Spec Ops The Line... 5 Years Later 

Early Game Loading Screen: Use Cover Mid Game: Do you even remember why you came here? Late Game Loading Screen: The US Military does not condone the killing of unarmed combatants, But this isn't real, so why should you care?

I asked Nolan North about this game a couple of weeks ago at a panel, he said he was so proud of the work he did on it as Captain Walker and he was extremely disappointed with how poorly the game sold. He said if he could ask his for hard Uncharted fans to play one game from him other than that it would be this, he loves the message this game has. It's a shame it's sales suffered due to its generic name and high amount of competitors.

One of the loading screen tips that I've seen that foreshadow the squad. "You can't give command orders when Adams and Lugo are gone. You are alone."

when i was 10, i started playing Spec Ops, thought it was boring, closed the game, never played it again, now i realise i got the good ending.

Early game: "Priority Target! Focus Fire!" Late game: "KILL THAT MOTHERF*CKER"

lets not forget the soldier in the menu dies and is eaten by a crow, his status changing every time you finish a mission.

“No restrictions” must be the best rules for any developer ever and this is what happened when there are no restrictions

"The stoic commander, black guy and smartass." Made me chuckle.

I just recently got my brother, who's never heard of Spec Ops, to play the game, and it was oddly satisfying to see him get gradually broken down.

One thing I will say in defense of Lugo and Adams continuing to follow Walker after he'd shown signs of instability - deniability. Continuing to follow him meant that they could say "We were just following orders!" and thereby shift responsibility onto someone else... just as Walker had done with Conrad.

One small point people miss is that Walker is already suffering from PTSD and hallucinations caused by his time in Afghanistan when they enter Dubai. In the first enemy encounter, Lugo says he speaks Farsi and will try to talk to them--but people in Dubai speak Arabic. Farsi is a dialect of Persian, which is also spoken in Afghanistan and called Dari. So even in this initial moment, the player is subtly told that the narration is not entirely reliable and the squad is not as whole as it may appear. It also connects this fictional conflict to a very real, very ongoing conflict with its own fair share of atrocities and justifications.

Spec Ops The Line's strongest gut punch is actually one of its mechanics: executing an enemy gives you ammo for both equipped weapons. The scar-h smg and grenade launchers are a powerful draw to use, but you will very rarely find enemies that use them or drop or ammo for them. But, any enemy you down can drop ammo for them, by melee killing them in a few second window where they are moaning in pain. This pushes players to think like Walker - an instinctive killer - by making the player listen for the siren call of a man's agony to brutally execute him in order to feed your strongest gun.

I was playing this game on the recommendation of this video. I stuck a soldier with a sticky grenade. He dropped his gun and panicked and ran towards his Comrads. One of them bashed him in the face and then dove on his body to save the rest. Idk how you code something like that into your AI but it’s little stuff like that which really makes this game.

I just picked up on something.. The whole game makes you go further and further down into the abyss. Until the last chapter where you eventually go up. Not only up but also on top of the tallest point of Dubai. The ascension. The final judgment. You don't talk with Conrad. You are negociating for your soul.

i also love the fact that walker is practicing good trigger discipline at the start of the game and having the finger always on the trigger around the end

No one's gonna mention the fact that in the beginning of the game, when you enter the city is a Stop sign, and Conrad said that everything could've been avoided if he just stopped

The best thing is that just when you start the story it says STOP on a sign

The final scene with Konrad possibly references the five stages of grief. Konrad: "I'm going to count to 5, then I'm pulling the trigger." Walker: "You're not real, this is all in my head" [Denial] Konrad: "Are you sure? Maybe it's in mine. ONE." Walker: "No, everything, all of this, it was your fault!" [Anger] Konrad: "If that's what you believe, then shoot me. TWO." Walker: "I-I didn't mean to hurt anybody." [Bargaining] Konrad: "No one ever does, Walker. THREE." Walker raises his gun. [Depression] "FOUR." "Is this really what you want, Walker? ... So be it. FIVE." [by shooting himself, representing Acceptance]

MAJOR SPOILERS A quote from one of the many loading screens: "If Lugo were still alive, he would likely suffer from PTSD. So, really, he's the lucky one."

Walker's wearing Konrad's jacket in the "return home" ending... Implying subtley that he and Konrad are indeed the same person.

The most compelling thing about this game wasn't the shooting, but the game questioning the morality and ethics of why you shot. That's a really interesting idea I'd like to see taken further with more branching paths and options.

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously.

In reality,the reason the “haven’t we done this before” was actually a last ditch effort from the devs,because the publisher wanted to mess with the story a bit,and one of the devs was quoted saying “if anyone’s gonna screw with the story,it’s gonna be me.”

I actually didn’t know you had a choice to not mow down those civilians after Lugo’s death. It’s scary that the thought of shooting in the air never occurred to me, Christ.

Man, it's rare that anyone says anything fresh about this game but you managed to do so at every stage. This is maybe my favourite video you've done.

Yager? "You can stop worrying about grenades now."

