For most of these posts, games have utilized violence for the sake of shock and sick thrill, the only redeemable times where they display some form of credible effort being when they simulate real events and even those sometimes fail through misrepresentation. And even when they succeed, they are based upon fragile contexts, very susceptible to protest and argument, rather than a general acceptance. Aside from these examples, there are some games that seek to portray messages to an audience through a fictitious set of events, to lessen the viewpoint that game makers have an alleged insensitivity towards heavy subjects. One exemplar in particular goes against the conformity of most entries in its genre, providing a unique and critical experience to players.
Spec Ops: The Line is the latest entry in a long running third-person shooter game series. Released in 2012, it follows the escapades of Captain Walker and his two subordinates as they traverse the city of Dubai on a rescue mission. They soon discover that everything is not as it seems and are soon roped into a conspiracy that has them combating their own forces as they seek to find answers to why their own soldiers have turned rogue (Yager Development, 2012).
Right away this game breaks away from the mold. Most shooters nowadays are criticized heavily for their dehumanizing of foreign armed forces, demonizing them by serving as the only enemy targets in the game and essentially seeking to destroy the home country of the main character (almost always America). The players are tasked with protecting this home country, praised for their efforts when they succeed. Shooters never truly raise bigger questions and seek to justify their violence through the excuse of the player "keeping their country safe from threats". Keeping in mind that the majority of enemies in modern shooters consist primarily of Russian and Middle Eastern peoples, these games send out alarming messages to players, ethics being put by the wayside in favour of mere entertainment.
What Spec Ops does so well is that it criticizes the tropes that have been plaguing shooters for years by commenting on them and asking the player to think about the dilemmas that emerge. The game does not skimp on its violence, but in this case it is displayed for the sake of reinforcing the message, very much like Sandy Hook or Six Days. By having American soldiers be the main targets of the game, Spec Ops brings up the haunting idea that no one is truly innocent and not all soldiers (especially from America) are all these individual heroes of grandeur but are in fact capable of very villainous and very real things.
At various points in the game the player is forced into situations where they are told that they have a choice and the option is left to the player to decide what it is they feel they need to do. The repercussions of your actions are always addressed and the player is then left to assess the situation themselves; was their choice truly the best one? These scenarios base themselves on the instincts that players have gained from playing these shooters that Spec Ops so heavily criticizes. The game instructs players to take an outside perspective on the subject at hand. It assumes that players choose to experience shooters for the thrill of being the hero, of living this power fantasy of being in control and dominating over everything in sight. By the end of Spec Ops, Captain Walker is a broken man, unsure of whether he stands on a moral ground or a tarnished reputation for the acts he's committed. He looks at all the accumulated damage he's done and assesses just how good of a human being he truly is for doing all of this, just as the player does. This synchronicity drives the game's point home, which makes it stand out amongst all other kinds within its genre and serves as a must-play for both game enthusiast and skeptic alike.
Extra Credits once again does an excellent job in analyzing the issues that are brought forth in this game and also go even more in depth with the themes and composition of the game (Extra Credits, 2012). I highly recommend viewing both parts of this analysis for additional information.
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