Alpha Protocol: very unsatisfying ending

[Xor]

In MY playthrough, I fought neither Parker nor Marburg.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Yeah I fought Parker in the server room.

 

[Roguey]

To kill Marburg in the server room, you have to know Madison is Parker's daughter and then tell Parker Marburg killed her. To kill him in Rome, you have to make him hate you and use suave more times than any other dialogue option at that point.

Oh, and if you want to have an easy time with the helicopter, hide behind that big rock at the base of the stairs and let all the soldiers come to you first. Then it's just a matter of sprinting when you hear the beeping noise.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

y r u playin popamole shit lol

 

[Forest Dweller]

Okay, this time I chose to contact Parker instead of downloading the PDA files and sending them to Deng. I chose the "Dossier" option with Parker, and then in the server room I had "defend Parker" as my objective as opposed to "defeat Parker." Of course by the time it was over Parker had disappeared, and I couldn't get in while the attack was going on because the door was sealed, and furthermore, I couldn't hack the security system to open the door like I originally could when the objective was to defeat him. Yay choices! And no Marborg of course. So I stopped there.

Also, Parker said that Mina was the one who initially sold me out, or something along those lines anyway but I couldn't confront her about it when I rescued her, which is bullshit. Is there any way to find out who she was working for? Also not sure how I missed Scarlet the first time, but I rescued her this time and she informed me that she was the sniper in Taipei. That was what Deng had told me before when I chose the PDA over Parker, so I didn't feel too bad about skipping that choice this time, but of course I couldn't really question her about this or, God forbid, actually kill her, so I guess it doesn't really fucking matter.

 

[LazyD]

Alpha Protocol: very unsatisfying ending Game

 

[Admiral jimbob]

So the whole long-running consequences thing boils down to you having options arbitrarily taken away from you that logic dictates you should still be able to take if you want?

gg

 

[Forest Dweller]

Yeah, exactly. On the one hand it's good to have C&C and things being cut off from you based on your choices, but not if it in turn forces things that don't make sense.

 

[random_encounter]

Also, Parker said that Mina was the one who initially sold me out, or something along those lines anyway but I couldn't confront her about it when I rescued her, which is bullshit. Is there any way to find out who she was working for?

AFAIK, no, there's no way to find out. I'm only guessing that it was left ambiguous for a potential sequel, but I always thought that she never left the NSA and had faked it. Or maybe she's hangin' with Fisher at Third Echelon, I don't know.

One way you can kill Mina, though, is if you opt to go with Halbech. To prove your loyalty, you have the option to take her out. Or not. Why that isn't a choice anyway if you find out about her betrayal instead was kind of bizarre.

As for Marburgh, someone already mentioned that you have to know that Madison is his daughter. She actually tells you this if you opt to be a "gentleman" and not wake her up in Rome. At least in my playthrough she did. Even though Marburgh liked me, I backstabbed him by playing Parker forcing the fight in the server room with him.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Not wake her up? Do you mean trying to talk to her when she's on the couch?

 

[Xor]

It didn't happen for me, but if your rep with her is high enough she'll be asleep when you come home at some point. It leads to her sex scene.

 

[Roguey]

Also, Parker said that Mina was the one who initially sold me out, or something along those lines anyway but I couldn't confront her about it when I rescued her, which is bullshit. Is there any way to find out who she was working for?

If she visits you in your apartment and you choose not to sleep with her immediately (or at all), she'll admit she was the one who outted you. And one of the emails you get from the CIA listening post mentions that a deep mole from the NSA suddenly lit up out of nowhere so you can put two and two together.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I just collected as many profile pieces as I could on Mina, and it started hinting she was playing games with everyone, she even admitted it to me over the com-line when I confronted her on it (there's a dossier option sometime before you actually go back to AP if you've been dilligent).

Then I sided with Leland, and he gave me the mission to find wherever she was and kill her. Found her, got some of her side (working for NSA to take down both AP and Halbech in one blow), and then had to listen as she begged me to understand that she really didn't have a choice, etc, etc.


"No, Michael-" *Pop*

 

[Forest Dweller]

Also, Parker said that Mina was the one who initially sold me out, or something along those lines anyway but I couldn't confront her about it when I rescued her, which is bullshit. Is there any way to find out who she was working for?

If she visits you in your apartment and you choose not to sleep with her immediately (or at all), she'll admit she was the one who outted you. And one of the emails you get from the CIA listening post mentions that a deep mole from the NSA suddenly lit up out of nowhere so you can put two and two together.

Ah okay. I remember those emails. But what was her reasoning for outing you? And also, what choices do you get then?

 

[Mangoose]

But what was her reasoning for outing you?

So that she could use you as a rogue agent to take out AP and Halbech.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

But what was her reasoning for outing you?

That only someone who had the freedom of Rogue status, yet access to many of AP's backup resources could pierce the levels of intrigue surrounding Halbech and Alpha Protocol's connections. But then why not just contact Michael before he even arrived, and have him operate in the shadows using the safe-houses, since she already knew where they were?


-You would serve as a target for Alpha Protocol and many other agencies, leaving Mina to dig around with less surveillance.
-The dramatic scene that drives a wedge between you and AP 'announces' your free agent status to the rest of the organizations and groups 'in-the-know'. Making it easier for you to jerry-rig a loose set of contacts and fellow operatives to help you along.


