Underrated Game #2, Spec Ops: The Line

Despite being overshadowed by other popular games at the time, it remains a highly discussed and analyzed game of its generation. The game is set in an abandoned Dubai where a squad is sent to evacuate civilians, but they slowly become corrupted by the journey, leading to a brilliant narrative exploring the effects of war on people and the consequences of split-second decisions.

The voice acting is excellent, with Nolan North adding realism to the squad. The game's focus is not on war itself but on the people it affects, setting the stakes and making the player care about what is happening. The world of the game itself tells a story, with an invaded and abandoned Dubai inhabited by civilians and rogue military soldiers fighting for survival. The game leaves many aspects ambiguous, allowing players to use their imagination to fill in the gaps, making it more believable.

Although the game's execution has aged, with glitchy camera cuts and rough audio design, it does not hinder the exploration of its themes. Spec Ops: The Line is perfect for players who enjoy games that put them in the protagonist's mind. The game's scale is smaller than other anti-war games like Call of Duty, making it more personal and engaging. Overall, despite being forgotten by many at the time of its release, Spec Ops: The Line is still worth playing in 2023 due to its brilliant narrative, world-building, and exploration of the effects of war on people.

We acknowledge that if you can't buy into the aged graphics, it may be a rough cinematic experience compared to what we expect from modern games. It's worth noting that the game was released in 2012 and may feel a bit aged and rough. We think it was incredibly risky to tell the stories the writers did, and we do think the story is worth your time, especially for less than 10 pounds on Steam.

The gameplay in Spec Ops: The Line is the weakest part, and it hasn't aged particularly well. However, it has this old charm to it and even has some pretty cool environmental mechanics like being able to use sand to drown your enemies or creating cover by creating a little cloud of sand after using a grenade to run away and find cover. We played on PC, so we will be talking about PC controls, which are a bit odd. Sprinting and taking cover is the same button, and at first, we weren't fans, but we really got used to it, which eventually made the game feel a bit more cinematic, more so in gameplay than actual cinematics at times, which is pretty cool in our opinion.

The artificial intelligence isn't great, and we didn't expect it to be. A lot of the enemies look out of cover for a few seconds, occasionally get a shot off, and don't pose a significant threat. However, the game can be quite difficult at times when they start introducing multiple enemy types like the heavy or shotgun archetypes that will charge you no matter what, creating an intense experience. Weapon variety is lacking; however, each weapon definitely feels different. Our personal favorite was the starting assault rifle, which lets you equip a silencer to give you that really silent and deadly feel that we enjoy. There are SMGs, shotguns, rocket launchers, and snipers, but there is only one gun of each type apart from the AK-47 and carbine, which are both assault rifles. We may have missed some because it's a relatively short game.

The set pieces are great, and while they have been done better in games like Uncharted, Spec Ops: The Line has the dirty feel to it that gives it a unique experience for the player, making you more invested than you originally think you would be. These set pieces are incredibly linear, and it's clear the developers were heavily held back by budget. However, it could have been a lot worse. This is a linear game, so let's talk level design. The levels here aren't particularly impressive due to Spec Ops following a cover-based formula. But even with that said, we think the levels do what they are supposed to do, give you something to shoot at while keeping you invested in the narrative that's being told, and to the extent, it really does that well.

We think Spec Ops has some great cover-based shooter elements, but the king of that design will always be Gears of War due to how refined those mechanics are now. The levels are clearly designed with a narrative in mind, slowly introducing you to the horrors of war and, in some cases, making you a part of it. You slowly uncover the insanity lurking below Dubai's sand cover, and with each passing level, things get bigger and more shocking and actually leave you feeling conflicted about the actions that have been taken, which just elevates everything in terms of gameplay and narrative.

The squad mechanic is honestly quite pointless. It's not very well made in our opinion and honestly useless as your squad mates tend to take care of themselves anyway. However, they do shoot enemies, which is quite rare in these squad-based games, believe it or not. Overall, Spec Ops: The Line is just absolutely worth experiencing and you should absolutely buy spec ops the line when you can.