 Who is your real enemy? Dubai falls prey to a huge sandstorm that swallows the city and cuts it off from the outside world, in the process consuming thousands of civilians and US military personnel. One small squad is sent in to try and find any survivors. They find survivors but lose themselves in the process.
1. Gameplay
Spec Ops: The Line is a dark story about three Delta Force members as they try to understand exactly what happened within the ruins of Dubai. The city was decimated by a hurricane-like sandstorm that eventually formed a sort of sandstorm barrier around the city. A battalion of the US Army, known as the “Damned 33rd”, stayed within the city in order to save more civilians, but ended up losing contact with the outside world. The player has to try and figure out what happened and, if possible, rescue any survivors.  They don't find many. Unfortunately things end up taking a turn for the worst and things quickly get confusing. The 33rd ends up attacking the player, forcing the player to kill fellow US Army personnel. This game highlights the grim effects of humanity’s last attempts at survival in a hostile environment. All the gold and precious gems in the world can’t buy water in an environment like Dubai, and that makes people do horrible things just to make it through the day. The player will be exposed to horrible sights. He will see white phosphorous used and the devastating affect it can have on humans. He will kill both US military members and innocent civilians. He will progressively go more insane while his allies grow angrier with each other and question the player’s ability to lead. Players should not expect a happy story in this game.  There are some things you just don't come back from. But despite all that I found this game riveting. The player will be able to make choices that can potentially change the conversations involved in later parts of the game. The overall outcome of the story is relatively unchanging, but the way that the player’s allies see him and the way that he sees himself can be drastically altered by seemingly small decisions. Despite this game’s brevity, I have a desire to pick it up and try it again in the near future to see how the later conversations and outcomes change. It’s a dark story, but once in a while that’s a welcome change of pace.
It took me under 7 hours to complete the campaign and get most of the endings. However, I did have a strong desire to go back and replay the game to see how certain choices affected the overall outcome. I know what the final ending would be either way, but the decisions that I made might vastly change the final conversation. That earns this game at least one more playthrough sometime in the future. There are multiplayer and cooperative modes, but they’re almost an aside. The multiplayer mode was alleged to be a tacked-on extra that wasn’t intended in the original design. As a result there was no one playing it when I tried to find people online. If I had friends that owned this game, the cooperative mode might be fun, but it only works in certain chapters. Unless the cooperative mode is a horde mode, I don’t see how this would work in the later chapters.
Spec Ops had some elements that left me slightly frustrated. The weapons were powerful enough to down enemies relatively quickly, but even on the “normal” difficulty level the enemies would do a lot of damage very quickly. This meant that I constantly had to keep my head down (which is most of the idea of a cover system). But this alone wasn’t enough, since the enemies were usually smart enough to overwhelm my small squad. As a result, I had to constantly go for headshots with powerful weapons.  Near death and still getting headshots. This sounds relatively simple but was actually somewhat difficult at times. It’s also difficult to pull off the accuracy required for headshots under fire from multiple angles. As a result, I died frequently. If I felt like I was making an unnecessary mistake (as in I was being too aggressive), I wouldn’t have had a problem. But sometimes I was being very cautious and still got overwhelmed by enemies. It didn’t detract much from the overall experience, but it definitely keeps me from trying this game again at higher difficulty levels. 2. Parental Notices
Spec Ops is very violent. Normal shots from most weapons will result in a puff of blood. Dead bodies will sometimes have a pool of blood around them as well.  I had the high ground. Explosions can result in gore and dismembered limbs. If the player manages to score a direct hit with an explosive, such as a grenade launcher round or RPG, the enemy can disappear into a shower of blood and limbs.  There used to be a person where that explosion is now. If the player damages an enemy, they will sometimes go down but not immediately die. The player can go up to these writhing foes and execute them. This usually involves smashing them repeatedly in the face until they’re dead.  I think he's dead. If the player gets a headshot with a high-powered rifle, it can result in the enemy’s head exploding into a pop of blood and pieces. The amount of times this happens will vary on how accurate the player is. I saw it very frequently since I commonly went for headshots while playing.  This is what remains. I guess thats what the developers intended. In one scene, one of the player’s allies will sneak up behind an enemy and slit his throat. This results in a significant amount of blood pouring from the wound.  A sign that the turning point has already come and gone. There will be numerous occasions when the player will find piles of dead bodies in various states of decomposition. These usually have some sort of direct tie to the story and the environment and are used to graphically show the horrors that have happened within Dubai.  