🔴 Get bonus content by supporting Game Maker’s Toolkit - https://gamemakerstoolkit.com/support/ 🔴 Spec Ops: The Line has been removed from all digital storefronts, due to licensing issues. Why was this game so important? Let’s understand the context surrounding its release. GMTK Minis are short, scrappy videos designed to let me comment on noteworthy news events. Enjoy! === Sources and Resources === - Sources [1] Spec Ops: The Line delisted from Steam | Eurogamer https://www.eurogamer.net/spec-ops-the-line-delisted-from-steam [2] We Are Not Heroes: Contextualizing Violence... | GDC Vault https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017980/We-Are-Not-Heroes-Contextualizing [3] Don't Be A Hero - The Full Story Behind Spec Ops: The Line | Polygon https://www.polygon.com/2012/11/14/3590430/dont-be-a-hero-the-full-story-behind-spec-ops-the-line [4] Shooters: How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers | Eurogamer https://www.eurogamer.net/shooters-how-video-games-fund-arms-manufacturers [5] Playing War: Military Video Games After 9/11 | Matthew Thomas Payne https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18j8z64 [6] Game Designer Dave Theurer on "Missle Command" | YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd6uaDQ-qRI [7] Hideo Kojima | Twitter https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/1492797335256334336 [8] Spec Ops: The Line‘s lead writer on creating an un-heroic war story | Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/spec-ops-the-lines-lead-writer-on-creating-an-un-heroic-war-story/ [9] Spec Ops: The Line - Learn about the story with lead writer Walt Williams | Games Radar https://www.gamesradar.com/spec-ops-line-learn-about-story-lead-writer-walt-williams/ [10] Dissecting the Horror: The Mysteries of Spec Ops The Line | 1UP (Archived) https://web.archive.org/web/20160606040421/http://www.1up.com/features/horror-mysteries-spec-ops-the-line [11] Special Edition Spoilercast: Spec Ops: The Line | GameSpot https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamespot-gameplay-special-edition-spoilercast-spec-ops-the-line/1100-6386587/ [12] The touch that transcends violence and death | Chicago Tribune (Archived) https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-it-is-impossible-to-mak/25124667/?locale=en-GB [13] 87% Missing: The Disappearance Of Classic Video Games | Video Game History Foundation https://gamehistory.org/87percent/ - Additional resources Spec Ops The Line... 5 Years Later | Raycevick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dzstxE_5Rc Spec Ops: The Line - A Literary Analysis | Games As Literature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ1Zp3gNcEI Errant Signal - Spec Ops: The Line | Errant Signal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlBrenhzMZI How Spec Ops: The Line's Opening Manipulates You | Monty Zander https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPm7tKvILrE Having Fun is Wrong: An Analysis of Spec Ops: The Line | Professor Bopper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogg4ITOmYiw === Credits === Music provided by Epidemic Sound - https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/vtdu5y (Referral Link) === Subtitles === Contribute translated subtitles - https://amara.org/videos/zq3te4KZz6ym/
  • knokelmaat@beehaw.org
    11·
    11 months ago

    Is it underrated? I remember playing the game because of all the positive things I kept hearing about it. I loved it too, it has some really amazing scenes that stuck with me to this day. I just thought that this was the common opinion.

    • Toribor@corndog.socialEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      I sort of feel like it’s correctly-rated. It’s a serviceable third person cover shooter with an interesting setting and some great visuals. The reveal of “you’re the real monster here” has a good amount of impact but it’s hard to totally land that message when the game offers no alternative.

      The main problem was that all that was a bit of a pleasant surprise. The good parts of the game were sort of hidden behind the disguise of a generic military shooter. The box art couldn’t possibly be more boring. It sold very poorly and gained momentum later for being actually good.

      It’s a bummer to see it leave Steam knowing that less access to it will mean less people get to check it out.

      • Vodulas [they/them]@beehaw.org
        4·
        11 months ago

        The reveal of “you’re the real monster here” has a good amount of impact but it’s hard to totally land that message when the game offers no alternative.

        Yeah, the game lost me at that spot. I tried literally everything I could to avoid it, and a literal invisible wall stopped me. The thing is, the narrative has been done before. Classic Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now, but with a slight twist. It hasn’t been done in games AFAIK, but it takes a deft hand, and Spec Ops failed for me

      • Crotaro@beehaw.org
        3·
        11 months ago

        it’s hard to totally land that message when the game offers no alternative.

        I’m of such split opinion when it comes to this argument against the game. I’ve read it so many times now and I kind of agree that there should have been some nuanced choice that changes the story in such a way where Walker tries to redeem himself? If I recall correctly, the only choice that actually made a difference for the end, was what you did in the very end scene with the mirror, right? And, of course, the choice not to play the game.

        Then again, would it have been better if the player had had the option for a less shitty (not necessarily good or positive) path? Sometimes in life, especially during war, the only things that happen to you are shit and even what you do might be out of your control, because you only have one option that results in staying alive or because your mind is so focused on the task at hand that you can’t even consider other ways of tackling a problem. This might be a bit graphic, but I think Spec Ops puts you in the passenger seat with a maddened driver. You tell the driver your destination (finishing the game) and he just hits the pedal and, no matter how much you protest, he roadkills every person on the way there. The car doors are unlocked and he occasionally stops, giving you an opportunity to get out. When you finally arrive at your destination and complain that he killed all those people, he goes “If you had left the car, I would’ve stopped.” I don’t know, I feel like I have a point here, but I can’t put it into words.

        Also, there are games like Animal Crossing that aren’t criticised with “Well, the message (of positivity and being rewarded for hard work and cooperation while being friendly) falls a bit flat, since the player doesn’t even have alternative options, aside from not playing the game.”

        So, yeah, I’ll leave it at that now, since I think my comment is plateauing in its insightfullness.

        • AVeryCleverName@lemmy.oneEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          I think the crux of spec ops was less about morally judging the player or even the protagonist actions. In my opinion the driving theme of that story was encouraging critical analysis of the media we participate in, in this case, video games. It’s not so much that the player had no choice but to do those bad things, the important part is the way the context of the surrounding narrative framed those choices. And then extrapolating that to other games of a similar ilk and frankly media as a whole.

    • Beko Pharm@discuss.tchncs.de
      5·
      11 months ago

      Mebbe I should have phrased it more as “underrated in the beginning when it went on sale and was considered a sales fail” 🤔

      • knokelmaat@beehaw.org
        3·
        11 months ago

        I honestly didn’t know that it did bad on release, that certainly merits the name underrated!

    • AVeryCleverName@lemmy.oneEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      It’s kind of a cult classic. I remember it getting a lot of praise on neo gas and that’s also why I played it. But in the larger arena of video game culture it’s kind of just a footnote.