Be Excellent To Each Other

Third-person cover shooter. Solid mechanics, satisfying gunplay, decent enough AI. Gameplay is probably an 8/10. Plot, however, is what elevates it -- starts out normal, rapidly goes mental, turns into a long ranting diatribe against the brutality of most shooters and a long musing on player agency.

Modern military equipment, interesting setting (the ruins of Dubai after a city-wecking sandstorm, a nice variant on GoW's ruin porn). A great line in subverting common genre tropes -- pay attention to the game menu screen as you progress through the campaign, and the loading screen messages are really interesting too. Its equivalent to the bit in CoD4 where you shoot people down from the A-10 Warthog is brutal.

Looks lovely on PC, some really nice lighting effects. The flashing neon of a still-running dance floor buried under three inches of sand was one memorable moment.

Avoid spoilers like the plague if you want to play it.

Eurogamer review if you need more (but has more details on the plot than I think you should see): http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... ine-review

I thought Spec Ops: The Line was OK, nothing special.

Mechanically it is a collage of everything you have done in every other third person shooter from the last 5 years or so.

It has a somewhat interesting story, although I think it's trying to have it's cake and eat it.

Worth a pop, but not spectacular. Give it a go if you are in the mood for shooting some baddies in the face but can't bring yourself to put up with the macho pomp in gears of war.

I really enjoyed it. It'd definitely worth a go.

It's 'free' on Playstation Plus at the moment isn't it?

In America I think, we get Mass Effect 3.

Picked this up on Saturday, and you're right it's rather good. Great setting, interesting story, fun gunplay, and an epic soundtrack.

Snagged this in the Steam Sale for a tenner and I've been making my way steadily through it.

I'm kind of at the point now where I admire it more than I like it, I mean, I'm down with the whole HORROR OF WAR thing but then again I could just watch Platoon for that - I'm not sure I want my games to be as, erm, 'distressing' as this, for want of a better word.

I've completely spoilered it for myself so I know exactly what's going on (I honestly don't find this detracts from games at all) - and it's all very interesting, but I'm not sure 'fun' is a word I'd apply to it.

I'm quite enjoying this despite its shortcomings.

Satisfying combat.

Nice graphics.

Interesting story.

It's mechanically average and quite basic but bloody headshots and "heavies" keep things moving forward. Yes, yes there's even a *hnnngh* sniping section and *hnnngh* a turret section but despite that it's still quite enjoyable in short doses.

Loving the setting especially The Edge, but it's a shame the world seems so disconnected. I still couldn't fathom how each area pieced together: for instance, the sand is near above the skyscrapers at The Edge. Then you go to ground at the bottom of a massive earthquake sized crack. Then you go in a building, out the other side and all the mile high sand has vanished. This happens a few times throughout the campaign and is the only thing that has remotely spoiled it for me. Other than that, the bodies from the lampposts, the white phosphorous and going nuts on a chopper have been real high points.

It's strange because it's interesting almost in spite of being actually a very average third person military shooter.

The level design is a metaphor, innit. You always start out high, and then generally proceed downwards.

My guy has gone increasingly nuts. What started off with commands to the team mates such as "Take him out" are now "I want him fucking dead!" The loading screen has gone bonkers too: "How many Americans have you killed today?" It asked me earlier. Yeah, I kinda like this.

The executions are a particular 'highlight' of the nature of the game.

My favourite loading screen tip is something along the lines of 'What was your mission?'

Oh and 'This is your fault'.

Are you not finding that it's increasingly less fun though?

I mean, if we're honest it's not a great third person cover-based shooter to start with, so all it's got are the stories and the characters, but when the protagonist is visibly cracking up in front of you then it all starts to get a bit detached for the player - that's what I'm getting with it anyway. The unreliable narrator is a great story mechanic but do you actually want to play as one?



Like I said, I admire the narrative very much, it's fantastically well done in the main - but I reckon it'd be a far better game if they massively cut back on the generic waves of enemies combat side of things. But then there wouldn't be a great deal left to do, I suppose.

I'll definitely get through the game, but I'm doing it a handful of checkpoints at a time now, and I may even drop the difficulty down to easy, not because I find normal too hard, but because (a) The gameplay mechanics aren't great and (b) I want to see the story play out more than I do actually play it.

Finished! That was excellent. I was totally invested in the end.

And now I've done all the endings. Groovy shit.

Completed the whole lot on Hard an' all. It wasn't the hardest game in the world but the added difficulty worked out quite nicely as you're forced to be clever about running to cover as you get mowed down very quickly. The cover mechanics weren't as fluid as the roadie run or owt but they were serviceable. I only had a view problems locking into cover or hitting cover with the gun instead of vaulting. In the main though, the pew pew was decent if uninspiring and kept me entertained along the way. Bastard heavies could take some bullets though, aye? Oh speaking of which...

Now you've finished:



Oh, and play it again