Spec ops: The line review (PC)

[emsley]

 

You can buy this game for £24.99p and I can safely say without a hint of shame I'm glad I got an index finger discount. The game starts up looking fairly pretty, as it places you in a chopper as you roll in to Dubai as the gunner. Then a bunch of enemy helicopters fly out of no place and start gunning for you, so you unload a barrage of shit on to them only for them to soak up damage and wait to dramatically crash into something.

Each chunk of the first intro mission stutters in to play and you can sense the hard drive coughing its guts up, as far as game intro's go. It's a shoddy effort all round and nothing we haven't seen before.

 

 

 

Your first encounter with an enemy allows you to shoot out some windows above their head and unload sand on to them.

There is a lot of sand in this game as Dubai has been swamped with a huge desert storm thus leaving you with the setting for the entire game. Which is an ok premise on paper. But not when the gameplay starts to be tested. It becomes predictable.

A cover based shooter to work has to have in my opinion a few things in place before it can even begin to keep my attention.

1. Solid in and out of cover commands.

2. Intense shooting that never feels cheap.

3. Excellent shooting mechanics.

4. I win a battle because Im a bad ass.

 

This game has none of them.

 

It has the absolute bare minimum requirements to be considered a decent shooter.

 

Cut scenes grate and are boring, and intense fights are poor.

 

I'm in some grand lobby when a load of shit kicks off, I have to watch a cut scene, cant skip it.

Run down some stairs and kill a few soldiers, then this rocket launcher twat is firing rocket after rocket at me.

I can't see him, and I can't get a clear shot without exposing my self to a blast radius. When I managed to get this asshole out of the way and I'm reloading my gun when three soldiers come running out of no place I shoot the first two but then the ammo runs out so I change weapon only to be hosed by the last one. Ok we will try again.

 

After watching the cut scene for the second time I again run down the steps to the lobby but this time the rocket fag nails me and I still dont see where he is.

 

After watching the cut scene for a third time I somehow manage to get rid of the rocket fag and nail a bunch of guys and my team cant hit shit. I saw a guy run for cover and my team mate rattled a machine gun off at him and every bullet just trailed behind him its was funny but not in a "I just spent 25 quid on this" way. Moment's later this guy stick his head up and kills me dead.

 

After watching the cut scene for the fourth time I somehow manage to get through this section.

There isnt enough ammo during fights you are looking for dropped weapons and you have to HOLD R to pick them up. Then get back in to cover. If you are lucky enough to pick up a weapon and not get nailed you might be able to progress. Annoying at times which is why this game keeps getting put down by me.

 

Running into cover is poor and it does not always stick to the cover you are trying to attach to so you just kind stand there getting shot for a few moments demanding your dick of a guy get his head down.

 

If you manage to pull off a head shot with the questionable aim system you get a slow mo moment to add to your tally, not a bad little gimmick but i didn't find any use for it or feel like I was neo from the matrix.

 

 

I actually got to this part of the game and trust me, it's not exciting. In fact my character used his GLOVED HANDS to zip over 50 meter's down a rope line. What the fuck you lazy cunts!

 

The last straw for me was just after this zip slide scene, I ran down the stairs and nailed two guys having a chat, then It just ignites and its another room like the aforementioned lobby level, and I can't even get in to a good position. In fact at this point after being cheaply killed for the second time I all but gave up on this game. I didn't get far enough to see if there were any hidden rocket fags lurking around the corner.

 

Movement is all round clunky and you follow a set path with bland uninteresting scenery.

You get the odd nice looking part and the story does have nice little moments such as the intel you find scattered around the game world. But other than that the game really is a totally average bare minimum cover based shooter. Which is total shite considering gears of war still kicks the most ass. I would prefer a direct rip off of gears of war than some of the crap we are having to endure as gamers.

 

And lets not forget the compulsery "DLC" Or "Deceiving lying cunts" every game trys to strap on some useless bullshit now and people are getting tired of it. £25 for this game alone is an insult, but putting forth DLC is just another bullshit add on to a game that they knew would sell to a certain point. It just reeks of money raking.

 

If this is the standard of gaming and the DLC I can only say one thing.

Pirate more games until they fuck off with DLC and shitty DRM.

 

Pros:

Nice title screen for the game with an upside down american flag and the national anthem played out on slow treacle electric guitar.

Nice intelligence finds that get you thinking about the game world.

Midly interesting story if you can put up with it.

 

Cons:

Crappy gameplay.

Clunky mechanics.

Cheap AI.

Stupid ammo limit and screwing around to change weapons or diving in to an ammo box while under fire.

Boring environments.

Aiming is poor.

No feel to the weapons.

Grenades thrown at you light up "red" that means you die if it blows up near you, move away from the grenade even though you are bottlenecked and hope the other's don't pick you off.

Throwing your own grenades is like pulling teeth.

 

Summery:

 

Average third person shooter that does nothing new or even gets on par with games 5 years older than it.

Clever marketing deceives what you are actually getting from the game, all in all don't waste your money, it's a shit burger.

 

Emsley.

Edited July 1, 2012 by emsley

[solidius23]

Still better than the Amazing Spiderman game though

[emsley]

Still better than the Amazing Spiderman game though

 

Review it Jones send it to hell if that's where it belongs!

Good to see from you amigo.