More a warning than a sentence. There will be a small number of occasions when the player will see and / or use white phosphorous mortar rounds. While these instances are short, they are easy to remember because they graphically show the devastation that can be caused by such rounds. Enemies are consumed by green-tinted fire after a blindingly bright explosion. Even in the fictional environment of the video game realm, just seeing these in use terrifies me.  These scenes anger me for so many reasons. When the player and his allies have to use the white phosphorous, finds out that he accidentally killed a few dozen civilians with the mortar rounds. The main character focuses on a mother and child whose bodies have been horribly burned by the phosphorous. It’s a horrible sight and one that forever changes the main character.  They will haunt him for the rest of his days.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
The most common substance that the player will be exposed to is the hypo shot that the player can use to heal his wounded allies. He will take out what looks like an epinephrine shot and drive it into his ally, who will instantly get up. The player is never able to take advantage of these shots, however, since he will die instantly instead of going into a “downed” state.  It doesn't look like much because it happens very quickly. Some characters, like “The Radioman”, can be seen smoking. However, this is not particularly common.  Even in a desert wasteland, people manage to find cigarettes.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is almost completely absent from this game. The only exception is a small idol which the player can find. The idol was made by the citizens to honor Konrad. The player wonders how the civilians can love a man who caused their death. However, this can only be discovered via an item that can be picked up in the game. It is rather easy to miss.
The anti-law presence in this game is a complicated subject. The subject matter of the storyline resulted in many questions as to what was real and what was a result of the player’s hallucinations. Even if everything the player sees was real (which is highly unlikely later in the game), there is much confusion as to who is trying to help the civilians and who as simply gone mad and is looking out only for themselves.  But who is the bad guy? No matter who is morally in the right, the fact is that the player will have to kill hundreds of American soldiers over the course of the game. The only question that might change how grim you consider this is whether or not the player is justified in the killings. When the player first meets the 33rd Battalion, he is accused of being a member of the CIA (who are evidently trying to kill the 33rd as well), and is attacked. Self-defense is the primary motivator until the player ends up killing a few dozen innocent civilians. Then the player proceeds to go insane and things just get very grey.  Very, very grey. The player will also see areas where it looks like the 33rd is kidnapping civilians and executing some of their own people. However, it’s completely unclear to me, so it’s difficult to give a definite rating.
We attempted numerous times to get online and play some of the multiplayer modes. However, every time we went on there was no one else online. There may be a small, dedicated community on other consoles, but we couldn’t find it. As a result, the online community is not a factor in this game.
There were very few times when extreme sports became a factor. Occasionally the player, his allies, or his enemies would zip line from one spot to another. Some of these zip lines went across absurd distances and even through buildings. However, these were fairly infrequent.  But how did they get the line across? There was one sequence where the player slips and falls from a skyscraper. He somehow manages to loop a line around a pole as he’s falling and safely land on the sandy ground. There’s no way this could happen in real life without serious injury or death.  All the gold in Dubai for a parachute...
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Torture There are a few scenes when torture is brought in as an element. In one scene, a CIA operative is interrogating a member of the 33rd Battalion. The player walks in on this unfolding and interrupts the interrogation before anything horrible happens.  Besides the guy getting beat pretty badly, of course. The player can find a book where a torturer describes his connection with his victims and how, above all, fire seems to be the most effective tool.  I don't understand this at all. Suicide At the end of the game, the player finds out that Konrad killed himself long before the player arrived in the area. The player find’s Konrad’s body on a balcony overlooking what remains of Dubai.  He lived a hero and died a coward. As the player argues with the hallucination version of Konrad, the player has the choice to kill the hallucination or to let the hallucination kill him. If he does the latter, it turns out the player actually kills himself.  Surprise. Execution Execution comes up a number of times in the game. The player can find evidence of mass executions as he progresses through the early sections of the game.  If it weren't so horrific, I'd call it art. Around the middle of the game, Konrad presents the player with two individuals. One is alleged to have stolen water (a capital offense in Dubai, where water is scarce). The other was a soldier sent to capture the first man, but who ended up killing five of the first man’s family members. The player must choose who should be executed and who should live. If he does not make a choice, Konrad’s men kill both.  You are the judge, jury, and executioner.
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