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Generally favorable reviews - based on 59 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 149 Ratings

  • Summary: Spec Ops: The Line is a provocative third-person modern military shooter that challenges players' morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices affecting human life must be made. Spec Ops: The Line unfolds within the destroyed opulence of Dubai. Once the playground for the world's wealthiest elite, Dubai has fallen victim to a series of cataclysmic sandstorms. The city's ultramodern architecture lies half-buried under millions of tons of sand. The very sand that blankets the city plays a marquee role in altering combat situations and serves as a powerful but unpredictable force that will both help and hinder players throughout the course of the game. While most people have fled the now-barren wasteland before the sandstorms swept through, U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad and his loyal squad remained behind to protect those incapable of escape. Unable to reach anyone in Dubai after the storm hit, the U.S. Army feared Konrad and his team dead until they picked up a weak distress signal and launched a rescue operation. As U.S. Army Captain Martin Walker, you and your elite Delta Force team are sent to infiltrate the treacherous region to bring Konrad home. Players experience “"The Line," that razor's edge known only to men who deal in war. It is the line they cross when death and duty become one and the same. It is the end -- of self and sanity -- when their duty is done and only they remain. [2K Games] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 59
  2. Negative: 0 out of 59
  1. Aug 8, 2012
    100
    From around the halfway mark onwards, The Line is a gripping, at time harrowing, and unforgettable experience. [Sept 2012, p.66]
  2. Jun 26, 2012
    90
    One of those rare games where the story nearly eclipses the gameplay. There is some powerful imagery throughout the game that will stay with you long after you've played it, and the choices throughout add to the replay factor because you'll want to go in and see what would have happened if you had made a different decision.
  3. Jun 26, 2012
    73
    I expected an awesome desert shooter, but I only got a midclass shooter. There is to much scripting, an environment with few details and nothing special. The multiplayer mode looks fun but over all it's not enough to be a summer highlight.

