Addtional Comment: I forgot to mention this in the video, and some of you have pointed this out already but many believe that Walker died after the helicopter crash at 31:19 and that Walker is in his own version of hell and is being punished for his actions. Its a sound theory all things considered as it would explain a lot of the weird things that happen throughout the game like the hallucinations, plus the devs are quoted in saying that they made some events of the game vague so as to spark discussion regarding what happened. As I said I forgot to bring this up, but I wanted to type it out here as its a really interesting interpretation of the game.
When I read ideas for the hell theory I feel like it's just a way to avoid confronting the choices you made ingame. Even though this game is single player only, it isn't meant to be played in a void and you need people around you to talk about it because the choices might be meaningless story wise but they reveal a part of yourself and you need the debrief to make sense of your feelings and moral. Video games are a safe space to make bad choices/mistakes and learn from them.
Hi son, Thank you for covering this game. It is 1 of 2 games where I got all the achievements. The only things I remember is how accurate the soldiers in the football arena were on the highest difficulty and how super satisfying the 'joke achievements' run was after I finished the hardest difficulty campaign Cheers
@@ElBobDestroyer There are multiple instances in the game that point to the reality of the theories. Like, some trees would actually be in a state of decay after you turn around and look at them, when a few seconds ago they were normal. Or the banners with Conrad from mission 1, or the once when you decent into the abyss, then later noticing that it's a totally normal thing. The biggest hint to that it's what it is is that the game has been proven to be based on "apocalypse now" and "heart of darkness". And I'm glad they left the end cryptic, basically adhering to the rule "Show, don't tell". I hope the new space marine game that they're working on would be a good comeback for the studio.
The painting was a hallucination. If you turn around while approaching Konrad's corpse you'd notice the canvas doesn't have a backside and simply disappears
Honestly that easily can be the answer for the inconsistencies pointed out in the video, Walker has clearly lost grasp on reality and everything we see is from his POV, meaning we see what he sees, hallucinations and all Then there's the additional fan-theory that Walker died at the prologue and everything we experience is his personal limbo/hell which also can account for any inconsistencies we see
@@XER606I was watching another video that covers this. Apparently that theory is the truth, as one of the developers stated that scenes that turn to black are real and ones that fade to white are hallucinations. The crew dies in the helicopter crash as it fades to white at the beginning and of course Walker saying “I already did this” while shooting at choppers the second go around. It starts to make more and more sense as weird/blatant inconsistencies start happening. The only scenes that fade to black are the ones where Walker ends his own life at the end too. Showing that you’ve accepted responsibility for your actions and will move on. Walker is constantly reliving his hell until he learns that it was his actions, not Konrad’s, that caused so much pain.
@@ChatterboxFMThing is I really don’t like that that’s what the writer says is real because it just makes the rest of the game irrelevant to my eyes even though the final act is its strongest part in my opinion. Walker coming to the realization that his squad’s death is his own fault and that he’s been chasing a ghost the whole game is heartbreaking. Also it makes the epilogue meaningless if Walker doesn’t even get to chose his own fate like taking over Dubai and becoming this person that either accepted the truth or became too far gone in his delusion. So that’s why in my head, I personally just like to pretend that when Walker says “Wait this isn’t right. I’ve seen this already” in the chopper, it’s just a fourth wall break by the developers and leave it at that.
@@SilverGeFer totally valid reasoning! That’s what makes this game so great, it’s all the possible interpretations. I see the epilogue section as the final chance to take responsibility, and arguably the “bad” ending. If Walker lives, he has to repeat the same sequence of events from the start. Constantly making the same mistakes over and over again because he can’t face reality. If he finally accepts his fate, he’s allowed to pass on to whatever is next and face the consequences.
I researched what white phosphorus can do in large doses and walker is shown to be inhaling it at multiple times. The cdc stated that white phosphorus in large doses can lead to ashen skin, which in the end walker is shown to have a lighter skin color then at the start of the game which wouldn't make sense because he has been in the hot Dubai sun. The lightness of skin color could only be from the phosphorus. Walker is also shown vomiting close to the end of the game which is another symptom of it. The main point however is that white phosphorus can lead to delirium, psychosis, and extreme hallucinations. The hallucinations that caused him to kill innocent people were his fault.
Pretty much. The watershed moment was when he walked through that first cloud of WP. The trio could've held back, or retreated to make the radio call. But that very moment was the one where he decided he wanted to be the hero, and the very moment he paved his way to hell with his good intentions
It's worse than that. There's a reason the use of WP specifically for it's chemical properties is banned. Look up "phossy jaw". Shit is evil, it has terrible systemic toxicity to the point where having it burn you to death is preferable to _surviving_ a large exposure
@@chickencurry420, no. Before the white phosphorus scene, everything was... well, not fine, but certainly something that could be handled. It's only after the white phosphorus scene when everything starts to go to hell.
I don't want to give this game all the credit but I've lost my taste for hero simulators like CoD and Battlefield over the years. Killing lots of people has ceased to make me feel like a badass. After experiencing Spec Ops, it just doesn't feel as fun like it used to. "There was always a choice. You just fucked it up." "I didn't mean to hurt anybody." "No one ever does Walker." I think about these two quotes almost every day. Probably the moments I still think most about in all of media, right up there with MGS2's AI/Raiden conversation.
The American national anthem playing during the main menu is Jemi Hendrix’s rendition from Woodstock 1969. You absolutely have to listen to it. He turns his guitar into wailing screams, falling bombs and the roar of fighter planes. It’s one of the most powerful pieces of Vietnam era anti-war art ever recorded.
Which is a damn shame considering the entire woodstock and LSD movement was started by the CIA to pacify the anti-war movement. The same guys making the war
Yep, we don't know if as we played through the game in real time with Walker or was it him remembering events a certain way while he was already confronting Konrad.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi makes sense if we accept whatever we're seeing in game is purely from Walker's perspective. There are bits and pieces of reality in there, but everything is bent to follow Walker's mindframe and his obsession with being a hero.
Also guys pay very close attention, every scene cut that fades to white is a hallucination for Walker. The black normal scene cuts are what is actually happening to him in the game. The company did it this way to help decipher the difference between the two.
As an Iraq war veteran, a company making a war game that shows the emotional toll of war on the warfighter was very important and well done here. Great show! Love your stuff!
I feel like the emotions of the people that are murdering other people are the least relevant thing in not just war but life in general. There should be more media focusing on the emotional toll of people having their country invaded and loved ones killed while being completely innocent & maybe even viewed as fair targets and combatants for not assisting in the murder of their people and defending themselves. It would also be interesting to focus on the reasons of people doing the killing and what makes soldiers of an army that exists to invade and murder people think they are justified in doing so. Not just like ‘they’re fed propaganda and they get college/money/ a job’ but why why they think any of these things would be a justification for killing people in their situation when pretty much everyone agrees that money isn’t a valid reason to murder someone.
@@nothnkyou you do as you're told. emotions become whatever, second to selfishness, less emotions, less vulnerability. a lot of these killers are preserved as heroes because of a warzone, you look like a psycho raiding a city full of innocents, but to your higher ups that you report back to, you're a gladiator or even the embodiment of whatever your country or cause represents, and literally everyone else is less than them, so serving them as a warfighter feels good sometimes, not so good other times, and both are better than the alternative, the alternative being a peasant that can be beaten and stolen from by murdering hordes of warfighters. I dare to say, it takes a special type of child abuse to program someone to be that way towards others.
@@nothnkyouthe whole game does that the entire time “we’re here to rescue survivors” degraded to “we have to stop the 33rd” to “konrad forced me to kill civilians we must stop him” to realizing his entire goal to make himself feel like a hero was false. he had intentions of being a hero but didn’t realize that, that simply doesn’t exist in a violent disaster zone filled with moral ambiguity
@@assassinbro2988 no it does not. You’re describing how the perpetrator feels on your comment. I’m talking that this shouldn’t be talked about. Also saying that there is moral ambiguity reinforces my point. There is no moral ambiguity. Invading countries is bad. Killing people is bad. It’s ambiguous even if Americans are doing it. Even if they are poor. Even if they get college out of it. Even if they’ve been propagandized. Invading countries and killing people that pose no threat to you is wrong. Always.
Walker is hallucinating more than just his surroundings. There are numerous lines from his fireteam that definitely didn't happen, which is why their real dialogue is revealed at the end. Anyone you see moving around who can't have existed or been alive isn't real either. Afterwards we see Walker wearing a patched together version of Konrad's uniform along with some survival gear. Walker made the painting in an attempt to confront the trauma of his choices. Walker is John Konrad. He assimilated his identity to create a scapegoat to project his actions onto. Everything he says Konrad did, that's what he did. We're viewing this story through a broken and twisted memory, which is why we open on the real helicopter shootout and then Walker gets deja vu while reliving his version of it. I still have no idea where the snipers come from, because I have to draw the line somewhere and assume the *bullets* are real
An alternate explanation would be what you said, but inverted. Walker created Konrad not to become him, but as an archetype for the soldier he wanted to be, and a way to analyze his actions from an outside perspective because his mind knew he was dying. Essentially, he was looking for vindication as he was dying (we do) so his severely damaged mind spun up this character to reflect on himself. Think about it; Konrad starts out as a very admirable character. He defies order, but only because he has good intentions and wants to save all these people. Things gradually go downhill until Konrad becomes more of a villain, an anti-hero at best. For a soldier who has probably done some not-so-nice things, Konrad provides the comforting justification for his actions. "I just wanted to help", which Walker probably did. You know, best of intentions...
@@brando1919An interesting theory although another alternative could be either 33rd remnants scouting who are probably as broken as Walker is becoming and reacting to Walkers "choice". Alternatively they could have been desperate and twitchy locals who thought the Delta operators were a rogue squad with resources desecrating the dead and reacting in response to what they saw Walker and his squad doing
I feel like ability to follow initial orders and just leave to radio-in would've actually enhanced the message. Think about it. You follow orders and get a good ending. You break the orders, try to be the hero, and get this whole game and a load of misery at the end.
"Good soldiers follow orders" 😉 But yeah - it would be nice option, and you could get achievment called "You stopped, you're a hero now" connecting it to this 4th wall breaking line from Konrad "None of this would have happened if you just stopped" (and I say 4th wall breaking, cause it is a message also directed to the player himself - if you don't play the game, this hell will never get loose).
@@SzymonNatanRajcanah it wouldn’t really fit the messagw the game was trying to convey, ar most you just evac and thats it. No achievement or anything just a small cutscene of them leaving and maybe an after mission brief
@@SzymonNatanRajca apparently there was an option to walk away, but too many playtesters picked it so it got scrapped. they force you to pick the wrong choice just so they can lecture you about what you did was wrong. guilt tripping the player only works if they actually had agency in the matter (and no, turning off the game and never playing again does not count as a choice)
Spec Ops may not have made a splash on release, but today it stands as a masterpiece of storytelling in games and a triumph of an artform. While the other series that outperformed it today are seen as either past their prime or inactive, Spec Ops today is still referred to with reverence and admiration. A failure financially, perhaps, but a victory for art.
The quotes from Colonel Konrad in this game resonate like a bell during the game. Especially: "Well done Walker, you've done what the storm could not: destroyed the Damned 33rd. Do you feel like a hero yet?" And his message to his son, which made me put the controller down: "Jeremy. Someday, people will tell you about your father. For that, I'm sorry. I love you." And finally, another chilling one: "Your friends... dead. The world... on fire. And you... alone. You are a failure. Finally, something we have in common." This game made me feel quite uneasy at the conclusion. Especially thinking about something else Konrad said: "None of this would've happened if you'd just stopped. But on you marched, and for what?"
