It has its gameplay flaws for sure, but when the story is as memorable, bold, and well written as it is, you’ll likely look past them like I did and see the stellar piece of video game storytelling lying underneath.ĩ. The game has been talked to death at this point, but I’ve deliberately avoided spoilers because, if you somehow haven’t played the game, you need to. Plus, it has one of the single greatest lines of video game dialogue ever: “It takes a strong man to deny what’s right in front of him.” It makes you realize, “Hey, all the ‘bad guys’ I’ve been decimating are actually people just like me.” It does all of this while telling a pitch black, memorable story about Walker and his crew. It shows how unwavering belief in “the mission” and your country will lead to pure destruction. It shows how the level of violence and mass murder on display in your average CoD campaign would severely alter a person’s mental state.
Those left alive often have physical and mental scars that can’t be fully healed. War is brutal, and really, there are no winners. It uses violence not to empower, but to point out how messed up the very idea of military shooters are. But as the game goes on, Walker and his squad commit increasingly horrible acts, including one extremely infamous scene that plays so brilliantly on the military shooter trope of using a piece of computerized ordinance that, even when you know the scene is coming, it still manages to shock and awe in the worst possible way. The main character, Walker, starts off on a quest to find the man responsible for supposedly bringing Dubai to its knees and throwing it into anarchy. Spec Ops: The Line is the anti-military shooter. So imagine the surprise when those who actually bought it found out what it really was. After all, on the surface, it did very little to differentiate itself from other wannabe Call of Dutys. But that’s beside the point.įor all intents and purposes, Spec Ops: The Line was advertised as just another military shooter, with the unique setting of an environmentally ravaged Dubai being its main selling point.
The subsequent games in the Modern Warfare sub- series retroactively ruined that. Instead, it feels like a really dark look at how modern war is messy, and how there are no real winners. The reason I say 4 is a great game is because it wasn’t really a power fantasy like the rest of the series would become. Often times, there is a sense of righteous jingoism that feels like it borders on brainwashing, almost like you’re playing some form of propaganda where America is usually the unquestionably good side and whatever your opposing force happens to be deserves to not just be stopped, but annihilated and ground into the dust with the most extreme prejudice possible. I used to play Call of Duty at my friends’ houses and found myself enjoying them well enough, but the multiplayer always frustrated me (and I will fully admit it’s because I suck at it) and the campaigns usually left me wanting in some way (although I will admit that 4 is a great game for a variety of reasons).īut as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to find the genre… disturbing.
Spec Ops: The Line (2012) This game is stark, dark, and oh so memorable. Check out his top ten favorite games of the decade here.ġ0.
These aren’t necessarily my most played games, but they are the ones that have stuck with me or planted themselves in my brain the most.Īnd if you find yourself disagreeing with this list, maybe Johnny Malloy has an opinion you agree with more. The only criteria I have for this list is how I feel looking back on them. Here are my top ten favorite games of the decade. Alas, we live in a world where my brain insists on ranking things. Narrowing down ten for this list has been difficult for me, as there was no shortage of worthy candidates. From stellar AAA releases to indie sleeper hits, the decade saw no shortage of great games come and go. The 2010s saw an embarrassment of riches when it came to video games.