Spec Ops: The Line - Demo Preview

Spec Ops: The Line is not a game I have been following so when I heard the demo was available to download, I wasn’t fully sure of what to expect. But what’s on offer here is good and an interesting take on the setting makes this seem different to most games around today.

On its surface, Spec Ops: The Line is a third person shooter with nothing special to it. You move from cover to cover taking out enemies until your next objective pops up. This has been done time and time again and because of this games need to come up with something pretty original for it to stick its head above the crowd.

Does Spec Ops: The Line offer this?

At this point in time, it’s unclear but the demo is a lot of fun. What makes it so is the setting. Whilst it is in a war zone, the fact it isn’t just rubble makes a pleasant change to the norm. Sand is an important part to Spec Ops: The Line and trailers hint at many scenes where it will literally change the way you play the game.

The demo begins with you, a soldier in the middle of Dubai as it fights off a civil war, manning a mini-gun on a helicopter as you escape a huge sandstorm that eventually ends with you crashing your vehicle to the ground. This takes place as buildings rush by covered half by sand and due to the low visibility is surprisingly atmospheric.

The next two missions on offer are standard, run of the mill sections where you fight from room to room, clearing them of the “bad guys”. Unfortunately this was where, for me, the demo begins to fail: there’s just nothing in these levels for you to go “wow” at and be really surprised by what you see. Sure, there’s one bit where you hang from a metal bar in the air and fire at the enemies below but it’s over so quickly that you don’t really have chance to take in what’s going on.

However, what does make this demo slightly better is how gorgeous the game is. It really does look incredible. Sand moves over everything and everyone with ease and elegance and the soldier’s footprints in them look great. Also, the draw distance is fantastic, especially in the level titled “The Edge” where you see a huge crumbling city amidst a giant crack in the earth. And walking hundreds of feet above these makes it look that much better.

I’ve played through the demo twice and my opinion is set: Spec Ops is okay but is not great. The graphics are fantastic and the sand gives an interesting take on the gameplay but there’s nothing really in the demo worth getting excited about. Because of this, the trailer shown at the end hardly makes you get anymore buzzed for it because it just shows more shooting and not enough sand. The story does look interesting though.

Spec Ops: The Line is not a game that is going to win awards in my opinion. It might do if the levels not shown on the demo are so fantastic that it surprises all of us. It could possibly do this and if it does, then great. But, at the moment, the demo just didn’t get me that excited for a game that actually, having seen a few trailers previously, hinted at greatness.

Spec Ops: The Line is released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in late June this year.