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The Line is primarily a third-person shooter with emphasis on squad-based tactics. The player controls Captain Martin Walker who is accompanied by a Delta Force team to rescue a U.S. Army Colonel who remained behind in Dubai. To accomplish this goal, players must traverse the city to neutralize enemy threats and natural disasters to find and recover the lost Colonel, named John Konrad. As the player progresses, better weapons and equipment will become available to accomplish goals easier. Squad commands will also be available, allowing the player to direct their teammates to perform certain actions or move to certain areas.[1][2]

The game focuses on the natural sandstorms of Dubai to provide dynamic terrain changing during gameplay, similar to Fracture and the Red Faction series. This is supported by an unpredictable engine that randomizes when and where sandstorms will arise, as well as how harsh they will be. Sandstorms may open or close paths to the players as well as turn advantages in a firefight.[1][2]

The game will follow the story of player character Captain Martin Walker as he is sent into a post-apocalyptic Dubai with an elite Delta Force team. Previously, Dubai was a wealthy area with many high profile citizens until catastrophic sandstorms left a majority of the city buried. This caused many to evacuate, leaving only a few behind. One of the people left behind was U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad, a founding member of Delta Force, who refused to evacuate from a training facility in the city and instead remained behind with the men under his command to help protect the citizens that could not evacuate. After several weeks of no contact, the Army fears that Col. Konrad and his men are lost to the destruction of the city until a weak distress signal is picked up. This gives the Army reason to deploy the player and their squad, who must infiltrate the city, neutralize outlaws and survive sandstorms as they attempt to determine what happened to Konrad and his men.

In addition, it will be one of the first true anti-war games ever released.

Why should games be stuck in the "little kiddie" realm? This medium deserves to be good for both adults and children. By saying that games are fine the way they are right now, one is saying that it's okay for them to limit their ideas and never push for more creative freedom.

But you don't think that many people would be turned off if a game provided some very horrifying results from killing someone, or would you? MW2 really wasn't that special with its story at all. Only one level was shocking. It didn't move the game into a darker state after that. That's exactly what happened with Saving Private Ryan. The beginning of the movie is very graphic, but the rest of the movie isn't all that impressive.

You will need to choose between obeying your orders, or disobeying them to do what's right. In other words, it is aiming for a shades of gray morality, rather than a black and white one.

It's all about "schadenfreude." Same reason why people can be a complete ass on the internet, troll people and even cause harm to them without even thinking about it, but in real life, they'd think twice about doing so. You'd be surprised how just the simple fact that someone is behind a computer (or console) or thinks "it's just a game" can change the way people act.

This is true.

Imagine you are playing, say, Morrowind. Does anyone play Morrowind and not murder or steal? No, because you can get away with it. And even if you couldn't, if your character is locked up or what have you, he is only a character on the screen. Video games imply an inherent abstraction from reality, no matter how realistic (or indeed, how stylized) the game is or the results are. In order for it to have an impact, results have to be irreversible, which is not viable for a big budget title -- and even then, it's still only a character who doesn't exist.

It's not been very common for people to connect with their persona in the game, and generally people blame it on writing, but I think that frankly it is because games are not capable of this sort of artistry.

(This is not to say they are incapable of all artistry, just this type)

Does this make sense?

Well, usually it's young people who are ignorant and don't follow reality closely in the media. I'm sure that many adults out there are more interested in meaningful works than anything else. With that said, I think that adults would actually be the ones to care more for their actions within a game than a child would. If more games were based on real stories or events that happened, I'm pretty sure that people would give a damn as to what happens to their characters. Even games like the one that was based on the Columbine Massacre, despite their controversies, are a good step forward. People just have to learn to respect this medium better and treat it like every other medium.

You said that people usually won't treat their actions in games as in reality because they're just playing as avatars, so it's surprising how people blame games on terrible events. But I'm positively sure that non-fiction content could have people think more about what they decide to do in games.

I really get irritated whenever people say that games just can't be at the same stage as literature and cinema. This perception has been held by many people partly because too few games have been controversial enough to focus on real events. Mainstream games are probably going to be the last ones to break through this mold. Too much criticism from the press will only halt the production of a game like this. So, I believe that hope lies in indie games for challenging this industry to be less censored.

I really get irritated whenever people say that games just can't be at the same stage as literature and cinema. This perception has been held by many people partly because too few games have been controversial enough to focus on real events. Mainstream games are probably going to be the last ones to break through this mold. Too much criticism from the press will only halt the production of a game like this. So, I believe that hope lies in indie games for challenging this industry to be less censored.

Morality systems don't work because they aren't really morality systems... it's more like a Naught or Nice system. The real moral conflicts come from antinomy, when two things clash and are not strictly 'evil' or 'good'... a choice between one important man or an entire backwater town, for instance. That's a moral choice. But a choice between killing someone or saving someone... that's not.

You could nuke an entire town in Fallout 3. Most people didn't even think twice about doing so. I remember thousands of posts on various video game boards of people doing it, gleefully even.

Why? I don't know. Go figure.

I don't know why I keep coming to these forums, even though I don't enjoy it very much. It's only become one of the things that has been keeping me more and more isolated from society. And reading all kinds of journalism about video games has only made me feel pessimistic. I don't care anymore about what happens with this industry. It's too much for me to go on like this. There is still some meaningfulness in games. Not all games may have something smart to say, but the same goes for music, movies, TV shows, etc. Also, ever since I've been this way, I haven't been playing games as often as I used to.

These endless debates are just as pointless as it is to talk about which console is the best one out there (I've grown out of it a long while ago). So, maybe this will be the last time that I hang around these forums, or not. But I now realize that constantly thinking about video games becoming more like the other mediums has only become an obsession for me. Life is far more valuable than escapism. Being too materialistic is the main thing that is dragging society down. And perhaps that's where a minimalist life would do a lot of good to heal those wounds.

http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/2009/08/living-minimalist-lifestyle-is-it.html
http://theminimalist.net/2009/05/14/income-distribution-vs-happiness/

"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." - Socrates

These endless debates are just as pointless as it is to talk about which console is the best one out there (I've grown out of it a long while ago). So, maybe this will be the last time that I hang around these forums, or not. But I now realize that constantly thinking about video games becoming more like the other mediums has only become an obsession for me.

You could nuke an entire town in Fallout 3. Most people didn't even think twice about doing so. I remember thousands of posts on various video game boards of people doing it, gleefully even.

Why? I don't know. Go figure.