Just before we dive into the first playthrough of Spec Ops: The Line, make sure you set the difficulty to 'Suicide Mission'. Even though the difficulty achievements are stackable, any playthrough completed on an easier difficulty than Suicide will not unlock the FUBAR difficulty! I’d also like to add that I did find the campaign for Spec Ops: The Line pretty damn impressive! I will try my best not to reveal any spoilers, that is until you would’ve clearly passed certain points in the campaign where I may need to be specific about a certain part and/or situation.

All set? Let’s roll!

Playthrough One:

In this playthrough, the goal will be to unlock as many cumulative achievements as possible, complete the campaign on Suicide Mission difficulty and prepare for the FUBAR playthrough with as little amount of achievements left to unlock as possible. Be sure to use the variety of weapons on offer and try to make a higher priority of using the weapons that don’t appear too much. Heavy Weapons don’t appear until you bump into the heavy soldiers. Each related weapon achievement comes with its own handy in-game achievement counter. Keep an eye on this and you should have all of the weapon achievements unlocked long before you finish your second playthrough. Here are the achievements you will slowly but surely be working on towards your completion:

There are a few other cumulative achievements too, but these require a bit more concentration. Take note of these achievement requirements, and work on them whenever you can. I will go into more detail on each achievement throughout the walkthrough, as some locations and chapters in the campaign can be better than others to work on these specific achievements.

Chapter One - The Evacuation

The campaign dives straight into a helicopter chase scene in which you need to eliminate enemy choppers with the aid of your chain gun on the side of the helicopter. No achievements are tied into this part and it would take a ridiculously bad player to actually die. Once the story goes back to the 'earlier' events, you'll arrive in Dubai assuming the role of Walker alongside his Delta Squad buddies, Adams and Lugo. Before you rappel down a rope onto a deserted main road, be aware that there is a possibility to miss an easy achievement here. From the high road, look down and to the right side of the lower road. You will see some deer looking animals called Oryx's. Killing one of these will net you an easy 20g!

Here's a video to give you a visual prior to killing an Oryx:

Progressing through the chapter, you will find the distress beacon that Delta have been sent for to Dubai to investigate. Before or after the cut scene kicks in where the refugees are suddenly not dead anymore, your first piece of Intel is available in this area. Look at the vehicle Adams points out to you with the blood all over the door and then look to the left. You will see a notice board with the collectible glowing and attached to the board. Retrieving this piece of Intel (1/23) will award you with another achievement:

During the incoming battle with more refugees, a great opportunity becomes available to unlock the achievement for killing 5 enemies whilst blind-firing. There's plenty of cover to use whilst blind-firing and a decent number of enemies to shoot at. Here's how I managed to pull this achievement off and get it out of the way rather quickly:

Pressing forward, you’ll soon come to a battle with enemy soldiers taking place to the side of a crashed plane. After you defeat the soldiers and make your way to the back entrance of the plane, you’ll see your second piece of Intel (2/23) in this chapter on the floor directly across from the ramp into the plane. Make sure you pick this up and then make your way inside the plane. Defeat the soldiers in here and be sure to eliminate the remaining soldiers in the last room before they eliminate someone you need to save. After the following cut scene finishes for this part, you will have officially finished Chapter One.

Here’s a video for the two Intel locations in this chapter:

Around the halfway mark through Chapter One, you will have also unlocked an unmissable achievement after discovering that “they live”:

Chapter Two – The Dune

Shortly after starting this chapter, there will be a piece of Intel (3/23) to collect right before you spot a couple of enemies. Adams and Lugo will stop at the edge of the path. Before you jump down this platform, look towards the end of this path and you will see the first piece of Intel.

Progressing forward, you will come across your first batch of grenades! Time to put these beauties to use as you work towards unlocking the marksman – grenade achievement:

During this battle through the building, you’ll come across a pretty decent amount of enemies. This presents a few opportunities to kill three enemies at once with a single grenade. Executing a successful triple kill with a single frag will unlock this achievement:

During my playthrough where I was making sure my info was solid for this walkthrough, I managed to bag myself the “Army of One” achievement and it was really easy to pull off. Check this video out which showcases the exact location of where I got the achievement:

