The sane Alpha Protocol thread

[Darth Roxor]

But so far, it's not horrible or mind-numbingly boring, so I guess that's a plus.

gee, i can't wait.

YEAH BRO, ALL GAMES NEED TO BE FLAWLESS 10/10 MATERIAL OR THEY WON'T FIT YOUR SUPERREFINED TASTE

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

YEAH BRO, ALL GAMES NEED TO BE FLAWLESS 10/10 MATERIAL OR THEY WON'T FIT YOUR SUPERREFINED TASTE

awww, this is cute.

 

[hoochimama]

I hope I'm mistaken but it seems that if you play the game with a keyboard+mouse you won't be able to walk, only run and sprint(holding shift).

This doesn't happen when playing with a gamepad where the analog thumbstick allows you to control movement speed in detail, from walking to running.

 

[Felix]

http://xbox-360.nowgamer.com/reviews/xb ... =0#listing

Every major character has a dossier that must be filled out with intel collected while on missions, allowing Thorton to learn their strengths, flaws, and vital pieces of information to give him the upper hand when talking to them. The sense of intrigue is so empowering it’s easy to overlook the most significant detail of all: the characters are so well written that you’ll actually have an opinion on them. That’s so unusual for a videogame it’s actually depressing.

If you want slick but ultimately hollow action you can always play Splinter Cell: Conviction. What Obsidian has accomplished with Alpha Protocol is so much more memorable than slow-motion death

Wonder if it's true...

 

[Volourn]

"where NWN has none"

The momentn you felt the need to lie, is the momemnt your opinion became shit.

Why do you feel the need to resort to flat out lies?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I hope I'm mistaken but it seems that if you play the game with a keyboard+mouse you won't be able to walk, only run and sprint(holding shift).

Doesn't really make a difference if you're crouching.


Anyway, AP is pretty entertaining when played as a Splinter Cell kind of game.

 

[Sceptic]

Wonder if it's true...

I'm buying this thing RIGHT NOW if it's true.

Skidrow release is out so I'll demo that first and see for myself. If the only real flaw is the bugs I'll wait for a couple of patches before buying.

 

[Darth Roxor]

If the only real flaw is the bugs

So far, I've noticed only three, and all were completely unimportant.

Two cases of guards getting stuck in various places and doing nothing, like here:

And once when I hit 'exit game', I suddenly found myself in a black screen with a controllable Thornton and nothing else. I couldn't even use esc to call the menu, but it was nothing a quick ALT+F4 couldn't fix.


Also, I like that when you get the mission debriefing, you get xp for both taking down and evading enemies.

 

[Grunker]

you get xp for both taking down and evading enemies.

That's extremely important. Most RPG's should stick to giving only quest XP.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Hey Darth Roxor, can you disable subtitles in the options? I know that sounds like a silly question but I remember in NWN2 you couldn't and that pissed me off.

 

[Sceptic]

So far, I've noticed only three, and all were completely unimportant.

Thanks. That's so minor it wouldn't bother me at all.

How's the game shaping up so far? Want to give us a mini-review once you have a good idea?

 

[Serious_Business]

The momentn you felt the need to lie, is the momemnt your opinion became shit.

Deep shit bro, powerful ethical momentn or is it momemnt

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

copy arrived, playing.

german version has english voiceovers? or can this be configured somehow?
dialogue reaction timer is too short, before i can figure out what stances are available it's already over. lame. otherwise it doesn't seem as bad as described in the Destructoid review, at least not judging from the 30min I played. The hacking minigame I had so far, is pretty easy and time suffices. I still don't like minigames though. more later. no regenerating health as far as i can tell. i picked recruit and have zero skills, lol, the noob.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Hey Darth Roxor, can you disable subtitles in the options? I know that sounds like a silly question but I remember in NWN2 you couldn't and that pissed me off.

Yup, they can be disabled.

How's the game shaping up so far? Want to give us a mini-review once you have a good idea?

Well, so far, suffice to say I like it, and I've just completed the first 'chapter', so to speak. The AI became considerably less dumb by now, and enemy weaponry actually does some damage... What I like is that this is actually built around stealth, it's not just some glued in at the last moment gimmick that has maybe 3 or 4 uses total like in many other games.

For example, at the end of the last mission in Saudi Arabia, you are to fight the 'boss', which is some sandnigger lieutenant. He's on a bridge, and below the bridge there are three goons. When you enter the area, you get an optional objective 'avoid detection'. If you do avoid the other goons (which is tricky), and get on the bridge covertly (staying out of the lieutenant's sight, too), Thorton does a stealth takedown, which means completely avoiding combat and getting +++xp (but I don't know whether it's more or less than if you just charged in sweatin' bullets).

