PAXChat Developer Interview: Spec Ops the Line w/Lead Writer Walt Williams
War is hell, and nobody knows that better than the team working on the new 3rd person shooter from 2K Games, Spec Ops: The Line. It’s a gritty, dirty, awful, scenario set in the shadow of what’s left of modern day Dubai after a terrible sand storm has retaken the landscape and laid waste to the massive structures that human beings built there. And caught in the middle of it all are three soldiers on a reconnaissance mission that have no idea the hell they have just walked into.
This is not your gung-ho, hooah, America “eff-ya” narrative. This is a game that is going to ask you to make tough decisions and do things that could, quite possibly, make you feel really shitty about the whole situation. But that’s what sets Spec Ops apart from other shooters: it’s not asking you to simply defeat the bad guy or wipe out the enemy, it’s asking you to play the game and while playing it decide who you’re going to be…something that most games attempt to do, but always seem to come off as just another collection of binary moral choices.
The man tasked with making these moral choices seem as deep as they sound is none other than lead writer at 2K Games, Walt Williams. We got a chance to speak to him (in a seriously beat up bus in the middle of the Spec Ops booth) in order to find out just how difficult it is to balance the story, the moral choices, and the backdrop of Dubai in a way that is both compelling (and maybe even a little disturbing) while making Spec Ops both playable and unique.
In truth, mentioning Heart of Darkness and Military Shooter in the same sentence is more than enough to get me psyched. But if you need more convincing, check out the interview and the Narrative Trailer below and be sure to head to the Spec Ops: the Line website.
Spec Ops: the Line will release on June 26th for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
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