Don’t worry about it if you don’t manage to unlock it at this point, as there are plenty of opportunities that will pop up for a chance to unlock the achievement. Once you’ve cleared this area, including the downstairs section as well, the chapter's second piece of Intel (4/23) will be located in front of what looks to be a main desk. Basically, you’ll come down the curved stair-set and then look to your right and see the desk. In front of the desk (on the side Walker will be on) is the small Intel on the ground, just slightly to the left of the desk. More info and visuals are provided in this handy Intel locations video for this chapter:

Progress through the rest of this chapter, squaring off against another couple of sets of enemies until you reach the final part. Walker and his squad will be pinned down with pretty much no cover at all. Even with Suicide Mission difficulty not being the hardest, the amount of fire being laid down on you is heavy and just popping your head out of cover for a couple of seconds can result in a fast death. Keep it cool, chuck a couple of frags and just patiently wait for the sandstorm to come in. Once the slight surprise takes place, you’ll have finished chapter two and unlocked this campaign related achievement:

Chapter Three - Underneath

After discovering that you and your squad are trapped in this small area, you’ll be ambushed by a heavy number of enemies pouring in from the roof of the building. This will be a good taste of how ridiculously accurate the enemy AI can be when it comes to throwing grenades. As you take cover and return fire to the enemy, you’ll want to quickly capitalize on any opportunity you get to bag yourself this achievement:

I managed to nail this achievement on two separate profiles both within the same area. You get a couple of seconds to shoot the enemy before he throws a grenade but more than likely, this achievement will unlock by chance as you annihilate the enemies anyway. Again this isn’t an achievement to worry about too much, but just so you can see EXACTLY what I’m talking about, I’ve got another quick video to share:

After making your way out of this room and down a ledge, a cut scene will kick in. After the cut scene, don’t leave this room without picking up the Intel (5/23) which is very easy to spot on the floor to your left, as you jumped down off the ledge. This is the ONLY Intel in this chapter. Here’s a quick video to show you the location:

Push forward through a lobby and you’ll eventually do battle outside in the storm. Once out of the storm, Walker and his squad rappel down underground to begin Chapter Four.

Chapter Four – The Refugees

Once the chapter begins, there will be the first piece of Intel (6/23) to collect as you progress down the passageway to your right. As you turn the corner, you’ll see a kind of decorated American skeleton on the wall slightly in the distance. Once you see that, look in the doorway to your right to find the Intel on the floor in front of the closed doors.

Carry on making your way through the level. You’ll come to a cut scene in which you can make a choice. Whatever you decide to do with the soldier, an unmissable achievement will unlock before you rappel down the rope:

After rappelling down the rope, pick up the chapter’s second piece of Intel (7/23) which is located on the desk opposite the huge whiteboard. Check out the video to help locate both Intel items:

There’s no missable achievements in the rest of this chapter now, so make your way through the level chipping away at your weapon kills. Once you start progressing through the mall, you’ll make your way down the first set of stairs and you will be under fire from a soldier with a Grenade Launcher. Kill him and take his weapon, use it and bag yourself some Heavy Weapon kills too! Also pay attention to the explosive crates that are pretty easy to spot on your way through the chapter. The first turret you come head to head with has an explosive crate situated right next to it. Make sure you time your shots well to kill the maximum amount of enemies so you can make progress towards the “adapt and overcome” achievement. Once you reach the turret you can take over after Lugo and Adams leave you to flank the once occupied turret, there will be plenty more explosive crates on offer here to for you to take full advantage of. Once you’ve shot the window enough to let the sand come flowing in, you will unlock this unmissable achievement:

Chapter Five – The Edge

Push forward through chapter five and after you come down a zip line, you’ll see a couple of soldiers talking down a flight of stairs. Take these guys out and move on further down the stairs until you hear a couple more soldiers talking in a large room. During this upcoming battle I managed to bag myself an achievement after seeing the opportunity to pull off four quick kills with a Shotgun that you can pick up from one of the first two soldiers you saw earlier. Here’s a quick video on how I put this idea together:

Once you eventually move downstairs in this section, you’ll come across plenty more enemies to fight against. After you’ve dealt with these guys, crossover the little wooden bridge and quickly take a look in the room to your left to find the chapter’s first piece of Intel (8/23).

