What’s the expiration date on a spoiler? I’ve seen some people say as little as six months, which seems ludicrous to me. More often a year is touted as a good amount of time before all info is fair game, but that also seems too soon for me; why should we expect everyone to have seen a film or played a game just twelve months after release? Sometimes it takes almost that long just to get a film to Blu Ray, or, in the case of video games, for a timed exclusivity deal to elapse.
Personally, I don’t think there is a need to ever spoil anything for anyone. That’s my rule. Ask me about Citizen Kane, a movie first released 60 years ago, and I’m going to tell you I think it’s quality and importance are overblown. Ask me more specifically about Charles Foster Kane’s last words, and I’ll tell you to go watch the film, form your own opinion, and find out for yourself.
So. Below, after the jump there is the potential for spoilers about Spec Ops. 'The Line'; an eight year old game that many, many people know all about already.
I’ll do my best to avoid specifics, however, if you have any interest in this game and (as I luckily had) have managed to avoid spoilers until now, I suggest you go and play it; it’s pretty much the best modern game about shooting soldiers in the face.
Otherwise, read on.
Oh, and get comfy; this is a long one.
To be subversive, a game (or film, or TV show, or whatever) has to first exist and be successful in the mainstream. If not, then there is little to subvert. In the ecosystem of entertainment anything outside the mainstream has a very different audience, and that audience typically has fewer expectations - and with fewer expectations to twist or manipulate subversion becomes very difficult.
A good example of successful subversion is Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film masterpiece: Robocop. Ostensibly a satirical, OTT, and populist action movie about a cyborg policeman, Robocop is hugely successful at delivering on all those things - while also being a film that explores the idea of an “all American Jesus”; positing that for the savior to be accepted by modern America, he would have to arrive at the second coming with really cool guns and talking in soundbites.
I knew going into 'The Line' that it had been called subversive, and for it to succeed at that, and be effective, when this audience knows from the get-go of that intention... is borderline impossible - but 'The Line' pulls it off, just.
The setting, a more-or-less present day Dubai that has been consumed by constant sand storms, locking it beyond the reach of civilisation, is one of the most bizarre and spectacular I’ve ever seen.
The desert is a fairly common setting for war games, but the lobbies of hotels with ceiling high aquariums and life size jewel encrusted giraffes? Not so much. 'The Line' moves from one to the other and back again regularly. Every time you kick open a door or drop through a floor you never know if you’re going to emerge on top of a sand dune or on the edge of a cantilever swimming pool 30 stories up. It's a brilliant design that both illustrates the pointlessness of opulence when natural and social disaster roll into town, and always keeps you unsure of what will happen next, or why.
And ‘why?’ is a recurring question in 'The Line'. The player character, Walker, asks it first of his enemies and later of himself, his two squadmates ask it of Walker and each other, and it becomes a regular question with which the games antagonists torment all three of our heroes throughout their journey. Fittingly, the game never really tries to answer.
The whole thing begins with a flash forward, or, more accurately, it uses a narrative device I’ve just learned is called ‘in media res’. Following the conclusion of the bombastic ‘opening’ events, we are cast back to the squad's first arrival in Dubai, where we learn that their mission is to establish contact with a missing battalion and immediately radio for evac. Obviously no player would expect that to actually be the extent of the game, but the juxtaposition of the reality of exactly how wrong it’s all going to go, with how simple the original mission was, is effective and perfectly executed.
The most surprising thing about this is that it’s in a video game. There are many, many video games that are touted as having movie quality stories, but actually this is something almost no game has ever achieved - nor is it something that games should be striving to achieve.
Video games have the power to tell stories in their own way, through the actions of the player and their reaction to situations created for them to interact with. Very few games are as accomplished at doing this as 'The Line', and having these methods woven expertly between the more traditionally delivered exposition is pretty much unheard of in this medium.
As the story progresses, Walker and his team are often faced with decisions that seem impossible to make and, moreover, the consequences of which are not immediately clear. Nevertheless, as the player, it is up to you to make them.
This is the kind of thing that is often criticised in more straightforward games, but here it is key to the game’s aim to steep the player in the confusion and hysteria of war.
