Spec Ops: The Line Critic Reviews

From around the halfway mark onwards, The Line is a gripping, at time harrowing, and unforgettable experience.

If you just want to click your brain off and shoot some guys, Spec Ops is not for you. That's ok though, gamers looking for that can find it in, well, almost every other game ever made. Spec Ops is unique in its intelligent treatment of adult themes. If you want a different take on the war game, I can't recommend Spec Ops enough.

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.

Equal parts shooty and thinky, this is a deeply involving action game with a brain.

Spec Ops: The Line may seem like a standard third-person military shooter on the surface, but once you dig a little more, you discover its dark side. War is hell, and no game has delivered that point better than The Line. The decisions you are forced to make and the outcomes they deliver are incredibly gritty and representative of the things soldiers likely deal with in battle. The mind is a powerful tool, and having never served, I have massive respect for people who have had to deal with things like this. If you are looking for an emotionally charged military shooter, Spec Ops: The Line is a must-play.

Even by military-shooter standards, Spec Ops: The Line is an uncompromisingly bleak journey into the mouth of madness. Sharing almost nothing with its predecessors except the Spec Ops moniker, this squad-based shooter tries to make you think - sometimes successfully, sometimes not - about the lines you're willing to cross in battle.

Spec Ops The Line is a good TPS whose lack of originality regarding its gameplay mechanics can be easliy criticized. And yet, the title offers a great experience, depicting a bright and apocalyptic vision of Dubaï, just as if players were there. The mise-en-scène of Spec Ops The Line also manages to share, both psychologically and physically, the craziness experienced by our heroes. Finally, the classic multiplayer modes make us forget the short time needed to finish the main campaign.

As a complete package, Spec Ops: The Line is highly recommended.

It may not be winning any awards, that's not to say that this is one of the most captivating shooters currently available to Xbox 360 users. The morality of your choices has never been so well presented as they are in Spec Ops: The Line and for that reason alone it's a game that everyone should experience, if only for a few short hours.

They say war is hell; Spec Ops: The Line, however, is not. Oh, it is no doubt for Martin Walker, John Konrad, and the poor people of Dubai, but for the player, Spec Ops: The Line just puts the fun back into the word fundamental with a solidly written and acted story, well-constructed gameplay, and perfectly adequate multiplayer.

It's kind of like having some philosophical chewing gum to go with your war. You feel like there's something to think about, but it's not going to bother you as you go about your business.

With epic moments and a megalomaniac scope, Spec Ops is a solid game with an amazing context and some really great gameplay moments.

Although its gameplay is conservative, it achieves to be very entertaining, and above all it is a diffferent game. Its atmosphere and story are exotic and thrilling, and it is also one of the first attempts on telling a mature story in videogames.

Spec Ops: The Line is a cut above the usual generic military shooter with solid gameplay backed up by a story that pulls you in and doesn't let go. And it makes you think. It's a grim day at the beach for sure, but then war is hell.

In a season where game releases generally slow down, gamers should take a close look at Spec Ops: The Line as it has some great qualities that most should enjoy, but the ride may be over a little too quickly for those who those who invest the money and don't play online.

I can't think of another game where I replayed chapters, after beating it, for the sole purpose of fully understanding the gravity of key story moments.

Spec Ops: The Line has its issues, but they're overshadowed by a brave, compelling narrative that treats the medium with respect, and calls you a son of a bitch for playing it.

The sum of Spec Ops' unexpected story is an army shooter that makes killing people mean something. This, along with its thoughtful aesthetic and intelligent enemy encounters, defies the standard established by low-aiming action games.

The power-fantasy catharsis behind other shooters buckles under the weight of Spec Ops: The Line's story of mistakes made and the consequences of intentions. And against very steep odds, Spec Ops: The Line succeeds in what it's trying to do.

A third-person shooter packed with thrilling set-pieces that tries to make you think about why you are doing the shooting. It's utterly bleak, occasionally gruelling and falls just short of the thought-provoking masterpiece it was aiming for, but it's still a relentlessly compelling experience if you've got the stomach for it.