I’m always surprised how many people say they felt uneasy playing this game. I don’t know what age you were when you playing it, but I was 18 and found it heavy handed and pretentious. It’s like your a bad person for playing and doing thing but they literally force your hand with decisions. Also, heart of darkness and apocalypse now dna is every where. I generally thought it was an interesting game but think the entertainment pieces that inspired it did it better and less pretentious.
@@peterewert8407 that's fair, buddy. We interpret or experience media differently which I guess is just the case here. I thoroughly enjoyed it but that's just my point of view, I understand the point of view of it coming across a little "HERE, LOOK!" and slapping you in the face with a morality complex. For me it worked but hey, nothing is for everyone. Except the Iron Giant. 😂
@@peterewert8407 It's not about you being a bad person. It's literally just the wizard's second rule "The Second Rule is that the greatest harm can result from the best intentions. It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough." Imagine calling a game pretensious only to not even slightly understand it kekw
@@peterewert8407it doesn’t want to make u out as a bad person, it’s asking why we want to play games about modern combat in the first place & why we want them to b Hero worship sims. The only reason we expect to do terrible things in a game world & be praised for it is because it comes with the genre & it’s a core element of the genre because people want to go to a war torn hell scape to kill thousands but don’t want to confront the reality of what that would mean. Spec-Ops pulls back the curtain & deconstructs the genre
one of my favorite details about the ending is the fact that the building Konrad is stationed in has an aquarium in it. Even though there isn't supposed to be any water left in Dubai this building has a massive aquarium in it, filled to the brim. It's a very cool way of showing the player that what they are seeing isn't exactly real. also I know it might be salt water but still, the imagery of an aquarium in the middle of a dry, starving dessert was very impactful when I first noticed it.
I always viewed the generic gameplay of Spec Ops as part of its storytelling. Kind of like a critique of the brutality of ‘standard’ FPS/TPS games like COD or Gears. It wouldn’t have been as impactful if it didn’t feel mundane.
@@mtp1213While I agree, I think that it was Arcady enough to make it feel super generic while not losing it’s believability. If it was super mil sim though it would have been less inviting to a broader audience and this game should be seen by a broad audience. The mass killing made the game more impactful.
A theory about the game as a whole is that this is walkers personal hell and it keeps looping showing that Walker can never truly escape for his actions in Dubai. The opening in the helicopter chase scene took place when walker was alive to that point and when you get back to that chase scene in the later chapters Walker confusing say, “We been here before” confirming to us that Walker ha deja vu about this event specifically. The gamer developer/designer once said the flashes of white are confirmed are when Walker is hallucinating and fades to black are (loosely) reversing/fast-forwarding of time. Lastly the environment also responds to some of the gameplay choices like if you decided to mercy kill the CIA guy you see a graffiti painting the depicted on a man shot in the head, if decided to let him burn you see a graffiti painting of a man burn. There are other things like your teammates being dead, the mission objectives being ominous and almost religious, but I won’t go in to detail. Love your videos keep it up❤
Im surprised you didn't comment on the fact that the entire game is probably Walker's personal hell. When you do the helicopter scene again, Walker says it seems familiar, implying hes been through it. The game has 2 kinds of fade aways. White and black. One is confirmed to be real, one is confirmed to be hallucinations. Might be worth checking out.
it's not his personal hell, the story was originally meant to be fully linear, but the "wait we did this already" line was added after the game was finished because the devs were angry that they were forced to place the helicopter chase at the start of the game to make it cinematic
What I still remember from this game were the loading screen messages.. In the beginning they were pretty generic like press x to do y or what not.. but as you progressed through the game they got darker and darker.. I still remember seeing "do you feel like a hero yet?". it basically reflects progress of the game and the mental state of walker I just feel like it's not mentioned very often
the feelings this game gave me back when i first played it, after playing the demo assuming it was just another fairly fun 3rd person shooter, is something that i will never forget. the way you can see Walker slowly sinking thru the game is... yeah
If you go back and replay the final section where you are storming the hotel with Adams, outside of combat he constantly has his weapon trained on you.
We didn't use it like the game smoke grenades have White Phosphorus in it and journalist after the fact used it to make fake stories to get in the headlines. Most people don't know this though.
@@ElMachoMucho yes we did dude the US military admitted to using white phosphorus as a weapon against combatants, here’s a quote “White phosphorus is a conventional munition. It is not a chemical weapon. They are not outlawed or illegal," he told the BBC. "We use them primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases. However, it is an incendiary weapon, and may be used against enemy combatants." We obviously weren’t just using smoke grenades
@@anthonytitone white phosphorus is used on structures weaken them and isn't used just in soft targets randomly it's also not used by people who don't know how to use it well. As morbid as it is and I can't tell you from actually experience military members do not waste munitions like that willingly because that's a waste of munitions. No one in that battle looked at a crowd of civilians or combats and said "well this is the only choice we got so let's do it".
The reason why Adams and Lugo in the scenes with the radio and the choosing between the prisoners act differently is to my understanding is because as Conrad said "if the truth is unbearable, you create your own." So Walker makes these interactions in his mind to condone his actions. Edit: Also there is this theory that everything we see in the game is Walker reliving his actions in purgatory and that he has been killed in the chopper crash at the start of the game. For example when we get to the chopper sequence again at the end, Walker says "we've already been here" or if he is rescued by the soldiers, when asked how he survived he replies "who said I did".
The fucked up part about this game (and brilliant part) is that you feel worse the more you play, and the game almost blames you for continuing to play to the end. You could of stopped at any time, but you didn't so you're to blame for it. Such an amazing game!
Yeeeeah, except you arent a monster in Dubai with an M4A1. You are a gamer on a couch with a controller. You paid for this game. It is entertainment. A game that tries to make a point about not playing it doesnt work for me because of that.
@@williamhood7548 Yeah, it's kinda like if Undertale only had the Genocide route. In that game (as I understand it, never played it myself but read/watched stuff about it), part of the reason it's so impactful is because you really could at any time stop and start over and get a different, better ending. Not so here. It's like if a movie at the end called you a bad person for just standing by and watching instead of trying to help, when there isn't any actual way to change things.
A lot of your choices had a 3rd option: for the two prisoners you can save both if you are fast enough to shoot both ropes. For the civilian crowd you can shoot in the air to make them disperse
You can also choose to just march forward, but then it becomes hell to survive if you're playing on a higher difficulty level, as you are in an open space and there are snipers all around you.
Just finished my first playthrough of this game, and i’ve never felt more fucked up playing a game at all. I loved how you can see walker’s appearance change more and more and his facial emotions seem to slowly change throughout the game. I’ve also notice the gameplay tips after death change, i died a lot during the final part (You and Adams) and i noticed how they weren’t tips anymore, they were asking “Do you even remember why you came here?” Or “Adams Blames Walker for Lugo’s death for not escaping when they had the chance” the tips tell a lot that the intel or in game comments don’t.
The mortar strike really shook me to the core. I continued playing to see the ending but it was rough. Really just a powerful statement about the game and damage war does to the psyche of soldiers.
If you look at the wall of the fallen, you will see the names of Lugo and Adam. If you look closely at the details, it turns out that many hints that everything is a Walker hallucination from the very beginning. A popular fans theory is that Walker died in the helicopter and the whole game is a hallucination of a dying brain reliving what happened to him.
@@Ocoro_I read that's apparently how the lead writer likes to see it and that it is cannon ending and said having walker say "we did this already" was supposed to be a discrete way of hinting to the player that walker is actually dead.
@@reeceburns8077 As I've said already, it is their favorite theory and it can be the head canon of the lead writer, sadly the story isn't as complicated as it seems
No, it's just a callback When you're repelling from that tall building with reflective windows Walker goes center, Adams takes the right and Lugo takes the rope on the left and guess what: you see a hanged man in one of the broken windows These are all just hints to the player that the team won't make it out alive
Spec Ops was the first game I played on my newly bought PC back in 2011. I was blown away by it and have been chasing a story that has a similar impact ever sense. So glad you covered it!
Hey it's a wildly different kind of game and genre but you might want to give NieR Automata a shot, just a heads up tho there's 3 campaigns and you should play all 3 to get the full experience.
Even if I'm a year late, personally, I consider Spec Ops: The Line to be the second chapter of an honorary trilogy: - Silent Hill 2 - Spec Ops: The Line - Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice All three are wildly different in gameplay, but in story, they are all tales of personal horror one way or another. They all landed in pretty much the same way for me, but your mileage may vary. Still, I can wholeheartedly recommend them. :)
An interesting fact about the after-release. There was actually supposed to be story DLC that the lead writer had completely finished writing on. Sadly due to the commercial flop it had, it was never made.
@@valravnsshadow9422 The source is "Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games" by Walt Williams. The cut DLC "The Long Way Home" was supposed to follow a burned Adams after his final stand. Here is how the book describes the story. "Adams, his face burnt enough to be unrecognizable, attempts to leave Dubai by pretending to be one of Konrad's men. Along the way, he meets Sgt. Pozza, a young member of the Damned 33rd. Adams can't help but see echoes of Lugo in Sgt. Pozza; somehow, the horrors of Dubai have not touched his youthful optimism. Adams came to Dubai to save people, but instead brought pain and suffering to everyone he met. Rescuing Pozza is his last chnace to do something good. The DLC ends with Adams and Pozza passing safely through the sandstorm surrounding Dubai. For Adams, his mission is finally over. He uses his radio to call for an evacuation. As Adams talks, Lieutenant Pozza realizes this man, his savior, is not who he claimed to be. Pozza Raises his pistol. Adams turns to face him, weapon already drawn. They lock eyes. Adams shakes his head, as if to say "Not yet." Adams finishes his report. Help is on its way. He shuts off the radio and lets it fall from his hand, almost thoughtlessly. It lands in the sand at his feet."
@@valravnsshadow9422 A video I would recommend is "Cut Content of Spec Ops: The Line - Adams DLC "Long Way Home" by Yossarian the Assyrian. It's a quick 12-minute video going deeper into the situation more than my own comment..
4 things I feel like went missing in this video: 1) The main menu actually changes throughout the game. The music becomes more distorted, the environment & flag more decaying, a sniper sets up & dies & decays in front of us. During helicopter scenes you can actually also hear faint helicopter sounds in the distance. 2) The unit chatter by enemies is also quite intentional, beyond Walker & Delta. Enemies comment on our effects on the world, start calling the protags "murderers" and so on. 3) There is also an ending where Konrad makes Walker shoot himself if you wait too long for the decision. Since Konrad is a manifestation of Walker's delusions, this can be read as his insanity taking over. 4) There are many delusions we encounter beyond the obvious ones. For example Delta entering the city at the start of the game can, based on the dialogue of the other squad members, be interpreted as not the first time they entered.
Btw, iirc another video essay about The Line explains how every time there is a fade to white, it means we are dreaming / hallucinating (confirmed by the creator of the game. Again, I'd have to double check this) and the game STARTS with a fade to white (when the heli crashes) which let's us suppose this is all some kind of recalling / purgatory. I absolutely love the choices in the ending too ! Realizing we are the bad guy doesn't mean Walker "accepts" it and is totally capable (since he's been blaming others non stop) to leave with the soldiers. Spec Ops: The Line is an insane experience and I'm glad I went in blind
What I love about this game is how the game tells you multiple times to just stop playing and if you continue the game gets more and more brutal, in combat, story, animations, music everything. I love it
25:30 there's a third choice. You shoot the snipers. This surprises Konrad and your team. Walker follows it up with him saying, "I'm showing Konrad I'm not the man he thinks I am."
