10 Monumental Video Game Plot Twists Nobody Saw Coming
6. It's All In Your Head - Spec Ops: The Line
A truly underrated game that’s lost within a myriad of other third-person shooters, Spec Ops: The Line’s story took a more delicate and considered approach than other bombastic shooters like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo.
Set in a ruined Dubai, you play as Captain Martin Walker, leading your squad through the city to find an AWOL squad lead by your former Commander John Konrad.
Not long into the game, Walker orders a white phosphorous strike on an enemy position. Only after proceeding through the area does he realise it was a shelter to the stranded citizens and his orders inadvertently burned and killed forty-seven innocent people.
Blaming the rogue force, Walker pursues them throughout the city and finally reaches Konrad, only to find he has committed suicide and Walker actually developed a dissociative disorder from killing the civilians and created “Konrad” in his mind to rationalise his actions.
While SO: TL didn’t fair too well commercially, it has gained a cult following among fans primarily for it’s challenging and emotive story. Spec Ops conveys the true reality and horror of war, and that not everyone can be a hero.