You’ve finished Spec Ops: The Line. You’ve seen its harrowing tale through from start to finish and felt the moral conflict claw its way into your gut. So then, what now? Do you go back to other shooters – which are significantly lacking in both awareness of their own problematic place in the cultural landscape and heaping mountains of sand? At one point in time, I would’ve hung my head low and sent you on your way, but now you can play in Yager’s sandy cesspit of human filth for just a little bit longer. And you can bring friends!

Two-player co-op’s apparently the “perfect compliment” to Spec Ops’ single-player campaign, and 2K describes it as follows:

“The cooperative bonus content in Spec Ops: The Line features a series of objective-based cooperative multiplayer scenarios set in Dubai after a series of cataclysmic sandstorms have wrecked the city. It includes four fast-paced missions, each with its own unique objectives, environments and playable characters. The two players must work together to fight through waves of enemies and blinding sandstorms to complete their objectives, emphasizing teamwork and utilizing a variety of weapons and explosives.”

So it sounds fairly mindless, but there are far worse things in this world than another (free) trip into Spec Ops’ fantastic setting. That said, while Spec Ops’ handled decently enough on a moment-to-moment basis, its levels sometimes ended up frustrating due to less-than-great checkpoints and characters who – unlike many of their gung-ho shooter compatriots – weren’t especially capable of shrugging off lethal bullet wounds. Perhaps having a friend around will make some of those issues a bit more bearable?

Spec Ops’ co-op DLC is out now, so you can give it a go if you’re feeling so inclined. And if you haven’t played Spec Ops proper, I highly recommend it. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a game that actually tries to say something. Any developer daring enough to tackle these sorts of topics in this day and age deserves a gold star. Or, I suppose, money.