Analysis | Spec Ops: The Line
Spec Ops: The Line(Spec Ops: The Line, 2012) is a 2012 3rd person shooter from the videogame developer Yager Development. The title, which at first glance appears to follow the trend of modern military shooters of the era, surprised players by its in-depth critique of player choice, violence in games and the climate of the games industry as a whole at the time of release. Spec Ops: The Line uses semiotics in a variety of different ways to draw the player in and teach them about the world of the game, the experience of the protagonist and how it corresponds to that of the gamer themselves. Over the course of this piece I will be breaking down a number of semiotics employed by Spec Ops: The Line.
Spec Ops: The Line from the outset is a trick on the player. Using a variety of typical and well learned video game symbology, the title attempts to fool the consumer into thinking the title is going to be very different from what it is. Yager Development attaches the game to a series of typical military shooters that were vogue for the industry and gamers at the time of development and positioned it as nothing more than what it appears on the box. As just another shooter; where the Americans go in, shoot the bad guys and save the day. This intentional wrong footing of the player, while it may have actually hurt the game as a financial project, selling under 1 million units on PS3(“Spec Ops: The Line (PlayStation 3) — Sales”, 2017) and 360(“Spec Ops: The Line (Xbox 360) — Sales”, 2017) combined at time of writing, is integral to commentary its making. The player is involved in the experience of Spec Ops: The Line just by hearing the title or seeing the box art. Every aspect of the players experiences from shop to end credits is part of the entire considered experience. Even from the title sequence the game is already speaking for its content. An inverted American flag is seen on the title screen forewarning the events within the game; a skewed perspective, America not being seen how it should be, US Code(“U.S. Flag Code”, 2017) even states that a flag being flown like this is a sign of great distress. Even before the game has started it is forewarning of the events it surrounds.
Like many other titles that explore the relationship between Player and Player character, Spec Ops expands on this theme through player choice, but it a way not explored as frequently. Similarly to Bioshock(Bioshock, 2007) and Bioshock Infinite(Bioshock Infinite, 2013), Spec Ops uses the illusion of choice rather than explicit choices themselves to both give the player a sense of agency to their actions as Captain Walker, but criticising this mirage of agency at the same time. Bioshock Infinite overtly references this same idea with a sequence between the Lutece Twins where they state “If you don’t continue, I’m going to be forced to repeat myself”. While this on the surface is a humorous dig at the way Non-Player Characters in games are technically limited by what the developers have programmed into the game, it is also referencing the idea that the player never really has an option other than continuing forward. If they don’t progress the game doesn’t continue and the only real option for the player is either continue as the game wants or turn it off. This entire motif in turn is call to the idea of free will and the philosophical concept of determinism(Sartre & Mairet, 2007), the idea that, putting simply, we can’t actually make choices and all actions are predetermined by the factors that preceded them. How Spec Ops explores this is in a singular moment of faux choice that the player is provided with; to use an item that will enable them to continue. The player is presented with the prompt to Press X, no option to simply not use it, but the deliberate action is still required from the player to take this action. They decided to Press the button and continue forward, but was it really a choice? What alternative did they really have? The player is given the illusion that the didn’t have a choice in what they were doing, something that Captain Walker tried to tell himself repeatedly as he continues forward after the event. In essence, the game is punching the player with their own fist only to then question why they’re doing that to themselves.
Over the course of Spec Ops: The Line the player is faced with the concept of The Other, a philosophical concept dating back to the late 18th century by philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel(Hegel, 2012). Spec Ops explorers this idea of the Self being categorized by its comparison to the other, or in layman’s terms, self-identification based on what you are not. From the first scene, the player is dropped into an alien landscape and is situated as an outsider facing off against those who are dressed differently, speak differently, have different ideals and have different motivations in the world. Captain Walker, the player protagonist, does not belong here. He is not from the area; these people are, he is military, they’re civilians; he wears American military armour, they’re in draping cloth wear; he’s moving forward and they’re trying to stop him. The imagery employed is direct and continual, the antagonists here at the start of the game represent everything that Captain walker and the player is not they are defined by their otherness in this situation and it’s used to draw upon the common trope in similar modern military games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield of the American Solider entering the foreign land to kill the native people. Spec Ops is at this stage trying to make the player feel welcome and in their element as this definition of player-character is completely typical of the game Spec Ops: The Line is masquerading as being.