3 years later and this analysis still holds great weight "This isn't my fault!" "Takes a strong man to deny what's right in front of him"

The most powerful moment in the game for me is really understated, but it hit really hard. It happens sometime around chapter 5 or 6. Here's how it goes: You're fighting in a camp full of civilian hostages, the enemy pelting you with mounted machine gun fire from several positions. You and your comrades cower behind thick cover, the rubble from the continuous gunfire raining down on you. Without any chance of taking on the guns front on, you decide to have your squadmates stay put so you can attempt a flank. The intensity is incredibly high, tension so thick in the air you could cut a chunk off with scissors. You begin your sprint, making your way towards the entrance to a hallway that leads around to behind your opponents. You run like hell, and safely make it into the hallway. Running along, you turn a corner and see someone running in your direction *bang* Without even realizing it, you just gunned down an innocent civilian. This moment perfectly illustrates the game's themes without even a line of dialogue. You couldn't distinguish soldier from civilian. What to you was an enemy charging you, was simply a scared, innocent person running down a hall. Harrowing.

That truly disturbing moment that haunted me for years after it happened. Playing the multiplayer

Ahh, I love the smell of longform video game analysis in the morning

Got an ad for the us army while watching this.

"It makes early access titles look like they were made by Blizzard" In light of recent events, this comparison no longer has quite the same effect.

Personally, I love Spec Ops. It may not be the best, but I love it. One thing I noticed in my first play through, one of several, was Walkers animations all throughout the game. Particularly, the executions. Early game they are quick, efficient, pretty standard commando style killing. Mid game you see the first changes. They're longer, new or different. Bloodier, reflecting Walker's drive. Mid to late? Savage, ruthless, but still keep the old animation's style. Late game? They look tired. Walker struggles to bring up a fist on a downed enemy. The ruthless and anger is still there, but it's clear that Walker is depleted. Perhaps I'm reading too deep, but this is something I always appreciated. Another point, raised in the video, is the voice acting. Darling game the soldiers of Delta are crisp, efficient. A quick "reloading" Mid game, angry or upset, shouting. Late game, they sound depressed, Walker just complains when he reloads. Anyway, if anyone bothered reading this far, any thoughts on this more subtle (or not) gameplay differences in narrative?

Does anybody realized that Walker's tone of voice changes, after the helo crashes? I don't mean the cutscenes or the scripted ones; when he shoots, or orders his squad, he has a much deeper and angry tone.

Did you ever notice how the level design rarely makes you go up? Each major chapter ends with dropping down a ledge or across a zip line. So there's a literal aspect to walker's descent as well.

When walker says “who said I did.” I didn’t take that him actually being dead. I took that as saying who he was before died and who he is now. Is a version of himself that is broken. I don’t walker died at all in the story

I first played this game on a ps3 with no internet access. The part during the intro credits that displays your online profile name just said the name of my offline user profile. It said: Special Guest (my real name.) That was the freakiest thing in the world to 16 year old me.

"Hahaha! that's right, run you fucking coward." *points a gun at him. "Oh shit" 🤣🤣

Whenever I see praise being heaped on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)'s campaign for being "mature, bold, and realistic", I just laugh because Spec Ops: The Line did it far better six years ago.

Don't know if you'll see this comment because how long ago you posted this video, but on the subject of the multiplayer I was actually one of the beta testers for the original MP build around 2010. The release version was much more dull and standardized compared to other shooters. Basically, the 2 factions had 3 classes on each side with unique abilities. The Damned had scout, heavy weapons, and demolitions. Scout had the ability to send out a pulse and highlight all the enemies on the map for a couple seconds (you could even see them through walls) if they stayed in cover without moving for 10 seconds, with the drawback of all the enemies having you highlighted, but I can't recommend the second ability. Heavy weapons could have MGL, RPG, etc. as a replacement for the pistol, and had the secondary ability of the ballistic vest which reduced gunshot damage to the chest. Demolitions had reduced explosives damage received and I can't remember the second ability. It also didn't have as short of a TTK. The Exiles were the fun ones to play as in my opinion. First was the enforcer, which had a damage bonus that increased the lower their health was, and dropped a grenade on death. The vulture was pretty unique with it's scavenger perk. When you killed one of the damned, they would drop a small box that if you walked over, it would give you a bonus based on which enemy you killed. Killing the scout would drop a scanner that would highlight enemy positions without highlighting yourself, demolitions would give you a flak jacket that was a 20% temporary health increase (once this damage was received, you did not regenerate it, you could only pick up a new one), and heavy weapons would give you an extended mag that instantly refilled the magazine of your current weapon with 20% more capacity and did not take ammo from your reserve (pretty powerful if you manage to steal an enemy grenade launcher, as you couldn't regularly pick up more ammo for it on the map) which is lost as soon as you reload. I can't remember the second perk. Finally, my favorite, the hunter. The hunter was the only one that didn't have any abilities that boosted a stat in some way for combat advantage. The first was highlighting enemy footprints in the sand so you can stalk them, while the other highlighted enemies through walls like the scout, but you weren't highlighted to them and the range was extremely short, about 25 feet or so. The factions also had different weapons. The Damned had lower power and lower recoil weapons that worked well at range, while the exiles had higher recoil and higher power weapons that excelled at shorter range. This lead to an asymmetrical play style that made the exiles really hunt down the damned, but there wasn't a large imbalance of power. Also, the sandstorms in beta were much fiercer, you couldn't see almost anything more than 5 feet away with the exception of a muzzle flash, so you might get a hail of bullets and flashing lights towards your position if you aren't careful with your shots (partly why I loved the hunter, follow the footprints and just execute someone like a ghost, great for making people upset). I was honestly upset with the condition and changes to the multiplayer in the release version, with the really big differences being the XP or damage reduction in certain situations like you mentioned. I think this was before the multiplayer was contracted out and originally done by Jager but I could be wrong or misremembering. TL;DR The multiplayer in beta was great, they screwed up the release version.

