Spec Ops: The Line Spoiler Post! DO NOT READ THIS!

I was only planning on doing spoiler posts for games I give a perfect score to, like Closure, but I wanted to talk about a few things in this game with those who have played it. So maybe I'll do spoiler posts for games with really great stories, even if they aren't nearly perfect. And I don't know what I'll do if I give a game with no story a perfect score. Maybe a strategy post? Anyway....

SPOILER ALERT!! DO NOT READ THIS IF POST IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED SPEC OPS: THE LINE YET AS IT CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT A GAME YOU NEED TO GO INTO AS BLIND AS POSSIBLE FOR FULL ENJOYMENT! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK (COMMENTS SECTION WILL PROBABLY CONTAIN SPOILERS TOO)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So there are 7 endings by my count. I want to list them all as some are not as obvious as the others.

1. Shoot yourself (note that you shoot at the mirror, the reflection shoots himself. But then you see that the real you has died.)

2. Let Konrad shoot you (which is actually also you shooting yourself, and leads to the same ending as #1. Note that when Konrad fires, your reflection shoots himself, and you really die)

3. Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, lay down your weapon.

4.Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, do nothing until the solider takes your weapon (basically the same as 3, except you didn't act by pressing a button)

5. Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, attack them, and get killed by them (I believe this is the ending where it gives you a quote about crossing the titular “line”)

6. Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, attack them and kill them all (My personal favorite ending. After purposelessly slaying the soldiers sent to help him, Walker grabs one of their radios and announces, “Welcome to Dubai, gentlemen.” He's totally lost it, but you can also see that what he's doing is hurting him. Also note that in all of the extraction team scenes, Walker is wearing Konrad's uniform and has patched up a lot of his wounds. 

7. Quit the game before the ending because you don't want to do this anymore. I've heard that the developer (or someone else.... don't quote me) said that this is a legitimate way to end the game's story. In this case the loading screen with the skull and the skyscrapers that look like gravestones that takes you back to the main menu  is kind of your ending.

     Some of these are subtle variations where you see the ending unfold onscreen the same way but your actions are different. I love how interactive these endings are. Someone watching wouldn't see a difference between endings #3 and #4, but you as the player feel the difference. Great way to end a game. My first time through, I shot Konrad just as he counted to 5, then waited until the soldier took my weapon from me, ending # 4. My favorites are number 1, 5, and 6. 6 is my favorite, as I think it shows that walker has totally lost it and is killing just on momentum...kind of like you do in videogames. In this ending you attack and kill the soldiers just because you can, which is a very videogame thing to do.

I also want to list the references to videogames and videogame violence in the game that I saw. If you saw any others, let me know!

1. When you get in the helicopter and catch up to the prologue from the beginning of the game, Walker seems to notice, saying, “We've done this before!” or something to that effect.

2. There is a scene where you curse at the radioman and he replies something like, “Woh, this is a family show, rated E... for everyone's thirsty!”

3. When you clear out the roof of the radio tower before going inside, the radioman says something like, “What's causing so much violence? Is it the videogames? It's the videogames, isn't it.”

4. The loading screen that says, “Killing for yourself is murder. Killing for your country is heroic. Killing for entertainment is harmless.” 

These references are great!...at making you feel guilty for playing violent games. Definitely food for thought.

One more thing... there is one choice that you can make that is not pointed out to you by getting a trophy depending on your choice. In one of the early levels, when the guy is getting interrogated, but he takes the interrogator's gun and kills him, you then hold him up and yell at him to drop his weapon. You can either shoot him or let him go. There's no trophy, but you do get different dialogue depending on what you do. There may be other instances of this kind of thing, let me know if you know of any.

Also, here are the choices I made on my first playthough:

I saved the two civilians rather than the CIA agent. I shot the ropes of the two hanging men to save them, but they died in the firefight (or rather, they were already dead and just a hallucination, I guess). I mercy killed Riggs. I melee attacked a guy in the crowd that hangs Lugo, but didn't kill him. I shot Konrad. I let the soldier at the end take my weapon. Feel free to let me know the path you took your first time through, or your favorite path in the comments section or as a DM on twitter (@roboticattack).