A key ally to the success of this is the sound design. Gunfire, radio-chatter, and good old fashioned shouting are all here, but the game will regularly obfuscate them in whining winds, radio static, vehicle noise, or music being blasted into the game world by the Radioman, an antagonist drawn as a kind of dark Adrian Cronauer.
Visually, enemies are often cast against a strongly backlit environment, and sandstorms erupt with little warning obscuring all but the most rudimentary silhouettes and muzzle flashes.
The ‘gameyness’ of 'The Line' can be at its most intrusive at these times. As when it is trying to make a oblique point, the ‘red for bad guy’ crosshairs can’t help but undercut it a little.
If you’re beginning to get ‘Heart of Darkness’, or ‘Apocalypse Now’ vibes then you’re bang on the money, and the game often invites this comparison. It’s occasionally a bit heavy handed with it’s references but that doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in them; this isn’t a retelling of that story, there are similar themes, but to some extent the broad homage could even be seen as a red herring.
‘War is hell’ is a trope so exhausted that I’m sure many eyes will roll at it’s mention. But I don’t believe this is a sentiment that can be overstated, and it’s so rarely competently expressed in video games that playing through 'The Line', which could be crassly summarised as ‘War is Hell: The video game, is a bit of a revelation.
Despite cack-handed attempts in several ‘Call of Duty’s and other, similar games I don’t think there has been a better expression of the chaos and futility of warfare in this medium since (the very different) 'Cannon Fodder'.
Codemaster’s 1990 satire separated game sessions with a depiction of ‘Boot Hill’; a military graveyard with a headstone for every soldier lost by the player in battle.
'The Line' uses an image of the Dubai skyline with an American flag flying upside down in the foreground on the title screen. Although the game could be beaten in a single 6 hour sitting, it’s worth quitting out occasionally to witness this scene's transformation as you progress.
The third person perspective comes into its own in similar fashion. As you lead the squad deeper into Dubai the ravages of combat and survival gradually take their toll on the appearance of all concerned.
I’ve already touched on Walker’s introspective and sometimes hallucinatory experiences, but there are more subtle clues to his state of mind delivered during play. Communication between the two other members of your squad begins with clipped, precise, militaristic commands, but by the end of the game these have devolved into sweary, psychotic exchanges. Executions, always less than subtle methods with which dying enemies are finished off, also become increasing violent and gruesome.
In the end though, this is all careful packaging for the game’s biggest success.
In this medium the player rarely has a real choice. You can’t load up 'F1 2019' and go for a coffee with Karun Chandhok. You can’t stay in bed all day reading in 'GTA V'. And you can’t decide to leave Dubai on the next available chopper in 'The Line'.
The developers use clever, successful, even fourth wall breaking design to make you resent this lack of choice. They take a problem videogames have always had when crossing into mature media and use it to underline their statement.
They give you choice and never explain the outcome. They force your hand and then taunt you for your actions. They make the player integral to everything that goes wrong by removing choice and then ask you, flatly, if you feel like a hero yet.
It’ll occasionally ask “How many American’s have you killed today” too, and the answer will always be “a lot” - and the follow up that many have asked is if the game actually succeeds in making you feel bad about it. But I don’t think that’s the point.
Yes, the goal is to make you question how much fun you’re having - but if you weren’t having fun how could it ask that question? You can’t turn the well crafted gameplay (which I’m aware I’ve barely mentioned) against it in so flippant a manner.
This is Walker’s story, the player is just the soldier being forced to tell it by their game studio commanding officers. Is the game asking if you feel like a hero, or if Walker does? The line (excuse the pun) between the player and the protagonist is constantly blurred, but this is always someone else’s story, with a beginning, a middle, and four available endings.
Following whichever conclusion you choose the game drops all efforts at maintaining narrative flow and lets you replay it’s climax as often as you like to see the handful of other ways Walker's story can end.
It’s the one time in the game that the lack of clarity on the consequences of your actions doesn’t quite work. For me the ending that works best in the context of the whole story is the last one I chose given the tone of the final act. This is not a deal breaker by any means, and the fact that it’s likely to be the ending you ‘achieve’ last helps it feel like the true ending of the story.