I was the perfect candidate for this game. 11 to 12 year old me was a COD fanboy. I played every game to completion, multiplayer, campaign and, if available, spec ops. To this day MW1 & 2 remain some of my favourite shooters. But after Blacks Ops 2, COD was crowned my favourite franchise. I then decided to go through as many shooters as I could before Ghosts came out. Battlefield came first, amazing. Rainbow 6, loved it. Bioshock, spectacular. Then I played Ghosts and was horrified at all how dull it was. I wanted more, I wanted a better shooter fix, like an addict. So I decided to move onto third person games. Gears of War, meh. Uncharted, now we’re talking. It goes on and on but around early 2015, when I was around 13 I saw Spec Ops: The Line. I thought, “never heard of this franchise before, looks pretty good.” So I bought it at a dirt cheap price expecting nothing. I went home and began to play. Helicopter opening? Seen it before. Local militia? Seen it before. Black serious side kick and wise cracking jackass recruit? Seen it before. I got to about Chapter 5 and stopped playing. I was bored. I didn’t care much for killing American Soldiers seeing as though I am not American. So I moved on. Dead Space, Splinter Cell, Mass Effect, Hitman, it goes on but I eventually decided to 100% every game I had before I sold my consoles. Amazingly, and by sheer luck, Spec Ops The Line was the last game I had on the self. Ugh, do I really wanna play this again? Might as well get my money’s worth. So I started up the game, typed in my name and heard the familiar voice of Mr Nolan North in a military shooter. Then I saw my name in the credits. My interest peaked. I was no stranger to the 4th wall but what could a military shooter do with the 4th wall? So I pushed past the early chapters. Then it happened. Chapter 8. Now, let me stress, I was now figuring out something was off. I guessed that one of my squad was the villain. I guess I was right. I didn’t even blink firing the white phosphorus, not a care in the world. I didn’t fire at the vehicle, I fired at the mass of white outlines. With intent to kill all of them. Walking through it? Nah, just enemies, red dots, the bad guys. Then I saw the mother and the child. I literally froze. Wait what? Nah, this was a trick, it isn’t real. This moment scared me more than anything in my life. If I was in that scenario, I just killed a ton of innocent people and said ‘I am the good guy.’ Then ‘This isn’t my fault.’ Then I thought it will be explained or justified later. Then the water supply. Then I blew that fuckers head off. Then the tips began to change. Then the radioman is assassinated. Then the characters got brutal. Then Lugo dies. Then civilians berate and riot against you. Then Adams blames you. Then Adams dies. Then Conrad is revealed to be dead. Then I sat, controller in hand, aiming at Conrad as he spouted off the truth. I then learned I could shoot myself instead. If you tell me you fully understood this game on a first playthrough you are flat out lying. It has a hypnotic effect on you, convincing you everything is justified up until the helicopter crash where the game reveals what it thinks of you and how everything around you, Lugo, Adams, Conrad, the game itself and even Walker, who kept claiming it wasn’t his fault, subtly blaming the player, thinks you are a murdering psychopath. And considering what happens if you dare think back on what you’ve done, you can’t help but agree. It actively discourages you to keep playing but the search for answers, the chance that it is all worth it pushes you to keep going. It even warns you that the answers you seek are not going to please you. Smashing enemies heads in, creating bloody messes as Walker screams in utter rage, unable to stop himself shoving his pistol into the mouth of another human being and blowing his head off, watching up close and savouring the brutality of it, watching Walker switch from making quick and precise orders like “Watch that gunner” to the most unnerving line I’ve ever heard in a video game due to how he expressed hatred towards another human being, one he didn’t even know, in a way that makes the soldier sound like an annoyance rather than a person “I want him dead”. The façade of Walker fades and we are shown what happens when you strip someone of their right to claim they are good, you are left with raw and primal emotions. Nothing else. Identity is irrelevant on a battlefield. And if you spend long enough on a battlefield, your identity withers and dies. Without the identity of Walker, there’s nothing left for you, the player, to protect yourself with. You can’t hide behind, it’s a video game character, anymore. It’s you. Have you ever gotten so angry that you sound inhuman in your threats? No? I’m willing to bet you have at least once lost all control and felt nothing but total rage. That is Walker by the end, that’s all that’s left. Rage and the desperate need to justify his actions. Walker is the rage. You are the desperate search for justification. And when you are told there is no justification, that you are to blame for all of this and YOU and YOU alone killed possibly thousands of innocent civilians and, at any point, could’ve just stopped by putting down the controller, accepting what you’ve done, and returning to reality, or in Walker’s case, the HQ to report back from his RECON mission. By tearing away any chance of justification, the rage is unfounded and so fades. So what’s left? Regret? No. There’s nothing left. It mixes in Walker and the player, making them distinctly different but uniting them at the end so the player fully understands that they are using the excuse that Walker is a character to deny that THEY chose their fate. The ending supports this. The player has control. It’s not Walker taking aim, it’s the player that gets to choose which is why the two Walkers have differing animations. It was your choice. It has always been your choice. The stress was unbearable. But I shot Conrad. It was over. I won, right? It’s justified because I won? Then the epilogue, the final kick to the balls, when I surrendered to the soldiers and the game ended. I survived, so I won right? No. I replayed the epilogue all the ways I could. Killing the soldiers felt wrong but it felt as if Walker had transcended my control. He was lost and survival is all that mattered, if survival is even real. Then getting killed by them felt calming, knowing that Walker escaped his hell. But then I figured out what the real ending was. There is no epilogue. The only way to end it, the only way to escape, the only way to know what is truly real, is to shoot Walker in the head. 13 year old me, no matter how naive understood that THIS was what I had been doing throughout all these shooters. Killing people because I was deemed ‘the good guy’ by myself. A realisation such as this, to a 13 year old, changes your outlook on video games. Suddenly Farcry 3 looks like very similar to this idea but The Line fully realises this idea. It was hard to replay the game, knowing how every person you kill was simply trying to protect themselves from you, specifically you. I haven’t touched a shooter since, nor will I ever do so again. The last game I ever played, my favourite game of all time, Spec Ops The Line, is one of the greatest experiences out there. Go play it. Now.

