2K Games has announced the intriguing Spec Ops: The Line, a third-person shooter that could deal with some heavy issues.
2K Games’ Spec Ops: The Line was recently unveiled at the 2009 VGAs. The game, in development by Berlin based studio YAGER, is a modern day third-person military shooter set in the abandoned and destroyed city of Dubai. Spec Ops‘ title evokes feelings of Socom or Ghost Recon, but it actually has more of an Uncharted vibe to it.
Playing as U.S. Army Captain Martin Walker, you are part of a rescue operation in Dubai investigating a distress signal presumably received from U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad. Before devastating, city-destroying sandstorms hit Dubai, Konrad and his squad remained in the area to protect citizens that weren’t able to escape, and they were feared dead until the signal was received. The sandstorms play a large role in combat, often changing battlefield situations on the fly. Multiplayer will also be thrown in the mix, which will be tied into the single-player storyline somehow.
Most war games tend to fall into the category of “yet another one,” but Spec Ops: The Line could be a title worth looking out for. The trailer paints the picture of a conflict between a man utterly changed by the choices of war and the group of soldiers trying to bring him home. 2K Games says Spec Ops will “challenge players’ morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices affecting human life must be made.” This storyline, combined with the game’s dynamic environments that can change at random, has me very interested. Spec Ops: The Line will be released sometime during Take-Two’s 2011 fiscal year, which doesn’t begin until November 1, 2010, so don’t bug your local videogame store employee about this one just yet.
