LogFAQs > #929247227

1. Martin Walker (Spec Ops: The Line)
Nominated by Drakeryn
There is a thin red line between hope and darkness. -tagline


Spec Ops: The Line is one of those rare games that dares to put the player in the uncomfortable position of playing a character who makes bad choices. Like, terrible choices. This is the game where I first heard people use the argument of turning the game off is a choice. You will do awful things to innocent people in this game, all for absolutely nothing. But nothing is forcing you to keep playing. Nothing except yourself.

You play as Captain Martin Walker, a man sent to Dubai to evacuate Colonel Konrad (name symbolism to the novel Heart of Darkness and the movie Apocalypse Now clearly intentional), when a devastating sandstorm forces you and your men down. Then youre shooting at people and killing them without a clear purpose. You just want to find Konrad, your hero. Youre in too deep. You have to rescue your men. If that means killing a bunch of people, thats what youll have to do. White phosphorus will be used.

In the end, it turns out Konrad has been for a while, and youve been hallucinating him the whole time. You can choose to surrender, leave with whats left of the troop, or kill yourself. Or you can turn the game off.

Im fascinated by games that actually mix up the standard fighting/killing enemies setup that gaming has long been dominated by. While theres definitely plenty of fighting and killing in Spec Ops: The Line, its purposeful and used to prove a point. You keep progressing further and further and the game subverts tropes by giving your actions weight; the people youre killing arent faceless grunts, sometimes theyre unarmed civilians and you need to kill them to progress. Or you can turn the game off.

Ive barely mentioned Walker himself in this I keep referring to him as you throughout the writeup, because this game is designed to put you directly in Walkers shoes. Walkers journey into hell is meant to elucidate a point about war, but it also serves as a critique of the gaming industry. Watch this man unravel before your eyes and maybe youll come undone too. If you dont, maybe youll walk away feeling differently about your life.

Or you can turn the game off.

Whichever.