I ave to admit I was kinda expecting Yahtzee to rag on this. Perhaps I should give it a turn.

I want to play this game. Something about it made this review unique and I will be damned if I do not experience it. Thanks Yahtzee for the incentive... it was a bit dull though.

I bought and finished the campaign in 4 hours and man what a crazy story/ending.I got it for 25 bucks via amazon on sale and it was worth every penny. Yeah I know its not that long of a story but it was very tight and contained. I'll take that over 60 hours of no progression (FFXIII i'm looking at you). I strongly recommend you check this game out if you want an intense story.

Yahtzee, is there just something about your limeys and your inability to appreciate the military putting their asses on the line so that you don't have to? Y'know, protecting your freedoms, preventing your own slaughter at the hands of those who despise you and want you to eat the soles of their boots?

Look, I'm a conservative and I dislike the shit we've gotten into with our wars and our expended blood and treasure.

I still love and support my military, however, as those men and women are out there defending my freedoms.

I'm not proud of what's been committed in the name of god and country, but as one legendary general once said: "War is hell." And there comes a time when war is needed to ensure that the decent folk of this world don't wind up getting shat upon by that flaky bitch, Fate.

That said, this is easily one of your best reviews, Yahtzee, and excellent job on that.

*farting noise*

The loading screens are the best part.

Hazy:
*snip*

Yeah, the little touches like that really made the experience. My favorite part was the way the squad's combat banter descended into semi-coherent cursing toward the end.

tehweave:
A) It sounds like you just described Bioshock. Imagine the main character being told to "complete objective A, would you kindly."

B) Holy fuck I have to play this game.

1) No. The game makes you do fucked up things but it's different from Bioshock's "would you kindly". I wont go into details.

2) You should.

That's it, I'm no longer listening to anyone I personally know for game recommendations. They told me this game sucks because "there weren't enough weapons" and "I didn't get it."

I am buying this tomorrow.

This was a rather good as always but the reason I wanted to comment was because when I finished the episode all I could think was that if this was under the old format the intro or outro music would have been "Saturday's All Right For Fighting" by Elton John... I am not even sure that makes sense but I cannot escape that thought.

So much so I felt the need to comment.

WOW! I'm really confused now! Should i be excited that he's given Dubai, my hometown a mention in his show or should i be pissed that he dissed Dubai. Frankly im not really an arab citizen, I'm Indian but i lived here all my life but its still something to see your little city get all rich and infamous. Hey BTW, dubai looks NOTHING like the one portrayed in the game. The developers must have sent a photographer by himself/herself to take a few snaps of dubai and based the design of their game around those few limiting shots.
P.S adding this to the recent Mission Impossible movie, why does american media insist on covering Dubai with sand when a sandstorm has never, in the history of the middle east, ever happened here? Some passive aggressive sentiment hmm?

Dubaiiiii!!!!!!! Your just jealous!

SickBritKid:
Yahtzee, is there just something about your limeys and your inability to appreciate the military putting their asses on the line so that you don't have to? Y'know, protecting your freedoms, preventing your own slaughter at the hands of those who despise you and want you to eat the soles of their boots?

Look, I'm a conservative and I dislike the shit we've gotten into with our wars and our expended blood and treasure.

I still love and support my military, however, as those men and women are out there defending my freedoms.

I'm not proud of what's been committed in the name of god and country, but as one legendary general once said: "War is hell." And there comes a time when war is needed to ensure that the decent folk of this world don't wind up getting shat upon by that flaky bitch, Fate.

That said, this is easily one of your best reviews, Yahtzee, and excellent job on that.

*farting noise*

The fact you keep saying someone's 'protecting our freedoms' doesn't make it true. And even if they are it's at the expense of the freedoms of people from other countries, so I understand people finding it hard to respect soldiers as much as the media assumes they should.

Hazy:
The loading screens are the best part.

Did you remember why you came there ? I thought I did , but on my 2nd play it turned down I was wrong .
I was so happy that the last mission was hard . That way I could see all of the load screens .
Also did you noticed that Walker changes alot in the game ? At first he uses terms like "Tango down" or "Hostile eliminated" and he executes wounded by a simple bullet to the head . And by the end he like swearing alot "FUCKING TRAIDOR " or "got the mother fucker " and the executions start to get blody . He shoves his gun is the enemie`s face and blows it up . Or shots them first in the leg than in the face.
Also I am the only one who noticed that he didnt ranted about Nolan North voicing Walker ?

