Spec Ops: The Line - On This Day

The Spec Ops military series has been around for 24 years but has been largely active from 1998 to 2002. This was followed by a break that lasted a full decade. The idea to reboot the series came up in 2006, and the German Yager Development team got down to business.

The studio had their hands free with the new Spec Ops game, so they opted for a third-person shooter with a strongly emphasized psychological aspect to the story. After a bit of development difficulty, Spec Ops: The Line was launched on this day, 10 years ago for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

At first glance, the game was a typical shooter that was not lacking, 10 years ago. However, the whole marketing around her was partly deceptive because Spec Ops: The Line was ultimately a deep and elaborate story about PTSD and the aftermath of the war for both soldiers and civilians.

The action took place in the sand-covered Dubai, where we followed a three-member group of American soldiers led by Captain Martin Walker. Further description of the plot goes into the domain of spoilers, but we can say that the players in this game witnessed rarely seen situations, often unexpected and shocking.

Spec Ops: The Line retained the tactical element of its predecessors and orders could be issued to its comrades in conflict. But the most interesting addition was in making decisions that affected the morale of the characters. It was often necessary to decide on things where decisions are not simple, e.g. shorten the torment of the opponent or let him suffer. All of this fits extremely well into the whole story of what soldiers go through in war so that at the beginning and end of the conflict they are no longer the same person.

In addition to the single-player mode, Spec Ops: The Line also had classic multiplayer as well as cooperative Horde mode. But the game still became famous for its story, and multiplayer quickly died out.

Although this game was remembered by many players and was nominated for numerous awards in 2012, it ultimately achieved a very poor result in the market. It has not been revealed how many copies have been sold, but the developers concluded after the launch that the market for such games is too small and that it is safer for them to run games with a more colorful and positive tone.