10 Video Games That Were One Critical Flaw Away From Greatness

7. Spec-Ops: The Line

Critical Flaw: The cover system. Spec-Ops is regularly one of those games that makes me explode with glee if it ever gets a mention. The very idea of taking a very minor shooting franchise that was routed in rote gameplay and seen-it-before locales, only to then deliver one of the most progressive and analytical stories of the last few years was a masterstroke. Telling the tale of your thought-to-be hero Martin Walker, his slow descent into madness with an increasingly-primal reaction to the world around him is something people sadly didn't get to see en masse, thanks to a pretty spotty cover system and a general lack of polish around the entire project. The game was definitely serviceable enough, but with a general feel that most people would pick up and instantly think "I'd rather be playing Gears of War", whereas Epic's magnum opus game made the very idea of being in cover something that felt natural and life-saving, in Spec-Ops you'd end up darting from one to the next in an attempt to avoid some very grenade-happy enemies. Sure it kept you on your toes, but when the general feel of shooting was so tried n' tested in the first place, it just ended up holding onto Spec-Ops' ankle as it attempted that leap for true uniqueness.