10 Video Games That Broke All The Rules

5. Spec Ops: The Line

Yes, I know, it's another Whatculture Gaming list championing Spec Ops: The Line, but I couldn't really leave it off a ranking of games that completely subverted expectations and ripped up the rulebook, could I?

By now everyone knows how the shooter pretty much functioned entirely as a commentary on other shooters, and how players will blindly pick up a virtual gun and shoot hundreds of people in the face as long as someone confirms they're the good guy and the enemies are the bad guys.

However, the twist that your character was actually the villain the whole time - and that you were complicit in his evil actions - only worked so thoroughly because it was bundled into a game that looked like nothing more than a knock-off Gears of War clone.

Nobody expected a big-budget shooter - especially at the time - to hold a deeper meaning or commentary on war and violence, especially one which appeared so by-the-numbers and pedestrian at a glance.