SPEC OPS: THE LINE (Zero Punctuation) 

A friend recommended this to me. He said "Have you played Spec Ops?" I said "Eh, I don't like military shooters that much." He said "Neither does Spec Ops. You'll get along great." He was right.

"We did it, Patrick! We saved Dubai!" *entire city burns in the background*

Personally my Favourite line in this game was "Do you feel like a hero yet?"

It is just weird seeing Yahtzee act so... serious reviewing a game. Way to go Spec Ops, you broke Yahtzee

One of the best parts of SO:TL is its subtle change in the loading screens. They start out like" the scar-h has an effective grenade launched on it but limited ammo capacity" then as the game progresses it changes to things like "you are still a good person" and "how many people have you killed today?" Beautifully done.

When I recommended this game to a handful of friends I described it as, "Silent Hill of Duty."

"It was like I played Modern Warfare 2 airport scene with every civilian replaced with Bambi's mom." Could not have summed that part up better.

this game is dripping with subtlety, stuff like your reloads becoming progressively sloppier and kills becoming more and more brutal, as well as little tricks the loading screens and shit play on you to subconsciously make you feel a bit crazy

This game actually made Yahtzee pause. This is the first and maybe only Zero Punctuation video with a period in it. I’m shook.

Who ever made the story deserves a fucking raise

"you hardly kill any foreigners" Not if Lugo is to be avenged..

i remember seeing an advert of spec ops the line and thinking "oh god, this is probably another medal of honor warfighter like thing." boy was i wrong.

5:00 You know that when Yahtzee has to stop himself mid-rant and *_sigh_* that shit's fucked up. Damn.

Player: "I had no choice, the devs wrote this!" Walker: "I had no choice, Konrad ordered his soldiers to resist!"

It takes a strong man to deny what's right in front of him.

Even that last fart noise sounded depressed.

I consider Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now and Spec Ops: The Line to be a trilogy of the same story spanning across generations, genres and settings, a story that impacts each new generation on the most intimate of levels. It forces the generation to be self-aware, and to go into the world not as a bitter jaded sociopath, but as someone who understands the value of life and cares in spite of the horror, without falling victim to naive trust in the establishment or in human nature. *fart noise*

I was subjected to guilt MILES before the "bad thing"; during the bit early on, where we were clearing out a crashed airplane, I was moving forward when someone bolted around a corner. I only realized it was a local woman fleeing for her life AFTER I'd put a bullet in her head. I was left staring at her, shrieking, "I DIDN'T MEAN TO, GODDAMMIT!! I DIDN'T MEAN TO-O-OOOOOO!!!!!" amidst all the shooting.

Literally the nicest review he's still ever given.

"If you were a good person, you wouldn't be here."

If you kill some animals right at the start of the game you get an achievement That was the last time I laughed while playing spec ops the line

You are still a good person.

Your eyes are opening for the first time. It hurts, doesn't it?

You know Yahtzee, nothing in your video would have happened if you had just stopped.

"I didn't mean to hurt anybody" "No one ever does, Walker"

"We thought you died in there, Walker." "Who said I didn't."

I feel like Yahtzee should be in charge of writing achievements for a modern shooter at least once. I mean the first achievement would be loading the game called "Dumbass": 'You actually payed money to play this game. You fucking tosser' and the last story achievement would be something like I have lost faith in all of humanity

This game made me feel so many emotions. I hope more people experience this masterpiece.

"This is all your fault!" "How many Americans have you killed today" "He turned us into fucking monsters!" "None of this would have happened if you just stopped. This was your fault, you caused all this. Are you happy? Are you proud? It takes a strong man to deny what's in front of him. The fact of the matter is this happened because you wanted to feel like something you aren't: A Hero." This game isn't just talking to the character, they might as well be looking right at the screen when they say it. They understand what players want in a game, to be the badass that saves the day, the unstoppable hero. The game takes those expectations and throws them at your face and tells you how pathetic that is. This is war and all you care about is looking cool, you monster?! This game is more accurate than any other army shooter game in existence. Those that die, die seeing pain and suffering that no person wants to see or can be imagined. Those that live become so damaged that they are only a shadow of themselves, at some point something in you just... Breaks

As much as I love Undertale, Spec Ops was the first game that made me feel like a monster

I'm currently playing this... holy shit it's good but beyond unpleasant.

