ABSTRACT
Understanding the rhetoric of Spec Ops: The Line might begin with understanding the critical history of both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. Spec Ops: The Line appropriates Heart of Darkness through the vector of Apocalypse Now and in turn perhaps takes on several of the same rhetorical ambiguities that characterized and problematized each forbearer. As Said remarks: While ostensibly representing Dubai, Spec Ops: The Line principally treats it as an exotic locale in a way that reinforces a facile view of the Middle East. In the fall of 2013, I taught Spec Ops: The Line as part of an elective course on Visual Culture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. While most gaming journalists might comment on how the first half of Spec Ops: The Line is underwhelming until the events at The Gate and the change in tone, it is easy to forget the seductive nature of the power fantasy underlying contemporary shooters.
