Poll: Is Spec Ops: the Line overrated?

[veloper]

The funny thing is, if Spec Ops and TWD actually had good gameplay, I would have been cheering alongside with most of you. A good shooter with a decent story is an improvement over a good shooter with a crap story and this goes doubly for a a puzzle-adventure game (IF only).

As it stand now though, we cannot have nice things, because of double standards.

However, having excellent and "fun" gameplay would ruin the narrative and goes against the message. Reason why Call of Duty succeeds is two fold

1. Succeeds in fulfilling the player's power fantasy through the narrative
2. Having satisfying gameplay that reenforces this image.

In many of the war games the player always justified in being in the right and does heroic deeds just to show how badass they are. Everything from using high tech weaponry to doing brutal kills with a knife. The player continues until the end because they want to continue feeling like a hero and the gameplay is fun. It's one thing to watch a Rambo movie and go "Man Ranbo is such a badass" and instead say "Wow I AM the badass soldier saving the world."

Spec Ops wanted to do the opposite and show the player how horrible these wartime actions are. Everything from showing the collateral damage to war, making the enemies US soldiers and giving a face and back story behind the masses you killed was the game's intention of having you go "I am doing some messed up stuff." Much like Walker continues the mission despite warning signs from his squad and failed attempts in order to try to salvage what little is left in Dubai, the player continues playing in hopes that in the end there is one big heroic act that turns them around. At the very end the game takes this reasoning and shoves it at the players face. If the gameplay of Spec Ops was satisfying then we could easily justify ourselves for liking the game simply because it is fun. The narrative had to be the biggest reason why players continued moving onward, not the gameplay.

TLR - It would have been hypocritical to make an anti-war game if the gameplay glorified war at the same time.

You may be onto something here. Gameplay may be very well be at odds with story telling.

Gaming history supports this proposition atleast. From Planescape Torment to The Walking Dead, for some reason we never get a proper story AND great gameplay in the same game.
Could be coincidence. Could be all such attempts are well and truly fucked even before they start. Worth looking into atleast.

Now we're back at alternatives #1 and #2. The indie way or the hard way.