SPOLIERS There was a moment in the game where there's two people suspended in the air by ropes. "Konrad" tells you what they've done to be there, and tells you to kill one of them. I can't remember who I killed, but as I replayed the game again, I noticed I could shoot the ropes and let them live. I had to pause the game and reminisce over my first playthrough, and realise how naive and stupid I was. When you're put in a situation like that, in reality or in a video game, you panic, and just follow orders you're given. You never think of an alternative that can resolve the situation efficiently and to the best outcome. And the writers do that to show you there are several options to everything. Hell, even life and death. Maybe in a few years time Humans will have the ability to become immortal. There's open doors everywhere, it's just about picking the right one to enter. Gosh, that game is so fucking good.

Seriously though, I completed this game on normal in one day and it was such a trip. It started off normal enough but as it kept going I felt myself getting angrier. When I did the "bad thing" I felt sick and angry about it and gunned harder for the people I thought were bad, but when you get to that ending though... it all just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was shocked, confused, maybe in a bit of denial, until I just gave up at the very end and resigned myself. You know a games good when you get invested like that and you feel so rung out you just need a damn beer afterwards. XD

5:00 HOLY SHIT HE TOOK A BREATH!

Execution Animations Start of the game: Bullet to the head End of the game: Bludgeoning to death with the butt of your gun. Just one of the many lovely little ways this game told story through little game play changes.

"You're here because you wanted to feel like something your not. A Hero.": -Spec Ops. The Line Suck it CoD and Battlefield.

I think this game is one of the most powerful pieces of modern media and art out there. Many people say they are still waiting for the Citizen Kane of gaming yet completely overlook this. The horrors of the human mind are on display in the most grounded way possible. The genius of the game is the darkness wrapped on an easily digestible shell, you don't know what's wrong until it's too late. Of all the amazing, and I use that term lightly, moments in this game it's the little touches that get you. A good portion into the game you are given the option of executing two men. One stole water rations for his family, the other killed the man's family but he only did so under orders. Who do you choose? When you get to the end you understand what that choice means but in the moment you must weigh your options. I did what don't think most people know about, I shot the snipers who were waiting for me to choose. The two men died in the crossfire but I believed I had done the right thing. That is truly your first step into the madness. Most FPS games hardly tackle the atrocities of war but SO: The Line forces you to confront it, forces you to experience hell. As you descend further into depravity you will undoubtedly question yourself, and the game tries to reassure you, 'You are still a good person', yet in the next breath chastises you, 'Do you feel like a hero yet?'. This leads to the player ultimately coming to grips with the terrible things they've done, and for what? A man back home and a medal that gathers dust, never mind those whose life bled into that godforsaken sand. Never mind the mother clutching her child in a desperate attempt to safe them. Never mind that there was always a choice. There is always a choice, in the moment it might not seem like it but after the dust settles you have to live with the choice you made. You have to live with the blood on your hands, haunted by the sights that are forever burned into your mind so that every second is a nightmare. War is hell. And hell is human. Humanity feared the monsters they believed lurked in the trees, lakes, mountains, and deserts, but the true monster, the one we should all fear, is the monster inside each and every one of us. The darkness that claws and howls to be let loose, the beast that begs for blood, we all have it. Some are more in touch with it and give in, while others are scarred and forever changed by giving into their demons and living with the consequences. Spec Ops explores that beautifully and it can't be praised enough.

I appreciate how Yahtzee took the time and effort to not spoil the White Phosphorus scene, only for every other journalist and gamer under the sun to spoil it immediately before any of you got a chance to play the campaign! (including myself!)

Huh, a game where the enemies aren't some shade of brown or drinking vodka.

My exact words when finishing spec ops the line: "well, fuck, I'm just going to go off and have a lay down"

It really bums me out that this game never got the attention it deserved. And even then, most people just dismiss it for the railroading. As Yahtzee pointed out, that's the point. Spec Ops isn't a story about your choices so much as the act of choosing and its meaning. How many times does Walker bring up not having any choice? As Konrad says, "none of this would have happened if you'd just stopped." If you'd closed out of the game, not finished the story, you'd have been absolved of any guilt for what you've done. But the player keeps going because they want to feel like a hero. How many games praise the player for making the "heroic" choice that they are railroaded into? Wouldn't that praise not also invalidated? The point of Spec Ops is that if you accept praise for saving the innocent in other games, who are you to deny the guilt over the atrocities you commit here?

Walker in my view had some of the best character development in recent game history. He went from a generic modern fps soldier to a crazed genocidal animal with such great pacing. I give so much praise to Nolan North for bring out his character and I praise the writing crew with such a incredible story.

"Fun, Fun, Fun!"- Yahtzee They should put that on the box.

Was Yatzee the greatest game reviewer I've ever seen? Well I don't know, this one time he convinced me to buy Spec Ops the line so maybe I'm biased...