The white phosphorus scene has a lot in common with the first bioshock's twist, being that we play video games believing we have choice, that's a lot of the appeal towards them, interactive media, but in reality it's just an illusion, a false sense of choice and freedom. In spec ops you killed civilians because you chose too, then if you tried not to, it's obvious there was no choice. You either did it because you didn't care or did it because you had no choice. And this parallels a lot with the hardships of war, when push comes to shove, what are you going to do, and how are you going to justify what you've done, because sometimes, there is only thing you can do.

28:00 Here's something I bet you didn't notice. Walkers scars have a very significant meaning If you look at the end of the game his scars are 1) The right side of his face. This represents his duality 2) His Temple. This is where most people shoot themselves when commiting suicide. It also represents how he lost his mind 3) Roughly the back of his neck. In ancient times it was believed when a demon took your soul they would take it through the back of your neck or head.

There's a fanfic called Afterglow which takes place directly after the Shooting Konrad ending all the way to Falcon-1's appearance, and it merges seamlessly with the campaign's storyline. I recommend you read it just for the heck of it.

Is it not okay to describe Spec ops the line a deconstruction of military shooter games? My favorite was probably some artistic reference where near end Colonel John Konrad painted the burnt mother/child of Walker using White Phosphorus results. as both Walker and Konrad looked at side by side. Walker: "You did this" Konrad "No, you did" A reference to ww2 era a german officer occupied france and strolled through a french artist art gallary and notice a particular art piece of horror of war and asked the french artist similar manner. "You did this?" "You did...." something like that.

On the part about this being his personal hell and that he's actually dead, I'd like to disagree with that being taken literally. I think what he means by, "Who said I did.", is that he may be physically alive but he's dead inside and wracked by PTSD and guilt for his actions. He may have left Dubai, but his soul never did. And it possibly implies that he took his own life later down the line after returning home, like many other veterans do.

shotguns actually have a lot more range than depicted in games. a lot more. and the spread is about half as less

Spec Ops: The Line did it's job, it made us Discuss, Question and Disagree. that is a bit more satisfying than another "Mission Complete". not to mention that it gave us this video.

Okay, time to do something productive with my time. (Sees a new Raycevick video on Spec Ops) Ahhh, I'm sure I can spend another 43 minutes watching this video

Based on one of the best novels ever made, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Raycevick’s Spec Ops The Line… 5 Years Later, 5 years later

In a world full of Call of Duties, dare to be a Spec Ops: The Line.

I've heard about this game quite a lot. Never played it, it seemed like a typical 3rd person shooter, and thought that all the praising of it's story meant it was on a similar level as CoD4:MW. Then I was looking for something easy, quick and fun to play, and I didn't want to do another run in the CoD franchise or BF:BC2. So I thought - why not give it a shot. Now, I've finished it half an hour ago. Now I feel like a piece of shit.