A recommendation from Yahtzee is pretty much worth an international PR campaign for the developer. Looking forward to seeing "pfffffftt" quoted ;)

I gotta say, the WP scene was AWESOME. I've always been curious about the way that looks IRL, now I know.

I kinda feel the farting noises spoil the ZP episode, though.

Tenmar:
And this review is why we require that balance of having games that allow developers to explore the more darker parts of our human nature and games that should be allowed to be developed into completely nonsensical characters and stories.

Honestly seeing a first impression I thought this game was pretty good, although I will say that for those saying "ammo is scarce", it wasn't. Ammo was given if you actually took the time to "execute" those soldiers. So while say a simple headshot would suffice and enable you to move on shooting from the hip and going to finish the job yielded a lot more rewards. Yeah, pretty gruesome for a way to get ammo.

Now THAT is a brillant "moral choice"

Zero Serenity:
I actually played the demo for this and found the gameplay quite lacking if being utterly annoying. The chemistry of the characters was lacking (maybe it's because it's the demo) and frankly I couldn't feel invested in it. But that being said, I did enjoy this review since it has something Yahtzee is very good at and that is the juxtaposition of being funny. Grim games can work, but really, if it's not fun to play (and I would even go sofar as to say if a horror game isn't fun) then really what is the point? Immersion? Not on my count. It's impossible to get immersed in a game you're hating. The shooting is bland, the contextual flashbang is mind-boggling and I hadn't the feeling the plot was up to much.

I haven't actually played the demo, but I can safely say you are 99.99% likely not to get an accurate view of the game from it. The big points the game scores are in the story and the important bits of it are not something you'd put in a demo, or you'd spoil the whole game (also, they're not anywhere near the start of the game, which is usually what you put in a demo).

Also, I heavily disagree on your definition of fun as well as that it's the only important thing in games (although of course, that might be your own definition and why you play games for, which is fair enough). You're not gonna hate SO: The Line, you're just gonna get to a few bits of story where you won't be "oh, awesome!", but "shit, what the fuck did my character (and by proxy, I) just do?!". It's by no means something to hate the game for, it's just something you're "forced" to do because the game is linear and it's not a matter of choice, merely a point in the story of a linear game.

Yahtzee recommended, instant-buy.

I'm not sure how that happened. I think he's got a direct line to my brain.

Trying to decide if I felt this review was thoughtful because it was more insightful than Yahtzee's usual reviews (nope) or just because it dealt with more serious subject matter than usual (more likely I think).

Odd how subject matter can delineate to a large degree, how you interpret something.

Good job sir, an excellent review.

Thank you!

I probably wouldn't have given the game a second glance, but this review put it on my radar, definitely.

For anybody looking for this game, Amazon had it on 50% off and i'm pretty sure others will have it on discount too.

I was told that the Steam Sales goes up today, and this game might be cheaper there too.

Either way, i felt that the PC version had a bit better controls, so give it a check on that version. the game is not really all that heavy.

It's totaly worth a buy on a discounted price (cause it's pretty short)

Holy god. Even the farts were depressive.

Scrustle:
Didn't expect Yahtzee to like this at all.

It sounds like exactly the kind of game the modern shooter genre needs right now. So many of them are about nothing but fetishising guns and violence purely for the sake of it. We need a bit of a reality check.

If it was, your squad would be coming back alive and well, but in Modern Warfare, your squad has the lifespan of a mayfly. Modern Warfare is just as depressing as Spec Ops The Line.

And it isn't really Merica fuck yeah anymore, Modern Warfare would be more like Expendables if it was.

i like the review, i like it if its a bit serious (but obvious last-fart was obvious)

diclaimer: my english is crap. i could order a beer or ask where the tlets are, but speakion about serious stuff, thoughts and this is very difficult. because of words and because of grammar-thinking in german and translating without a babelfish doesn't cut the mustard. although i hope its somewhat understandable..^^
i thought about the game as well-how can a game be critical about senseless killing if the main mechanic of game is to kill enemies? isn't it unimportant which color or whatever these enemies are? if a game is about the horrors of war and violence, why is violence THE way and mechanic of solving the game then?