"In some ways it's a rather grim exploration of the relationship between player and player character. Are we really in control of Captain Walker or do we merely represent the last vestige of self-awareness in his increasingly damaged mind as he railroads us into committing atrocities, and our distrust and fear of him grows in parallel to that of the men in his command as he weakly tries to rationalize to both them and us until we feel as disconnected from him as the rest of reality." Wow, this gave me a whole new appreciation for this game.

I think Walker's character actually plays into the gameplay being fun really well. He's really a bloodthirsty maniac who wants to nae nae as many soldiers as possible and feel good about himself, when he's on the obligatory helicopter minigun section his first thought isn't "let's get out of here!" it's "BRING ME AROUND I WANT TO DESTROY THIS ENTIRE GODDAMN TOWER"

"You're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not: a hero."

Maybe it's not chastising you for doing what it told you, but for being fine with it while it was telling you.

That's how impressive this game is. Till date this is the only game that made the great Yahtzee Croshaw himself, pause for breath.

This was, by far, the most horrifying video game experience I've ever had. 11/10, would be brutally traumatized again. If anyone here hasn't played this game yet, go play this game and prepare to loathe yourself.

what if the rogue american soldiers are all the stereotypical fps players in COD

That last fart was a work of genius

I think that clunkiness in the gameplay was intentional, to instill this feeling that something is very wrong with Walker, and the entire situation.

Every time I finish this game again I go watch this video to make me less sad and to remind me that other people appreciate the amazing impact this game has.

I just finished it and jesus he's right on all points I swear it's the first time that a game manages to traumatize me

I think this is Yahtzee's best review. While it isn't that funny, it actually has him really analyzing the game and talking about its flaws and merits, and showcases just how the game actually affected him to his audience.

One of my favorite parts is how executing downed enemies gets you more ammo and grenades than letting them bleed out or stand back up, it rewards you for being brutal and they only get more gruesome as the game goes on. Really sucks you into the gameplay loop until it yanks the collar and you realize you’ve bashed the head of someone who you’d probably be serving with under different circumstances just so you can have more ammo

I really did like this game. Decent mechanics, good story, not cmpletely wothless AI partners, it really was worth the $15 I spent on it.

Eight years later, this still holds up, and I don't think the experience has been replicated.

I get why it's called The Line. It's in reference to people's moral lines of good and evil. You often hear the saying "You crossed the line" in response to an evil act. This game is all about morality and whether the crossing of the line is our choice or just following orders.

It's telling that the first thing you see when you start the game is a STOP sign.

Would you kindly?

During the white phosphorus section, you can see Walker’s reflection on the monitor as he’s bombing the camp. It’s a really powerful moment because it mirrors the player. You, the player is as much in control of the situation as Walker is. Both of you are killing people behind the screen, disconnected from themselves and the massacre they are committing. And then, the coup de grâce once you leave the screen and go down among the ashes, you and Walker start rationalizing to absolve yourself of blame and guilt. For Walker, “It wasn’t me, it’s Konrad’s fault.” “We had no choice, it was the only way.” And you “It’s a video game, this isn’t real.” “It’s not my fault, I had to do it to progress.”

So I hear, the devs confirmed that the railroading was on purpose - itself and the frustration it causes actually being a part of that meta commentary on the stereotypical fps, alongside (or perhaps as part of) the whole "lose yourself in the shooting and then get your choke chain yanked" aspect.

I always play a game a few times over but I could not do that for spec ops. I. JUST. COULDNT. PLAY. IT. AGAIN. I am not a very emotional person, but this game brought me to my knees. I will never forget this game.

Me: alright I've heard a lot about this game, apparently it's really deep! Might as well give it a try! *Loads up game* 6 hours later: I'm still in the kitchen shovelling ice cream in my mouth and crying like a B*ITCH!

Did this review feel too depressing for you? Click the gear icon on the bottomright corner of the videoplayer and set the speed to 0.5, then rewatch the video. That should fix it.

The best part about the story is the way the game makes you make the final decision to do the bad thing. It lets you try to not do it. You want to not do it. But you fail every time, and in the face of insurmountable odds, you give in and agree to do the bad thing, putting the blame for it squarely on you. Also I sell this game to friends as the game that made Yahtzee get so introspective and serious that he had to add random fart noises to lighten the tone.

