After seeing Extra Credits send up this game, I bit the bullet, paid the $50 on Steam, and gave it a play-through. Links to their vids at the end of the post.
Anyway, it’s pretty awesome. The gameplay is sluggish, to be sure, but the way it integrates story and gameplay mechanics is brilliant - the game gets progressively more tedious, for lack of a better word, as the horrors of war weigh down upon you. It’s worth playing for the experience - it’s not a fun game, by any means, but it draws you close in a manner unlike any I’ve ever experienced.
Anyway, apparently 2 days after I purchased it (and 1 day after I beat it), it started going for cheap in a bundle on Amazon.com with steam reimbursement codes. So profit from my misery and check it out.
Links to the Extra Credits dissertation:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/spec-ops-the-line-part-1
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/spec-ops-the-line-part-2
Link to the Amazon.com bundle (also includes Bioshock 1 and 2):
http://www.amazon.com/Desert-to-Sea-Bundle-Download/dp/B0091T6FQO
I keep seeing this on sale and hear everyone’s raves but, man, my backlog is too large as it is. And I already have Bioshock & Bioshock 2 so that’s not a great hook for me. I’m hoping that by the time I knock a few games off my list it’ll be down to $15 or less on its own and then I’m all over it.
I would not use the word tedious at all, but otherwise I agree. It takes a fairly standard third-person shooter, decides on a dangerous novelty and really goes to town with it. And they pulled it off. That’s pretty cool.
Storywise very excellent, but the gameplay was terribly clunky. Seriously, guys with knives? Soldiers who apparently only know how to use a single weapon? Savepoints were oddly placed out, sometimes right before annoying cutscenes and sometimes far too sparse. A ton of silly bugs (like ammunition store being different for every reload). Very simple AI that never bothered advancing, flanking or cooperating.
Nice to have played, but I’d never sit down with it just for the gameplay.
ETA: One thing though, the dynamic storytelling was fantastic!