New Spec Ops: The Line Goes to Dubai

2K has been rumored for a few weeks to be working on a new title in the old Spec Ops franchise and the Spike Video Games Awards offered it the perfect opportunity to show off the first trailer for the game, which is apparently casting the player in the role of United States Special Forces operatives sent to battle terrorist enemies in the scorching heat of Dubai.

Spec Ops: The Line is set to arrive on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the good old PC, and development duties will be handled by Yager, a German studio that has also worked on F.E.A.R and on Splinter Cell. The new title should come at some point in the fall of 2010, which is already looking a bit crowded with videogames.

Dubai will be the setting for Spec Ops and the city seems to have been hit by a catastrophe that has damaged most of the buildings and leveled the city center. The combat system of Spec Ops will be heavily centered on cover, somewhat similar to how Gears of War 2 did it, but most of the playing space might be pretty vertical and threats from below and above might need to be taken into account by players when progressing through the levels.

The trailer shown by 2K hints at a story that might resemble a bit the plot of Apocalypse Now. A shadowy figure, which bears some resemblance to that of Colonel Kurtz, seems to be talking about how war changes men and how the choices they make can be viewed as good or bad depending on the side you are on.

The official site also says that Spec Ops: The Line “Challenges players' morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices affecting human lives must be made.”