I played through this game again after not touching it for the better part of a year. I already considered it among my favorite games of all time, but I wanted to try something different. I went back and played the entire game through to the end, and any time a character said the word "you"- referring, in theory, to Walker- I took it as being addressed to me, the player. I.e. when Lugo screamed "This is your FAULT, goddamn it!!" and "HE TURNED US INTO FUCKING KILLERS!", and other such lines, I put myself in the mindset that they were speaking through the TV screen, directly at me. And Christ, it's like playing the game for the first time again. I remember one particular part when Lugo's screams of blame and fury made me pause the game and run to my toilet for fear of vomiting. This game made me feel terrible the first time I played it... this last time, I put down the controller during the end credits absolutely disgusted with myself, actively despising myself. A video game can break through my normally okay self-esteem and make me feel like the worst of humanity. That is a game that deserves every ounce of praise it gets, and more.

Hi there from the future, Yahtzee just named Spec Ops: The Line his 7th Best Game of the Decade

Captain Martin Walker's War Crime Simulator 2012 [GONE WRONG] [SOCIAL EXPERIMENT]

This is all your fault.

What got me and SPOILER. Was when there was the 2 guys hanging and you had to pick one to let live, and the other to kill, a hard moral choice ether way. Only after realising that I could have saved both by shooting the ropes. It made me feel shit, and made me think, just because a charicter told me I had this choice, just because it was a game I didn't question it, even though it was the bad guy giving me the choice I felt there was no other way of progressing.

Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling of holding two opposing beliefs at the same time

Couple months after Spec Ops is labelled an amazing game (had it for a while, never brought myself to play it), figured I gave it a try. Knew it was about PTSD, knew it was trying to make you think it was a COD MW shooter, and thought it would spoil the game for me. No, It didn't. Even knowing the basic things about Spec Ops, it is... unbelievable how much it takes you. How much it takes away from you. I wasn't expecting a happy ending. I was prepared to be miserable playing. I expectations were met and exceeded. Holy fuck.

this is a game I would welcome a remaster simply for the fact it will stay alive and available for everyone to experience

I love these videos. But seriously if I'm ever going to write an essay on political theory, I will simply scroll through these comments. 0_0"

This was one of the few games where I literally felt shocked and slightly sick at the actions. I generally don't like 3rd person cover based shooting, but I felt that the gameplay was sufficient. Actually, the first time my cover was destroyed kind of shocked me. The rather standard gameplay also helped to suck me in, and made me do things that I was used to from other games. Then it would turn the tables on me. But the way you can make choices in this game was actually incredibly refreshing. You didn't have a lot of time to think about your options. You had to make the decision quickly. And it wasn't always made clear what you could do. There were several times where I thought I would try to think outside the box, and discovered that I was able to. . . SPOILERS . . One of the most memorable moments for me was when I was surrounded by all of the angry civilians just after they had killed Lugo. You couldn't walk through them. I was so certain that I would have to kill them, and so I just kind of fired my gun up in the air, and then heard Adams shooting. I thought that because I had fired my gun, he had opened fire on the civilians, but he had actually fired his gun into the air and the civilians all ran. I had been so CERTAIN that I would have to kill them, that I was shocked that it allowed me to NOT kill them. I loved how the characters got angrier and angrier as the game when on. The ending actually surprised me (I'm usually pretty good with predicting twists). The first white phosphorus scene was done incredibly well, and THE white phosphorus scene (you know which one) actually got to me. I had been enjoying blowing up all the soldiers, and when I saw a big clump I was like "Woohoo! Die, you bastards!" And then I found out what I had done.

4 bucks on steam today, just bought it. Lets see what this is all about

I played through trying to do everything to not be an arsehole, such as saving civilians or killing the soldiers and not using the mortar, or shooting the snipers and not the two prisoners, but everytime my hand was forced, I kept saying to myself: 'It's alright, it's not my fault, the game is forcing me to do this,' everytime I said that, I began to hate myself a little bit. By the end of it, I was really feeling like a cruel and psychotic empty shell, with Konrad's words piercing through me deeper than any bullet; 'You brought this on yourself.'

i just finished this game some months ago. Now i can't hear the words " white phosphorous " without feeling sick... "11/10 IGN TOO MUCH SAND"

But it does make a difference that the antagonists are American. The biggest army in the world is American, the Americans send military force both overt and covert to conflict zones the world over, and the overwhelming majority of all war shooter games feature the player as a heroic American combatant. Yes, the details of the story would be just as successful if it featured any other nationality. But the overall impact only carries the punch that it does because it pushes back against and subverts the 99% of media heading the other way. The political aspect of the game cannot be overlooked because it does tie into the real world imperialist/interventionist actions of the US military, and how very often it causes more harm than good. Making a game that shows US troops being in a foreign country may not be a good thing is a far braver and unconventional position than making a game showing Russians/Chinese/Whoever in the same roles. Also, the fundamental theme of the game is that WE are the real monsters. It doesn't work if the player, instead of being us is just yet another variant of them. Obviously this requires a bit of association, "we" being the characters traditionally shown as heroes. Particularly in the US, soldiers are lionised and applauded, not for their actions but simply for being soldiers. No matter how anti-war you are, you've got to make it clear you "support the troops". It's borderline cultlike.

