Spec Ops: The Line Review (sigerette)
The storyline is based on the book ''Heart of Darkness'' from Joseph Konrad and it's a showcase of descent into guilt, regret, genocide, and how that affects the mind. It has some psychological themes as well. The game is also a critique to shooter games in my opinion. It questions your morality by breaking the fourth wall, but that fourth wall wouldn't exist if you weren't playing, if you didn't keep going...and for what? To see the end of the story? The end of the line? Disregarding what you need to do to get there?
If you hop into the game thinking of it as another third-person action shooter, killing everything in sight thinking of them as mindless NPCs...you're in for a big surprise.
It is a very neatly weaved narrative that speaks to you, mostly.
And remember that there is ALWAYS a choice, but you'll have to look for it. Is it disregarding orders or what the game tells you to do? Is it refusing to do certain actions and closing the game for good because it's too violent? Is it choosing survival over the mission, the mission means survival, what is it?
It's a great game. It is functionally very good, as well. Never encountered any bugs. The graphics are decent, and quite good for 2012. The movement can be clunky sometimes but nothing that will make you frustrated. On the hardest difficulty, there are some levels which can get quite annoying. The soundtrack is on point to how the story progresses, and you'll notice changes in voice acting and animation as you progress, as well.
Overall it's a great game. It's a very good narrative. It is passionately crafted and you can tell. At first a generic shooter for the first 2 hours, then it starts to become a descent into hell. I really wished the developer would've made a sequel or a title in the same lines.
We don't see these types of games anymore, apparently it is almost 10 years old (damn i'm old), but it is very, very underrated, and totally worth your money, especially on such a cheap sale.
If you enjoy narrative driven games with epic action moments and that make you question the story, the characters, and even yourself, go for it with no regrets.