Great analysis. Spec Ops is such a clever and criminally underrated game. Watching this makes me almost want a big budget remake with the technical polish to match the brilliance of the writing and voice acting.

Walker is one of my favorite unreliable narrators for a tale ever. This game forever haunts me.

I honestly found the game’s combat very intense, especially at the end where the Damned 33rd stop messing about. I really loved the environmental design, near the end of the game I came across a room that the 33rd used to honour and remember their dead who were killed by Delta, with each individual name and rank written on the wall, with their plethora of dog tags hung on the wall. With a board to the right with the pictures and names of Delta squad, with Lugo ticked off. I really love this because I’m under the opinion of what makes human monsters terrifying, isn’t that they’re monsters, it’s because they’re human. And there are several scenes with the Damned 33rd that shows their humanity, talking with each about going home, but affirming why they stay and why it’s their duty to ‘save’ and ‘help’ people, willing to be called traitors because of their duty and wanting to feel like heroes. And if it weren’t for the actions of the ‘ungrateful’ civilians and insurgents, they wouldn’t have to do these awful things like executions, using white phosphorus etc. Showing how much they reflect Walker, who goes down roughly the same path as the 33rd, becoming Damned to a hell like them. The tragedy of the 33rd is that despite all the horrible things that they’ve done, they ultimately just wanted to be virtuous and again, feel like heroes, even when killing innocents, declaring martial law, forcing civilians to follow their orders on the pain of death, going through a civil war within their unit, killing their friends who they’ve come to know as brothers. Despite all of this they ultimately, just wanted to help people, but were confronted by the grim reality of the situation and their flaws as humans, yet never accepted it and instead blaming all of their problems and flaws on outside forces. Which ultimately Damned the 33rd.

I personally have always seen Walker saying "Who said I did" not as him being dead, but as his mind having been damaged with all of his experiences and personal tortures. He feels he hasn't made it out despite having done so. He is still feeling tortured by all of the events leading up to leaving Dubai. The man who entered Dubai is not the man who left it, that man "died" in the metaphorical sense, not the literal. This is my personal opinion however, I very much enjoyed this game and this video as well. Keep up the good work!

Spec Ops the Line Multiplayer is bad ... Spec Ops had multiplayer...?

11:30 Yeah you’re wrong about that one Shotguns do have the range of SMGs People just assume because of games that when you fire a shotgun at something more than a metre away the pellets just stop. For Christ sake people use shotguns to shoot ducks out of the air of course they have range They’re firing a spread of pellets all in one general direction

You can also notice walker getting more mad and bloodthirsty against the 33rd when commanding your squad members to attack an enemy. In the beginning of the game it's just normal commands to take out an enemy, but more towards the later parts and ending of the game walker might say stuff like "I want him dead" or just straight up "Kill him!" along with more normal commands, when ordering lugo and adams to attack.

He actually did it, my man.

Sits on the toilet, goes on phone, finds Raycevick video. FeelsGoodMan

So many people slept on this game, such a shame. I was 17 when it came out, and when I told people it had one of the best stories ever, for a video game, they just laughed and continued to play CoD of BF.

I get why this is called 'The Line'. In war soldiers often cross a line in committing brutal acts either following orders or on their own accord. And in this game, it's clear characters cross a moral line and it's up to you to decide where you fall on this line. I have to disagree with you about the choice of the white phosphorous thing. It is absolutely your choice to use it. Yes you have to do it to progress but nobody is forcing you to buy the game to do it in the 1st place.

Wow, thanks for finally giving this game the deserved attention! Absolute masterpiece

The "years later..." Reviews are easily the best reviews on this site. Your exquisite script writing and damn near flawless editing make every second of the video engaging. You deserve so much higher praise and recognition on this platform. Keep up the amazing work and thank you for the gift that these videos are.

Games like this prove that Videogames are art

You also missed the fact that after Conrad says "welcome to hell Walker" he's says "we've been waiting for you" meaning Conrad (or in this case Walker) knows no matter how much good does he will still end up in hell instead of the usual "we've been expecting you" which expresses doubt

This video is old, but I still feel compelled to comment anyway. I got this game on some Steam sale, I think it cost me a half chewed stick of bubble gum and a bowl full of grass clippings. I got a few levels in, completely lost interest, and went off to chase a squirrel or something. Then Origin gave away the Battlefield game where you get to climb into the back of a fighter and be Goose from Top Gun and I felt pumped and needed more tangos to shoot in the face, so I loaded up The Line and gritted my teeth as I got to grinding my way through it. I more or less played the game on autopilot, not really taking in anything up to the point that I mindlessly clicked on the Humvee, but the aftermath hit me exactly as the writers intended. I don't recall much more about my first play of the game other than thinking "wtf just happened???" as the game came to a close. My absolute favorite stories are the ones where the writers refuse to hold your hand and explain things prematurely, showing you things that don't make sense until you learn more about the world you're in as you move through it. This makes the second or even third time through a lot of fun. So I read up a bit to get a better idea of what I was looking at and went through it again. My basic opinion of the story is that from beginning to end, you simply experience Walker's descent into insanity. Maybe he dies in the helicopter crash, maybe he doesn't, I personally do not believe that it matters. It's what makes the game interesting, that there's a certain point where it's not really possible to know if what you're seeing is what actually happened, or not. After this video now I think it's fun to believe that there was a point where Adams and Lugo were killed, but Walker carried on, believing that they were still with him as strongly as he believed that Konrad was talking to him on the radio. This was more or less the last "modern" shooter I've played. After this experience the CoD style of action hero games all felt hollow and cheap. So now for my power fantasies.... I plan Doom. Thank you for the throwback video on this game. It's easily among the most fascinating and memorable experiences I've had through any kind of entertainment.

