[EMOTION]
Spec Ops is a game about emotion, one's feelings and how we interpret them. The game goes so far as to get under the player's skin by including not-so-subtle messages aimed directly at the player, breaking the fourth wall. Messages such as "Do you feel like a hero yet?" or "This is all your fault!" give the player a feeling of hopelessness as you try to be the hero and help the people of Dubai but end up failing and hurting a lot of people in the process. These little excerpts reinforce those feelings:
"Do you feel like a hero yet?" Is the final phrase used to sum up the entirety of the player's experience. In the process of emotions, something must first occur, like someone saying something. Second the person must interpret the meaning of the saying and finally form an emotion based on what he/she interpreted. This little, powerful line of dialog managed to make me feel like I was genuinely a horrible person. But although I felt bad, I would consider this a facilitative emotion because I felt the way the game wanted me to feel and I was able to properly examine the rhetoric. Causing me to reflect on how modern "realistic" shooters are removed from reality and how my pathetic self-esteem as a gamer requires my empowerment. If I'd have felt a debilitative emotion, I would linger on those upsetting feelings and completely ignore the message that the game was trying to convey.
Although the in-game character's each go through their own emotional turmoil and rumination, or lingering debilitative emotions, the game's way of "communicating" with the player draws more emotional emphasis and amplifies the action's significance on the gamer. This deconstructs the barriers of agency and makes the overall experience feel more involving. As if the game stopped having an agenda and let the player search for the answers on their own. That is something special, not just in an army shooter but in games in general.
Although the in-game character's each go through their own emotional turmoil and rumination, or lingering debilitative emotions, the game's way of "communicating" with the player draws more emotional emphasis and amplifies the action's significance on the gamer. This deconstructs the barriers of agency and makes the overall experience feel more involving. As if the game stopped having an agenda and let the player search for the answers on their own. That is something special, not just in an army shooter but in games in general.