Dont blame it all on Walker, he wanted to help McPherson but they went immediately hostile because they thought Delta was CIA/Grey Fox. He comms Radioman to stand his men down, but he refuses and so he sends wave after wave of 33rd instead of talking. Now from there on it's 100% Walkers fault because he seeks Grey Fox which continues the civil war going on
It’s not completely his fault. Also like why did he even call hanging Lugo a merciful punishment? Soldiers aren’t your way of expressing hatred to a government and they didn’t want to be here in the first place. Should have shot those bastards
@@GyyghhhhjjjkkWalker had Conrad, the people of Dubai had Lugo, take it for what it is, their scapegoat “Some bastard’s head in a platter will make this even, will make it right” and wow, look, it’s a soldier belonging to the military power that has turned our lives into hell. Walker and Addams’ feelings on Lugo mean nothing to people who will probably resort to drinking each other’s blood once the water finally runs out. *Not to forget the game echoing the same message “You didn’t want to be here? Then why are you?, why did you do this?, who forced your hand to kill us all?” Quite a marvelous storytelling!
@@plaguedoctor2882 That doesn’t bruh. Lugo doesn’t even belong to the 33rd and the one who was commanding him was Walker. If he disobey he get called out for treason. The same if applied to a different group that’s not military would have worked then lugo would have been the corrupted innocent. Also, the citizens wanted to kill someone thinking that will make it even is the extreme thoughts I have been talking about that’s what makes them the mobs. You killed someone who was just carrying out orders not the one who’s actually responsible for this. Furthermore, lugo was the only one who’s actually been trying to disagree with Walker.
@@plaguedoctor2882if you srsly think they killed lugo is the correct thing then yeah you really think you have the power or the authority to dispense some random guy’s life just because you think he isn’t good. I never said this story was bad it would have worked better on a different cast instead of soldiers ordered and commanded around that have lots of restrictions.
@@Gyyghhhhjjjkk are you really naive enough to think terrified civilians in a disaster/war zone are going to be making granular distinctions between soldiers from different units?
What I really found interesting is when you pointed out Lugo and Adams on the memorial wall. I have the feeling that both have been dead for a very long time and might aswell be hallucinations all along. While you said that some of the things make no sense due to Yager going for an emotional approach rather than a logical one. I think for someone affected with PTSD or other traumas a lot of things do not make sense. We are playing the game from Walkers POV after all and it could simply be that he has been imagining the majority of the things going on. Lugo and Adams could have been hallucinations from the minute he decided to go into Dubai and while it doesn't make a lot of sense from a gameplay perspective since they have been there fighting with you physically, it could also be that most of these fights turned out to be hallucinations for the most part. When Lugo shot the radio guy in the head, I thought to myself, this could have been Walker that shot him instead, hallucinating that Lugo did it. Also near the end when Adams decided to push Walker away, what if there was no fight to begin with? What if it was just another hallucination to cope Walker to proceed further to towards the tower? As for the painting, I also believe that to be another hallucination and it not being actually there. A lot of the paintings in the game seem to be out of place and once again could just be Walker imagining them. Like you mentioned earlier in the video, Lugo and Walker are the Angel and Devil on his shoulders. What if they were quite literally that. They weren't there, but instead were just playing out in his head the entire time. All of this doesn't make sense, because we are playing it from the POV of a man that is suffering severe mental traumas and other afflictions.
From the storyline, to the gameplay, to the soundtrack, to the ambiance, to the decisions, this game wants you to feel tired, doubtful, and confused by the time you finish it, and I absolutely love it for that.
Choices of the hang man in 25:42. You can free both, but you have to be quick and kill the snipers, and conrad will say something else,or you can kill both those are another option if dont want to kill either or force to kill one,And I love this game as it made questions a lot of stuff and why we have the rules of war in place or what happen in combat changes a person.
On the note of dialog between characters drawing you into the game. I think that Ghost recon future soldier is the #1 best example of this, it changes based on situation and attitude. It's fantastic.
I’ll never forget when I first played the game the white phosphorus scene happened that really sticks with you. For some reason me memory always was that you had to fight one of your allies but that must of been the fake out. It does make me think how long we’re walkers ally’s dead or even has walker been dead since a certain point I love how much they leave it up to speculation. Thanks for the great video gingy it was good to go through this game again makes me want to replay it
Oh during the end game you absolutely fight an hallucination of Lugo. You fight a heavy soldier but he has Lugo's face and he taunt you with a ethereal voice, and your other teamate literally ask you "Are you out of your fucking mind ?"
I honestly can't help but chose the "Live" ending. While Walker does to deserve to answer for his crimes, I feel like him taking his own life as Conrad did is his way of answering for them. But on his terms; it's the easy way out. When this story is over, there's going to be an international investigation about this. Thousands of refugees dislocated by the storms, survivors fighting each other in the streets, a CIA-Led insurrection, entire United States Army Battalion gone rogue, a Delta Force unit gone rogue, all three of these factions wiping each other out destroying the entire city of Dubai. Someone has to answer to the world about this.
What always gets me is how Walker has to pass responsibility to someone "superior" to him to avoid taking accountability for his mistakes When he served with Konrad before he was his commanding officer, so when he realises he's done something unspeakable, the only way he can cope is to pass it up the chain of command. Even though that chain of command doesn't exist in his current situation
The scene where the woman is being tortured by shooting next to her head, I thought the hot shells from the gun were falling on her face as well as having to deal with the muzzle flash and heat it expel from the muzzle.
Played this game shortly after it's release and a lot of the things that happen still stick with me to this day. One line in particular always stood out to me. When you choose to call in the evac after he calls it in he says "Survivors... One too many." It still feels chilling. Feels like an acceptance of the evil committed and that he doesn't deserve to live but regret in being the sole survivor.
Around 39:35 you comment on why were there snipers and why were Lugo and Adam talking about the men, but it's all part of the hallucination. When the reveal is done and you see the flashbacks, their dialog change because we are seeing what really happened, not what Walker heard
I personally love that Spec Ops: The Line is one of the better Heart of Darkness inspired games (the first one being Far Cry 2). I heard a theory that is far more... ethereal than yours- you are in hell, or more specificly Walker's hell. When you died is not important, important is that Walker did many of the things that you see in this game and does not want to admit to himself that he was the reason. That traps his mind (and soul if you wanna go even more into spiritual aspect) in this hell. Could more or less summarize that this sandsoaked Dubai is kinda like Silent Hill (minus the twisted monsters) which I do applaud- Silent Hill is not just the town, it's the personal hell brought in by people entering it, hence it can happen anywhere
Heart Of Darkness is such an important piece of literature, idk why more ppl dont know that this is loosely based on it, Konrad is named after the Author as well
well, this game does have several "monsters", aside from Walker himself, namely, the Heavy Lugo, and the segment with mannequins. While they are not as grotesque as silent hill monsters, their existence is enough to depict Walker's madness
Theres a lot of implications that the entire game from the start is walkers retelling of what lead to his own death or something like that. Like Lugo shown hanging in in a reflection while your rappelling down a building and Lugo and Adam's showing up on that memorial wall. There's a lot of funky stuff in the details
I love this game so much! it's such a perfect contrast to all the shooters of the era, specially CoD. I saw someone claiming that the bland mechanics are on purpose to parody how stagnant other shooters became by then, I have no clue if that was the devs intention at all but I find it hilarious to see it that way. The story is some of the best in shooters, an absolute diss at the american military and their endless wars in the middle east (by 2012 the arab spring revolution was at its peak and the US had already destroyed the entire region with the "war on terror" so the message is even stronger), the CIA arming locals is based on real a real historical basis as the CIA armed the saudi mujahideens to destabilize the soviet union, many of them ended up forming Al-Qaeda and doing 9/11 (one of the hijackers was a US citizen aswell). Them using insurgent forces, whose rise was literally caused by previous american meddlings in the region, as a scapegoat to blame all that went wrong there without ever caring to looke what they actually did, after all of these wars, millions of deaths in Iraq, Yemen and other countries, all in the name of "freedom" and "justice"... do you feel like a hero yet? Spec-Ops: The Line manages to adapt The Heart of Darkness and twist it to criticize the american military, american exceptionalism, it's crimes against humanity in the middle east. Walker is the sum of all that is wrong with military ideology, he's a monster, a murederer, hellbent on being seen as a hero at the cost of his humanity and everyone else around him, scapegoating his crimes onto someone else who may not even exist... Walker is the embodiment of the american military and it shows. The more you learn about the actions of the US around the world, the true reasons behind their wars, from Korea to Iraq, this game's story becomes better and better. Theres no heroism in war, only carnage and hell.
I need to make sure this is verified, but I remember paying this game when it came out and I recognized that many of the civilians were speaking persian. This is significant in 2 ways, either this represents the fact that guest workers were left behind while the city elite escaped. OR this is a protection in walker's head as he was in Afghanistan where the local language is farsi (dari).
@jkq2006 yeah! At first I was confused, I thought the developers had just confused persian and Arabic, but it seems that it was very intentional. Looked up some footage, Lugo actually talks to several survivors in farsi and walker notes that they are speaking the language. My farsi is terrible but I can understand that Lugo tells the survivors "we are Americans and we are here to help"
Not to put too much emphasis but the actor for Lugo does really well with his accent, it sounds exactly like Iranian farsi Edit: update! Sgt. Lugo is played by Iranian American actor Omid Abtahi! It really shows for only a few seconds of Dialogue
39:29 It may be a stretch but since we don't hear the diolog in the choice that we hear in the flashback, it's possible walker imagined it too, in the same way he imagines Conrad speaking to him before seeing his body Same with the snipers, walker just imagined them, and the mission failed because the mission fail wasn't suppost to be cannon but just to keep the illilusion Secondly walker may have just been coming up with things in his mind as he was going along, and as for the radio, the team may have just though that he saw something on there And if none of those things, we are seeing things through walkers eyes anyways so just delusion, which also explains the painting, illusion
There’s still so much to unpack from this game after twelve years of speculation and examination, I love the story, and the setting especially, there are points you observe Dubai from high rises and it just looks like such a hellish landscape to navigate, if the rumours are true and Dubai is Walkers personal hell for him to roam, then it is a lot more terrifying than any of us can even comprehend.
A very well done game and concept with what other mentions the toll that PTSD can have on a person. I personally have levels of PTSD and seeing how Walker as the game progressed began to see everyone as a threat to him really captures the affects of PTSD.
Good job, Gingy. We honestly need more games like this that are willing to buck genre norms and actually make people think. So much of AAA gaming these days is just paint-by-numbers slop that we're expected to consume uncritically. So, it brings a smile to my face hearing how so many people actually engaged with this games story and genuinely thought about its message, despite the heavy subject matter. Great video, keep up to good work, man.
It has been probably over a decade since I've played this game. And after all of this time, a lot of it still stays with me. Spec Ops: The Line is an experience. I'm glad I got to play it when it came out.
I’m so glad you finally made a video on spec ops, I was super eager to hear your thoughts since you mentioned you were working on this. This is one of my favorite games ever, it impacted me so much.
