1UP's Favorite Games of 2012: Spec Ops: The Line

Video games can be many things to many people, so the idea of proclaiming a single one as the best of 2012 strikes us as a little limiting. This year, instead of screaming at each other for hours in a sweaty, smoke-filled room until we emerge with a handful of winners, your friends at 1UP have decided to forsake categorization and write about the experiences that brought us the most enjoyment this year -- and that's the point of playing video games, isn't it?

To be perfectly frank, video games about war generally don't have a whole lot to say. Your protagonist is usually an infallible American hero who can give and take damage like the lead in a summer blockbuster. Your guns are generally pointed at some various shades of foreign invaders with backstories as shallow as a kiddie pool. And then there's the plot...well, the less we say about the plot of most action games, the better. It's with this low bar that I entered Spec Ops: The Line. After I was done, everything had changed.

Any praise of the messages and plot structure within Spec Ops must start at Walt Williams, who wrote a fantastic script that leapt over the genre's low bar and delivered a thought-provoking story filled with characters that are genuinely damaged by the horrors they both witness and are forced to commit. Part of the story's potency comes from the way Williams lulls the player into a sense of familiarity during the opening act. The sands of Dubai seem like a fitting setting for any standard action movie, and the way the characters bark one-liners at each other make us settle in for another standard "shoot everything until it's dead" experience. But then, things change. Spec Ops begins forcing the player to make some genuinely horrifying decisions. There are no right or wrong answers here, only various shades of gray. Williams understands that war is anything but simple, and trusts that the players comprehend this ambiguity.

Alongside The Walking Dead, Spec Ops stands as a script that's not just "good for a video game," but one of 2012's best stories across any medium. The arc of Captain Martin Walker provides a stunning glimpse into the downward spiral that resides at the core of all wars. During those crucial moments where you're forced to make a decision, Spec Ops never punishes you for your choice, but rather forces you to live with the consequences of your actions. And when you finally reach the game's stunning third act, you'll realize that you're experiencing one of the riskiest action games our medium has ever produced.

You can say that the core shooting mechanics in Spec Ops are nothing special, and I'd have to agree with you. 2012 featured megahits like Halo 4 and Black Ops II, both of which feature better feeling and more inspired core action. But neither of those comes close to delivering the kind of message that Spec Ops: The Line plays with throughout its entirety. I've recommended it to people who've never really gravitated towards shooters, and they've unanimously loved it. If Spec Ops is a sign of things to come -- games delivering social and moral conscious regardless of the genre -- then we're in for one hell of a renaissance.