i think the game would be more interesting, if you character could choose to avoid violence as he progresses.. (maybe fallout might be a example-you can try to sneak past enemies an try so solve problems without using 9mm or such stuff) i mean, he sees all of this and his own part of it, but does he ever try to use, well, non lethal weapons? hitting the enemy, using k.o gas (this is Dubai-they got an army and i think you might buy taser and such stuff(Non-deadly-weapons) there-or steal them because nobody cares while this kind of crisis occurs)
it seems that mr. Main-character never has a chance to not use violence.. But i think i have to play further...(Although i don't know/played the whole game, i think i can think about it, about the story, the setting etc)

a shooter "should" be fun, but if the game criticizes his own modus operandi but also wants the gamer to like it..its strange..
it reminds me of shadow of the colossus-the same-you have to kill these creatures for what? you don't know, you don't know the girl(as gamer-and you are playing, its your emotion..) and although you feeing pity and sadness, you kill these living creatures.
because the game wouldn't progress... if i think bout it-a game forces you often to act as the "game" wants you too. you are limited in your decisions, you can choose a or b, but not c.
you can shoot or not-if you shoot(a), the game progresses, if you don't(b), youŽll die and the game is over.. but there is no c .. An example of the opposite might be heavy rain
the game and the story progresses, there are more then 1 main character and there is more freedom but more chances to fail.)

that would be interesting.. an this point you have to act "wrong" you cant find a way to lessen the impacts of you acting.
e.g-use K.O gas in a closed environment, wait until enemies lay down and handcuff them. you might act right but maybe other enemies or maybe surviving Dubai citizen will find them and release them and you ll have to face them again or you might come to know that the enemies were freed and killed their rescuers...then you might feel responsible for this and start acting more straight and might mutilate or kill the next enemies.. then yourself had the illusion of changing and (and thats the point) you tried,were proven wrong (because this was an mistake)and this might be a reason for you to chance your in-game-behavior, but then you are really responsible because you have chosen to act like you did, e.g to kill (because if your not, then you might make a mistake, miss one of the enemies or other brainfarty actions.. and might pay for it later.. and you might face the question, which life weights more-the life of your enemies or someones or might face the question whether violence is 1. necessary and 2.justifiable..

argh, its really hard to me to translate such thoughts in english.. if i sound like a 3 year old-sry^^

firmicute:
i think the game would be more interesting, if you character could choose to avoid violence as he progresses..

On this I can say that you actually do have that choice several times. Sometimes there are even more than just 2 choices, but always with these choices there is one significant limiting factor:

The choices you make are inherently tied to what Walker is - and Walker is a soldier. Soldiers are not men of peace. They are men of war. And all the choices you make are limited by that simple fact.

That said there are some truly awesome moments when you're given, what at first appears to be a binary choice, but in actuality you can use the game mechanics for a third choice. Like...

Or towards the end where you feel like you have no choice whatsoever, whereas in fact the game mechanics allow you a peaceful way out, such as...

So rest assured...this game acknowledges the desire not to hurt people whom you feel you don't have to. But having said that...no matter how much you try to do good, the bottom line remains the same. You play as a soldier. And a soldier is not a man of peace. He is a man of war. And therein his talents lie - in opposition to peace.

But these choices do exist within the game to illustrate the point - do you embrace that fact or go against it? When do you do so? Why did you do so? And understand, that even if you did something that looked peaceful...was it really worth it in the end? Or did you pay too much attention to the little pictures of those civilians and not enough to the big picture of what being a soldier really means?

No matter what your answers are to these questions, though, suffice it to say that with the game's ending the insanity and horror of it all will become apparent no matter which way you go in war. And yet, right there at the very end...you'll be given an extremely powerful way of expressing wether you think that, as a soldier, you truly did the best you could...or if you feel like you could've done more.

Wow.

I was going to completely overlook this game, but I'm actually excited to play it now. It's rare for a "modern" shooter to look at war from the other side of the coin, and even rarer for a game to apparently do it well.

And he didn't even mention the fact Nolan North was voicing Walker... must've been a really immersive story for him to overlook that =P

Therumancer:
bla bla bla

Right and wrong are non-existing terms . Thats the games message .
There is no difference betwen whats right and whats necessary .
The main character turns out to be evil , because he thought that his deeds help people .

...You okay there, Yahtzee?

one of my favorite episodes for sure

A JAMpocalypse!!?? Do you know what this MEANS!?

IM GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE MYSELF A SANDWICH!!!

Yahtzee? Recommend a modern cover-based shooter!?! Isnt this somewhere on the Mayan Calendar?

I kid, im glad this was as Grimdark as i heard its going to be. Its a nice change of pace really.