I don't know why, but that scene after white phosphorus shelling made me laugh maniacally. It still did so years later. There's just something about the way burnt guy delivers the news and Walker's "what?" and turn to the side, all of that just cracks me up.
"You're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not. A hero" That hits hard for me back then. Everything I had played and experience, the games that were selling and marketing at that time were always some form of power trip, a hero fantasy - I was looking for it, craving for more And SPEC OPS just snaps me back to reality. The Line between fiction and fact got so blurry after my first playthrough. The writing was ahead of its time.
I mention this story whenever this game comes up. In my childhood I always looked up to my cousin, a US Marine, he had just returned home when I got this game for free. He knew I always wanted to enlist and as I was in high school he visited to convince me that I shouldn’t. He sat down to talk to me but instead sat in silence as this game was played with no questions. When I got to the ending I sat back and finally noticed him, he looked relieved and for the first time I saw tears in his eyes. “You’ve always played games like CoD or battlefield, that was difficult to watch how do you feel.” My response was a hug and that I was happy he was finally back, he struggled with some stuff from a divorce, stress, and even cancer, and he still tells me watching me make the decision to not take the same steps as him has been an inspiration. That game sits in my head rent free for all the right reasons. I dream of the day we get another like it. Spec Ops: the line has still been more eye opening compared to some of the most “emotional” stories released since then. The only competition in this is the Division 1&2 and it’s environmental storytelling.
Also, props to whoever did the character designs. These are some of the most best looking injured and damaged looking military designs in video games. Just look at Walker’s design. His vest is so shot up that it’s revealing the armor plates inside, the scarf gets changed, his water bladder becomes damaged and empty and oh so many burns and sand
An absolute classic and I'm so glad it has gotten the attention it deserves over the past few years. Of all the games out there getting remade, this is one that truly deserves a remake, or at least a remaster.
34:30 My first play through I gave the civilians a warning shot following the same logic. I was honestly blown away the game understood what I was doing, and allowed me to do so.
If you want additional context for the story, it's a loose adaptation of Hearts of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Same story that Apocalypse Now is and adaptation of. The "villain" being named Conrad was very deliberate. Really an incredible game that hits you really hard.
nice video, but you got a few things wrong. first, the interrogator wasn't torturing soldiers for revenge, going through torture was part of his training as an interrogator. the part of his monologue that confused you was supposed to show that he found a twisted sense of comradery with people by making them go through the same kind of pain and mental breakdown he himself went through. second, the section with the hanging prisoners was a hallucination, which includes both the corpses and the snipers shooting at them. if you pay close attention, you'll notice that Lugo and Adams don't say anything that acknowledges what Walker is seeing, they're only commenting on his strange behavior. Walker thinking that CIA could be just trying to cover things up is not implausible, after all, CIA's actions have some logic behind them, and Conrad articulating this idea could mean Walker's intuition trying to warn him of this possibility. same with the painting, all these things are just hallucinations, or rather they are manifestations of what's going on in Walker's mind. the whole game is a sort of purgatory, or a recollection of memories, that Walker retreads as he comes to terms with reality. regarding the ending, I'm not going to tell you if your conclusions are right or wrong, that's up to personal interpretation. however, personally, I think killing yourself is never the right option. although I don't believe in redemption, suicide would just add to the pile of bodies, and ultimately you only have one job: keep on living.
Thank you for doing an exposé on this amazing game. I bought it several years after it came out and I loved it. It needs more attention. You’re doing the Lords work.
You can successfully choose neither of them at the bridge to kill if you shoot at the guys on the sides, it just leads to a very hard fight ahead but it is possible. Great video though besides that though, keep up the good work!
As of late I have seen many more people talk about and review this game and it makes me so happy that all these years later people are still picking it up and finding out the complexities of it. After all these years people are still playing through it and realizing how good it was.
I watch a few channels that do analyses or retrospectives on games. I've watched a few of your videos like Mass Effect and Dead Space, both franchises that I love. I have seen small bits about Spec Ops but have never played it. if someone had asked me about it I couldn't have told someone anything useful about it. This was so well done, it's a great story but you told it brilliantly. Although I'm not saying your other videos have faults, this felt like a step up in terms of flow. I really enjoyed this
Fun fact. The song of the opening is Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner which was played live at Woodstock (which is also the version used in game). The song is meant to represent the horrors of war as it was made during the Vietnam War. So the game is already telling you subtly that this wont end well. Plus in official US Military doctrine, an upside down American flag is a symbol of distress. Plus this was one of Nolan North’s favorite games he has worked on, up there with Uncharted since this was when Nolan was still a somewhat new guy to AAA games
I played many games, completed some, and still remember the story of a few because it stood out to me, this was one of those. An unforgettable experience, it did a complete 180 and really made me say - f**k that was something else.
There's another important detail which I'm surprised that people didn't notice. In the beginning of the game when you enter Dubai. After encountering first insurgents, you see a truck with Konrad's picture on it. This shows that Walker wasn't in his full state of mind from the start of the game which is quite obvious because he mentions the events of Kabul a lot of times as we play through the game. Even before dying he remembers the events of Kabul not Dubai.
After finally playing and experiencing the game myself. It was incredible. My ONLY complain about the game is the lack of a melee attack.. The amount of times i died trying to do it on the hardest difficulty, which could of been avoided by a simple knife attack...
FINALLY Gingy! Finally you've gotten around to doing a story analysis of one of the most ambitious and honest stories about the horrors of war and mental illness. Was excitied to see and hear your take on it and you didn't disappoint - top work buddy. More story analysis of truly interesting games like this please!
The best thing about this story is that it isn't only it talks not only about war but about human nature in general. HoD shows how each one of us has a cruel animal deep inside which comes out under right circumstances, Apocalypse now says that this animal is necessary to survive while SOtL says that this animal is always there even without said "right circumstances"
40:11 The mind is a VERY powerful thing. So hallucinations can be, powerful to say the least. It even shows in the twist that Adams and Lugo in fact DIDNT walk over to the radio, showing Walker imagined them doing so and showing how bad his hallucinations had gotten. The mind has been shown to show its owner a completely different reality if put through enough stress. So it does make sense when you look at it logically.
I don't know why, because it's not even the same game, but the quote that always stuck with me was "Isaac, we're gonna burn for what we did to you." I think that applies to Walker creating his own Hell by harming so many other people.
I'm late for this, but a cool fact is in the beginning of the game, when you enter dubai, with the screen showing the team that worked on the game, there's a special guest that has your username specifically, indicating that you're part of this story too.
This is one of the most unsettling games that I've ever played. It's not the horrible things that happen throughout the story that make me say that. Such horrors are to be expected in such a game. No, the thing that got under my skin was how Walker stumbled into being a war criminal. He never intended to do the things that he did consciously, but bit by bit, he arrived at a point where he was the true villain of the story. The salient point to take away from all of this, and one that disturbs me to this day, is that anyone could do the same thing. In the same way that one could gradually become an addict, could one also become a monster? It's a frightening thought....
This game seems like a very rare gem in gaming. I know in comic books, a lot of the best story lines from Marvel came from them handing over failing titles to great writers and telling them to do what they want with the character. I feel like that is what happened here. Inspired writers without interference from their highers.
When I first experienced the White Phosphorus scene, I had to walk away from the game for a few days. I felt betrayed and depressed and sick. I was so angry because I thought I chose the path to help the civilians and to see what I as Walker did made me feel emotion unlike anything in any other game before or since.
@@JoshuaJacobs83 lmao you don’t touch any women. You had to “leave a game for a few days because it was to much for you and made you upset” 💀 aww did the video game hurt you’re little baby feelings 🥺 gtfo bro you’re goofy asf.
When I first played Spec Ops: The Line back in 2012 I was so floored and impacted by the story and game that I proceeded to play nothing else for the next 2-3 days and beat it a total of 7 times in that time frame. To this day it's one of my favourite games ever and I take every opportunity I can to talk about it or to share it.
Addtional Comment:
I forgot to mention this in the video, and some of you have pointed this out already but many believe that Walker died after the helicopter crash at 31:19 and that Walker is in his own version of hell and is being punished for his actions. Its a sound theory all things considered as it would explain a lot of the weird things that happen throughout the game like the hallucinations, plus the devs are quoted in saying that they made some events of the game vague so as to spark discussion regarding what happened. As I said I forgot to bring this up, but I wanted to type it out here as its a really interesting interpretation of the game.
When I read ideas for the hell theory I feel like it's just a way to avoid confronting the choices you made ingame. Even though this game is single player only, it isn't meant to be played in a void and you need people around you to talk about it because the choices might be meaningless story wise but they reveal a part of yourself and you need the debrief to make sense of your feelings and moral. Video games are a safe space to make bad choices/mistakes and learn from them.
PLUS the absolutely wild, “Wait! We’ve been here before!” as you’re taking potshots at the helicopters flying through the city. Absolutely. Bananas.
@@therickspears Heck i just made a coment about this before i refreshed and saw this post
Hi son, Thank you for covering this game. It is 1 of 2 games where I got all the achievements.
The only things I remember is how accurate the soldiers in the football arena were on the highest difficulty and how super satisfying the 'joke achievements' run was after I finished the hardest difficulty campaign
Cheers
@@ElBobDestroyer There are multiple instances in the game that point to the reality of the theories. Like, some trees would actually be in a state of decay after you turn around and look at them, when a few seconds ago they were normal. Or the banners with Conrad from mission 1, or the once when you decent into the abyss, then later noticing that it's a totally normal thing. The biggest hint to that it's what it is is that the game has been proven to be based on "apocalypse now" and "heart of darkness". And I'm glad they left the end cryptic, basically adhering to the rule "Show, don't tell". I hope the new space marine game that they're working on would be a good comeback for the studio.
The painting was a hallucination. If you turn around while approaching Konrad's corpse you'd notice the canvas doesn't have a backside and simply disappears
Nice
Honestly that easily can be the answer for the inconsistencies pointed out in the video, Walker has clearly lost grasp on reality and everything we see is from his POV, meaning we see what he sees, hallucinations and all
Then there's the additional fan-theory that Walker died at the prologue and everything we experience is his personal limbo/hell which also can account for any inconsistencies we see
@@XER606I was watching another video that covers this. Apparently that theory is the truth, as one of the developers stated that scenes that turn to black are real and ones that fade to white are hallucinations. The crew dies in the helicopter crash as it fades to white at the beginning and of course Walker saying “I already did this” while shooting at choppers the second go around.
It starts to make more and more sense as weird/blatant inconsistencies start happening. The only scenes that fade to black are the ones where Walker ends his own life at the end too. Showing that you’ve accepted responsibility for your actions and will move on. Walker is constantly reliving his hell until he learns that it was his actions, not Konrad’s, that caused so much pain.
@@ChatterboxFMThing is I really don’t like that that’s what the writer says is real because it just makes the rest of the game irrelevant to my eyes even though the final act is its strongest part in my opinion. Walker coming to the realization that his squad’s death is his own fault and that he’s been chasing a ghost the whole game is heartbreaking. Also it makes the epilogue meaningless if Walker doesn’t even get to chose his own fate like taking over Dubai and becoming this person that either accepted the truth or became too far gone in his delusion. So that’s why in my head, I personally just like to pretend that when Walker says “Wait this isn’t right. I’ve seen this already” in the chopper, it’s just a fourth wall break by the developers and leave it at that.
