I first played it when it was a free PS+ game years ago thinking it looked like a fun, if not generic, Modern Warfare clone. Which it is, until it isn't. I haven't played a military shooter since.
There's another game which came out roughly at the same time and tried to tackle similar themes - Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, but with less in your face commentary. It was loathed both by critics and players for it's aesthetics and frustrating gameplay, but I've always loved it for what it attempted to do (and imo, did it better than Spec Ops).
I wonder how both would be received if they were released today.
I think it’s this, combined with the fact that the funniest and most forceful video game reviewer of the time (Yahtzee) was super polarized on both those games. I’m not gonna necessarily accuse GP of this, but I do feel like I often see people seem to regurgitate Yahtzee’s opinions without having anything deeper to say than what he said in his video.