Of course, she tells you jack shit about any of this until it's way too late.

 

[random_encounter]

Not wake her up? Do you mean trying to talk to her when she's on the couch?

At one point when you come back to your apartment in Rome, she's not on the couch but sleeping on your bed in the back. If you enter the room, you can either let her sleep or check on her. Checking on her trips the intimacy dialogue maze if you want to give in.

Letting her sleep tripped a cut scene where she woke up and started talking to Thorton, letting slip the info that she is Parker's estranged daughter. At least that's how it played out for me when I tried out a few things differently my second time through.

fakedit:

That only someone who had the freedom of Rogue status, yet access to many of AP's backup resources could pierce the levels of intrigue surrounding Halbech and Alpha Protocol's connections.

Basically, yeah. She said that Thorton's psychological makeup made it clear that he worked best when on his own so engineered the situation that would allow that to happen.

Kind of a fucked up way to do it especially when it wasn't clear how an attempted murder (that couldn't be blamed on "but we didn't know Thorton was still in the area, sir") translated over to turning a fresh faced rookie into a rogue agent. It's not like Thorton 'failed' his mission to take down Shaheed, though Halbech could have pulled enough strings to make it seem like the rookie went...rogue...for whatever...reason. I guess.

Whatever. So thin, yet, that turned into the premise. I must be missing something.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Yeah I don't get why he ended up rogue either. On the one hand, I can certainly see Halbech trying to erase the evidence, but I don't understand why Alpha Protocol would suddenly go after him. Mina made some brief explanation at the time, but it didn't seem to make much sense from my standpoint.

 

[Abelon Blanchetourbe]

I JUST FINISHED THE HALFASSED PROCTOLOGIST. Ending was so bad it managed to travel through time and make the good parts suck too. I didn't even know Mina was dead until debriefing, I was too busy trying to survive those dreadful boss battles. When I killed Leland, Thorton said something like "this is for Madison" but nothing about Mina. What the fuck ?

 

[Roguey]

Yeah I don't get why he ended up rogue either. On the one hand, I can certainly see Halbech trying to erase the evidence, but I don't understand why Alpha Protocol would suddenly go after him. Mina made some brief explanation at the time, but it didn't seem to make much sense from my standpoint.

It was always meant to be a suicide mission to cover up all their tracks. Darcy wanted it, but he was pulled off because his death would have had political repercussions. Better to use someone new and completely disposable. Parker says he wanted Thorton brought in for observation, but AP works for Halbech and they have to follow orders.

 

[Forest Dweller]

But you find out that Parker is a mole for Halbech. He wouldn't need to be a mole if the entire organization worked for Halbech.

 

[random_encounter]

Yeah I don't get why he ended up rogue either. On the one hand, I can certainly see Halbech trying to erase the evidence, but I don't understand why Alpha Protocol would suddenly go after him. Mina made some brief explanation at the time, but it didn't seem to make much sense from my standpoint.

It was always meant to be a suicide mission to cover up all their tracks. Darcy wanted it, but he was pulled off because his death would have had political repercussions. Better to use someone new and completely disposable. Parker says he wanted Thorton brought in for observation, but AP works for Halbech and they have to follow orders.

That would also depend on knowing what Thorton uncovered and whether they felt that he was smart enough to piece things together on his own. Cutting a deal with Shaheed and keeping that from AP indicated that they don't know everything despite the impression that they do. Not even Parker knew about that one and he's supposed to be some kind of closet genius.

Even if we were to assume that Halbech decided not to take any chances and burn Shaheed with missiles (regardless of Thorton being there), why issue an AP on Thorton if they thought he was dead? Just because? Later on it would have been understandable after a few missions considering that he decided to go off on his own and find out why he was almost killed. But why not place a call back to AP in the first place and ask WTF? Because he's "secret agent man" and has to find the truth out on his own like a good Hollywood hero?

Westridge, at the end, basically says "I needed someone I could trust" to simply carry on through with their mission implies that he expected Thorton to come through with no questions asked. If Halbech felt as antsy as they did on assuming Thorton knew more than he was letting on during his mission, Obsidian opted not to clue the player into that piece of subterfuge and let everything simply go to hell to get the ball rolling "just because".

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I was expecting the black dude to pop up, you know, the guy who is meant to be running Alpha Protocol. I didn't hear a peep from him. I thought that was strange.

 

[Roguey]

But you find out that Parker is a mole for Halbech. He wouldn't need to be a mole if the entire organization worked for Halbech.

I recall an email where you find out Westridge was reporting to Leland the whole time. Some action I did resulted in my finding out that Halbech built the Graybox and they had come to some sort of arrangement. Besides, if it was just between Halbech and Parker, why would Leland even be at this super-secret location that requires being drugged during transport?

Anyway, I agree it's a clusterfuck mess of a plot, the villains are incompetent, Obsidian's writing is overrated, etc.

I was expecting the black dude to pop up, you know, the guy who is meant to be running Alpha Protocol. I didn't hear a peep from him. I thought that was strange.

To fight him, you either have to tell Shaheed you'll betray America (so you fight Westridge and just get an arrrest/kill cutscene with Leland in a different location) or get Leland to like you and join Halbech.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Obviously when you join Leland he wants all proof of AP's existence (and thus Halbech's culpability in this whole mess) erased. So it automatically sets you up to take all of their operatives out.