But as I said before: this is not an RPG. This is a non-linear stealth game with some customizability thrown in for good measure. Although the stealth aspects (and generally mobility) suffer a real damn lot from the obvious console-ish drawbacks, especially when you're stopped by a chest-high wall, or you can't climb some conveniently piled up crates to get to the roof of a building, while it just screams to do that.

no regenerating health as far as i can tell.

Health doesn't regenerate, but armour does. Neat thing is that it actually doesn't charge up nearly instantly after hiding behind a barrel, like in other popamole games.

 

[hoochimama]

I hope I'm mistaken but it seems that if you play the game with a keyboard+mouse you won't be able to walk, only run and sprint(holding shift).

Doesn't really make a difference if you're crouching.

Too bad the crouching/stealth walking animation is reminiscent of a she-baboon in heat.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Too bad the crouching/stealth walking animation is reminiscent of a she-baboon in heat.

Well, that is also true

 

[Sceptic]

The AI became considerably less dumb by now, and enemy weaponry actually does some damage... What I like is that this is actually built around stealth, it's not just some glued in at the last moment gimmick that has maybe 3 or 4 uses total like in many other games.

So all those reviews are from idiots who didn't even finish chapter 1? That's good to know. I had a feeling they could be safely ignored but this seals it. So is the game like Thief, where combat is really not something you want to get into and stealth is the way to go? Or are the stealth bits not as good but somehow compensated by the customization?

If you do avoid the other goons (which is tricky), and get on the bridge covertly (staying out of the lieutenant's sight, too), Thorton does a stealth takedown, which means completely avoiding combat and getting +++xp

Sounds neat. XP for non-combat resolutions is good. If it gives as much or even more XP because you completed the "optional objective" then I'm sold.

But as I said before: this is not an RPG. This is a non-linear stealth game with some customizability thrown in for good measure.

Would you call the cutomizability "RPG elements"? Is it Thief/Splinter Cell with RPG elements in this case?

Although the stealth aspects (and generally mobility) suffer a real damn lot from the obvious console-ish drawbacks, especially when you're stopped by a chest-high wall, or you can't climb some conveniently piled up crates to get to the roof of a building, while it just screams to do that.

That's the first major downer you've mentioned. How bad is it? Does it happen occasionally, then you forget about it because you find some other neat way to get to your objective, or are you constantly railroaded along the One True Path to the end of the mission?

Health doesn't regenerate, but armour does. Neat thing is that it actually doesn't charge up nearly instantly after hiding behind a barrel, like in other popamole games.

If you actually have to hide for extensive periods of time while armor renegerates then it's not so bad. It adds an extra layer of choice I guess.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

correction: the minigames are an abomination of formerly unknown proportions. the computer hacking takes the cake. I really hope maxing the sabotage skill will let you skip them entirely at some point.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

dialogue reaction timer is too short, before i can figure out what stances are available it's already over.

Or maybe you're just a bit slow, eh?

 

[Lexx]

So, I've played it for approx two hours now. My opinion so far:

I like the game. I see the flaws that it got due to console -> computer port, such as the sucky camera controls. Which are really sucky. I mean... I can life with it, because I am skilled... played Metal Gear Solid 2 on computer, while not using a gamepad and finished the game a few times. So I could life with even more worse controls.

The camera is shaking a little bit, every once in a while, when I look around. I never saw this in any other game before and I don't really understand, why it's there at all. The game runs on the unreal engine after all and you would guess that this engine would never produce something like this.

Anyway...

I like the dialogues so far. What I don't like are the subtitles. In the german version, the words are jumping very fast and you never see the whole sentence. Due to this, reading the ---------- sentence ------------ always has ------------ a kind ----------- of jump --------- in strange places. This is bad for the reading flow and now I concentrate more on listening to the english dialogues than reading the subs. Dialogues itself are nice and I like to go through them. In Mass Effect, I always felt the need to skip to my answer possibilities, to get it done already...

Also, based on how you say stuff in the dialogues, you can get perks and traits, beside the reputation changes with characters. Also you can get more information about something, witch can make you a mission easier, etc. This stuff is great, I love it.

The combat feels ok to me as well. I know that I hit a target based on my characters stats and I have absolutly no problem with it. Wasn't different in Bloodlines or Deus Ex. In Bloodlines I hated it, because using guns felt bad. It feels smooth to me in Alpha Protocol, so I am absolutly fine with it and wouldn't change it.

