Spec Ops: The Line comes out tomorrow and the reviews are slowly rolling out. The "New York Times" not only knifes the military action-shooter in the gut, but then makes it quite clear that all the film references in the world won't save the game.
Among trashing the character allusions to Apocalypse Now/"Hearts of Darkness," Spec Ops: The Line "tries to make the player uncomfortable by lingering on the immorality of the first-person shooter." It isn't just about shooting characters or the enemy, according to the review. The punch is supposed to effect players that you're inevitably going to shoot other American soldiers that simply follow different orders than your own three-man squad send in to find out why people are still in Dubai.
Morality and action games have gone hand in hand for a long time. Metal Gear Solid brought up the option not to kill anyone and it made the game more difficult. Over the years it's evolved into a choice that some players would rather not kill, to challenge themselves, when playing a game. But a multiplayer shooter has no qualms about using stun guns or knockout gas, or Bioshock, which used an intricate story element to show the player how little control they really had.
Games have turned into a reflecting pool for how we're ingesting our media. The problem with Spec Ops it seems is how serious it takes itself, while in fact being an unintentional parody.
"Spec Ops is so heavy-handed that I began to wonder if it were intended as a black comedy about Walker's obtuseness regarding the genuinely horrific consequences of his actions. There is some evidence for this interpretation. After a convoy of tractor-trailers carrying water supplies is destroyed, the game rewards the player with a notification that the "Protect the Trucks" objective was completed. During the loading screens in the late stages of the game, Spec Ops begins gently mocking the player with text: "'Can you even remember why you're here?'; 'You are a still a good person.'"
Maybe it's time for an end to snuff games and start having--well, we're not exactly sure what could've made this guy happy. There's a place for deep, probing games that sort out exactly what a genre means for an audience and then there are big, stupid spectacles filled with explosions and eye candy. Seems pretty clear which category Spec Ops falls into.