Spec Ops:The Line GRTV Interview

Due out next Friday, 2K and Yager Entertainment's story-driven military shooter is attempting to reconnect players with the consequence of every bullet fired with a harrowing tale of a rogue military unit in Dubai.

We talked to lead writer Walt Williams about the game, and he explained whatever preconceptions you may have about the genre, Spec Ops "isn't the game you think it is."

You can check out the full GRTV interview with him below, but here's a few choice quotes:

On hard-hitting events

"The hardest line is not to make something that exploitative. We had a checklist and if we did something that felt like it was crossing the line, that it was just there to shock - we threw it out. Everything in the story had to be there for a reason."

On leaving choice up to the player

"We wanted the player to have these moments were they ask themselves - 'what do I do?'...certainly they [the studio] won't let me kill this guy, he's important. But that's a videogame mentality we've been trained to believe. We want our moral choices to be realistic...we've allowed ourselves to disconnect mentally and emotionally from that action, and we wanted players to be thinking about that now."

On leaving players with an ending that lingers

"I've been asked in a lot of interviews 'what's the one thing you want people to know about Spec Ops?'. My answer has been always - truthfully - this is not the game you think it is. This is going very deeply into the psyche not only the character you're playing, but its also asking you to look at your actions and your feelings about the game and ask yourself: 'why do I feel this way? Why did I act this way?'"