Alpha Protocol

[HandsomeDead]

Allegedly, even a guy at Obsidian thinks this is wank, so how much does a punter like it?

Strangely, more than I thought.

I'll get the shit out of the way. The graphics are awful, they just look bad and the often clip and glitch, it's not pushing the machine so I don't know why it does it, what makes it look even worse is that the animation is bollocks, I haven't seen anything quite like it since playing budget PS2 titles. It also has a PS2 budget title "feel" to it, you know, all light weight and getting stuck on scenery. The enemy AI has been taking from those last gen stealth games, too. They jump from only noticing you if you're right in their faces or somehow seeing you through walls and alerting all their friends. The shooting feels like shit, even when you've ranked up your gun skills you rarely hit what you're shooting at, if you want to shoot where your crosshair is you have to wait a little for a secondary crosshair to indicate a critical hit. It's dice roll stuff but it just doesn't feel good in what sometimes seems like an action game, it slows the pace down when alarms are going off and bullets are flying.

That all sounds like a shit game, so why do quite like it, DC? Well it does have some cool things, too. The conversation system has been pretty good so far. You don't chose dialogue but you chose an attitude. It doesn't have a moral system, you deal with each character individually, each time you do or say something they may like or dislike you for it, the better the relationship the more helpful they are in missions, whether supplying you with info or actually helping in person. But since characters have different personalities keeping them all happy can be a problem, in something like Mass Effect I just tend to play it as myself but here I've often gone against my own morals to get certain information, or allied with a cock. I really like that side of things.

I also like the black market where information is just as effective as a new gun, I think it's just the use of information that I really like, it's very spy-like, as it should be.

There is no doubt that it is a disappointing game as it should have been much, much better. It had a sixth month delay to polish it and you wouldn't think so, I would have hated to see what it was like then. I was expecting a horror story of a game when some reviews came out but fortunately that while hideously broken at parts it hasn't made me want to turn it off, in fact once I unlocked a few perks I found it hard to put down at one point.

I think I'm rambling now, I'll just say I wouldn't recommend it, even if you enjoyed Mass Effect I'd say try it if you see it cheap, but only if you're genuinely interested. It's probably a waste of time otherwise.

[spatular]

did you finish this DC? i wanted to try it because i'd heard it compared to Deus Ex (edit - like you say, mass effect might be a better comparison), well the story part of it, like you say the stealth/combat is just fairly crap, i read that only using/upgrading the pistol is a good idea, the pause time thing works well, combined with easy difficulty means the fighting is no problem. The story is pretty good/interesting, done 2 locations and so far quite enjoying it. a baddie really likes me apparently but still

killed my friend

(apparently there's lots of different ways it (edit - whole story not just that bit) can play out), got it for £1.5 on steam so it's definitely been worth the money so far.

[HandsomeDead]

I did finish it. I like it, and I use the term like loosely. I totally understand why anyone wouldn't like it and I'd be hard pushed to recommend it now but for the price it's going for I think it's worth someone's time if you're curious in it.

I do plan another run sometime.

[shinymcshine]

I'm in an odd place with gaming currently - I've a Switch I barely use (occasional Mario Kart), and a PS4 where I seem to dislike most  big name games (God of War (2018), Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne  just don't click with me for some reason, and I even couldn't get into Greedfall - a bang on WRPG the sort of thing I'd usually love - albeit I recently enjoyed Watchdogs & SOMA) - so I've gone back to play a few 360 games again - Fable 2, Dragon Age, Oblivion, and now Alpha Protocol.  

 

Its funny, since, looking at the achievements, its been 10 yrs since I last played most of these, but whether its that warm wash of nostalgia, or perhaps the way the game was constructed, I'm having a much better time of things.

 

Alpha Protocol is an odd one, the gameplay mechanics are functional (at best) but I like the mission construct, the intel/safehouse interface, and the dialogue choices, and it just about all hangs together enough to keep my interest - especially as this time I've mostly eschewed the guns in favour of sneaking/hand to hand fighting (wherever feasible).

 

Would have been nice to see them develop this game idea further, but it got such a mixed reception upon release it just wasn't an IP to roll with, and licencing restrictions now mean that its digital availability is restricted too - shame.

 

[mfnick]

Man this is a blast from the past. I loved this game. The gameplay could almost be described as bad, but it also had a certain charm to it. What really kept me going was the story & character interactions though, still think back on this fondly. It was so good. 

[shinymcshine]

To be fair, it doesn't play any worse than it did already all those years ago - i.e. it's still very much as the@HandsomeDead review at the top of the thread.

[shinymcshine]

It bugs me when a game offers flexibility of character build then sticks in sections that don't cater for how you've been allowed to play 90% of the game.

 

I've played using stealth & hand to hand, avoiding kills wherever possible, instead using stealth takedown for 80% of the baddies.

 

However, in the end section, back at Alpha Protocol, there's a series of boss fights that end up as straight up firefights, as stealth just isn't viable here (mounted turrets spot you even when stealthed baddies have armour so take too long to hand to hand, with their buddies shooting you too).

 

It's going to be a tricky endgame from here with my build, and no scope to re-spec, but it's been fun up to now.

[AndyKurosaki]

I really enjoyed this back in the day. You could do some proper evil things, which is always good for a laugh. The combat was proper janky, especially the boss fights. But it was alright.

[shinymcshine]

Sadly my stealth based hand to hand combat build (spy build specialisation) is useless for the boss fights, so it's going to remain unfinished. Turrets aren't affected by stealth, and goons continually respawn, so I've no viable tactic to progress - as this needs heavy shooting rapid takeouts - not the slow sneaky methodical manner that's got me here.

 

I recall a similar situation when I played Borderlands with a sniper/long range build, then just didn't have the rapid fire capability to defeat an end boss there. 

 

Damn shame, but I had fun for 90% of the game, but it's time  check out some walkthroughs to see if there's any tricks.

[bellow]

I remember when they had to go back in and fix the last boss of Deus ex human Revolution in a special edition because there was no stealth option to take him out. 

 

Fans of the game moaned the Devs into taking action. I suppose, given the poor reception, Alpha protocol wasn't popular enough for that to happen

[shinymcshine]

I've taken down the first 2 bosses of the final section (Parker & Darcey) but it's really slow going - having to stealth, chip away a small amount of their health, then retreat to safe spot, wait for stealth to cool down, then repeat - especially if you're spotted as it's pretty much instant death by their homing grenades.

 

Speaking of which, the next one is a helicopter, where you have to pick up scattered RPGs to shoot it but again it's got homing missiles (1 shot kill) - mmmmm we'll see if this is feasible.

[mfnick]

I do remember reading at the time that some builds do make this incredibly difficult at the end. Fortunately I knew this when I played it so made sure to spec in the direction the game wants. Really shit when games do that. 

[shinymcshine]

I must have used heavy weapons first time around as I don't recall having any issues with doing the bosses/completing the game - this time out, as a spy build, they're a pain in the butt.

[shinymcshine]

Happy to say I finished it - the helicopter was a bit of a pain, but I just had to take my time, go into stealth, pick up RPG, retreat to safe spot, fire & repeat, plus occasionally taking out goons - then the end boss, Westridge, was a much easier kill, just a few dozen headshots from stealth, once I'd found a safespot.

 

So that's it, and predominantly a good time was had.

 

Next up, Spec Ops The Line (for the first time ever).