@@SilverGeFer totally valid reasoning! That’s what makes this game so great, it’s all the possible interpretations. I see the epilogue section as the final chance to take responsibility, and arguably the “bad” ending. If Walker lives, he has to repeat the same sequence of events from the start. Constantly making the same mistakes over and over again because he can’t face reality. If he finally accepts his fate, he’s allowed to pass on to whatever is next and face the consequences.
I researched what white phosphorus can do in large doses and walker is shown to be inhaling it at multiple times. The cdc stated that white phosphorus in large doses can lead to ashen skin, which in the end walker is shown to have a lighter skin color then at the start of the game which wouldn't make sense because he has been in the hot Dubai sun. The lightness of skin color could only be from the phosphorus. Walker is also shown vomiting close to the end of the game which is another symptom of it. The main point however is that white phosphorus can lead to delirium, psychosis, and extreme hallucinations. The hallucinations that caused him to kill innocent people were his fault.
Damn, I didn't think of that before. You just find more and more layers to this game as you dig deeper. Thanks for the neat info!
Pretty much. The watershed moment was when he walked through that first cloud of WP. The trio could've held back, or retreated to make the radio call. But that very moment was the one where he decided he wanted to be the hero, and the very moment he paved his way to hell with his good intentions
It's worse than that. There's a reason the use of WP specifically for it's chemical properties is banned. Look up "phossy jaw". Shit is evil, it has terrible systemic toxicity to the point where having it burn you to death is preferable to _surviving_ a large exposure
Wait, were there any hallucinations before the White Phosphorous scene? It's been a while since I played it but I don't think there were.
@@chickencurry420, no. Before the white phosphorus scene, everything was... well, not fine, but certainly something that could be handled. It's only after the white phosphorus scene when everything starts to go to hell.
The game that gives gamers a taste of what ptsd feels like, glad its still be talked about all these years later
can't wait for a remaster now. The new generation of gamers needs some sleepless nights :D
I don't want to give this game all the credit but I've lost my taste for hero simulators like CoD and Battlefield over the years.
Killing lots of people has ceased to make me feel like a badass.
After experiencing Spec Ops, it just doesn't feel as fun like it used to.
"There was always a choice. You just fucked it up."
"I didn't mean to hurt anybody." "No one ever does Walker."
I think about these two quotes almost every day. Probably the moments I still think most about in all of media, right up there with MGS2's AI/Raiden conversation.
Welcome to Dubai
@@dontsubcribedontlike673 Now play Homefront 2009. Mid game, but the WP scene is better.
honestly its been talked about so much i dont even need to play it to know the story
The American national anthem playing during the main menu is Jemi Hendrix’s rendition from Woodstock 1969. You absolutely have to listen to it. He turns his guitar into wailing screams, falling bombs and the roar of fighter planes. It’s one of the most powerful pieces of Vietnam era anti-war art ever recorded.
I used this song for my presentation for my AP world history class about the 1960s. Btw it’s Jimi not jemi lol
@@localmilfchaser6938OP might as well have said Jemi Hairdresser. 😮💨
Its the best and most authentic rendition of the national anthem. No one comes close to this.
Which is a damn shame considering the entire woodstock and LSD movement was started by the CIA to pacify the anti-war movement. The same guys making the war
Damn, wasted opportunity to make it a Vietnam War story similar to Apocalypse Now.
39:26 the way I see it, EVERYTHING about that scene was a hallucination. The prisoners, the snipers, Lugo and Adams remarking on it, everything.
Yep, we don't know if as we played through the game in real time with Walker or was it him remembering events a certain way while he was already confronting Konrad.
That's what i thought, too. And it's completely plausible. Just read benadryl trip reports lmao
what Lugo and Adams were saying in that scene wasn't a hallucination.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi makes sense if we accept whatever we're seeing in game is purely from Walker's perspective. There are bits and pieces of reality in there, but everything is bent to follow Walker's mindframe and his obsession with being a hero.
Lugo and Adams just see Walker stop, fire a round into the sky for no reason and just continue walking.
Also guys pay very close attention, every scene cut that fades to white is a hallucination for Walker. The black normal scene cuts are what is actually happening to him in the game. The company did it this way to help decipher the difference between the two.
As an Iraq war veteran, a company making a war game that shows the emotional toll of war on the warfighter was very important and well done here. Great show! Love your stuff!
I feel like the emotions of the people that are murdering other people are the least relevant thing in not just war but life in general. There should be more media focusing on the emotional toll of people having their country invaded and loved ones killed while being completely innocent & maybe even viewed as fair targets and combatants for not assisting in the murder of their people and defending themselves.
It would also be interesting to focus on the reasons of people doing the killing and what makes soldiers of an army that exists to invade and murder people think they are justified in doing so. Not just like ‘they’re fed propaganda and they get college/money/ a job’ but why why they think any of these things would be a justification for killing people in their situation when pretty much everyone agrees that money isn’t a valid reason to murder someone.
@@nothnkyou you do as you're told. emotions become whatever, second to selfishness, less emotions, less vulnerability. a lot of these killers are preserved as heroes because of a warzone, you look like a psycho raiding a city full of innocents, but to your higher ups that you report back to, you're a gladiator or even the embodiment of whatever your country or cause represents, and literally everyone else is less than them, so serving them as a warfighter feels good sometimes, not so good other times, and both are better than the alternative, the alternative being a peasant that can be beaten and stolen from by murdering hordes of warfighters. I dare to say, it takes a special type of child abuse to program someone to be that way towards others.
@@nothnkyouthe whole game does that the entire time “we’re here to rescue survivors” degraded to “we have to stop the 33rd” to “konrad forced me to kill civilians we must stop him” to realizing his entire goal to make himself feel like a hero was false. he had intentions of being a hero but didn’t realize that, that simply doesn’t exist in a violent disaster zone filled with moral ambiguity
@@assassinbro2988 it’s interesting how we get so much focus on the civilians those that are being invaded while entirely focusing on the invader
@@assassinbro2988 no it does not. You’re describing how the perpetrator feels on your comment. I’m talking that this shouldn’t be talked about.
Also saying that there is moral ambiguity reinforces my point. There is no moral ambiguity. Invading countries is bad. Killing people is bad. It’s ambiguous even if Americans are doing it. Even if they are poor. Even if they get college out of it. Even if they’ve been propagandized.
Invading countries and killing people that pose no threat to you is wrong. Always.
Walker is hallucinating more than just his surroundings. There are numerous lines from his fireteam that definitely didn't happen, which is why their real dialogue is revealed at the end. Anyone you see moving around who can't have existed or been alive isn't real either. Afterwards we see Walker wearing a patched together version of Konrad's uniform along with some survival gear. Walker made the painting in an attempt to confront the trauma of his choices. Walker is John Konrad. He assimilated his identity to create a scapegoat to project his actions onto. Everything he says Konrad did, that's what he did. We're viewing this story through a broken and twisted memory, which is why we open on the real helicopter shootout and then Walker gets deja vu while reliving his version of it. I still have no idea where the snipers come from, because I have to draw the line somewhere and assume the *bullets* are real
An alternate explanation would be what you said, but inverted. Walker created Konrad not to become him, but as an archetype for the soldier he wanted to be, and a way to analyze his actions from an outside perspective because his mind knew he was dying. Essentially, he was looking for vindication as he was dying (we do) so his severely damaged mind spun up this character to reflect on himself. Think about it; Konrad starts out as a very admirable character. He defies order, but only because he has good intentions and wants to save all these people. Things gradually go downhill until Konrad becomes more of a villain, an anti-hero at best. For a soldier who has probably done some not-so-nice things, Konrad provides the comforting justification for his actions. "I just wanted to help", which Walker probably did. You know, best of intentions...
Who did he meet in Kabul then earlier? Did He make that up as well ?
My theory about the snipers is that in reality it’s just Walker snapping and killing his squadmates/himself
@@brando1919An interesting theory although another alternative could be either 33rd remnants scouting who are probably as broken as Walker is becoming and reacting to Walkers "choice". Alternatively they could have been desperate and twitchy locals who thought the Delta operators were a rogue squad with resources desecrating the dead and reacting in response to what they saw Walker and his squad doing
@@Mr.Truxtonno, someone he knew died, and he assimilated their personality
Wake up babe, it's time to trigger your PTSD
Yes dear 🥴
Wake up babe, it's time to deal with the ramifications of triggering my ptsd
Wake up babe, it’s time to watch my sleep deprived and PTSD ridden ass have a massive mental breakdown
*tosses firecrackers*
Wake up babe, it’s time to be a hero
I feel like ability to follow initial orders and just leave to radio-in would've actually enhanced the message. Think about it. You follow orders and get a good ending. You break the orders, try to be the hero, and get this whole game and a load of misery at the end.
"Good soldiers follow orders" 😉
But yeah - it would be nice option, and you could get achievment called "You stopped, you're a hero now" connecting it to this 4th wall breaking line from Konrad "None of this would have happened if you just stopped" (and I say 4th wall breaking, cause it is a message also directed to the player himself - if you don't play the game, this hell will never get loose).
@@SzymonNatanRajcanah it wouldn’t really fit the messagw the game was trying to convey, ar most you just evac and thats it. No achievement or anything just a small cutscene of them leaving and maybe an after mission brief
There is no good ending that's not only the reality of war but the game itself
Disagree
@@SzymonNatanRajca apparently there was an option to walk away, but too many playtesters picked it so it got scrapped. they force you to pick the wrong choice just so they can lecture you about what you did was wrong. guilt tripping the player only works if they actually had agency in the matter (and no, turning off the game and never playing again does not count as a choice)
Spec Ops may not have made a splash on release, but today it stands as a masterpiece of storytelling in games and a triumph of an artform. While the other series that outperformed it today are seen as either past their prime or inactive, Spec Ops today is still referred to with reverence and admiration. A failure financially, perhaps, but a victory for art.
This
no
Yes
maybe we're too young to understand the true point off the game, or too naive to see :(
Fun fact the multiplayer displays the faction war that occurred in the 33rd the 2 factions being the damned (who followed Konrad) and the exiles
The quotes from Colonel Konrad in this game resonate like a bell during the game. Especially:
"Well done Walker, you've done what the storm could not: destroyed the Damned 33rd. Do you feel like a hero yet?"
And his message to his son, which made me put the controller down:
"Jeremy. Someday, people will tell you about your father. For that, I'm sorry. I love you."
And finally, another chilling one:
"Your friends... dead. The world... on fire. And you... alone. You are a failure. Finally, something we have in common."
This game made me feel quite uneasy at the conclusion. Especially thinking about something else Konrad said:
"None of this would've happened if you'd just stopped. But on you marched, and for what?"
I’m always surprised how many people say they felt uneasy playing this game. I don’t know what age you were when you playing it, but I was 18 and found it heavy handed and pretentious. It’s like your a bad person for playing and doing thing but they literally force your hand with decisions. Also, heart of darkness and apocalypse now dna is every where. I generally thought it was an interesting game but think the entertainment pieces that inspired it did it better and less pretentious.
@@peterewert8407 that's fair, buddy. We interpret or experience media differently which I guess is just the case here.
I thoroughly enjoyed it but that's just my point of view, I understand the point of view of it coming across a little "HERE, LOOK!" and slapping you in the face with a morality complex.
For me it worked but hey, nothing is for everyone.
Except the Iron Giant. 😂
@@combatwombat2134 well said. Also, the Iron Giant is for everyone.
