4. Gameplay
Spec Ops: The Line is, on the surface, a third person, cover-based, shooter and it changes very little when it comes to the shooters of the last few years. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as they're all tried, tested, and ultimately successful conventions that are used by so many games for two very important reasons: they're good, and they work. And that's how I would describe The Line if all it did was basic third-person shooter things - it's good and it works - but there is so much more to it than that. In shooters of the past, you've had to mow through wave after wave of bad guys, gunning them down without a thought other than your goal of saving the world, but in Dubai every kill counts. Every murder has a consequence. And Spec Ops sits back and lets you ponder all the killing. Is it justified by what you're trying to do? What are you trying to do, anyway? Nothing is clear, nothing is black and white, and though many games before it have offered choices and morality scales and examples of what is good and bad, Spec Ops shows us that there are no right and wrong decisions. There are just decisions to be made. Consequences to be taken. And with every bullet fired there's the nagging feeling that the only difference between you and the guys you shoot at are the uniforms that you wear.