Introduction
Spec Ops series of games have been previously made in the 90’s and early 20’s but they met with not so good reception and any further development on them was halted, later on around 2005 it was said to be in development under rockstar banner but then again went on hiatus, and finally saw the light of day under 2k’s publication in 2012.
| Developer: | Yager Development (Singleplayer) Darkside Game Studios (Multiplayer) Blind Squirrel Games Inc. (SP+MP) |
| Publisher: | 2K Games |
| Writer: | Walt Williams |
| Platforms: | MS Windows, Xbox360, PS3 |
| Genre: | Third Person Tactical Shooter |
| Engine: | Unreal Engine 3 |
So let’s get down and see if this game hits the mark or fails to impress.
Story and Presentation
We follow the story of Captain Martin Walker who is leading a team of elite delta force operatives who are sent to the storm devastated city of Dubai to find out about Colonel John Konrad and his 33rd Battalion. But the simple recon and rescue mission turns into a mission filled with insanity and total mayhem filled with deteriorating mental and moral conditions and judgments of the delta force operatives.
Now let’s have some talk about the backstory, Dubai was devastated in a series of storms due to environmental changes and a storm wall has been formed obstructing air travel road travel and any means of satellite/radio contact. US forces, specifically the 33rd Battalion was sent in to provide support and evacuation of the entire civilian population of Dubai, but due to the rapid deteriorating conditions US officials ordered the 33rd
Battalion to retreat but Colonel John Konrad opposed that order in order to help the people and complete his recue and evacuation mission no matter the cost. Due to this the 33rd battalion is charged with treason and left to rot in Dubai.
But here begins our story when the protagonist is sent in to find out what is going on in Dubai. As soon as the delta operatives reach Dubai they are met with heavy local resistance, seeing this they are shocked as they are being attacked by people whom they
thought of rescuing, but this is not the end to the plot twists, as it turns out the US military is also involved in all this chaos and this makes Martin Walker wonder if he is doing the right thing or not.
The whole game basically depicts the horrors of war and in a sense conveys a very important message that nobody is a “hero” in a war, there’s no good side to a war, wars always end up being bloody, inhumane and psychotic. Martin Walker will eventually discover really dark and disturbing things about Dubai making him doubt himself and his conscience.
Now about the presentation part, game is very well depicted, it has showcased the desert environment very well and how the locals have adapted to the environment. The misery of living in a deserted and devastated city is very well showcased, kind of makes you sympathetic to the people ingame. The game actually feels pretty heavily story driven and i would say story is the biggest plus point of this game and at every corner there are conspiracies to be unfold and mysteries to solved, you have to play and experience it to believe me(no spoilers here).
Gameplay
So let’s move on to the part which we care about the most in a game, it’s the gameplay. Spec Ops is another tactical third person shooter with solid shooting and cover based mechanics, the addition of squad to the main character allows for some squad based gun fest, you can command your team mates to suppress or kill a target for you or you can even flank the enemy to get the drop on them. Squad based firefights turn up pretty interesting as enemy AI also tries its best to flank us and suppress us and force us be on our toes for the most part.
Add to all this the dynamic weather system of spec ops which creates random sandstorms which change the battlefield and allow for more twists in firefights. Moreover you can break the environment to kill/suppress enemies, for eg. breaking a roof glass will crush the enemies under a ton of sand. This dynamic environment changes and environmental destruction adds more variety and makes the gameplay more interesting.
One more important aspect of this game is the moral choices you encounter in game a few times, unlike other games in which when faced with a choice u get yes and no option, here you don’t get any such option instead the choices as well as decisions are seamlessly mixed with the flow of the game, your actions decide the choice you make. Combined with all this you have the usual chopper sequences in which you get behind a minigun and wreck havoc, which never gets old btw.
Now the bad part, the cover controls were tricky many a times my player would not move as i intended it to or get stuck behind cover, or many times my group member fails to do a specific job failing an objective, these bugs kind of took away the fun for a while but were not anything that would overshadow the plus points of this game.
Graphics and Audio
Graphics
Now let’s talk about the eye candy, unreal engine had been the choice of developers for this game and with this choice comes some predetermined pros and cons.
The lighting in this game is probably the best part of its eye candy, although the bloom is a bit overdone at places but that can be attributed to the fact that the game is based in Dubai where the sun is scorching hot and sun shine’s the brightest. The shadows although are decent, nothing too great about them here.
Another pretty strong point here is the developers attention to detailing, most objects and assets ingame are pretty high resolution and everything in the game looks very gritty and refined. But the explosions sadly are one of the worst i have seen in recent times, the explosions looks completely unrealistic and the accompanying sound effect also do not help it much.
The particle effects too are really bad in this game, the decals, bullets shots and fire etc. also does not look too good, the game overall is very colorful unlike most unreal engine based games which are all tinted brownish.
So the eye candy in this game can only be attributed to its very well lighting and superb attention to detail, as the particle effects and explosions are really not upto the mark.
Audio:
Audio, environmental as well as the voice acting is really well done in Spec Ops The Line, the characters seem genuine and believable due to their awesome voice acting.
Guns also sound pretty decent and the best thing about spec ops is that rock music starts playing in most areas where major firefights take place which is really energizing and refreshing, just imagine rocking music in the background and guns blazing in the foreground, this generates an epic atmosphere in firefights.
The only downside to audio is that the explosives and grenades lacks the punch needed to make them feel effective and real, Which mars the overall experience a bit.
PC Performance & Final Thoughts
PC Performance:
Spec Ops The Line looks good in its own way and due to the fact that it’s unreal engine based, it runs pretty well even on underpowered rigs and this is to be expected.
I personally did not feel any performance hiccups other than occasional stuttering and texture loading and ran the game at 55+ fps on maximum settings @ 1080p.
Performance wise there’s not much to be said about this game so i will stop here.
Finally PROs and CONs:
PROs
1. Really well done story.
2. Morally grey depiction of Soldiers and war.
3. Decent graphics.
4. Intelligent Level Design.
CONs
1. Buggy cover controls.
2. Graphics could have been better.
3. Moral choices should have had more of an effect on the possible endings.
Review Rig:
Core i7 870 @ 3.00GHz
8GB Ripjaws-X @ 1600MHz
MSI GTX460 Hawk Talon Attack @ 811MHz
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA 2 HDD @ 7200rpm
MS Windows 7 x64 SP1
Hope you guys like this review.
Over and Out ghost_z.