#jatech

But maybe that’s the entire point. As I said before Spec Ops: The Line is a deconstruction of the whole “realistic” military shooter genre and the preposterous idea behind it. The bland, austere mechanics of the game could be a reaction against the glamorisation of war and combat prevalent in the genre, the game does certainly go to show the brutality of modern warfare in a way the flashy, homogenised titles such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honour never do. But maybe they’ve gone to worsen the game as a whole by doing this, after all an ironically bad game is still a bad game. Which is why it’s important to realise that this is not at all the point the Spec Ops wants you to focus on. There is another whole new layer to this game that is not directly reflected in the gameplay.

The narrative focus of Spec Ops: The Line revolves around an elite team of soldiers referred to as the Delta Squad, consisting of the protagonist character Captain Walker (voiced by our ever present friend, Nolan North), sniper specialist Sergeant Lugo and light machine gunner Private Adams. The three of them embody every trope you’ve ever seen in any piece of media about the military (does it surprise you that Adams is black?) but these characters are fleshed out in a way that goes beyond these stereotypes, with particular regard to Captain Walker. The task these three gentlemen are assigned is infiltrating the dilapidated Dubai to recover a missing Colonel and any survivours. Of course this does not go exactly to plan, but not in the way that you think. There is a moment just before halfway in the game that is a turning point and absolutely gutwrenching experience like no other I’ve seen in a video game narrative. And that's not even to mention the ending of the game, which takes Arkham City’s deservedly gained crown of the most shocking end to a game in history. But it does go deeper than that. The game, on numerous occasions, appears to be talking directly to the player. Later in the game the loading screens begin to talk explicitly to the player saying things such as “Do you feel like a hero yet?” or “How many American soldiers have you killed today?” and most interestingly talking about cognitive dissonance. This is interesting because it is one of the main themes of Spec Ops there are many points that the player feels as if what they are performing as Captain Walker is inherently wrong, but they must continue doing so for the sake of finishing the game. On top of this there are many moral choices put to the player along the way, but these are much more confronting and organic choices than the idea that normally comes along when you hear the term “moral choice”, there are no “press this button for good and this one for evil” choices here, simply a situation put in front of the player for them to respond to. I really wish I could go into specifics here because these moments in the game are better when put under that kind of analysis, but the simple fact of the matter is that these moments need to be experienced first hand to understand just how much an impact this medium can add to these kinds of issues being raised within an interactive space.

And with that comes my bottom line. The overtly generic posterior and aesthetic this game may portray to an outside looker is purely to strengthen the game’s sucker punch when it reels the player in. This is a game that is confronting in a way no game has been before. It is not always fun, but that is what makes it so engaging, the fact that someone has finally had the balls to make a game like this speaks volumes about the medium. We are on the precipice of games truly transcending their humble origins as being child’s playthings and reaching the point where games can hopefully be considered in the same light as the great pieces of literature and film that are revered by the unwashed masses and academics alike. The internet tells me that Spec Ops: The Line has done relatively modestly in terms of sales figures, which in my eyes is not unexpected, but is indeed a travesty. It is important that if you care for games as an artform at all that you play this game and show your interest in playing games that express and confront ideas like this by buying it.

Unfortunately though, I don't see the point in this reboot. It incorporates Need For Speed Underground 2's open world, as well as Burnout's (absolutely incredible) destruction mechanics, but why reboot a game that was released in 2005? Hell - the old Need For Speed is already on PS3. It seems to me as if Criterion were brought in to help with a new NFS, went over the past titles and went "Nope, not good enough. Go sit in the corner while we fix this."

There are already lots of questions being asked about what sort of storyline it will have, but it seems like the open world will contribute a lot to the "story" of the game (for those of you who aren't aware, there is no story in any Need For Speed game. You race cars and you win prizes and then you race more cars). From what has been circulating, it seems as though there will be many different ways to go about making yourself the Most Wanted - from doing huge jumps off big things to racing a friend online. 

In the old NFS; Most Wanted, there was a list of 15 racers and the way you rose through this list was by defeating the person above you five or six times in a race. In terms of the "Most Wanted" title, it seems like an apt way to go about it. How can you sit atop a throne of your defeated enemies without a linear progression of in-game events? In terms of the fluidity of the open world and the rigid nature of the "Most Wanted" goal, I'm struggling to see how they're going to pull this off.

However having said that, the game does look beautiful. Truly incredible. I'm no professional gamer so take this with a grain of salt, but the last racing game I saw with graphics that impressed me this much was Gran Turismo 4 and that was actually ridiculous (they measured, inch for inch, every single track, car, and car accessory that they could get their hands on and then replicated it perfectly in the game). After all, a Need For Speed title is generally not supposed to be a paragon of excellent storytelling or a serious, story-based game. It's just racing against a bunch of your mates. And all you can really ask for is what it provides - pretty cars and prettier crashes.

I really look forward to reviewing this game properly when it comes out. I won't buy it myself because I've got Need For Speed Most Wanted 2005, but I will go over to Patrick's house and absolutely destroy him at it.