@@peterewert8407 It's not about you being a bad person. It's literally just the wizard's second rule "The Second Rule is that the greatest harm can result from the best intentions. It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough." Imagine calling a game pretensious only to not even slightly understand it kekw
@@peterewert8407it doesn’t want to make u out as a bad person, it’s asking why we want to play games about modern combat in the first place & why we want them to b Hero worship sims. The only reason we expect to do terrible things in a game world & be praised for it is because it comes with the genre & it’s a core element of the genre because people want to go to a war torn hell scape to kill thousands but don’t want to confront the reality of what that would mean. Spec-Ops pulls back the curtain & deconstructs the genre
one of my favorite details about the ending is the fact that the building Konrad is stationed in has an aquarium in it. Even though there isn't supposed to be any water left in Dubai this building has a massive aquarium in it, filled to the brim.
It's a very cool way of showing the player that what they are seeing isn't exactly real.
also I know it might be salt water but still, the imagery of an aquarium in the middle of a dry, starving dessert was very impactful when I first noticed it.
Its actually revealed that the room is dilapidated if you don’t kill walker at the end, there isnt any water in it.
I always viewed the generic gameplay of Spec Ops as part of its storytelling. Kind of like a critique of the brutality of ‘standard’ FPS/TPS games like COD or Gears. It wouldn’t have been as impactful if it didn’t feel mundane.
Also, the main menu changes throughout the game as you complete missions in the story!
Nah it still coulda been better
@@mtp1213While I agree, I think that it was Arcady enough to make it feel super generic while not losing it’s believability. If it was super mil sim though it would have been less inviting to a broader audience and this game should be seen by a broad audience. The mass killing made the game more impactful.
I do wish more of it had psychological type shit, like the welcome to hell scene
I love how everyone says it's generic, even though the only close comparison is Gears of War.
A theory about the game as a whole is that this is walkers personal hell and it keeps looping showing that Walker can never truly escape for his actions in Dubai. The opening in the helicopter chase scene took place when walker was alive to that point and when you get back to that chase scene in the later chapters Walker confusing say, “We been here before” confirming to us that Walker ha deja vu about this event specifically. The gamer developer/designer once said the flashes of white are confirmed are when Walker is hallucinating and fades to black are (loosely) reversing/fast-forwarding of time. Lastly the environment also responds to some of the gameplay choices like if you decided to mercy kill the CIA guy you see a graffiti painting the depicted on a man shot in the head, if decided to let him burn you see a graffiti painting of a man burn. There are other things like your teammates being dead, the mission objectives being ominous and almost religious, but I won’t go in to detail. Love your videos keep it up❤
I agree with that theory. Max Derrat has a fantastic video on this game. I cant recommend it enough.
@@mikek.6464 Watched that long before this I watched this video. Glad to see others know too
@tiyonbaret6914 ahh, so you mentioned the personal hell loop theory because you've watched Max's video. Well you have excellent taste, good sir.
Im surprised you didn't comment on the fact that the entire game is probably Walker's personal hell. When you do the helicopter scene again, Walker says it seems familiar, implying hes been through it.
The game has 2 kinds of fade aways. White and black. One is confirmed to be real, one is confirmed to be hallucinations. Might be worth checking out.
purgatory go hard fr
I just finished this game for the first time yesterday to play this and I got to say, that line fucked with my head bad.
it's not his personal hell, the story was originally meant to be fully linear, but the "wait we did this already" line was added after the game was finished because the devs were angry that they were forced to place the helicopter chase at the start of the game to make it cinematic
@@detectivepayne3773 So how do you explain the tower and hellish visions after lol.
@@darasuum1462insanity, delusions, hallucinations, blah blah blah there's plenty of explanations
What I still remember from this game were the loading screen messages.. In the beginning they were pretty generic like press x to do y or what not.. but as you progressed through the game they got darker and darker.. I still remember seeing "do you feel like a hero yet?". it basically reflects progress of the game and the mental state of walker
I just feel like it's not mentioned very often
How many Americans have you killed today?
the feelings this game gave me back when i first played it, after playing the demo assuming it was just another fairly fun 3rd person shooter, is something that i will never forget. the way you can see Walker slowly sinking thru the game is... yeah
If you go back and replay the final section where you are storming the hotel with Adams, outside of combat he constantly has his weapon trained on you.
Wait really? Damn, can you blame him lol.
I believe the whole white phosphorus thing got popular because we used it in falluja and there was heavy debate on whether it was ethical or not.
Also Israel dropped it on civilian areas in the Gaza Strip which was closer to the game than Fallujah
We didn't use it like the game smoke grenades have White Phosphorus in it and journalist after the fact used it to make fake stories to get in the headlines. Most people don't know this though.
@@ElMachoMucho yes we did dude the US military admitted to using white phosphorus as a weapon against combatants, here’s a quote “White phosphorus is a conventional munition. It is not a chemical weapon. They are not outlawed or illegal," he told the BBC. "We use them primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases. However, it is an incendiary weapon, and may be used against enemy combatants." We obviously weren’t just using smoke grenades
@@anthonytitone send me a link to that then
@@anthonytitone white phosphorus is used on structures weaken them and isn't used just in soft targets randomly it's also not used by people who don't know how to use it well. As morbid as it is and I can't tell you from actually experience military members do not waste munitions like that willingly because that's a waste of munitions. No one in that battle looked at a crowd of civilians or combats and said "well this is the only choice we got so let's do it".
The reason why Adams and Lugo in the scenes with the radio and the choosing between the prisoners act differently is to my understanding is because as Conrad said "if the truth is unbearable, you create your own." So Walker makes these interactions in his mind to condone his actions.
Edit: Also there is this theory that everything we see in the game is Walker reliving his actions in purgatory and that he has been killed in the chopper crash at the start of the game. For example when we get to the chopper sequence again at the end, Walker says "we've already been here" or if he is rescued by the soldiers, when asked how he survived he replies "who said I did".
The fucked up part about this game (and brilliant part) is that you feel worse the more you play, and the game almost blames you for continuing to play to the end. You could of stopped at any time, but you didn't so you're to blame for it. Such an amazing game!
Yeeeeah, except you arent a monster in Dubai with an M4A1. You are a gamer on a couch with a controller.
You paid for this game.
It is entertainment.
A game that tries to make a point about not playing it doesnt work for me because of that.
@@williamhood7548 Yeah, it's kinda like if Undertale only had the Genocide route. In that game (as I understand it, never played it myself but read/watched stuff about it), part of the reason it's so impactful is because you really could at any time stop and start over and get a different, better ending. Not so here.
It's like if a movie at the end called you a bad person for just standing by and watching instead of trying to help, when there isn't any actual way to change things.
Me a chad who dissociates from video games and doesn't feel the morality of my actions:
@@gunnarschlichting9886I feel like certain movies covering the Vietnam War and The War On Terror did that
Excellent description 😊
A lot of your choices had a 3rd option: for the two prisoners you can save both if you are fast enough to shoot both ropes. For the civilian crowd you can shoot in the air to make them disperse
You can also choose to just march forward, but then it becomes hell to survive if you're playing on a higher difficulty level, as you are in an open space and there are snipers all around you.
@gotinogaden the snipers shoot you if you shoot the ropes as well
you can actually shoot the snipers themselves too!
The snipers shoot the prisoners anyway right?
@@jeffertbillings7835yeah but you get extra dialogue
Just finished my first playthrough of this game, and i’ve never felt more fucked up playing a game at all. I loved how you can see walker’s appearance change more and more and his facial emotions seem to slowly change throughout the game.
I’ve also notice the gameplay tips after death change, i died a lot during the final part (You and Adams) and i noticed how they weren’t tips anymore, they were asking “Do you even remember why you came here?” Or “Adams Blames Walker for Lugo’s death for not escaping when they had the chance” the tips tell a lot that the intel or in game comments don’t.
Collateral damage can be justified, if the gain outweighs the cost. How much do you think Adams and Lugo are worth?
The mortar strike really shook me to the core. I continued playing to see the ending but it was rough. Really just a powerful statement about the game and damage war does to the psyche of soldiers.
If you look at the wall of the fallen, you will see the names of Lugo and Adam. If you look closely at the details, it turns out that many hints that everything is a Walker hallucination from the very beginning. A popular fans theory is that Walker died in the helicopter and the whole game is a hallucination of a dying brain reliving what happened to him.
Yager said that while it was one of their favorite theories of the game, but it was not canon
@@Ocoro_I read that's apparently how the lead writer likes to see it and that it is cannon ending and said having walker say "we did this already" was supposed to be a discrete way of hinting to the player that walker is actually dead.
@@reeceburns8077 As I've said already, it is their favorite theory and it can be the head canon of the lead writer, sadly the story isn't as complicated as it seems
No, it's just a callback
When you're repelling from that tall building with reflective windows Walker goes center, Adams takes the right and Lugo takes the rope on the left and guess what: you see a hanged man in one of the broken windows
These are all just hints to the player that the team won't make it out alive
Spec Ops was the first game I played on my newly bought PC back in 2011. I was blown away by it and have been chasing a story that has a similar impact ever sense. So glad you covered it!
Hey it's a wildly different kind of game and genre but you might want to give NieR Automata a shot, just a heads up tho there's 3 campaigns and you should play all 3 to get the full experience.
Even if I'm a year late, personally, I consider Spec Ops: The Line to be the second chapter of an honorary trilogy:
- Silent Hill 2
- Spec Ops: The Line
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
All three are wildly different in gameplay, but in story, they are all tales of personal horror one way or another. They all landed in pretty much the same way for me, but your mileage may vary. Still, I can wholeheartedly recommend them. :)
@@Valkinsenn
Ah yes, the classic trilogy:
The Horny
The Military
The Womanly
An interesting fact about the after-release. There was actually supposed to be story DLC that the lead writer had completely finished writing on. Sadly due to the commercial flop it had, it was never made.
Source? Also what was it supposed to be about?
@@valravnsshadow9422 The source is "Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games" by Walt Williams.
The cut DLC "The Long Way Home" was supposed to follow a burned Adams after his final stand. Here is how the book describes the story. "Adams, his face burnt enough to be unrecognizable, attempts to leave Dubai by pretending to be one of Konrad's men. Along the way, he meets Sgt. Pozza, a young member of the Damned 33rd. Adams can't help but see echoes of Lugo in Sgt. Pozza; somehow, the horrors of Dubai have not touched his youthful optimism. Adams came to Dubai to save people, but instead brought pain and suffering to everyone he met. Rescuing Pozza is his last chnace to do something good.
The DLC ends with Adams and Pozza passing safely through the sandstorm surrounding Dubai. For Adams, his mission is finally over. He uses his radio to call for an evacuation. As Adams talks, Lieutenant Pozza realizes this man, his savior, is not who he claimed to be. Pozza Raises his pistol. Adams turns to face him, weapon already drawn. They lock eyes. Adams shakes his head, as if to say "Not yet." Adams finishes his report. Help is on its way. He shuts off the radio and lets it fall from his hand, almost thoughtlessly. It lands in the sand at his feet."
@@jacknagel9387 damn. Thank you for actually taking the time to respond and lmk. I'll go look that up.
@@valravnsshadow9422 A video I would recommend is "Cut Content of Spec Ops: The Line - Adams DLC "Long Way Home" by Yossarian the Assyrian. It's a quick 12-minute video going deeper into the situation more than my own comment..
I remember when this first came out and I bought it not even realizing how good the story would be, the trailers really hooked me
4 things I feel like went missing in this video:
1) The main menu actually changes throughout the game. The music becomes more distorted, the environment & flag more decaying, a sniper sets up & dies & decays in front of us. During helicopter scenes you can actually also hear faint helicopter sounds in the distance.