My dad loves shooters, fighting games and sports games, but doesn't like story heavy games too much. But i knew i had to make him play this game after i finished it. One day he wanted to play something, i left my xbox on the living room with only Spec Ops The Line to play and forced him to give it a try. So he played it. The next day he was like "It's fun, i love how it looks, the blood and the sand stuff" (something like that). The next day, i'm going into the bathroom, he stops me and says "What the fuck? Why are you making me play this?" I asked why he said that, and was because he played the white phosphorus scene. The next day he was even telling my mom about it, he had never before felt something like that because of a videogame. And maybe a day or two later im in my room watching videos, he comes in and says "I finished the game... this fucking game... Amazing" Then i saw him playing it a few more times. He absolutely loved it and anytime he hears people talking about stories in videogames, he brings up Spec Ops The Line. 2020 edit: Had to come back to add that last night while we were drinking and playing Modern Warfare he went on for maybe and hour an a half, about how it could be a movie or a tv show, thinking of the cast, how reveals and twists could be set up, etc. So even though he hasn't played it in a couple of years he still loves it.

On your point about the game not giving you a choice to kill the civilians, I think that's the point. The game routinely presents choices or moral conflicts that ultimately don't mean anything or are unavoidable because the thesis of the game is you should never have played it in the first place. There's a moment where you have to either kill someone who stole water, or someone who killed five family members of the man who stole the water (or not kill either and end up killing many more), except, at the end, you find out they were corpses all along, and you'd imagined the whole thing. At the very beginning of the game, right around the tutorial, there's a Stop sign, asking you to turn away. The "choice" was to play the game. The strongest evidence for this is the way Walker talks about choice. He consistently frames himself as having no choice, and, as the player, you're meant to think the same. "I had to bomb civilians with white phosphorus to complete the game." The reason there's no in-game choice is because the choice isn't framed as an action within the game, it's framed as you choosing to continue playing. You can debate the efficacy of that, some may argue it's akin to blaming the actions in a book on the person turning the page, but, whether or not you think this "choice" was presented in a meaningful manner, whether there's any point to making the player complicit for moving forward in the game, I do think that was the point the game was making.

The year is 2019. I've never played this game. People thought MW3 was a mature compelling story that really highlights the horrors of war through its characters. I thought MW3 was a dogshit story and the original Call of Duty 4 and BO1 could never be topped. I always had that game as my bar. Had so much respect for it despite how its been lately. Then I decided finally to give this game a chance. I heard about it in highschool from my friend who was one of the people that believed MW3s story was amazing. On my 360 I watched the trailer and thought it as a generic third person shooter with a samd mechanic. Such a generic boring looking "here's another one" game. I skipped it. Now almost 5 years later I am 20 years old and I watched a game movie of Spec Ops the Line (its like a movie about a games story mainly the cutscenes with some gameplay in between for context) It was immediately boring but I gave it a chance. I kind of predicted the twist when he used the White Phosperous but when I got to that part I still couldn't believe it. It wasn't the burned corpses of civilians. It was that soldier missing his face. All of its features black and charred but his eyes. Wide open looked and this soldier that looked no different from the others that were killing you just a few minutes ago. Says in a raspy pathetic whimper. "Why...?" "We...We were helping" As the soldiers toss him aside like trash to witness the main event. That moment I paused. I didn't cry but as fast as I could I looked up if there was a way to prevent it. I called it it felt forced but it left an impression. So bad. I didn't even play it. But I still wanted to see if that could've been avoided. It can't. I was hooked the whole way through. And after the ending. I looked up the others. Then suddenly it all clicked. The soldiers weren't fighting for a cause. They weren't lunatics running at you with a knife to send some crazy message. They were desperate. To survive. This wasn't a military shooter with message like CoD. This was a critique. It was a psychological survival horror game. And you were the monster. You weren't fighting soldiers. You were fighting people who just wanted to survive. All those actions found in every other shooter game that were such a slog to watch became so much more real the second time I watched it. This was longer than I thought it would be but if you made it this You can buy it on Steam for the price of a pepperoni pizza and a diet coke. But this game will leave a taste in your mouth that never goes away. Play. This. Game.

