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.

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

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.

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.

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

The game that gives gamers a taste of what ptsd feels like, glad its still be talked about all these years later

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.

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.

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.

Wake up babe, it's time to trigger your PTSD

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 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.

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❤

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?"

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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."

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

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!

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

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.

Do You Feel Like A Hero Yet?

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

*"Spec Ops: The Line"* is one of the most underrated, well-made games to ever be released.

Spec ops: The Line is now delisted on all platforms.

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.

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

The greatest and most criminally underrated game ever made. Period. I cant even begin yo explain how much i loved it

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Been waiting for this! Love when new people experience this masterpiece of PTSD.

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.

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.

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’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.

You are never meant to be in that area in the first place as your original order is to evac the area. That stop sign in the beginning of the game is a warning of what lies ahead. The deteroriating Dubai perfectly encapsulates the carnage & brutality of Walker's personality as the game progresses.

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

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.

Conrad seems like a shoutout to Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness. This game def inspired by that story

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.

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.

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

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!

You churn these videos out so quickly after finishing a game it's insane

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.

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.

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.

The story was heavily inspired by the novel, Heart of Darkness, too.

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

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.

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

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!

Devs have confirmed that the game happens on the purgatory, with some parts being memories and other halucinations. Whenever the screen fades to black its real, and when It fades to white is not. They actually die on the helicopter crash. Annother thing that supports this is how the are always descending/falling. You fallo from a skyscraper and appear in the roof of annother.

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"

In addition to the in-game tips becoming more dark this also happens to the main menu. If you quit and resume play over different points of the story the visuals in the main menu will become darker and darker

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....

I was 16 when I played spec ops 16 was not old enough I realize now as a 27 year old adult that I was not capable of understanding the mature themes the game was throwing at me as I left the game confused and unsure of what I just played It has been the only game that I thought to myself that the ESRB rating system was right this game was too mature and I was incapable of processing and understanding it

Very well thought out video. Watched from front to back. Good work brother!

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...

There's a video from the game creator that talks about the first scene in the helicopter that you play again two thrids of the way into the game. Walker say wait somthing isn't right this is all familiar. Then they crash when you wake up you see that tower burning hallucination. He says walker died in the crash and you are essentially in hell reliving the monstrosities that you committed. That's why he remembers it in that scene.

This game....makes you feel so empty after you've finished it.A true masterpiece.Happy to see people still talking about it.Respect.

Gingy, i have become absolutely enamored by your videos. it's been two weeks since I've discovered your channel and only have 30% of your public videos left to watch. while i can't financially support your content i will gladly give a like and recommend you to everyone who shares a love for video games. keep up the amazing work and i hope one day i can support you further!

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.

I remember finding this game in my library almost a decade ago and i didn't know what i was walking into. I just thought it would be a basic 3rd person shooter, but wow.. i never played a game that made me the bad guy. After the part with the white phosphorus, i had to take a break. I was in shock and played something lighthearted instead for a little while. But i couldn't stay away and had to see how the story would end. I haven't replayed it since 2015, but it's a game i will never forget. What an experience.

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.

i was so glad this game is getting more recognition. The end really made me tear up a bit, so so sad.

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.

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.

Brilliant video about a brilliant game. Really didn't expect someone to make a video about this game over 10 years after its release and I'm glad the KZfaq algorithm remembered that I liked this game a lot years ago. Although I probably won't play it again soon, since the focus on the story and the lack of impact your choices actually have means that it doesn't have a lot of replay value. But the first time I played this - oh boy! It was an experience I have never had before or since. Glad that someone remembers this gem.

As Frank Castle says, "Dying is easy". I don't think after all that's happened, just simply dying would make up for all the shit that has happened. Because of that, I think living through it would be the correct choice than simply taking the easy way out.

Absolutely amazing. Great game, and great spotlight. Plus the video was very well organized. Well done

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.

"All the double-edged people into schemes, they make a mess, then go home and get clean." These are lyrics from Lorde's song "A World Alone," and it seems poignant and fitting here.

when adam and lugo died i thought : "holy shit this can't get more depressing" then the twist at the ending just gave me the biggest middle finger