Suskie's Spec Ops: The Line review

Huh, the way they advertised this game made me dismiss it immediately. But now, well damn, awesome article.

And now I feel bad that I'm looking to buy this game used.

I'm sure 2K was trying to market the game to the generic shooter crowd, even though Spec Ops: The Line acts largely as a criticism of that genre. The game is already generating a lot of talk among serious gamers (enough that I can really see it becoming a cult classic a few years down the line), but too much of the potential core audience is ignoring it, either because it wasn't marketed properly, or because of the somewhat lukewarm critical reception due, evidently, to a multiplayer component that Yager didn't even want to throw in. So it seems that 2K's attempts to reach a larger audience have ironically made the game less successful. A shame, but a poetic shame nonetheless.

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading. This really is one of the year's must-play games, in my mind.

Fine stuff, Suskie. You've probably just sold me a game.

I hope so! It strikes me as the sort of game that everyone will have a wildly differently interpretation of. A lot of critics just saw it as a mediocre shooter that just happened to have an above-average story. Obviously, I saw a lot more than that.

I'll say this: The Line has, bar none, the most brutal moment I've ever experienced in a game. I didn't mention it or allude to it in my review. Interestingly, the sequence will play out completely differently for many people.