Recent reviews by Iconoclass

Remove mod support that allows people to use custom models, then offer only 6 models as DLC for $15 each. C'mon.
If the DLC wasn't so expensive and the custom model support wasn't removed, the DLC alone wouldn't be an issue.

nonstop achievement unlocked sound

Emerald Lakeside's OST is such a banger

I got addicted instantly. I just have that gambler's mindset.
10/10

The game tells you (the main character, Walker) that you're a monster for killing so many people, that you have a choice, but in the gameplay you literally have no choice. To progress the story, you must complete the most mind-numbing and generic third-person cover shooting, mowing down hundreds, probably thousands of soldiers and even civilians. The shock that comes from commuting virtual atrocities is no substitute for gameplay that genuinely does give you the choice to commit and not commit them.

Sure, it's more interesting and thought provoking than jingoistic shooters like Call of Duty, but the message of the game feels unfocused. Even the main writer Walt Williams admits that "We don't want them [players] to feel a specific thing. It's not designed to make you feel bad. The goal that we had going in was that you would just feel something." This lack of focus ironically made me feel very little, as I knew that the game was depicting atrocities on screen during the interactive parts and then the non-interactive parts said they were bad, but again, the game forced me to do it. Walt also said that it forced the player to rationalize their actions. The only rationale I had was to finish a popular game (which I didn't like). People say it forced us to look at other shooters, and how players are fine with committing potentially atrocious acts in those games, but I find that a lazy answer. He also said that if players want the choice to stop killing people in the game they can just stop playing the game. I think that's a BS answer.

For the record, I watched Walt's GDC talk about Spec Ops: The Line. I disagree with his assessment and execution of this game.

He also said he embraced ludonarrative dissonace by having the main character rationalize it. If it was just that, I wouldn't be too bothered, I don't have a problem playing as the bad guy. The main problems I have with the game are the difference in presentation between gameplay and cutscene (as the gameplay glorifies such violence and the story laments it) and I find the gameplay really boring. The gameplay itself has no originality and just wrapping that with a self-questioning story and premise doesn't automatically make it a masterpiece.

Ultimately to me this game just feels like a response to the post 9/11 military shooters, and is unfortunately a dated product of its time. The game making people critically think about military shooters and US military interventionism does not automatically make the game itself good. Games can either represent bad actions through narrative contextualization or through gameplay action, and they don't seem to be great at doing exclusively the former.
I'm upset for preservation that this game was desisted, but I won't miss it nor would I recommend it.

The US military will invade countries and then years later make movies about how much their soldiers suffered doing it. This game is about a fictional conflict but gives off similar energy. All the people who we're told to rescue in this game are hardly depicted and never humanized (not the native Arabs anyway). To me it seems like a pretty glaring flaw for a supposed anti-war game.

For more see Super Bunnyhop's video Anti-War War Games.

sheeple simulator

Was it worth $4? Yeah, I'd say so

They see me rollin'
They hatin'

Like breakcore if it was good

There aren't enough ball-type games. Y'know, where a player can be straight ballin'