Spec Ops: The Line

In my opinion, the objective of art shouldn't be to simply entertain. That should be part of it, certainly... but there's a huge opening in there for so much more. That's a dangerous road to go down, of course. I mean, when a game says 'hey listen to my awesome philosophy' , then people take out the words didactic and shoot you down though.

When it's done well, you get Spec Ops: The Line, a game whose story is so stunningly good that it beats the everloving shit out of its recipient seamlessly without once appearing to be disingenuous or preachy.  It is a brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed indictment of the last ten years of war glorification and faux-heroism that our society has collectively indulged in.It isn't a game that's fun in the traditional sense. It hits you hard, but you come out the better end feeling all the better for it.

The narrative is exquisitely put together. It starts out simply enough... you are a Delta Force Soldier sent in with your two buddies to try to find people who survived a huge sandstorm that swept Dubai (something that apparently can happen there). An American distress signal is called and you go looking for it and run into some armed locals. The first hour or two of gameplay are really quite conventional. But then things rapidly change and the story goes to a much different place.

Spoilers from here on. Needless to say, I highly recommend it.

There are three elements of this thing that I'd like to underline...

1) White Phosphorous

This is probably the most talked about scene in the game. Walker has to break through enemy lines and finds a remotely targeted White Phosphorous artillery piece to shell them with. You are transferred to a birds-eye view camera angle where the enemy are little white pips on the ground. You then proceed to let her rip. At first I picked my targets carefully, but after a while I realized that there was no limit on ammo canisters and so I fucking carpeted absolutely everything with the stuff.

Two things happen then.

First you are shifted back to the realistic non-gamey graphics and are forced to walk through the devastation that you have wrought. And it is devastation.

Men are crying and screaming in agony. The disconnect between the feeling of raining death from the sky on little white blips and that moment cannot be larger. These are human lives that have just been snuffed out by your little technological marvel and there's no way even the most uncompromising soldier can just write it off (especially since they're damn American soldiers to begin with).

There's no glory in that victory. No honour.

Then you get to the end and see the true magnitude of your crimes.

Collotaral damage is what they call this, I do believe. Turns out a cluster of the white blips that your computer weapon was firing at was a bunch of innocents. Walker had no way of knowing that would happen, but then again who that ever uses a weapon like that ever really does? You've got your designated military target and you let loose until it's gone. And thankfully, none of the Drone pilots in Nevada even have to give that a second thought, since they don't walk through the aftermath when all is said and done.

But what really made the scene for me was what Walker did afterward... he denied it all. He claimed it was the enemy's own fault that this happened. That they'd brought it on themselves and that his hand had been forced. It's an excuse that is as hollow in the game as it is in reality, but it's the best he can do.

Goddamn.

2) Walker

From White Phosphorous on, it's a downward spiral for Walker. He's going insane and his decisions begin to be coloured by his bloodlust, cruelty and heroic fantasies. Subtle changes start to occur inside of him. At the beginning of the game, when you shoot a hostile American soldier down Walker will cry out "Tango Down!" or some other variety of military lingo.

 Slowly that starts to be replaced by "He's dead" and "And stay down!" The joy in his voice at each death he inflicts is audible. 

But more than that, Walker steadily begins to break under pressure. His orders steadily begin to amount to little more than casual and vicious savagery. When the crew escapes from renegade American soldiers in a helicopter, Walker tells them to circle around so that he can unload the minigun on his former pursuers. There's no reason for him to do this. They can't harm him anymore and it's just unnecessary and wanton destruction.

But he does it anyway. And the why of it is left appropriately unexplored. In an era where the architects of massacres get 0 years in prison, this is something worth reflecting upon.

But the defining moment came when your squadmate Lugo is captured by some Dubai locals. You try to reach him in time, but are too late... they've already hung him by the neck. I really liked Lugo. He was the wisecracker and he had the more human reactions to everything that happened. Losing him felt like loosing a friend.

After it's clear that he's dead, the mob closes around Walker. None of these guys have guns or anything. They're just people who are understandably upset about you shooting up their damn city  like a fucking maniac. I didn't want to hurt any of them. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

But then someone threw a bottle or rock or something at me and set off the damage alarm. And so I immediately opened fire.

I emphasize the word 'I' there. That was my choice and my own self-preservation instincts. That's what's special about the game. Walker is a fucking insane murderer. But when push came to shove, I acted in just the same way that that cold and despicable mind did. I was Walker in that one moment, callously killing those that would kill me. An animal that exists only to preserve its own pathetic existence.

Goddamn.

3) War.

I can see why the game's writer chose to make the enemy in this game other Americans. Over the last ten years, shooters have gotten realistic in terms of graphics and gameplay, while still keeping the player neatly insulated from the actual feeling of taking another human being's life. Nothing like that in Spec Ops: The Line. Your enemies are basically guys just like Walker.

Have fun killing them!

But there's a definite political undertone here and I want to address it directly.

I protested the Iraq war back when the majority of people thought it was a good idea and to this day I don't think people truly realize why that misguided and vulgar conflict gave rise to so much tragedy. It happened because the Americans were not needed or wanted in that area of the world. It happened because of the eight scariest words in the whole world... "The American Army is coming to save you."

Walker is the embodiment of the Iraqi and Afghan War. He goes into Dubai for a combination of personal and humanitarian purposes and then stays there after things go wrong because he simply cannot stop. He cannot look at himself and say 'I've failed and have done far more harm than good', because then what is the meaning of any of it? Why did he kill all these people if not for some greater purpose? Surely one needs to get to an end that justifies at least some of these means.

But he never gets there and every fucking step he takes forward leads to more death and more misery. If he would just stop where he is and leave everyone alone, everything would be better. But he doesn't. A twisted sense of honour and martial pride lead him onwards, against any coherent reason.

For the last ten years, the world has stayed the course. We've beaten our heads against conflicts that have done far more harm than any good, while inventing new and creative ways to glorify soldiers while dehumanizing the enemy. And that is why Spec Ops: The Line is such an important piece of art. It is a rebuttal against all the fucking ugliness, self-delusion and lies of the last ten years. There is no glory here, no bad guy that you can put down to save the day. There's only the next pointless death, the next pathetic act of self-preservation and the next meaningless conflict.

Walker is us over the last ten years. And we do not look good.

Goddamn. 

Conclusion:

This is a necessary story that will hit just the right audience in just the right place. Glancing through the internet, one of the first comments I read about this game was that it was treasonous. I can think of no better endorsement of this game than that... because right now what the world needs is a little treason.

Treason against the man who killed 24 people in Haditha and walked free...
Treason against the helicopter pilot who gunned down 18 people in Baghdad...
Treason against the Siege of Fallujah...
Treason against the Drones...
Treason against the guy that shot 16 people, including 9 fucking kids, in Afghanistan...
Treason against the last ten years.

Yeah... sign me up for some treason.