Spec Ops: The Line Walkthrough: The Evacuation Part 1

As soon as you start a game of Spec Ops: The Line, you will find yourself deep in the action. You will be manning a gun in a helicopter as you attempt to flee from the ruined city of Dubai, which in The Line's world was recently flooded and destroyed by a giant sandstorm. This section is so simple it hardly warrants a guide, so we';ll just cover it briefly before delving into the real meat of the game beginning with Episode 1: The Evacuation. During the prologue, use the left trigger to aim the chaingun and the right trigger to fire it. Your right side will be swarmed with enemy helicopters. Aim for the gunners in the sides of the helicopters to render the enemies toothless before sending them crashing down to the ground by filling them with holes. When you see an enemy helicopter crash headlong into a crane, you'll know that the section is almost over. Shoot down the remaining enemies and watch out as one of them crashes into your helicopter. After a cutscene, you will find yourself at the beginning of Episode 1.

The Evacuation begins with you, Captain Walker, and your two squad-mates, Lt. Adams and Sergeant Lugo, walking through a sandstorm. Shortly after the storm dies down, the three of you will remove your visors and proceed across the final dune towards the city. An overturned American flag will greet your procession. Follow the tutorial to learn how to sprint, by hitting forward and tapping either the A or the X button. This is an important distinction to make between Spec Ops and other third-person shooters; in order to sprint, you only have to tap the button, but if you want to sprint and immediately take cover afterwards, you will have to hold the button. Follow the rest of the tutorial and you will find yourself at an overlook.

Jump over the sandbags to the right and rappel down the cliff face to the highway below. Weave your way through the car, following Lugo and Adams as they chatter about the mission. Pass by the bus and hit the B button or the O button to mount over the fallen pillar. Keep walking past the cars and curve to the left by the buried highway sign. Vault inside of the bus and exit through the door by hitting the A or the X button to drop down. Click in the left stick to crouch under the truck and proceed out into a clearing where a transmission will be playing from a loudspeaker made from spare parts. Examine the speaker with Lugo, and turn around to examine the jeep when Adams prompts you.

A body will fall out of the jeep, and a group of three soldiers will ambush you from an elevated position on a bus overhead. Walker will take cover automatically. Don't even bother waiting for the soldiers to finish their conversation. Although Lugo will attempt to talk them down in Farsi, the conversation will only end in gunfire. Get the jump on them by shooting out the windows of the bus and burying them in sand. Sprint over to the left and take cover by the crates. More enemies will be inside of the truck to the right. Shoot the two of them and  then look to the left to find etwo more enemies coming over the sand dune. Take them out and proceed in cover towards the bus, where an enemy will be stationed behind a turret. Wait for your squad to divert the turret's attention and then take the gunner out with a headshot before finishing off the remaining enemies in the bus.

Run to cover on the other side of the bus. A sniper on a billboard will pin you behind cover. Hit the right bumper to order Lugo to pop off a sniper shot, bringing the enemy sniper down along with the whole billboard. Another wave of enemies will emerge from near the red cargo container. Take cover behind the metal barriers in front of the cars and shoot the enemies as they emerge from the container. When the area is clear, run through the container and hit either B or O to melee the door open. The door will hit an enemy and he will fall to the ground. Hit the button again to execute the enemy as he writhes on the ground. Note that it is not necessary to always execute enemies as they lie on the ground. This function exists in the game only for the cruel of heart, or for those who need more ammo. Enemies won't drop their precious ammunition until they are completely dead, meaning that you will often have to scavenge the battlefield killing off the writhing enemies in order to restock your weapons. Keep this in mind as you get deeper into the game, where ammo will begin to get a bit scarce.

As Walker and his squad come out of the cargo container, an explosion will ring out up ahead. This will be promptly followed by a distress call from some surviving soldiers of the 33rd, the battalion that you and your squad were ordered to seek out. They are pinned down near a plane crash ahead and need your help badly. This will lead into the second section of the level, covered in the next guide.