Spec Ops: The Line is an upcoming third-person shooter video game being developed by Yager Development and published by 2K Games. The game is the ninth installment in the long-running Spec Ops series and it set to release sometime in 2012. The game will release on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. It was officially announced at Spike Video Game Awards on December 12, 2009. The game is inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness.

The Line is primarily a third-person shooter with emphasis on squad-based tactics. The player controls Captain Martin Walker who is accompanied by a Delta Force bravo team to rescue a U.S. Army Colonel who remained behind in Dubai. To accomplish this goal, players must traverse the city to neutralize enemy threats and natural disasters to find and recover the lost Colonel, named John Konrad. As the player progresses, better weapons and equipment will become available to accomplish goals more easily. Squad commands will also be available, allowing the player to direct their teammates to perform certain actions or move to certain areas.
The game focuses on the natural sandstorms of Dubai to provide dynamic terrain changing during gameplay, similar to Fracture and the Red Faction series. This is supported by an unpredictable engine that randomizes when and where sandstorms will arise, as well as how harsh they will be. Sandstorms may open or close paths to the players as well as turn advantages in a firefight.
A multi-player mode will be included as well, though the extent of this has yet to be revealed. Yager describes the multiplayer as a campaign that expands the single-player experience. In addition, there will multiple mode types with at least a few focusing on terrain deformation and expansion.

Although in the Spec Ops series, The Line does not take any story elements from previous games, but rather introduces its own storyline. The game will follow the story of player character Captain Martin Walker (Voiced by Nolan North) as he is sent into a post-apocalyptic Dubai with an elite Delta Force bravo team. Previously, Dubai was a wealthy area with many high profile citizens until catastrophic sandstorms left a majority of the city buried. This caused many to evacuate, leaving only a few behind. One of the people left behind was U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad (a reference to the author of Heart of Darkness; Joseph Conrad), a founding member of Delta Force, who refused to evacuate from a training facility in the city and instead remained behind with the men under his command to help protect the citizens that could not evacuate. After several weeks of no contact, the Army fears that Col. Konrad and his men are lost to the destruction of the city until a weak distress signal is picked up. This gives the Army reason to deploy the player and their squad, who must infiltrate the city, neutralize outlaws and survive sandstorms as they attempt to determine what happened to Konrad and his men. Through the narrative in the trailer and sound clips from the game's website it is hinted that Konrad may not have entirely genuine motivations for remaining in Dubai against orders.