I wasn’t sure this game was real, but then it showed up here in Boston. Yes, Spec Ops is that curve ball announced during Spike’s 2009 VGAs; a 3rd person shooter set in Dubai with squad-based mechanics and a whole lot of sand. Real curve ball, huh? Who would have thought this series would live to see another title?
I’m not sure what to make of The Line, I mean, it isn’t pushing the prettiest graphics, or revolutionizing on any gameplay mechanics, or separating itself from the moniker of being JUST another shooter. It’s just….here, with an elaborate booth to play in. So, play I did; and not to anyone’s surprise, it seems to be just another shooter.
I’m sure with what I had for hands-on time a select group of gamers would have dropped a preorder, but them same people are ok with average. It’s going to take more than the “drop and pop” gameplay of Spec Ops to sell me on excitement for the game. They quote it to be a “tactical-shooter”, yet I saw nothing more than a prompt to have a square-mate kill an emey off flank. The level design was littered with cover and as linear as Final Fantasy XIII, with nothing but it’s over-saturated aesthetics to help identify the experience. Zilch in the mechanic department to spice up the shooting standards set by games like Gears of War.
Dubai and its sandy landscapes please me, as far as setting goes. The plot that takes place will have to do the same and more though; from what I saw in the demo, nothing more than Nolan North spewed military chatter and bad jokes were evident. Hopefully there’s more under the hood of the story in Spec Ops, in recent years I’ve grew tired of par military plot-lines and unfortunately that looks to be the foundation of which The Line builds itself.
From what I saw, Spec Ops: The Line looks to be that “other summer blockbuster”, the kind that wins over a fan base who doesn’t quite know exactly why they love the game… other than the fact that it has guns, gore, and competent mechanics. It was never quite on my radar and today is no different. That could all change if the tactical-shooter part of this whole thing ends up being more elaborate than what I saw today.
Release: June 26, 2012
Platforms: PS3, 360
[Feel free to comment on the post with questions on my hands-on time]