Rappel down the ropes with your squad. Take out the enemies with the Sniper Rifle you can find with or without the assistance of Lugo. Move across the bridge to the other side and take out even more enemies. Eventually you’ll come to a sand filled area in which the sand itself falls through and you’re forced to take an alternate route through the building instead of over it. An opportunity arises here to take out the close combat specialist. Two of these appear during this section, and simply staying in cover and firing at the CQ guy when he gets close enough should be easy enough to do for the achievement:

Once this area is clear, you are all done with the battling for this chapter and just need to pick up the last piece of Intel (9/23) and finish the mission. Once you use another zip line and cross over a very curvy metal bridge, enter the building and locate the stairs to the upper floor of the building. Turn right at the top of the stairs and have a quick look inside the room for the last piece of Intel. Go back downstairs and follow the path to the exit and get ready for Chapter Six!

Here’s a video for the Intel Locations in Chapter Five:

Chapter Six – The Pit

After clearing out the initial group of enemies once the chapter kicks in, move across the bridge and take down a few more enemies. You’ll find a crate of grenades, these being the first set of sticky grenades you’ll come across. Right around the corner, there will be your potential first victim who will help you unlock the related achievement so long as you throw, stick, and kill him!

Progressing forward down into an underground kind of sewer/tunnel, you’ll come across a heavy number of corpses and also this chapters only piece of Intel (10/23) situated against a wall. To the right of the corpses in the chairs is a table with the Intel placed on it. Here's the video for this specific piece of intel:

Once you've picked the Intel up, progress through the rest of the tunnel and go up a flight of stairs. As this short cut scene kicks in, you will unlock an unmissable achievement related to the main storyline of the game:

After the cut scene finishes, you’ll continue fighting your way to the end of the chapter. There are no other easy achievements to unlock during the rest of this chapter, but it is worth mentioning that on this was the second time I managed to unlock the “battle management” achievement:

With this achievement unlocked, and the difficulty only being on ‘Suicide Mission’, it’s time to try and lower the amount of orders you dish out for your squad and take the kills for yourself. Work your way through the rest of the area, escape from the unexpected guest near the end of the chapter, and get ready for chapter seven.

Chapter Seven – The Battle

There’s not a whole lot of battling to do during this chapter as you have a tough choice to make once you near the end. Progress through the chapter and eventually you will jump down a ledge and straight into a battle amongst abandoned vehicles against enemy soldiers. Kill the enemies, clear the enemies in the bus and wipe out the enemies in the next section too. Just before you leave this area, there will be a piece of Intel (11/23) to pick up which is located on the STOP sign next to a pretty decent size City Gate sign. Pick up this Intel and move on to the next section.

After the palm trees set ablaze, you’ll be confronted with three enemies. Take these guys out, and moving forward you will see a huge building you will have to go through. Before entering this building, look to the left of the door to see the Intel (12/23) located on the floor. Once you pick it up, you will receive an achievement for recovering 12 pieces of Intel. Here’s the video for the two Intel Locations for this chapter:

For the final part of this chapter, a decision has to be made in which each decision unlocks its own achievement. Seeing as the game requires two playthroughs for the full 1000g, don’t worry about missing one of the achievements for now, as you can pick it back up during the second playthrough. It’s ultimately up to you in terms of what decision you want to make. But it is definitely worth noting that choosing to roll with Lugo’s idea over Adams, is probably the best way forward seeing as the difficulty is only on ‘Suicide Mission’. Whatever you choose to do, afterwards, you will unlock one of these two achievements:

After this section is over, the cut scene will kick in and Chapter Eight will commence.

Chapter Eight – The Gate

The story itself here really starts to get messed up! There’s no Intel included in this chapter, so there’s no need to worry about that. Just push forward, enjoy the story, fight your way into the huge building and the chapter is over before you know it. No spoiler here and there’s no other achievements to unlock during this section, besides potential cumulative ones if you’re close to any.

Chapter Nine – The Road

As soon as the cut scenes have finished, you’ll be facing your exit out of this building. Before you rappel down the rope, turn around and go back to the other side of the room. The Intel (13/23) is the American flag hanging on the wall to the right of the door you came through. This is the only Intel you need to find during this Chapter, so pick it up and get going!

Shortly after rappelling down the rope, you’ll be faced with another decision. Another two achievements are available here, but again don’t worry about unlocking both of them right now. Without spoiling the story for you, I’d recommend taking the decision which would be harder to handle on the higher difficulty. So basically during this playthrough, I’d disobey! Whatever you decide to do, one of the two achievements will pop straight after:

Push forward through the rest of the chapter which is actually quite short, but slow as you’ll have to make your way through a heavy sandstorm whilst fighting against more enemy soldiers. Once you eventually reach a few parked trucks at a slight left turn, the chapter will end and the cut scene will kick in.