It might be a tough sell for some. Spec Ops. 'The Line' is a very earnest video game, and for a lot of the audience this alone makes it worthy of mockery. But for anyone interested in a story driven game with something to say, that’s also a very well crafted cover-based third person shooter, then it’s difficult to recommend it any higher.
Personally, I don’t think there is a need to ever spoil anything for anyone. That’s my rule. Ask me about Citizen Kane, a movie first released 60 years ago, and I’m going to tell you I think it’s quality and importance are overblown. Ask me more specifically about Charles Foster Kane’s last words, and I’ll tell you to go watch the film, form your own opinion, and find out for yourself.
So. Below, after the jump there is the potential for spoilers about Spec Ops. 'The Line'; an eight year old game that many, many people know all about already.
I’ll do my best to avoid specifics, however, if you have any interest in this game and (as I luckily had) have managed to avoid spoilers until now, I suggest you go and play it; it’s pretty much the best modern game about shooting soldiers in the face.
Otherwise, read on.
Oh, and get comfy; this is a long one.
To be subversive, a game (or film, or TV show, or whatever) has to first exist and be successful in the mainstream. If not, then there is little to subvert. In the ecosystem of entertainment anything outside the mainstream has a very different audience, and that audience typically has fewer expectations - and with fewer expectations to twist or manipulate subversion becomes very difficult.
A good example of successful subversion is Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film masterpiece: Robocop. Ostensibly a satirical, OTT, and populist action movie about a cyborg policeman, Robocop is hugely successful at delivering on all those things - while also being a film that explores the idea of an “all American Jesus”; positing that for the savior to be accepted by modern America, he would have to arrive at the second coming with really cool guns and talking in soundbites.
I knew going into 'The Line' that it had been called subversive, and for it to succeed at that, and be effective, when this audience knows from the get-go of that intention... is borderline impossible - but 'The Line' pulls it off, just.
The setting, a more-or-less present day Dubai that has been consumed by constant sand storms, locking it beyond the reach of civilisation, is one of the most bizarre and spectacular I’ve ever seen.
The desert is a fairly common setting for war games, but the lobbies of hotels with ceiling high aquariums and life size jewel encrusted giraffes? Not so much. 'The Line' moves from one to the other and back again regularly. Every time you kick open a door or drop through a floor you never know if you’re going to emerge on top of a sand dune or on the edge of a cantilever swimming pool 30 stories up. It's a brilliant design that both illustrates the pointlessness of opulence when natural and social disaster roll into town, and always keeps you unsure of what will happen next, or why.
And ‘why?’ is a recurring question in 'The Line'. The player character, Walker, asks it first of his enemies and later of himself, his two squadmates ask it of Walker and each other, and it becomes a regular question with which the games antagonists torment all three of our heroes throughout their journey. Fittingly, the game never really tries to answer.
The whole thing begins with a flash forward, or, more accurately, it uses a narrative device I’ve just learned is called ‘in media res’. Following the conclusion of the bombastic ‘opening’ events, we are cast back to the squad's first arrival in Dubai, where we learn that their mission is to establish contact with a missing battalion and immediately radio for evac. Obviously no player would expect that to actually be the extent of the game, but the juxtaposition of the reality of exactly how wrong it’s all going to go, with how simple the original mission was, is effective and perfectly executed.
The most surprising thing about this is that it’s in a video game. There are many, many video games that are touted as having movie quality stories, but actually this is something almost no game has ever achieved - nor is it something that games should be striving to achieve.
Video games have the power to tell stories in their own way, through the actions of the player and their reaction to situations created for them to interact with. Very few games are as accomplished at doing this as 'The Line', and having these methods woven expertly between the more traditionally delivered exposition is pretty much unheard of in this medium.
As the story progresses, Walker and his team are often faced with decisions that seem impossible to make and, moreover, the consequences of which are not immediately clear. Nevertheless, as the player, it is up to you to make them.
This is the kind of thing that is often criticised in more straightforward games, but here it is key to the game’s aim to steep the player in the confusion and hysteria of war.
A key ally to the success of this is the sound design. Gunfire, radio-chatter, and good old fashioned shouting are all here, but the game will regularly obfuscate them in whining winds, radio static, vehicle noise, or music being blasted into the game world by the Radioman, an antagonist drawn as a kind of dark Adrian Cronauer.
