Apocalypse Dubai – review of Spec Ops: The Line (2012)

As the apocalyptic sandstorms of Dubai rages and hides the secrets of human madness, player can examine the horrors of war in a spectacular way. This game, as clunky and outdated it is for its gameplay, is an experience and an intimate way to learn something about your own morality: if you just let it play with you in its own rules.

Jumping from one cover to another surprisingly well-placed wall of sandbags can be a bit repetitive, but as long as the player can shoot her/him way out of the tight spot, the narrative detains one’s mind. The key is that Spec Ops doesn’t want you to look away. It forces the player to ask themselves how far they are willing to go to question, whether they really are the hero of the hour. As a narrative-driven game, it keeps its cool very well and reveals the story little by little towards the end. And what an end it is.

It’s no secret that Spec Ops: The Line borrows a huge amount of inspiration (one can say maybe a little too much) from the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which can be seen as a critique of European colonial rule in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. The bottom note of these two different mediums is that they are doing their best to dehumanize the actors of the war zone to keep the player committing to the story and maintaining the illusion that you are the skipper of this circus of hellish events.

Because of the tightly scripted story, the game is moderately short. The heart-stopping tube running around on top of the dunes of wrecked Dubai lasts about six to eight hours and a good chunk of that are the many cutscenes of the game. This can be a deal breaker to the players who don’t want to sit through the game cinematics and commit to the melancholic story of war, but in my opinion, Spec Ops: The Line should be seen as an interactive action-packed multimedium of human nature than a simple computer game. To me, it feels more like an art piece, some kind of psychological test that forces player to go deep into his/her own ethical standards.

Dare you question your own “goodness”? Dare you make the “right” choices? Truly, I have never seen anything like Spec Ops: The Line before and since in video games.

Publisher: 2K

Developer: YAGER

Platforms: PC, Mac

Release Date: 29.6.2012

Genres: Action, Adventure

PEGI: 18

Photos: Promo pictures from the game Spec Ops: The Line (2K 2012) https://store.steampowered.com/app/50300/Spec_Ops_The_Line/

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