Use of the Other continues throughout Spec Ops culminating in a method the Yager employs to subvert the players expectations of the genre and the game in the second half. In this section, the characters employed in the role of the Other are swapped out with standard American military soldiers, the people that originally defined the player and Captain Walker are now the enemy, this change speaks for the progress within the game the change of allegiances and the decent and detachment Captain Walker feels towards his fellow men, but the game uses this to ask a question too, why is this any different. Why do we question or require more subvert motivations to be turned on these humans, what makes us the player perfectly happy to go on a murderous rampage against the people from the start of the game, but require a full titles worth of character development and plot advancement to see these new targets as deserving of the same end, why does the player feel validated in slaughtering their once allies at all?
Throughout the experience of Spec Ops The Line there is a clear theme of descent. Typically seen in thriller or horror themed games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent(Amnesia: The Dark Descent, 2010) or Silent Hills: PT(P.T., 2014) and while not being ostensibly a horror title; Spec Ops uses a continual descent of the Captain Walker through the physical world to mirror his psychological profile. Throughout the game Captain Walker is continuously moving downwards very subtly as he progresses forward throughout the story and world. This symbol reflects how he’s feeling about the general situation at the start of the tile and then more the more severe nature of how unhinged he’s becoming as the title progresses through the second act. Again, during these moments, the game asks the player why they’re there, what could they possibly be getting from the experience as the tone of the game for the player has been gradually descending too from how it started; as a typical modern military shooter, to a darker, nuanced exploration of the human condition and the psyche of the player. The shallow light-hearted themes of that the game masqueraded as purporting have departed for a much deeper sobering experience by the end.
Spec Ops: The Line dares to do, with its tools, something that games as a medium for art do so rarely. By using its own identity, the players mood within the experience, game play that is outright frustrating and un-enjoyable, Spec Ops explores aspects of the player psyche and relationship to the protagonist that outright don’t and can’t exist within other mediums. The way in which Spec Ops challenges the notion of player choice, asking players why they even keep playing the game calls back to attitudes of films such as Fight Club(Fincher, 1999) actively criticising the industry that is responsible for its existence but in a far more visceral way. Spec Ops: The Line marries very aspect of its design to present its messages, it’s not a shooter with an above average story, nor is it a excellent film that you just happen to have to click buttons along with. Spec Ops is a peak to what it is for an artist to interact with a consumer on a mass level.
References
Amnesia: The Dark Descent. (2010). Sweden.
Bioshock. (2007). Boston US & Canberra AUS.
Bioshock Infinite. (2013). Boston USA.
Fincher, D. (1999). Fight Club. USA: Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Linson Films.
Hegel, G. (2012). Phenomenology of Mind. Dover Publications.
P.T.. (2014). Japan.
Sartre, J., & Mairet, P. (2007). Existentialism and humanism. London: Methuen.
Spec Ops: The Line. (2012). Berlin, Germany.
Spec Ops: The Line (PlayStation 3) — Sales. (2017). Vgchartz.com. Retrieved 20 July 2017, from http://www.vgchartz.com/game/41814/spec-ops-the-line/
Spec Ops: The Line (Xbox 360) — Sales. (2017). Vgchartz.com. Retrieved 20 July 2017, from http://www.vgchartz.com/game/41815/spec-ops-the-line/
U.S. Flag Code. (2017). Military.com. Retrieved 20 July 2017, from http://www.military.com/flag-day/us-flag-code.html
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