See all 59 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 37
  2. Negative: 4 out of 37
  1. "Spec Ops: The Line" is the ninth game of the franchise dating back to PC, 98, and is produced by 2K Games, using the Unreal Engine 3. The story is set in a Dubai devastated by a sandstorm, 6 months ago: some of the city's population escaped, but many were left behind in this chaotic and anarchic city; among those who stayed behind, there is a US Army Colonel, who contrary to orders, he decided to stay to help - all thought he was dead, until a weak broadcast is capted, and now, you and your squad enter this anarchic scenary to rescue him, and find several things toward this goal.The graphics are good but not excellent, being comparable to other games like Rainbrow 6 Vegas II or Operation Flashpoint 2 - the textures of characters have a good detail, but nothing to go to minimal skin texture. The same applies to other details such as footprints in the sand, which does not always appear, and the destruction effect, with large pieces - the details of the scenarios in the campaign are very good, and detailed.The colors of the game, that passes in a desert, have many strong colors that are heavy on a color theme, depending on the stage, and abuses of yellows and oranges, and you can opt for three tonal variations when starting the game (Vintage, Exaggerated and Normal) - obviously, the graphics are obscured a greater distance, by sand and wind, or the darkness that spread through the city without electricity.The game has a mixed musical background mixed, the main part orchestrated, with the typical style of action games. The acting is mixed, usually dialogues are good, but the acting is not perfect, and the voices are very constant in volume, whereas the general sound effects are good, especially in the climate of the place.You notice another similarity with Vegas II in relation to the enemies: it is always easy to know if there is any hidden in the stage, they scream incessantly, even when they are alone.The gameplay is of a great shooter in the 3rd person, strategic, but tending much action: there are 4 difficulties, and the most difficult (FUBAR) shall be released only after finishing the game on Hard (Suicide). The highlight is that the controls are intuitive and smooth, with no difficulty to play and enjoy the game.The stages are linear and with physical borders, having a goal, displayed on the screen, with its distance, and generally among them are facing waves of enemies to reach them - and the enemies are plentiful in the game, and are varied among survivors, and other military forces.The importance of the cover system is higher here, two or three shots from enemies kill you - and allied to it, the choice of weapons and the use of certain commands to your squad to ensure that you live longer. The grenades are throw with LB, and you can see the trajectory and possible deviations that they may have hiting objetcs.The life has regeneration, when in cover, and the damage is shown by taking a shade screen over white and black with blood around it - here, the damage in the higher difficulties is higher than in other games, but nothing too extreme.The enemy AI is mixed: generally do not have much strategy, just attack and use some cover, but every once in a while you, being the primary target of them do strange things like running behind our team, not caring that they are there, to kill you. The same applies to your Team AI: in general has a good performance, but are not extremely well-aimed and sometimes make suicidal decisions too, but do not die so much, by what I said above the enemy AI.The highlight if the gameplay is the destruction of certain structures in the game, which can fall or break in the case of glass, and the presence of climatic factors relating to sand in the game, and that much influence on the strategy used (many enemies attack from skylights high above), from the point of obscuring the vision enemy with storms of sand to break the structures of Cover / support of opponents.The variety of weapons is very good, and despite ammunition goes away fast in the action, you can get any weapons of the enemy, and re-supply points are abundant. The game's collectibles are items in the form of intelligence that give greater insight into story and do not always have the same look, with different objects each time.The game has Multiplayer, which can be played on Live or via System Link, and from what I read it is a competitive mode, based on the struggle between teams, in which changes in the scenarios by sand avalanches / storms or destruction of scenery. Seeing the trailer, seemed very similar to the MP of Vegas II .Summary: I found a great 3rd person shooter, being among my favorites: it has good graphics, with great weather effects and destruction, coupled with a strategic gameplay with more action, and well polished gameplay and controls (a detail that many other recent shooters do not have). If you like shooters with lots of action, this certainly deserves to be in your collection. Expand
  2. 6
    Spec ops the line is just one of hunders rpg ported from consoles into pc. Gameplay wise its pretty boring and to easy since basicly console gamers arent that fast compared to pc gamers. Graphics are average even on pc. So if this game would cost 20 or so on steam it would be a good price for it, only 50 in steam is just overpriced to hell. Therefor a 6 , its not that bad its just nothing special. Expand
  3. I was kind of looking forward to playing this game. But now that I have finished it on the hardest difficulty setting, I can say that this is the worst game of 2012 so far. Extremely disappointing would be an under statement. The game is essentially one big escort mission. Your two buddies constantly get killed. I do not think that I died on my own accord at all through the entire two playthroughs. It was always one or both of my buddies getting killed, forcing me to try and rescue them, and getting me killed in the process. When you design a game where your buddies gets hurts, make sure that you can control them so that you can hold them back from harms way. You can't have the buddies rushing forward all the time to get hurt. And make sure that when you are saving them, that you are invincible during that procedure. Also when you rescue your buddy, the camera spins around so much that you become disoriented and gets you killed. For a game that makes you die so often, and so swiftly, make sure that the loading times are short. The loading time for this game is atrocious, even when it is installed on the xbox 360 hdd. I've spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the actual game. Do not have unskippable cut scenes. Why do people still make games that forces you to watch stupid cutscenes. I've seen it once, and I don't want to see it again. And do not put forced save points before a cutscene. This is what happens. I die. Watch loading screen. Watch cutscene. I die. Repeat. This is poor game design. Why does it take a whole clip to take down a baddie, when all it takes is one bullet from a baddie to kill you? The unbalanced nature makes your bullets pretty much useless. Especially when they are in such a short supply. If you are going to make a game that requires lots of bullets to kill a baddie, give us more bullets. If you only provide small amounts of ammo, make it so that the enemies die in one shot. This isn't a 3rd person shooter, it's a 3rd person hider because you spend most of your time hiding behind cover waiting for your buddies to take our the enemies. And why have a cover where your enemies can shoot you? It makes the cover system useless. There are also lots of 'traps' where it looks like you can take cover, but the game doesn't allow you to. The controls are also super sluggish. It takes forever to take cover, come out of cover or do anything. And it only take one bullet to kill you. This is what happens. I take cover behind something. Enemy throws a grenade. The time it takes for the game to take you out of cover so that you can run away from the grenade is longer than the grenade fuse so you die. Sometimes, the grenade icon doesn't even show so you die anyway. Enemy nade spam was extremely aggravating. Expand

See all 37 User Reviews