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After a decade long hiatus for the series, 2K Games will be releasing Spec Ops: The Line on June 26 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Now Playing it Old School will be going back and declassifying the Spec Ops-series.
By now most gamers should be scratching their head and wondering, “Hey how come I’ve never heard of this game?” While Spec Ops: The Line looks promising, unfortunately the Spec Ops-series has been a series of poor rip-off’s and budgeted blunders.
Spec Ops can be best described as a failed attempted at mimicking the success of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. However unlike most half-assed rip-off's, Spec Ops continued as a series that progressively got worse. Eight Spec Ops games were released between 1999 until 2001 for the PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast.
During this time period, the following tactical shooters were released:
* Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (1998)
* Delta Force (1998)
* Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rouge Spear (1999)
* Hidden & Dangerous (1999)
* S.W.A.T. 3 (1999)
* Delta Force 2 (1999)
* Operation Flashpoint (2001)
* Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (2002)
Playing it Old School has a tendency to honor and pay tribute the greatest work, but one has to ask why would anyone want to resurrect a forgotten embarrassment? After playing the demo, I'm confident that Spec Ops: The Line would do better as a stand-alone game without being affiliated with any series, epically one like the Spec Ops-series.
Gamers will have to wait until June 26 to see if Spec Ops: The Line is truly a modern retelling of Heart of Darkness. Yet it's unlikely that it will reignite interest in a forgotten game series.