Melee fighting is really strong, like everyone said. But keep in mind: If you don't put any skillpoints into the melee skill, it will be shit soon, as I noticed. Some enemies got hit a lot by me, but the damage was rather low. Also you make a kind of "insta-knock out", if you catch an enemy who don't notice you ("stealth kill"). This is cool. That's why I am playing a sneaky character.

So far I am using mostly my pistol, because I am a silencer-nazi. I like to sneak up to the enemy and take them off with one bullet critical into the head (didn't saw a silencer for the assault rifle so far). Then again, I noticed, that I could mostly use the assault rifle too, which leads to the named "strange ai behavior". As long as no alarm is activated, you can shoot loud in a specific area and nobody else cares. There can even be a big machinegunner, throwing bullets at you, as long as there is no big alarm, you have to fear not much.

And then there is the other situation... you do very little and big shit comes down with alarm, which sucks, because I don't want to activate the alarm. I am a cool stealth person, who is a shadow and not billboard with sound booster.


The minigames, I forgot about them. Lockpicking on pc version is super easy. No difficult in doing this... feels like lockpicking in Fallout 3. It's there, it's shit easy, it just steals your time. When it comes to the hacking minigame... holy shit, I needed like 5 minutes to figure out, what to do. By now, I get it pretty often, but it's stressfull and after a while annoying to the eyes. If I could, I would keep that out of the game. The bypass minigame is medium-difficult. Not very hard, but bleh for the eyes as well. Same as hacking, I would love to throw that out of the game. In fact, if it would be me, I would throw out all minigames, because I hate such minigames in my games. Games. Games. (Games.)

Sometimes, you can skip minigames with an EMP. This is nice, I will use it often and hard.


So. After playing a bit over two hours, doing three missions, I like the game. The characters I saw so far are interesting and I think, I started to like at least one already. Will continue to play, for sure.

 

[Darth Roxor]

So is the game like Thief, where combat is really not something you want to get into and stealth is the way to go?

Uh, maybe that was bad wording on my part. What I meant was, that if you make a stealth character, it's a viable way to go through the game, and only occasionally you need to take out the guns to shoop some bitches. I suppose combat is something you want to get into if you have 0 stealth but a gazillion points in weapon skills, but I have no idea, since my gun skills are rather pathetic.

So yeah, combat is not something you want to get into with a stealth character.

Would you call the cutomizability "RPG elements"? Is it Thief/Splinter Cell with RPG elements in this case?

Again: if you make a stealth character. More splinter cell than thief, though. As for the customizability, it's mostly connected with the gear you take - armour type (+ upgrades), gadgets (grenades vs flashbangs, which is better and why? Discuss!) and ammo types (standard vs tranquilizer). Actually increasing skills doesn't really make you that much more proficient in certain things, they mostly add some more or less useful gimmicks that you can use (mostly panic buttons and failsafes). There are also the achievement-like 'perks' that make your character do things better the more he does them - for example, whacking down something around 100 people with kung-fu gives you +melee damage.

That's the first major downer you've mentioned. How bad is it? Does it happen occasionally, then you forget about it because you find some other neat way to get to your objective, or are you constantly railroaded along the One True Path to the end of the mission?

Fortunately, there aren't really any 'Only True Paths' as far as I've noticed. There's always at least the basic choice of 'RUSH IN AND SHOOT THE BASTARDS' or 'go around them', and usually the 'go around them' option has a few ways of going around them. But, again I'll use the example of the boss on the bridge: right in front of the stairs leading to the bridge, there is a convenient pile of crates behind which you can hide from the goons. So you might think 'hm, I'll wait there until they both look the other way and run for the stairs!'. Hohoho, wait a minute, young secret agent - the crates are blocked from the stairs by a fucking chest high wall which means you have to encircle the whole area. It's only possible to climb over walls that the devs have 'approved' to be climbed over by tapping space (fucking consolitis).

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

dialogue reaction timer is too short, before i can figure out what stances are available it's already over.

Or maybe you're just a bit slow, eh?

bro the problem is that the game is in forenn despite being advertised as being localised to german, next problem are the german subtitles which are presented like that:

dialogue reaction
timer
is too
short, before
i can
figure out what
stances
are available
it's already
over.

with each line being shown for ~1sec.

does
not
contribute a large
deal towards
easy
reading.

 

[Lexx]

It's not a problem with the dialogue reaction timer, it's a problem with the way the subs are presented. If you could see the whole sentence (or at least a longer sentence), it wouldn't be a problem, imo. But the way it is now, it's just ugly to read. Especially if in the bottom left or center top is poping up stuff as well. You need to learn multi-tasking reading for this...

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

that
is exactly
what
I was
trying
to tell.

 

[Hamster]

I hope
somebody
wil mod
this timed
response bs
out.