I don't feel like a hero. Not in the slightest. ;_;

Fun fact, the pic he uses for the frozen champagne scrotum sculpture is actually a drawing of a fossilized dinosaur bone originally thought to the leg bone of a giant. Early scholars didn't know quite what to make of it and it was categorized as a 'geologic oddity' in a book about Oxfordshire's surroundings but has since been lost. Currently, most experts believe that it belongs to a Megalosaurus the first officially recognized dinosaur. However, more recently, a document was revealed in which an English 'scientist' (I use that word lightly) *did* recognize it to be part of an ancient animal and gave it the name *scrotum humanum* in 1763, 20 years before Megalosaurus was first formally recognized. So, in keeping with the finders-namers practices most sciences use, the first dinosaur, the one mentioned in every book involving early paleontology ever, should actually be named Scrotum. I have the suspicion that you won't see that in many kid's dino books. Source: geologist and far too amused by this story.

One of my favorite things about this game was the dialogue change between the characters as you process through the game.

"Do you feel like a hero yet?"

Walker is aware he is in a video game. He wants to be the good guy so bad, but he knows what`s coming He hopes this time around (if the purgatory theory is true) it`ll be different, but every time, it`s the same thing. Take this into consideration for how he reacts to every ending. Why he doesn`t even say anything in the "Kill everyone" ending such as announcing a reload or a confirmed kill, because he`s exhausted with the whole affair and doesn`t even want to pretend anymore. It`s why he sighs relief when you give up your weapon if you choose to at the end, but says "Who says I survived" because he knows it`s going to start all over again like it did a million times already. No part of this game is happy for him because he knows it`s coming, he knows he can`t stop it and he lies to himself every time that it`ll be different...fuck, I just made myself really sad

10 years ago. Fuck I'm getting old.

This is still by far my favorite review in the Zero Punctuation playlist. It's refreshing to see a game that takes itself seriously and gets rewarded with a genuinely thought-provoking video.

I rented this game a couple of days ago with the intent of experiencing its amazing narrative and overall depressing atmosphere but you see that is where I went wrong. Since I already knew it would be very good, I tried too hard to get immersed, and when you're trying too hard to let it get to you its not going to get to you at all. Basically, if you are going to play it forget everything you've ever known about it before you pick it up.

I felt genuinely guilty when I played through this game.......

So just like Yahtzee I despise Spunkgargleweewee shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. Yet on his recommendation I picked this up. And upon finishing this game the 3 words I kept slowly kept repeating myself: HOLY ... FUCKING ... SHIT ... HOLY ... FUCKING ... SHIT This is prime quality storytelling right here. Hell I was more emotionally attached with this game than I was with Bioshock Infinite. Yes the gameplay is pretty "meh" and at times the controls are pretty clunky, but given the fact that I picked up the game for $20 I think it was money well spent.

ptsd simulator 2012

I couldn't finish it. I kept thinking that if I kept going Konrad was going to be the real bad guy. I got to the part after Lugo dies and Walker's reload line was "This is just gonna slow me down". At that moment I realized I wasn't suddenly gonna become the good guy at the end. I'm the maniac. I'm the bad guy. So I stopped playing.

This game has the reputation as a PTSD simulator.

One thing I have to say about the game too is, at the menu screen. At first it starts out, on a roof top, with a sniper, and the American Flag turned upside-down (meaning "In distress"), while Jimmy Hendrix's version of the American National Anthem in the background. But as you gradually play the game, the sniper basically dies and his body decomposes, and the flag withers (only word I can think of) away. Its erie to say the least.

I just finished Spec Ops, like literally just closed the game after I completed it. I loved it. Amazing story. Feels galore.

best game ever remember: "you are not a bad person"

Minor spoilers... I guess Contrary to what some people have said, I really enjoyed the fact that there was no real choice. I felt that the game gives you what seem to be multiple choices/opportunities, but you can only make one because Walker has convinced himself that there is no choice. He believes that what he's doing is not by choice but because he has to.

"You're here because you wanted to be something you're not: a hero" This line haunts me in just about every other game I've ever played. Seriously. I can't even play a Zelda game without taking a seeming kick to the yarbols of my ego.