"I'd like to see less violence games out there," Walt Williams, writer on last year's Spec Ops: The Line, told an audience at GDC last week. "Creatively, they're too easy. I think we're better than that."

Inspired by Heart of Darkness, Williams and the team at Yager Development attempted to tell a story of a man that slowly degenerates from hero to an "unhinged killer." And although Spec Ops was a rather standard cover-based third-person shooter, Williams says that embracing the genre allowed the team to create a more challenging narrative.

Read more: Making a game where 'moment-to-moment violence was meaningful' »

If you are one of the few that made it through the depressing litany of war crimes in the single-player campaign of Spec Ops: The Line, there's reason to go back into the game. The promised cooperative scenarios are now available.

Read more: Four objective-based scenarios »

While Yager's decision to take 2K's Spec Ops series into psychological territory was commendable, there's one feature that irked many gamers the wrong way: achievements. After making a crucial decision in the game, the gravity of your actions was immediately negated by the all-too familiar bleep-bloop. An achievement would pop up, essentially rewarding you for some of the atrocities you might have committed.

It's a decision that lead designer Jorg Friedrich wishes he could take back. Speaking at GDC Europe, he admitted: "I really regret that we had achievements on moral choices."

Read more: Team working on new 'large project' »

Sure, Spec Ops: The Line may look like your ordinary third-person cover-based shooter. But 2K Games wants you to think it's more than that. In fact, the latest trailer claims that the sand-based gameplay offered in The Line is a "gamechanger." While we've seen its dramatic effects in single-player, how will it work in multiplayer?

Watch: The Damned versus The Exiles »

Working in the games industry makes it easy to become cynical and jaded. Jager Development hands me the controller of their upcoming game, Spec Ops: The Line, and I can't help but think "oh great, another generic cover shooter."

"From the way you play, I see you've played these kinds of games before," the Yager producer notes. In my mind, I think: "who hasn't?" Ever since the introduction of Gears of War in 2006, this generation has been filled with copycat clones--some good, mostly awful.

I was ready to write off the game. Nay, that's what I was expecting. But after two hours of hands-on time on The Line, I walked away impressed, eager to play more.

Read more: Revels in moral gray »