https://x.com/stephentotilo/status/1752444899310342399
NEW: Spec Ops to be delisted entirely from online gaming stores (not just Steam)
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) January 30, 2024
A 2K rep tells me: "Spec Ops: The Line will no longer be available on online storefronts, as several partnership licenses related to the game are expiring." 1/2
If you have not played Hard-working American Ops The Line, please pirate and play it if you can since it has now effectively become abandonware, or if not, then just watch some videos about it, it actually is an anti-war masterpiece, the vidya equivalent of this: 
To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless''
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spec_Ops:_The_Line
https://kotaku.com/spec-ops-the-line-steam-delisted-removed-2k-licenses-1851209947
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Ah yes, the game where the moral of the story was "There's always a choice," while setting up its plot to give you literally no morally relevant choice.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The choice to stop playing is undermined by the fact that you paid money for the game. Same issue with Undertale's genocide route having the most entertaining boss fights.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The funny thing is I actually tried to backtrack multiple times in the game, before I heard its pretentious "idea". And it was never possible.
Nothing would've stopped them from including a small segment at the very start (after 1st contact) to return to base as you were ordered. Get a "good job" screen with an achievement and tell the player "But what would happen if you weren't following this command?" and let the player play again.
I mean a Farcry game had a similar secret ending, so wouldn't be that unheard of.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
But that's nonsense anyway; if you view the game as a game, there's nothing wrong with doing the things it's trying to critique.
That idea was just post-hoc cope from the developers who had to change the game when test audiences didn't do the stuff they wanted them to, so they had to change the game to force them to do the bad stuff.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context
More options
Context