Visually, enemies are often cast against a strongly backlit environment, and sandstorms erupt with little warning obscuring all but the most rudimentary silhouettes and muzzle flashes.
The ‘gameyness’ of 'The Line' can be at its most intrusive at these times. As when it is trying to make a oblique point, the ‘red for bad guy’ crosshairs can’t help but undercut it a little.
If you’re beginning to get ‘Heart of Darkness’, or ‘Apocalypse Now’ vibes then you’re bang on the money, and the game often invites this comparison. It’s occasionally a bit heavy handed with it’s references but that doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in them; this isn’t a retelling of that story, there are similar themes, but to some extent the broad homage could even be seen as a red herring.
‘War is hell’ is a trope so exhausted that I’m sure many eyes will roll at it’s mention. But I don’t believe this is a sentiment that can be overstated, and it’s so rarely competently expressed in video games that playing through 'The Line', which could be crassly summarised as ‘War is Hell: The video game, is a bit of a revelation.
Despite cack-handed attempts in several ‘Call of Duty’s and other, similar games I don’t think there has been a better expression of the chaos and futility of warfare in this medium since (the very different) 'Cannon Fodder'.
Codemaster’s 1990 satire separated game sessions with a depiction of ‘Boot Hill’; a military graveyard with a headstone for every soldier lost by the player in battle.
'The Line' uses an image of the Dubai skyline with an American flag flying upside down in the foreground on the title screen. Although the game could be beaten in a single 6 hour sitting, it’s worth quitting out occasionally to witness this scene's transformation as you progress.
The third person perspective comes into its own in similar fashion. As you lead the squad deeper into Dubai the ravages of combat and survival gradually take their toll on the appearance of all concerned.
I’ve already touched on Walker’s introspective and sometimes hallucinatory experiences, but there are more subtle clues to his state of mind delivered during play. Communication between the two other members of your squad begins with clipped, precise, militaristic commands, but by the end of the game these have devolved into sweary, psychotic exchanges. Executions, always less than subtle methods with which dying enemies are finished off, also become increasing violent and gruesome.
In the end though, this is all careful packaging for the game’s biggest success.
In this medium the player rarely has a real choice. You can’t load up 'F1 2019' and go for a coffee with Karun Chandhok. You can’t stay in bed all day reading in 'GTA V'. And you can’t decide to leave Dubai on the next available chopper in 'The Line'.
The developers use clever, successful, even fourth wall breaking design to make you resent this lack of choice. They take a problem videogames have always had when crossing into mature media and use it to underline their statement.
They give you choice and never explain the outcome. They force your hand and then taunt you for your actions. They make the player integral to everything that goes wrong by removing choice and then ask you, flatly, if you feel like a hero yet.
It’ll occasionally ask “How many American’s have you killed today” too, and the answer will always be “a lot” - and the follow up that many have asked is if the game actually succeeds in making you feel bad about it. But I don’t think that’s the point.
Yes, the goal is to make you question how much fun you’re having - but if you weren’t having fun how could it ask that question? You can’t turn the well crafted gameplay (which I’m aware I’ve barely mentioned) against it in so flippant a manner.
This is Walker’s story, the player is just the soldier being forced to tell it by their game studio commanding officers. Is the game asking if you feel like a hero, or if Walker does? The line (excuse the pun) between the player and the protagonist is constantly blurred, but this is always someone else’s story, with a beginning, a middle, and four available endings.
Following whichever conclusion you choose the game drops all efforts at maintaining narrative flow and lets you replay it’s climax as often as you like to see the handful of other ways Walker's story can end.
It’s the one time in the game that the lack of clarity on the consequences of your actions doesn’t quite work. For me the ending that works best in the context of the whole story is the last one I chose given the tone of the final act. This is not a deal breaker by any means, and the fact that it’s likely to be the ending you ‘achieve’ last helps it feel like the true ending of the story.
It might be a tough sell for some. Spec Ops. 'The Line' is a very earnest video game, and for a lot of the audience this alone makes it worthy of mockery. But for anyone interested in a story driven game with something to say, that’s also a very well crafted cover-based third person shooter, then it’s difficult to recommend it any higher.
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