Shooters aren’t deep. They’re not thought provoking journeys into fabled lands. Shooters are simple. They’re typically the same mechanic wrapped around a decent story, purchased in the hopes that the online play might provide some semblance of fun while players wait for the next Call of Duty to release. It’s strange that a game titled Spec Ops the Line would take the layout of a shooter and turn the execution of it into a secondary part of the experience. That’s exactly what happens though, as you stagger your way through each chapter of the campaign. Players will find that the game plays as a typical third person shooter, complete with its own quirks and frustrations, but in the end it’s The Line that draws your focus.

Set in Dubai, players may worry that they’ve seen this setting before; the city has been blasted by an enormous sandstorm turning it into a mix of city and desert. But worry not, the setting has been established this way for multiple reason, though most aren’t apparent until well into the game. The story follows Captain Martin Walker as he enters the city in search of Colonel John Konrad, a war hero gone missing. A strange transmission, explaining the failure of Colonel Konrad, is received by the military and Delta Squad, led by Captain Walker, is sent to investigate.

Users will find that that the shooting -- you know, the heart and soul of a shooter -- works as it should. Third-person, cover-based shooting rarely offers variety in terms of new gameplay mechanics: run from point-a to point-b, stay alive, shoot enemies in the face. Occasionally that redundancy is broken up with a frag, sticky, or flash grenade, but it’s pretty typical.