag of bricks and your soul will be twisted into ways you never though possible....from a video

UkManiak (member since 2010)

reviewed on 6/29/12

17 agree

Nice (9 out of 10)

I enjoyed this game quite a bit. Fun and fast paced. I do think that the campaign was a bit short but the game is good enough to play again. I like how you have to make different choices for different trophies. All and all it is a good game. The story is good if you pay attention and the gunplay is pretty sweet.

Zentech (member since 2012)

reviewed on 6/29/12

12 agree

Spec Ops: The Line

Must I say to start with that Spec Ops: The Line is one of the best shooters I've ever played if not the best...This game from the beginning is a electrifying intense third person shooter, it wins on all levels with phenomenal voice acting from nolan north and others! The action is well paced and never excessive to the point of being cliched... it's extremely brutal with some very cringe inducing yet satisfying finishing moves along with an abundance of heads exploding!!! Spec Ops also has very epic multiplayer, this game is one of the best of 2012 so far with a very fun and shocking look at war games with moral choices that affect the story throughout, I love this game!!!! Spec Ops: The Line Gets a 10/10!

max12345678 (member since 2011)

reviewed on 6/27/12

7 agree

Understand what it is and you'll enjoy it...

it is not a military shooter in the vein of Call of Duty, Battlefield, etc. The closest comparison in style and gameplay is Gears of War. It focuses on an engaging single player campaign, which is refreshing. Its relatively short, you could blast through it in 8 hours. The story is compelling, and as it gets towards the end it starts to take some serious cues from Mass Effect 3 (coincidence?). Decisions are a big part of the game. The controls are the only real issue with this game. The cover system is not smooth by any means. And the constant need to heal your squad mates who make REALLY stupid decisions will often result in your death. But, I have yet to find a cover based game that feels comfortable, smooth and non-linear. There are also some issues where it seems the difficulty spikes are too great and ruin the flow. This game is more for an overall experience than it is a ground breaking gameplay release. It does what a lot of great single players focused games like Uncharted and Mass Effect do, it tells a story and uses the gameplay to help you move it along.

ptrac (member since 2011)

reviewed on 6/30/12

4 agree

very engaging story

Overview ================= As others have said this is one of the most engaging stories for a shooter. In short things are a mess when you get to Dubai....you don't know who is running things and why everyone is trying to kill you. The game keeps you on the edge with the action and the story. The campain is where this game shines. Unfortunately I'm knocking it down for control issues. The "X" button is used for running and cover. Unfortunately it was designed to keep you running until you perform an action to break the running which can cause you to get shot. Also the "O" button is used for melee and vault. Which will cause you to accidentally perform one action when you meant the other. Also the multiplayer was pretty bad. It was very generic and affected by the same control issues. The community is already really small (forgot about it in a few months). Also, when I got done playing my first match I was disconnected from the server and lost all of my XP. If you rent for campaign it is great....if your focus is multiplayer skip it. No "online pass" at least allows you to try the multiplayer without forking over money. Pros ================= 1) engaging story 2) some neat sand and light effects Cons ================= 1) control issues 2) poor multiplayer

chuck74 (member since 2009)

reviewed on 6/29/12

14 agree

Best Shooter Of The Year Thus Far!

From second number one this game GRABS your attention! I may be a little partial because I'm a HUGE Uncharted Fan & Nathan Drake's voice actor (Nolan North) is a main character in the game which I think is AWESOME! The story is awesome so far. I will be holding onto this one for awhile & probably trophy hunting it! A definite MUST rent, at the very least! 9/10.

RdSWaZH3r3 (member since 2011)

reviewed on 7/2/12

3 agree

love this game!!!!!

Yet another pretty awesome TPS game to add to my long list of likeable games. The graphics are pretty solid andthe game play flows pretty well. I love that it takes place in a supposedly soverign nation. I like ths game alot. It's fun and fast paced and a great rent. if you like TPS games, you'll like this one too. Of course there will be haters that say this game sucks because so many people find one flaw in a game and automatically give it a bad rating, but trust me the good reviews will far out weigh the bad ones.

kbodin1 (member since 2006)

reviewed on 7/2/12

3 agree

Good game

I picked this game up a few days after it was released and I really like it. The choices that you have to make are never clearly right or wrong so that makes it quite interesting. It has a really good story and one thing that I found really cool was the fact that the main character changed throughout the game, not just through appearance but in the things he says or the executions that he performs. In the beginning, whilst performing an execution he would only do what is needed but by the end he would beat the living helll out of the downed enemy. Overall, I really liked it and I love the fact that it actually made you feel something, the only downfall was that the campaign was short. I say a rent or buy for sure

fleagle7 (member since 2009)

reviewed on 7/1/12

3 agree

An Excellent Deconstruction of the Modern Shooter

This game. Oh man, this game. This is probably the only military shooter I have played that actually caused me to experience emotions besides "America, woo!". This game starts out like that, for the first few minutes. Then, after killing the only generic foreigner soldiers in the game, you find out that things have gone horribly wrong in Dubai. Horribly wrong, in addition to the giant sandstorms and failed evacuations leading to the deaths of a lot of people. The strongpoint of this game is its story, how Walker and his team adjust to the horrible world that is Dubai, tracking a man's descent into insanity. The gameplay is pretty standard for a cover-based third person shooter, but this fits the theme of the game, letting you be immersed in the fast-paced gun battles before yanking you back into the narrative. The multiplayer doesn't matter, as it was tacked on by the publisher because they thought the game wouldn't sell without it. Like, the developpers had finished the game, and the publishers outsourced the creation of the multiplayer to another studio who made it bland, generic multiplayer. Stay away from this, it holds no appeal. The appeal comes from the amazing and cinematic story of the game. This game crosses a lot of lines, it has quite a few very disturbing scenarios and images. But these are not just there for no reason, everything that happens here has a reason and this is a very mature storyline. Anyway, this game is fantastic, play it soon, you can beat it in an afternoon or evening and it is definitely worth your time.

Jesse96 (member since 2011)

reviewed on 3/24/13

2 agree