Well I guess I'm in amoks camp then, would've probably never heard of it actually if it wasn't for all the praise here. Do you have to go through a lot of that mechanic to get to the 'meat' of the game?

Yes, it's the basic mechanic of the game, so there's no avoiding it. The story though... wow. Good stuff.

I rarely ever play any type of shooter (in fact, the only shooter style games I can think of offhand that I've played are Mass Effect 1 and 2). I tend to go for things like RPGs and puzzle/sidescrollers. But on normal difficulty, I didn't find it was too bad. The mechanics are actually enjoyable in this game and I only ran into a couple areas that forced me to redo some sections. Checkpoints are fairly frequent as well, so you won't have to redo large sections of the game if you happen to bite the dust.

*edit* And as OG says, it's really doing the game a disservice to describe it as a shooter. It's really so much more than that. Cripes, I hope we're not overhyping it now...

They've also found a way to make dying a bit of its own reward. I cannot say more.

so you mean that is actually an Anti-War shooter?
I am speaking in the tradition on Apocalypse Now or Jarhead here.
I have to admit that intriques me.
The only 'realistic' war shooter I was interested in was Six Days in Fallujah and that got stuck in limbo.

Alright, You've generated an eventual +1 to the games sales count, cheers ;)

The developers cited Heart of Darkness as a huge influence. Seeing as that's where Apocalypse Now comes from, you're absolutely right.

Anything else I have to add has been covered, but I'll just echo the praise everyone else has for it.

This.

Yeah, Heart of Darkness, read that, too. Thanks for the insights, everybody :)

It takes what CoD does and does a complete reverse. It starts off like a typical war shooter and then BOOM! no more hero. It's all hell afterwards. It's also part satire too. Great game.

Its interesting story wrapped around mediocre gameplay. Neat ideas mixed with boring stuff. Still its memorable and I liked the twist .

When I played it, the thing that got me going was the story, the graphics (some particularly noteworthy lighting effects) and the voice acting. Suffice it to say, I thought the gameplay was pretty mundane, but serviceable.

Then, I read an article about it that put things into perspective, at least for me.

Perhaps the gameplay is suppose to be easy to get into and, in the end, comfortable. You're doing what you've always done: slaughter hordes of enemies. And that ties into the story as well. This is really easy for you to do - pull the trigger and they're dead - because this is what you've always done. The story explores the other side: not the heroes, or the villains, but everyone affected by all the death.

I can't say more without spoiling it, but I was shocked to see this game and Sleeping Dogs getting sales so quickly. They are experiences you really shouldn't miss.

Just my two cents, of course. :)

The gameplay is supposed to be clunky, easy at times, and slightly uncomfortable. You're correct, it's on purpose.

"Press X to execute this man."

Yay, ammo out of the bashed skull!

Actually, I think putting games on sale early isn't necessary a sign of bad sales. Especially Spec Ops would have had a hard time competing with CoD and MoH marketing. While I would have paid 50€ (heck, I bought it twice for 30€) the original price drop made the leap of faith easier.

As we get more and more digital, even on consoles, one hopes we get more varying prices. Something like Specops would have sold extremely well if it came out at $20.