Spec Ops: The Line demo arrives on Xbox 360, PS3 today

Written by Matt Swider on May 08, 2012

Spec Ops: The Line Demo News: The Spec Ops: The Line release date is almost two months away, but you can download the demo today on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can download a Spec Ops: The Line demo as of this morning, allowing you to try the game out almost two months before the game's January 26, 2012 release date. That's good because Spec Ops: The Line is the first Spec Ops game this generation and the first one that looks worth playing on day one. This third-person, squad-based shooter features a strong single-player campaign with a storyline that takes place in desert-set Dubai.

You'll play as Captain Martin Walker and be in search of Colonel John Konrad and his missing battalion. That's not the engrossing part of the story. Spec Ops: The Line's real draw is the story's Dubai environment, which introduces an evacuated city, threatening sandstorms, and tall buildings that brings new verticality to the Spec Ops series.

The Spec Ops: The Line demo consists of two chapters, allowing you to try out the squad-based mechanics of this behind-the-back shooter and begin the single-player battle in Dubai. Not in the demo is an equally strong-looking multiplayer mode, which is also of a squad-based nature. I haven't played this mode yet, but publisher 2K Games says that it's sand-filled fun and the environment can turn from advantageous to treacherous with the onset of sandstorms. Visibility, team communication and weapon handling are at risk.

The release date for Spec Ops: The Line is January 26 on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC here in North America; everywhere else has a release date three days later on January 29. That's a good amount of time to toy around with the single-player mode and enough time to hope and petition for a Spec Ops: The Line multiplayer demo before the game is released.

While you wait for the Spec Ops: The Line trailer to download on either your Xbox 360 or PS3, watch the YouTube video of the game's multiplayer experience, which isn't part of today's single-player demo.