2) The unit chatter by enemies is also quite intentional, beyond Walker & Delta. Enemies comment on our effects on the world, start calling the protags "murderers" and so on.
3) There is also an ending where Konrad makes Walker shoot himself if you wait too long for the decision. Since Konrad is a manifestation of Walker's delusions, this can be read as his insanity taking over.
4) There are many delusions we encounter beyond the obvious ones. For example Delta entering the city at the start of the game can, based on the dialogue of the other squad members, be interpreted as not the first time they entered.
Btw, iirc another video essay about The Line explains how every time there is a fade to white, it means we are dreaming / hallucinating (confirmed by the creator of the game. Again, I'd have to double check this) and the game STARTS with a fade to white (when the heli crashes) which let's us suppose this is all some kind of recalling / purgatory.
I absolutely love the choices in the ending too ! Realizing we are the bad guy doesn't mean Walker "accepts" it and is totally capable (since he's been blaming others non stop) to leave with the soldiers.
Spec Ops: The Line is an insane experience and I'm glad I went in blind
*"Spec Ops: The Line"* is one of the most underrated, well-made games to ever be released.
What I love about this game is how the game tells you multiple times to just stop playing and if you continue the game gets more and more brutal, in combat, story, animations, music everything. I love it
25:30 there's a third choice. You shoot the snipers. This surprises Konrad and your team.
Walker follows it up with him saying, "I'm showing Konrad I'm not the man he thinks I am."
Dont blame it all on Walker, he wanted to help McPherson but they went immediately hostile because they thought Delta was CIA/Grey Fox. He comms Radioman to stand his men down, but he refuses and so he sends wave after wave of 33rd instead of talking. Now from there on it's 100% Walkers fault because he seeks Grey Fox which continues the civil war going on
It’s not completely his fault. Also like why did he even call hanging Lugo a merciful punishment? Soldiers aren’t your way of expressing hatred to a government and they didn’t want to be here in the first place. Should have shot those bastards
@@GyyghhhhjjjkkWalker had Conrad, the people of Dubai had Lugo, take it for what it is, their scapegoat “Some bastard’s head in a platter will make this even, will make it right” and wow, look, it’s a soldier belonging to the military power that has turned our lives into hell. Walker and Addams’ feelings on Lugo mean nothing to people who will probably resort to drinking each other’s blood once the water finally runs out.
*Not to forget the game echoing the same message “You didn’t want to be here? Then why are you?, why did you do this?, who forced your hand to kill us all?” Quite a marvelous storytelling!
@@plaguedoctor2882 That doesn’t bruh. Lugo doesn’t even belong to the 33rd and the one who was commanding him was Walker. If he disobey he get called out for treason. The same if applied to a different group that’s not military would have worked then lugo would have been the corrupted innocent. Also, the citizens wanted to kill someone thinking that will make it even is the extreme thoughts I have been talking about that’s what makes them the mobs. You killed someone who was just carrying out orders not the one who’s actually responsible for this. Furthermore, lugo was the only one who’s actually been trying to disagree with Walker.
@@plaguedoctor2882if you srsly think they killed lugo is the correct thing then yeah you really think you have the power or the authority to dispense some random guy’s life just because you think he isn’t good. I never said this story was bad it would have worked better on a different cast instead of soldiers ordered and commanded around that have lots of restrictions.
@@Gyyghhhhjjjkk are you really naive enough to think terrified civilians in a disaster/war zone are going to be making granular distinctions between soldiers from different units?
What I really found interesting is when you pointed out Lugo and Adams on the memorial wall. I have the feeling that both have been dead for a very long time and might aswell be hallucinations all along. While you said that some of the things make no sense due to Yager going for an emotional approach rather than a logical one. I think for someone affected with PTSD or other traumas a lot of things do not make sense.
We are playing the game from Walkers POV after all and it could simply be that he has been imagining the majority of the things going on. Lugo and Adams could have been hallucinations from the minute he decided to go into Dubai and while it doesn't make a lot of sense from a gameplay perspective since they have been there fighting with you physically, it could also be that most of these fights turned out to be hallucinations for the most part. When Lugo shot the radio guy in the head, I thought to myself, this could have been Walker that shot him instead, hallucinating that Lugo did it. Also near the end when Adams decided to push Walker away, what if there was no fight to begin with? What if it was just another hallucination to cope Walker to proceed further to towards the tower? As for the painting, I also believe that to be another hallucination and it not being actually there. A lot of the paintings in the game seem to be out of place and once again could just be Walker imagining them.
Like you mentioned earlier in the video, Lugo and Walker are the Angel and Devil on his shoulders. What if they were quite literally that. They weren't there, but instead were just playing out in his head the entire time. All of this doesn't make sense, because we are playing it from the POV of a man that is suffering severe mental traumas and other afflictions.
Do You Feel Like A Hero Yet?
Do you like hurting other people?
That guy....he had a...I don't know, a dog I think?
@@kameronbelcherHotline Miami
If you were a better person, you wouldn't be here.
True veterans get headshots...
From the storyline, to the gameplay, to the soundtrack, to the ambiance, to the decisions, this game wants you to feel tired, doubtful, and confused by the time you finish it, and I absolutely love it for that.
Choices of the hang man in 25:42. You can free both, but you have to be quick and kill the snipers, and conrad will say something else,or you can kill both those are another option if dont want to kill either or force to kill one,And I love this game as it made questions a lot of stuff and why we have the rules of war in place or what happen in combat changes a person.
On the note of dialog between characters drawing you into the game. I think that Ghost recon future soldier is the #1 best example of this, it changes based on situation and attitude. It's fantastic.
I’ll never forget when I first played the game the white phosphorus scene happened that really sticks with you. For some reason me memory always was that you had to fight one of your allies but that must of been the fake out. It does make me think how long we’re walkers ally’s dead or even has walker been dead since a certain point I love how much they leave it up to speculation. Thanks for the great video gingy it was good to go through this game again makes me want to replay it
Oh during the end game you absolutely fight an hallucination of Lugo. You fight a heavy soldier but he has Lugo's face and he taunt you with a ethereal voice, and your other teamate literally ask you "Are you out of your fucking mind ?"
I honestly can't help but chose the "Live" ending. While Walker does to deserve to answer for his crimes, I feel like him taking his own life as Conrad did is his way of answering for them. But on his terms; it's the easy way out. When this story is over, there's going to be an international investigation about this. Thousands of refugees dislocated by the storms, survivors fighting each other in the streets, a CIA-Led insurrection, entire United States Army Battalion gone rogue, a Delta Force unit gone rogue, all three of these factions wiping each other out destroying the entire city of Dubai. Someone has to answer to the world about this.
What always gets me is how Walker has to pass responsibility to someone "superior" to him to avoid taking accountability for his mistakes
When he served with Konrad before he was his commanding officer, so when he realises he's done something unspeakable, the only way he can cope is to pass it up the chain of command. Even though that chain of command doesn't exist in his current situation
The scene where the woman is being tortured by shooting next to her head, I thought the hot shells from the gun were falling on her face as well as having to deal with the muzzle flash and heat it expel from the muzzle.
And they were shooting the sand i think which will tear face slowly
That scene when you choose to shoot at the crowd or not is wild honestly. It was wild when I first played this game and it's still wild.
Played this game shortly after it's release and a lot of the things that happen still stick with me to this day. One line in particular always stood out to me. When you choose to call in the evac after he calls it in he says "Survivors... One too many." It still feels chilling. Feels like an acceptance of the evil committed and that he doesn't deserve to live but regret in being the sole survivor.
Around 39:35 you comment on why were there snipers and why were Lugo and Adam talking about the men, but it's all part of the hallucination. When the reveal is done and you see the flashbacks, their dialog change because we are seeing what really happened, not what Walker heard
I personally love that Spec Ops: The Line is one of the better Heart of Darkness inspired games (the first one being Far Cry 2).
I heard a theory that is far more... ethereal than yours- you are in hell, or more specificly Walker's hell. When you died is not important, important is that Walker did many of the things that you see in this game and does not want to admit to himself that he was the reason. That traps his mind (and soul if you wanna go even more into spiritual aspect) in this hell.
Could more or less summarize that this sandsoaked Dubai is kinda like Silent Hill (minus the twisted monsters) which I do applaud- Silent Hill is not just the town, it's the personal hell brought in by people entering it, hence it can happen anywhere
Heart Of Darkness is such an important piece of literature, idk why more ppl dont know that this is loosely based on it, Konrad is named after the Author as well
Deep
@@XxJohnnyGATxXand the K in his name is meant as a reference to Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, a film that was also inspired by Heart of Darkness.
well, this game does have several "monsters", aside from Walker himself, namely, the Heavy Lugo, and the segment with mannequins. While they are not as grotesque as silent hill monsters, their existence is enough to depict Walker's madness
Theres a lot of implications that the entire game from the start is walkers retelling of what lead to his own death or something like that. Like Lugo shown hanging in in a reflection while your rappelling down a building and Lugo and Adam's showing up on that memorial wall. There's a lot of funky stuff in the details
I love this game so much! it's such a perfect contrast to all the shooters of the era, specially CoD. I saw someone claiming that the bland mechanics are on purpose to parody how stagnant other shooters became by then, I have no clue if that was the devs intention at all but I find it hilarious to see it that way.
The story is some of the best in shooters, an absolute diss at the american military and their endless wars in the middle east (by 2012 the arab spring revolution was at its peak and the US had already destroyed the entire region with the "war on terror" so the message is even stronger), the CIA arming locals is based on real a real historical basis as the CIA armed the saudi mujahideens to destabilize the soviet union, many of them ended up forming Al-Qaeda and doing 9/11 (one of the hijackers was a US citizen aswell). Them using insurgent forces, whose rise was literally caused by previous american meddlings in the region, as a scapegoat to blame all that went wrong there without ever caring to looke what they actually did, after all of these wars, millions of deaths in Iraq, Yemen and other countries, all in the name of "freedom" and "justice"... do you feel like a hero yet?
Spec-Ops: The Line manages to adapt The Heart of Darkness and twist it to criticize the american military, american exceptionalism, it's crimes against humanity in the middle east. Walker is the sum of all that is wrong with military ideology, he's a monster, a murederer, hellbent on being seen as a hero at the cost of his humanity and everyone else around him, scapegoating his crimes onto someone else who may not even exist... Walker is the embodiment of the american military and it shows.
The more you learn about the actions of the US around the world, the true reasons behind their wars, from Korea to Iraq, this game's story becomes better and better. Theres no heroism in war, only carnage and hell.
Conrad seems like a shoutout to Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness. This game def inspired by that story
I need to make sure this is verified, but I remember paying this game when it came out and I recognized that many of the civilians were speaking persian.
This is significant in 2 ways, either this represents the fact that guest workers were left behind while the city elite escaped. OR this is a protection in walker's head as he was in Afghanistan where the local language is farsi (dari).
Brilliant point, damn so the whole Dubai part could have been a projection in his mind. Wow
@jkq2006 yeah! At first I was confused, I thought the developers had just confused persian and Arabic, but it seems that it was very intentional.
