Let me start out by saying I am sorry for this review coming up so late after the original release but here it is for those of you who are still on the fence about this game. That game being Spec Ops the Line, which is the 9^th installment in the long running series of games. This has nothing to do with the other games to my knowledge; this is my first in the series.  This is one of those games where I couldn’t love it and I couldn’t hate it, yet I couldn’t stop playing it.

Story- The story is awesome, amazing, fantastic and other synonyms for great. You play as Captain Walker the leader of a three man Delta squad team sent into Dubai after a huge sandstorm hit it. You are there to find survivors of the Colonel Konrad and his 33^rd platoon. Well actually the game does that annoying thing where it starts with a badass scene and then says 8 hours later, and then the game truly starts. But I love this story because it has twist and turns you have no idea who the true enemy is. Is it the CIA, Konrad and his surviving troops or are you the enemy? Spec Ops is probably the most graphic modern military shooter that I have ever seen. For one of the first times ever the characters are human. What I mean is that they aren’t just running around screaming woo lets shoot shit, and America! No these guys are greatly disturbed by the things they see and by the things they are doing. They will fight each other and will hate you if you make the wrong decision. Not only does this game have four different endings but they are four different badass endings. So that is the part of the game I adore.

Sound- The voice acting is good but not great, good ole Nolan North plays as Captain Walker. The writing is funny and serious mainly serious. The soundtrack is mostly bland but then you will occasionally get some hits such as Hush by Deep Purple, No Where to Run no clue who wrote it but this song was in the movie The Warriors, and The Star Spangle Banner by Jimmy Hendrix.

   Graphics- The best looking thing in this game is the sand which is good because the game is full of it. The settings are pretty but the characters look a little dated not terrible but dated. The game does what I love in games the main character will take damage as the game progresses. Arkham Asylum did this and really just the Batman games. Like I’ve said I love this because it looks and makes me feel as if my character is going through hell and might not make it out alive.

Gameplay- Now this is where the game becomes a generic third person shooter which is a damn shame. Don’t get me wrong I still had fun playing the game and I thought it was awesome they added moral decisions that change the games story. But overall the game brings nothing new to the table. They do have moment where you can use sand to take out your enemies but that is really the only thing that differs this from any other shooter. The game on normal is actually pretty damn challenging if you do not use the cover to cover system you will get your ass shot off. Which is a nice change in pace from games like Gears where you can just run up like a maniac. Sadly your AI partners are morons, I was killed because of them. These two idiots would run up in the heat of battle and then both of them will get downed, now you have to save them in doing that I would get shot and game over. They do have this piss poor squad command mechanic. They took the concept for Ghost Recon Future Soldier and forgot the part where it works. The enemy AI aren’t too much smarter but I do have one question. If there was only a platoon that was stranded there with the locals then why in the hell are there so many soldiers? Seriously I killed about six platoons of soldiers no clue why but that bugged the hell out of me.  No sadly I never got around to the multiplayer but I am sure it won’t bring the Battlefield or Call of Duty boys away from there dungeons.

Overall the game was pretty damn good dare I say great, there are multiple replays and a whole online. The only thing that keeps this from being perfect is the fact that the gameplay was a little bland and didn’t add a whole lot new to the genre. So I say buy this game full price, and my rating for Spec Ops the Line is a solid B.