A Twist on War Games (Art of Games, Part 1)

Video Games have a lot of crappy, story less games out there. Call of Duty is one that certainly comes to mind, each game cookie cutting the last one. And Spec Ops: The Line seemed like the same old thing at first glance.

(Warming: Spoilers, mentions of graphic content ahead.)

Then it flips that expectation on it's head, using that expectation to make a point. And a point it makes.

Spec Ops markets itself as a Call of Duty knock off, with promises of shooting hordes of mindless enemies. Yet it's quickly apparent that it's all wrong. The shooting of the game is as if mowing down mobs of enemies, the game is always seemingly progressing downwards (repelling, crashes, etc.) and similar gameplay mechanics leave the player with a profound sense of wrongness.

Then the story. Choices between different characters from the enemy or criminals to have to execute, firing white phosphorus on the enemy only to learn of the civilians caught in the fire, and the villain Konrad who questions the morality of Walker (Your character)'s actions.

Finally, the game climaxes with the player finally reaching Konrad without the support of your squad. Then, you discover that Konrad was nothing more than a creation of Walker's Sanity shattered mind. The man recaps the horror of the game, then looks at the camera and says the haunting words.

"All of this because you wanted to feel like something you're not. All of this, because you wanted to feel like a hero."

The games ends on this tone, looking you the player in the eyes and calling you out on faking heroism in games. It's a twist on games, movies, games and calls media out on its problems. If nothing else, it leaves you with a lot to think about and the unique immersion of gamings is perhaps the only venue that could prove the point so effectively.

"Requesting extraction from Dubai...Survivors....one too many..." -Walker