Looked up some footage, Lugo actually talks to several survivors in farsi and walker notes that they are speaking the language. My farsi is terrible but I can understand that Lugo tells the survivors "we are Americans and we are here to help"
Not to put too much emphasis but the actor for Lugo does really well with his accent, it sounds exactly like Iranian farsi
Edit: update! Sgt. Lugo is played by Iranian American actor Omid Abtahi! It really shows for only a few seconds of Dialogue
39:29
It may be a stretch but since we don't hear the diolog in the choice that we hear in the flashback, it's possible walker imagined it too, in the same way he imagines Conrad speaking to him before seeing his body
Same with the snipers, walker just imagined them, and the mission failed because the mission fail wasn't suppost to be cannon but just to keep the illilusion
Secondly walker may have just been coming up with things in his mind as he was going along, and as for the radio, the team may have just though that he saw something on there
And if none of those things, we are seeing things through walkers eyes anyways so just delusion, which also explains the painting, illusion
There’s still so much to unpack from this game after twelve years of speculation and examination, I love the story, and the setting especially, there are points you observe Dubai from high rises and it just looks like such a hellish landscape to navigate, if the rumours are true and Dubai is Walkers personal hell for him to roam, then it is a lot more terrifying than any of us can even comprehend.
A very well done game and concept with what other mentions the toll that PTSD can have on a person. I personally have levels of PTSD and seeing how Walker as the game progressed began to see everyone as a threat to him really captures the affects of PTSD.
The greatest and most criminally underrated game ever made. Period.
I cant even begin yo explain how much i loved it
Nah
Good job, Gingy.
We honestly need more games like this that are willing to buck genre norms and actually make people think. So much of AAA gaming these days is just paint-by-numbers slop that we're expected to consume uncritically. So, it brings a smile to my face hearing how so many people actually engaged with this games story and genuinely thought about its message, despite the heavy subject matter.
Great video, keep up to good work, man.
It has been probably over a decade since I've played this game. And after all of this time, a lot of it still stays with me. Spec Ops: The Line is an experience. I'm glad I got to play it when it came out.
I’m so glad you finally made a video on spec ops, I was super eager to hear your thoughts since you mentioned you were working on this. This is one of my favorite games ever, it impacted me so much.
I don't know why, but that scene after white phosphorus shelling made me laugh maniacally. It still did so years later. There's just something about the way burnt guy delivers the news and Walker's "what?" and turn to the side, all of that just cracks me up.
Spec ops: The Line is now delisted on all platforms.
Yup.... Goddamned Sucks....
Why
Psychical copy baby
@@mafikdew78copyright and licensing
Licensing problem from what I heard. Scratch that, I don't think I want to play this game, gotta get the best ending I guess.
"You're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not. A hero"
That hits hard for me back then. Everything I had played and experience, the games that were selling and marketing at that time were always some form of power trip, a hero fantasy - I was looking for it, craving for more
And SPEC OPS just snaps me back to reality. The Line between fiction and fact got so blurry after my first playthrough.
The writing was ahead of its time.
Been waiting for this! Love when new people experience this masterpiece of PTSD.
I mention this story whenever this game comes up. In my childhood I always looked up to my cousin, a US Marine, he had just returned home when I got this game for free. He knew I always wanted to enlist and as I was in high school he visited to convince me that I shouldn’t. He sat down to talk to me but instead sat in silence as this game was played with no questions. When I got to the ending I sat back and finally noticed him, he looked relieved and for the first time I saw tears in his eyes. “You’ve always played games like CoD or battlefield, that was difficult to watch how do you feel.” My response was a hug and that I was happy he was finally back, he struggled with some stuff from a divorce, stress, and even cancer, and he still tells me watching me make the decision to not take the same steps as him has been an inspiration. That game sits in my head rent free for all the right reasons. I dream of the day we get another like it. Spec Ops: the line has still been more eye opening compared to some of the most “emotional” stories released since then. The only competition in this is the Division 1&2 and it’s environmental storytelling.
You never disappoint thanks for bringing this game to my attention cause I saw it countless times but never new it had such a deep story
Also, props to whoever did the character designs.
These are some of the most best looking injured and damaged looking military designs in video games.
Just look at Walker’s design. His vest is so shot up that it’s revealing the armor plates inside, the scarf gets changed, his water bladder becomes damaged and empty and oh so many burns and sand
The story was heavily inspired by the novel, Heart of Darkness, too.
An absolute classic and I'm so glad it has gotten the attention it deserves over the past few years. Of all the games out there getting remade, this is one that truly deserves a remake, or at least a remaster.
34:30 My first play through I gave the civilians a warning shot following the same logic.
I was honestly blown away the game understood what I was doing, and allowed me to do so.
If you want additional context for the story, it's a loose adaptation of Hearts of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Same story that Apocalypse Now is and adaptation of. The "villain" being named Conrad was very deliberate.
Really an incredible game that hits you really hard.
nice video, but you got a few things wrong. first, the interrogator wasn't torturing soldiers for revenge, going through torture was part of his training as an interrogator. the part of his monologue that confused you was supposed to show that he found a twisted sense of comradery with people by making them go through the same kind of pain and mental breakdown he himself went through. second, the section with the hanging prisoners was a hallucination, which includes both the corpses and the snipers shooting at them. if you pay close attention, you'll notice that Lugo and Adams don't say anything that acknowledges what Walker is seeing, they're only commenting on his strange behavior. Walker thinking that CIA could be just trying to cover things up is not implausible, after all, CIA's actions have some logic behind them, and Conrad articulating this idea could mean Walker's intuition trying to warn him of this possibility. same with the painting, all these things are just hallucinations, or rather they are manifestations of what's going on in Walker's mind. the whole game is a sort of purgatory, or a recollection of memories, that Walker retreads as he comes to terms with reality.
regarding the ending, I'm not going to tell you if your conclusions are right or wrong, that's up to personal interpretation. however, personally, I think killing yourself is never the right option. although I don't believe in redemption, suicide would just add to the pile of bodies, and ultimately you only have one job: keep on living.
Thank you for doing an exposé on this amazing game. I bought it several years after it came out and I loved it. It needs more attention. You’re doing the Lords work.
You churn these videos out so quickly after finishing a game it's insane
You can successfully choose neither of them at the bridge to kill if you shoot at the guys on the sides, it just leads to a very hard fight ahead but it is possible. Great video though besides that though, keep up the good work!
As of late I have seen many more people talk about and review this game and it makes me so happy that all these years later people are still picking it up and finding out the complexities of it. After all these years people are still playing through it and realizing how good it was.
Back in the day I always brushed this game off as a CoD clone. I think a lot of people did and thus missed out on an amazing story
I watch a few channels that do analyses or retrospectives on games. I've watched a few of your videos like Mass Effect and Dead Space, both franchises that I love. I have seen small bits about Spec Ops but have never played it. if someone had asked me about it I couldn't have told someone anything useful about it. This was so well done, it's a great story but you told it brilliantly. Although I'm not saying your other videos have faults, this felt like a step up in terms of flow. I really enjoyed this
Fun fact. The song of the opening is Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner which was played live at Woodstock (which is also the version used in game). The song is meant to represent the horrors of war as it was made during the Vietnam War. So the game is already telling you subtly that this wont end well. Plus in official US Military doctrine, an upside down American flag is a symbol of distress. Plus this was one of Nolan North’s favorite games he has worked on, up there with Uncharted since this was when Nolan was still a somewhat new guy to AAA games
Very well thought out video. Watched from front to back. Good work brother!
This game....makes you feel so empty after you've finished it.A true masterpiece.Happy to see people still talking about it.Respect.
I played many games, completed some, and still remember the story of a few because it stood out to me, this was one of those. An unforgettable experience, it did a complete 180 and really made me say - f**k that was something else.
There's another important detail which I'm surprised that people didn't notice. In the beginning of the game when you enter Dubai. After encountering first insurgents, you see a truck with Konrad's picture on it.
This shows that Walker wasn't in his full state of mind from the start of the game which is quite obvious because he mentions the events of Kabul a lot of times as we play through the game. Even before dying he remembers the events of Kabul not Dubai.
After finally playing and experiencing the game myself. It was incredible. My ONLY complain about the game is the lack of a melee attack.. The amount of times i died trying to do it on the hardest difficulty, which could of been avoided by a simple knife attack...
You can knock enemies to the floor and stun them for multiple seconds with left shift. There is a melee attack
Dang. If I had just listened to this and someone was to say it was a movie, I would've believed them. Great video. I'll subscribe.
FINALLY Gingy! Finally you've gotten around to doing a story analysis of one of the most ambitious and honest stories about the horrors of war and mental illness. Was excitied to see and hear your take on it and you didn't disappoint - top work buddy. More story analysis of truly interesting games like this please!
The best thing about this story is that it isn't only it talks not only about war but about human nature in general. HoD shows how each one of us has a cruel animal deep inside which comes out under right circumstances, Apocalypse now says that this animal is necessary to survive while SOtL says that this animal is always there even without said "right circumstances"
40:11 The mind is a VERY powerful thing. So hallucinations can be, powerful to say the least. It even shows in the twist that Adams and Lugo in fact DIDNT walk over to the radio, showing Walker imagined them doing so and showing how bad his hallucinations had gotten. The mind has been shown to show its owner a completely different reality if put through enough stress. So it does make sense when you look at it logically.
I don't know why, because it's not even the same game, but the quote that always stuck with me was "Isaac, we're gonna burn for what we did to you." I think that applies to Walker creating his own Hell by harming so many other people.
i was so glad this game is getting more recognition. The end really made me tear up a bit, so so sad.
I'm late for this, but a cool fact is in the beginning of the game, when you enter dubai, with the screen showing the team that worked on the game, there's a special guest that has your username specifically, indicating that you're part of this story too.
This is one of the most unsettling games that I've ever played. It's not the horrible things that happen throughout the story that make me say that. Such horrors are to be expected in such a game. No, the thing that got under my skin was how Walker stumbled into being a war criminal. He never intended to do the things that he did consciously, but bit by bit, he arrived at a point where he was the true villain of the story.
The salient point to take away from all of this, and one that disturbs me to this day, is that anyone could do the same thing. In the same way that one could gradually become an addict, could one also become a monster? It's a frightening thought....
This game seems like a very rare gem in gaming. I know in comic books, a lot of the best story lines from Marvel came from them handing over failing titles to great writers and telling them to do what they want with the character. I feel like that is what happened here. Inspired writers without interference from their highers.
For the reveal bit I think it was in walker’s mind that the others heard / interacted with things that weren’t there
Learned about this game in the video "Games that hate the player", which was a fantastic video.
When I first experienced the White Phosphorus scene, I had to walk away from the game for a few days. I felt betrayed and depressed and sick. I was so angry because I thought I chose the path to help the civilians and to see what I as Walker did made me feel emotion unlike anything in any other game before or since.
It ain’t that deep bro 💀
@@randomdude4946 Well, you aren't.
@@JoshuaJacobs83 that makes no sense bro. Based off of the way you’re acting and your comment I can tell you play the game to much. Go touch grass
@@randomdude4946 Haven't played it in over ten years. Go touch a woman
@@JoshuaJacobs83 lmao you don’t touch any women. You had to “leave a game for a few days because it was to much for you and made you upset” 💀 aww did the video game hurt you’re little baby feelings 🥺 gtfo bro you’re goofy asf.
When I first played Spec Ops: The Line back in 2012 I was so floored and impacted by the story and game that I proceeded to play nothing else for the next 2-3 days and beat it a total of 7 times in that time frame. To this day it's one of my favourite games ever and I take every opportunity I can to talk about it or to share it.
This gem needs a remaster.
Yager took the word "Verschlimmbessern" and went absolutely ham with it. Great work.