What accidental good fortune, that the actor behind one of gaming’s most well-known icons plays someone who tries to be a hero, but comprehensively fails.
Nolan North was a subversive casting choice-who better to portray a protagonist who kills as many people as a typical videogame hero, but exists in a context where those actions finally have consequences? This meta commentary was not deliberate: North worked on the game for four years, right from the pre-production stage, which may explain why Walker’s increasingly weathered rage and gradual disassociation with reality is so convincingly played. It was the noisy release of the PlayStation’s Uncharted 4 that got me thinking about Spec Ops again. No wonder this game seems to have generated more think pieces than copies sold. Stopping them is not your job, but Walker and his gung-ho pals decide it is, for the greater good. It’s soon apparent that the 33rd’s methods aren’t sound, and that at the very least they’re torturing CIA agents and firing on other soldiers. But under your control and against orders, Walker engages with the conflict-playing what he thinks is the role of the hero, despite never being fully aware of the facts. That’s all the mission is supposed to be: reconnaissance. Walker starts that game as an action hero too, sent into sandstorm-ravaged Dubai to find out what’s happened to former brother-in-arms John Konrad and his battalion, the Damned 33rd.
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