Spec Ops: The Line's multiplayer is a "cancerous growth", says Yager staffer

Spec Ops: The Line suffers for its "tacked on" and "bullshit" multiplayer component, says lead designer Cory Davis.

Speaking to Polygon, Davis said Yager was never interested in adding multiplayer to Spec Ops: The Line, which has been highly praised for it single-player narrative.

"The publisher was determined to have it anyway. It was literally a check box that the financial predictions said we needed, and 2K was relentless in making sure that it happened - even at the detriment of the overall project and the perception of the game," he said.

Davis described the multiplayer component - developed externally by Darkside Studios - as a "low-quality Call of Duty clone in third-person", also calling it "tacked on multiplayer" and "bullshit, [which] should not exist".

"There's no doubt that it's an overall failure," he added.

"It sheds a negative light on all of the meaningful things we did in the single-player experience."

The designer argued that the multiplayer component ignores the core design pillars of the single-player, has a different tone, and subverts Yager's mechanics.

"And it was a waste of money. No one is playing it," he added.

"I don't even feel like it's part of the overall package - it's another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating."

Despite his disgruntlement with 2K's decision to bring multiplayer to the game, Davis has a lot of respect for the publisher.

"They took a hell of a lot of risk with the project that other publishers would not have had the balls to take," he said.

We've asked 2K for its thoughts on the matter.

Spec Ops: The Line is available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It holds a Metacritic average above 75 on all three platforms.