I have to say, with the parts that didn't play out until the ending, like Lugo and Adams questioning why Walker stopped at the two hanging men. It could be explained as Walker blocking out some things. I feel like this is shown after the choice is made when Adams says "don't do this." He knows Walker is losing it, but they're barely surviving with the three of them. Seperating would not be viable as it would be a death sentence for all of them. After all, they have a mission, and they know PTSD is a thing. They may think it's Walker trying to cope. Just my personal take on it.

You forgot something!! When you look at the plaques and memorial, Lugo and Adam's name are on it

I've heard one theory about why Adams and Lugo keeps obeying you and never asks any questions is because they are supposed to be Walkers consciousness like they are the angel and devil on your shoulders. Adams always enables your actions while Lugo questions you at every turn. And it's why Lugo is the first to die because now there is nothing that holds Walker back and he goes even more animalistic and brutal. But even Adams has a breaking point before he dies and that's when Walker is forced to face the truth of his actions.

I remember saying something to this effect a long time ago similar to another video like this. I think one of the biggest things that people ignore or maybe the game isn't implied enough through the story is: water. or the lack of water through out the game. I think it was another low-key trope that adds to the narrative. If a person goes a very long time without water they suffer dehydration which leads to other symptoms such as fainting, more prone to irritability, loss of motor skills and others. Walker and his squad didn't drink any water throughout this entire game (if my memory is correct) and it's crazy to think something so menial can have an even greater impact on those involved.

Wow I never even noticed the "Special Guest" credit. That's so cool, and really enforces the idea that you're not even really controlling Walker.

Honestly I take the "who said i did" line as more of him being physically and mentally dead after all he has been through, though the theory you brought up is an interesting take but feels like a bit of a cop out.

Wish this game would get a remaster it was soo good

What I love about Nolan North's voice acting in this is that it has three stages that it goes through as the game progresses. Stage 1 is at the beginning of the game, it's very professional and precise. Stage 2 is after the horrific stuff starts to pile on, where he gets a lot more aggressive, throws more curses into his lines, and even starts to yell at enemies. And then once everything falls apart, Walker just breaks down and is bloodthirsty, and it shows in his lines in stage 3. One part that really hit me when I played was after SPOILERS NECK ROPE GUY, and when I revive Adams, he yells "We have to fucking move now!!!" and his voice cracks. And there's no doubt in my mind the devs left that voice crack in there on purpose. Here's a video covering it, it's a fascinating watch. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RIFQzMgYS0I.html

I remember how in the early segments of the game, it would give you the typical Unreal Engine 3 loading screen along with the games basic gameplay hints. and as levels pass by it starts getting existential. And that honestly spooked me

The lines that got me when i first played this was "do you feel like a hero yet?" and "you came here to be something you're not, a hero"

I loved how Walker became more and more damaged as the game went on but not only that, you could recognise his mental state just by looking him in the face. A lot of cutscenes show Walker's face up close. His eye become less and less detailed as the game plays out. During the final battle where you reach the base of the Dubai tower, Walker's eyes glaze over and become completely dark and blank. It's a disturbing thing to see but it's so dam powerful. An even smaller detail is when he's talking to Konrad. Whenever Konrad talks Walker lip syncs every single word. All along he was actually talking to himself. You can see it at 22:03

I know it's an old video, but you can also notice how Konrad (Conrad?) always knows what you are up to, to the point of even knowing details you don't talk about on radio. Also when you are crossing the unsafe bridge and his face is on the left, it implies that Konrad is 'always watching' further implying Konrad is actually in Walkers head.

33:55 I cringed at this part where he says any shooter needs to have multiplayer. You can almost tell he's guilty about saying it; like even he doesn't believe it but he has to drink the company kool-aid. Sadly, shitty multiplayer modes were forced on so many games that didn't need them, including Bioshock 2. The fact that they didn't learn their lesson after Bioshock 2 proves just how disillusioned the people calling the shots were. The same company, hiring the same studio, to add the same half-assed multiplayer onto a game that didn't need it. Hopefully the worst of this is past us. Single player games can be single player. Online can be online. We don't need to force both in one package every time.

I too played this when I was like 18 I think and thought to myself that it was just another typical shooter. Boi was I wrong. This was the game that taught me, not everything is as black and white. That white phosphorus scene made me want to stop the mission all together. I guess this game is saying "Where do you draw the line."

Seeing the aftermath of the white phosphorus gave me such a visceral feeling of "how could anyone live with this on their conscience?" Upto that point, I had identified with Walker. But soon afterwards, he becomes someone who tries his best to cope with it by becoming more and more evil as the story went on. By the end, I had made Walker the most evil, revolting bastard ever and I did it because that's all I believed he could be. There was no redemption for him. Or for me. This game forced me into killing a bunch of innocent people but it also made me think about how I would feel about myself if I ever did something that horrendous IRL. What a wonderful and unique work of art.

I remember the white phosphorus scene mainly because no one ever spoiled it for me. The closest to it was "captain walker unwittingly does a bad thing". Waiting for that bad thing, i was completely shocked still by expecting something like a murder and getting 100 times that. Bless this game

Thank you for saying something against the white phosporus part. I very well remember seeing that the people were civilians and decided not to shoot at them, but then died because the game forced me to do it and then wanted to make me feel bad about it.

