Alpha Protocol

[King of Creation]

So Alpha Protocol is starting to be released around the world. Anyone pick it up yet?

[entertainer]

why would you?

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I have it preorder but the reviews for it have made me skeptical. I could cancel my pre order but I know I'm eventually going to get the game and I already have a gift card applied to it so I will stick with it.


I will give DAC an official review.

[edhead]

This game is fucking amazing. Obsidian, I must say I'm impressed.

As is to be expected, the technical side is shit, but the story and most of the characters are very well written and the amount of C&C is simply astonishing (for a AAA game released in 2010). In fact, I haven't played a game with such humongous amounts of choices that actually matter. My flatmate is also playing the game, and his version (so far I missed (as in "will not be able to see and play") one major character and two missions he had plus different convos and encounters) is quite different from what I have experienced.

I must admit that my hopes for getting a Troika-style (all pros and cons included) in our day and age were all but lost; but shit, there you have it. I guess Obsidian deserves a wag of a finger for the glitches, but the story, the characters and C&C are definitely there, and for that I salute them. Too bad the reviews are shit and no sequels to this game will probably see the light of day. Fucking journos.

[POOPERSCOOPER]

See opinions like that give me some hope and I haven't seen such a bi polar response to a game in a long time. I'm really just curious now to see how it turned out.

[cazsim83]

what is C&C?

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Choices and Consequences.

[St. Toxic]

This game is fucking amazing. Obsidian, I must say I'm impressed.

I haven't tried it, but my instincts tell me this is bullshit.

[Retlaw83]

I've been hearing that the bugs are blown out of proportion.

[St. Toxic]

That is as may be. Some of the best games out there arrived as buggy heaps of shit. I'm more concerned with the actual game content and gameplay elements, though being majorly uninformed it's not much more than a gut feeling.

[TwinkieGorilla]

it's p. good.

[Manoil]

This game is fucking amazing. Obsidian, I must say I'm impressed.

I haven't tried it, but my instincts tell me this is bullshit.

Seconded. Unless you spot some specific details, all things I've seen thus far don't exactly excite me

[Blargh]

The gameplay itself is almost entirely bereft of polish. The A.I is, if I were charitable I'd call it basic. I'm not, it's erratic. From nigh omniscience to happily trudging across the bodies of their recently inhumed colleagues. The PC interface shows almost no adjustments from the console versions. Absence of mouse driven menus. Inability to bind individual skills/weapons/gadgets to numbers, just bloody radial menus. Lazy. Had to edit an .ini just to disable the wretched mouse smoothing. The minigames (hacking in particular) are an abomination. But that is hardly unique to Alpha Protocol. Probably mentioned that previously. Hail EMP grenades. The weapon modification system quickly descends into tactilol. Scope + red dot sight on the same rifle, back to pack, as part of one upgrade. Chamber mods affecting clip capacity. Needless pedantism ? Perhaps. The preclusion of back tracking by way of insurmountable 2 metre drops and doors you just stepped through. The check point based save system. Awful. Entire segments occasionally depopulated by reloading a check point. Especially aggravating if one of those vanished was a boss/scenario-ending-encounter. Rarely, falling through level geometry. Scenarios that are, taken as gameplay, linear as fuck.

As a game, it is not very good.

The narrative itself, however, is (mostly) well written and extremely ambitious. The ways in which the plot (and subplots), characters and their motives interact, the ways in which your comments and choices alter the course of events are varied and elaborate. For this, alone, I am glad that I have played it.

Also, flying knees to the face.

[King of Creation]

I'm going to the mall today, so hopefully they have copies of it at Virgin. You never know with this place though.

A lot of reviewers keep comparing it to Mass Effect 2 and that's one of the major reasons why it's not getting good scores. Also, they say its too buggy...but apparently bugginess is a factor overshadowed when the company spends millions on marketing (ie. Fallout 3).

[Blargh]

Minimise the aggravation, put it on the easiest difficulty (which won't (shouldn't ?) affect the plot, just the parts between it), and at least consider Sabotage as one of your specialities When The Time Comes. Or stock up on EMP bombs. Though that can be less than ideal if attempting an office drone ninja run.

I am hoping for :

A worthy sequel that dispenses with the bollocks and refines The Good Stuff.

And possibly for other developers to realise Nolan North is capable of so much more than UnNathan Drake the Arbitrary Number. Steven Heck is distilled woo.

[inomel]

So it's too much alpha, too little protocol? Wont get to play it for a few weeks. Starting to think this game was made to be played with New Vegas to encourage heartbreak

[cazsim83]

i'm just waiting for the goty edition so i don't have to buy all the DLC that's sure to be released like every other game out there

[St. Toxic]

So, I decided to try it out. I'm at the part where it gives me runtime errors at launch, and so far it's pretty gute.

[Taco-Hero]

Wasn't there a Metal Gear Solid game or something that made it look like your computer/console crashed but was just an illusion?

[Blargh]

runtime

Perhaps try their forums ? If you haven't already, that is. While there, you can also scrutinise and marvel at the prospect of Dungeon Siege III, from the source ! What fun.