Each class has access to different weapons and items with a persistent statistics system that keeps track of the player's progress over different games. The four general classes are Officer, Sniper, Gunner and Medic, with Scavenger as a unique one for The Damned and Breacher for The Exiles. Before starting a game the loadout can be customized and up to five classes can be unlocked, with a unique class for each faction. Multiplayer modes includes regular (Chaos) and team deathmatch (Mutiny), and it is based around two factions: The Exiles and The Damned. In the singleplayer mode there are 15 chapters in total.
Later on in the game Walker will also work together with other people. These choices do not directly affect the mission outcome, but lead up to four different endings in the finale. At certain points ethical choices need to be made and usually that implies picking one of two evils. Much of that conflict is played out in conversations between the three soldiers. Many parts include gruesome sequences with wounded, burned and dismembered people and the game often focuses on the moral dilemma of wanting to evacuate survivors while they are constantly attacked by insurgents who fear the Americans come to kill them. A large focus of the game is on the interaction between the squad members who comment on the situation. The missions are largely linear in corridor design and often contain scripted sequences and encounters that unfold into engagements. Sand can bury people, blind vision in a storm and a grenade explosion can cause it to kick up in the face of opponents.
#SPEC OPS THE LINE GAMESPOT WINDOWS#
Many objects can also be used for alternate attacks, such as shooting a roof holding a lot of sand or targeting windows to rain down glass on opponents. The environment plays an important roles because of the obstacles, sudden sandstorms and the influence of sunshine. When wounded, blood splatters appear around the edge of the screen and it turns into grayscale. Health is regenerated automatically by staying behind cover. Weapons can be picked up from killed enemies. At a certain point mortars can be used along with a camera to shoot with a gun controlled through a laptop, there are static turrets, and a mission shooting from a helicopter. Next to different weapons such as regular guns and grenades, there are melee attacks and brutal executions. These are not only general, as Walker can for instance ask to engage a specific target, move to a specific area, throw a flashbang or heal each other. As only the main character is controlled by the player, team mates act on their own but can also be given different orders. Game mechanics include seeking cover, aiming from behind obstacles, vaulting, sprinting, and taking out the insurgents. The different missions then lead the squad through sandy Dubai mixed with modern buildings and palaces now in decay. Initially the entire area is abandoned, but they quickly find some bodies of the 33rd and are attacked by locals insurgents. The game is introduced with a flashforward of a frantic fight in the air between two helicopters in the prologue and then starts off in the first chapter when the squad enters the city. The overall story draws inspiration from the book Heart of Darkness, also known through the film adaptation Apocalypse Now, and therefore it is no coincidence that the colonel's last name is Konrad, in reference to the book's author Joseph Conrad. They need to employ tactical squad-based maneuvers combined with shooting and seeking cover to progress through the missions. The squad consists of Captain Martin Walker, Lieutenant Adams and Sergeant Lugo, and the player only controls the first while the other two are controlled by the AI. A team of three men who served under Konrad are tasked to locate survivors and then leave the city immediately to radio command from outside the storm wall and send in the cavalry. After six months there had been no news of his mission until a transmission was picked up where he explains the evacuation was a completely disaster. After serving in Afghanistan, colonel John Konrad volunteered to lead the 33rd battalion to evacuate the city.
#SPEC OPS THE LINE GAMESPOT SERIES#
The game is set in Dubai where a series of sandstorms has ravaged the environment.
It is an entry in the long-running Spec Ops series but with no reference to the story or gameplay mechanics from the earlier games. Not an American user? Description Spec Ops: The Line is a military third-person shooter.