This video gave me the chills. Spec Ops The Line is one of my 10 favorite games ever, and though I replay it every year this analysis still pointed out things I've missed, like the hanging soldier during the rappel. Thanks so much for this amazing video, and for reminding me yet again what makes this game so special, flaws and all.

I remember so many years back I watched NerdCubed play this game. His intro was “Welcome to Spec Ops: The Line- COME BACK, ITS GOOD”

Honestly, when you first make your way through this game, the mortar sequence is 100% going to trick you into killing the civilians without you realizing it. Ofc, when you beat the game already you can clearly see the flaws in that sequence. But when i first went through it, I was so used to the average "blow up a bunch of shit from above in thermal view" that you get in every FPS, and so angry at the 33rd after hours of shooting, blasting and dying my way through them. So when the time came, i lit them up without second thought, and by the time I could even notice something sketchy on the monitor, the whole place was already torched, and the civilians dead. And that is truly the strength of this game. While almost every AAA military action game makes you obliterate an entire division by yourself, putting you as the righteous hero, Spec Ops used that particular scene to draw the line : before, you were still a soldier fighting for his country, and now you are just a rogue, psychotic murderer who torched a bunch of innocents. So far, you could still do some good and save some people, but from now on the rules are off the table and you can bring nothing but death and despair to this city. Holy fuck that's a good ass game

If the initial trailers for this game were to sell this game as a horror game and not a third person shooter, i think it would have more appeal. Like Yahtzee said in his Zero Punctuation videos, games are meant to be fun but they aren't always like that. Games that are meant to give the player a sense of dread and misery, much like horror games. And he saud Spec Ops could be identified as a horror game, not because it's scary but because it makes the player uncomfortable and uneasy

'we have far to much in common with walker' that is a fair statment

The first time I played this game was in 2013. I had some downtime from my new factory job, but was missing some army themed stuff as that was my old job. Never did anything special, just liked the structure of the place. It was home, and it had rules I understood. So when I got to the WP scene... well I beat the game on a philosophical level. I flat out refused to deploy the WP, because I knew what it would do, and did not believe it would ever be justified. I was angry that I bought a game that sought to bottleneck me, and I uninstalled. Cut to 2015, my internet is limited, and I need something to occupy the time. Desperate to kill the boredom, knowing full well what the game would ask of me, I played it through anyway. Back to the WP scene. The absolute second the WP spread from the humvee, I knew. I fucking knew and I fucking hated it. I knew I chose to be there, and there was no "you could have avoided this". I did avoid it, and came back anyway out of boredom, of all things. I still made a point of completely restarting a chapter if I killed a civilian both before and after that point, and I refused to subscribe to the mechanic of executions for ammunition... but the game had tarnished me already. By the time it got to the end... it didn't matter. There was no redemption to be had, and it wasn't worth seeking. There was madness, an AA12, and a radio with a working battery. "Gentlemen. Welcome to Dubai."

The music that plays when Konrad shows Walker the painting he has been working on still gets me everytime, just reinforces the shitty feeling you have at the end.

Wow, I never noticed the reflection of a hanging soldier where Lugo is supposed to be. Very clever! I believe the plot holes stemming from the great reveal are actually caused by the very nature of the narrative you describe, in that it's intentional. I know this requires a lot of faith in the author but here's why I think this. Walker--the person--is stuck in his own personal purgatory. The events in Dubai broke him. In an effort to deny what he saw, he constructed his own reality where those he meets, the story of the game and even the world itself is constantly judging him. The entire game is his conscience, and that conscience is torturing him for the crimes he committed. I especially liked the way the hallucinations are terrifying not just to the player, but to Walker as well. As the game progresses they freak him out more and more, and some apparitions actually seem to charge him or box him in. The change in lighting when white phosphorus is used eventually transitions to a inky black darkness contrasted by hellfire. Even subtler things, like the Konrad billboards, the inexplicably withered tree, the change in loading screens and the main menu, and especially the way you keep descending into darker and darker surroundings, push this theme of confrontation and self-torture. And finally, there are the times where the screen fades to white. It's a sign that something you saw, or are seeing, isn't real. This is of course what ties the entire thing together. The more you play, the more the game sets up Walker as something you don't see often in any kind of media: the unreliable narrator. That's why I think the plot holes, while unfortunate, were more or less deliberate. In the end, we don't know 100% what happened. Neither does Walker. ...This turned out longer than I wanted it to be. Anyway, thanks for the thought-provoking video! You definitely pointed out a few things I hadn't noticed.

21:14 I always thought it was a nice touch that Walker's eyes almost look like shattered glass in this scene, just like how his reality is shattered right in front of his eyes.

I think the point is that no matter how good we think we are, given the certain scenario and the lack of tought, we all can become a monster in war, or in war-like scenarios

I just finished the game! By far one of the best stories i've ever witnessed in gaming. By the end of it, i felt delirious and dirty from all the killing and war myself lol. PLEASE, PLAY THIS GAME.