Chapter Ten – Riggs

Once the chapter begins, make your way along the path whilst Adams talks to you. You’ll come to a barrier/obstacle you need to vault over. Before you jump over this, look to the right of this obstacle to see the chapter’s first piece of Intel (14/23) you need to pick up.

Help Riggs out against the ambush and then move inside. After talking with Riggs, everyone will be stunned by a flashbang and you won’t be able to move. Once you regain control of Walker, look slightly to your right to find the chapter’s final piece of Intel (15/23). Here’s the video showcasing both Intel locations for the chapter:

Press forward and take out the soldiers in the small courtyard whilst Riggs handles himself up high on the roof of one of the buildings. Clear the area and meet Riggs in the kitchen. Move forward and kill more enemies until you get to a section where Riggs needs to open a door from the opposite side of it. Within this room, I managed to bag three achievements during the two part battle:

The “small arms” achievement isn’t worth going into detail about as those kinds of cumulative achievements will unlock at different times for players, dependant on when they use the different weapons. It was coincidental that the “applied force” achievement popped right after getting in the enemy soldier’s face, but as you will be able to see in this video, the opportunity was seen and taken!

When it comes to meleeing enemies, don’t forcefully go for the punch. You only need ten melees to unlock the achievement so it’s not really worth dying over. Stick to meleeing enemies when the right time arises. The same can also be said for the vault kick. It is kind of surprising in a way that on both playthroughs of the game, I only managed to unlock this achievement quite late on in the game, but again there’s no real rush for it and you only need to pull the move off once.

After you’ve cleared the room and Riggs opens the door, a tough battle in a car park waits ahead. The roof of this area is filled with a whole lot of sand, so if you haven’t stunned an enemy by dropping sand on their head, this is an easy opportunity to unlock this achievement:

All I did there was shoot above the turret emplacement and the achievement unlocked, easy!

Once you make it into the Aqua Centre, there will be a few soldiers you can stealth kill before the full on battling commences. Make your way through this section of the chapter sticking to cover and keeping an eye out for the Edged Weapon Experts who make their presence felt again during this section. If you didn’t manage to nail one of these guys for the related achievement previously, you can have another shot at it here.

The fighting does go on for a while but without revealing too much of the storyline, you’ll basically be making a swift exit out of the centre with Riggs. At this point this is where Chapter 10 – Part 2 begins, in which there is no Intel to worry about. A cumulative achievement I’ve yet to mention is this one:

This achievement pretty much unlocks as you naturally play through the game, as it is something you will be doing anyway almost every time a battle kicks off. It was in this chapter that this achievement unlocked for me.

Chapter Ten Part Two – Stealing Water

After doing what you did, this whole part of chapter ten is ‘on rails’ with the only weapon you can use being a grenade launcher. This section is not too long and the GL is pretty generous with its blast radius. After scoring some easy kills towards your “Marksman – Heavy Arms” achievement, get ready for chapter eleven, as you are faced with the next achievement unlocking decision.

Chapter Eleven - Alone

To kick off Chapter Eleven, a certain individual is in an eventual life ending position. You have a Revolver with one bullet it, so make your decision and move along. If you choose to save the bullet, you can use it to shoot the Oryx that appears shortly after progressing forward if you didn’t already nail that achievement during the first chapter:

Once you locate your squad who are in a spot of bother, save them and then capitalize on the opportunity to vault kick the enemy right in front of you behind the cover if you still need the related achievement.

There’s no Intel included in this chapter so just press forward and make your way through the mall keeping your squad covered as they try to regroup with you. Once you reach the end and the squad are back together, you’ll be awarded with this unmissable storyline related achievement:

Chapter Twelve – The Rooftops

Once you come in contact with the enemy in this chapter, you can take the stealth approach if you want to. Once you finish the battle that kicks off in the large room of the building you’re infiltrating, you’ll become pinned down by Snipers. Take these guys out yourself or get Lugo to sort them out for you. Eventually you’ll use a zip line in which an enemy will be in your path once you reach the other side. After Walker does what he does here, you’ll see a set of stairs you need to go up that wind round to the right. Before heading up these stairs, the chapter’s first piece of Intel (16/23) will be waiting for you to pick it up to the right of the stairs.

More sniping by yourself and/or Lugo needs to be done before you can use the zip line and enter the Radioman’s tower. Clear the enemies off the dance floor, make your way to the other side and enter the tower. Once you get in the tower and what looks to be the Radioman’s apartment, the final piece of Intel (17/23) in this chapter will be located in a small room up the first flight of stairs. Here’s the video for this chapters Intel locations:

After you finally get the pleasure of meeting the Radioman in person, it’s time for Delta to make their escape from the tower. As you make your way outside to get to the chopper, Lugo stays behind to provide covering fire. Use him here if you’re struggling as he is comes with very efficient sniping and fires much quicker than he normally would. Once you make it to the chopper, simply bring hell from the sky on all soldiers and all the equipment around and in the tower. After this section of the chapter, you will come across a similar scene of action which you will have already been through before. Once you make it through this section and finish the chapter, you will unlock another storyline related unmissable achievement:

Chapter Thirteen – Adams

Walker is riding solo again and you will need to save Adams who is down, but not out. He CAN NOT die after you initially save him. Once you’ve saved him from bleeding out, he’s practically invincible but pretty useless at the same time. Focus solely on keeping yourself alive.

After this section you will move forward and go through a boat. If Adams gets to the next checkpoint before you, you will see he’s waiting at the peak of a small sand hill. Before regrouping with him and moving on, there will be an Intel (18/23) item to collect to the left of the kind of doorway you came out of.

Moving forward there will be nothing but constant battling and a few easy opportunities to nail enemies by blowing up explosive objects. Eventually, you will come to a very moving cut scene in the game in which afterwards, you need to make a choice. Whatever you decide to do, one of these two achievements will unlock:

If you choose the peaceful way of dealing with the situation, make sure you don’t kill anyone for the rest of the chapter. It’s only a very short trip to the end from here and there’s also another piece of Intel (19/23) to collect too. As you make your way through the tents and what not, you’ll come out into a more open space where you will see a set of candles on a table/stand to your left. The Intel is located next to the candles. Here’s the video showing both Intel locations:

After collecting the last piece of Intel, exit through the marked gate and get ready for Chapter Fourteen.

Chapter Fourteen – The Bridge

Chapter Fourteen is the final mission for getting kills as Chapter Fifteen is mainly just the finish to the story. Press forward where you will be greeted by plenty of enemies who have lots of cover to help them. There will be a Sniper up high and sometimes an enemy on a Turret too. Take your time, hug your cover and use Adams as much as possible if you need to. Once you reach the first room you come to, which is full of green lighting, go up the stairs, and look to your right see a large piece of Intel (20/23) placed on a chair.

Make your way forward and outside to take on another heavy wave of enemies. Navigate your way into the turret nest on the right side of the road by first crossing over the road behind the sandbags, moving forward, and then back across the street to be situated right in front of the nest. Clear the enemies out of it and then take down the next wave of enemies before heading towards the marked door of the building. Once you kill the heavy soldier, move inside the building where even more enemies await you. Once clear again, the last piece of Intel (21/23) for this chapter will be located on the wall to the left of the room’s exit where a ton of Dog Tags will be hung up. Here’s the video for the Intel Locations:

You’ll face one last battle before this chapter ends. During this last part, Adams seems to be in a serious rage mode and either he receives a ton of extra health or he’s pretty much invincible. With my experience of this chapter, Adams never once went down during this part despite being aggressive as hell and literally getting in the enemies faces! After this battle, the chapter is over.

Chapter Fifteen – Welcome

In this chapter, there will be two pieces of Intel (22 & 23/23) to pick up. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone here and the videos DO NOT reveal anything related to the ending either. Getting straight to the point, here’s the Intel video and the achievement you will unlock:

Towards the end of this chapter, another decision needs to be made. Keeping it spoiler free, the only difference in the outcome of your decision is that the game will either end or there will be a kind of outro to the game.

Should you decide to check out the ‘outro’, there will be yet another choice to make. Decide what you want to do first, enjoy the moment, then we can discuss the leftovers in the next page of the walkthrough. Upon completion of the chapter and the campaign all together, the difficulty achievements will stack and unlock one after the other. You will also receive the achievements for your particular decisions too:

Congratulations on your completion of the campaign on ‘Suicide Mission’ difficulty’. Next up will be the ‘FUBAR’ difficulty in which you will be able to focus mainly on just making it through each chapter and picking up any of the loose achievements you’ve yet to unlock from this playthrough.

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