Alpha Protocol - Impressions after beating the game

[Yossarian1507]

So, after some serious no-life day schedule for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I bought, and beat just seconds ago, Alpha Protocol.

My opinion about the game - awesome. I'm going to beat it at least several more times, starting right now. Sure, the graphic is mediocre at best, it's more of a cover-based shooter with RPG elements, Rag Doll is so bad it's good/horrible depending on who you will ask, but...

Holy Shit, your choices finally DO matter. I'm seriously surprised. Even Heavy Rain, my favorite game, kinda cheated us with all those choices stuff, but here it really works brilliantly. My pal bought it as well, we're playing simultaneously, and our game through Moscow was COMPLETELY different. Different allies, different dialogs, different things to learn. Amazing.

Plot? Solid B+. Maybe not the most brilliant story ever, but there were several 'WTF? I didn't expect this!' situations across the game, and even if complicated, story holds its glue. Plus, I'm pretty confident I still don't know a lot of info I missed because of my choices.

Gameplay wise, it's pretty fun, at least if your playing as a field agent/spy (didn't play with other sets of skills yet). His skills are really good, sometimes even overpowered, but long cooldown usually balances everything. I really enjoyed it, even though I had to spend 2 points into sabotage really quick, because otherwise I would faster eat my PS3 pad than successfully lockpick the door.

So, did anyone else played or beat the game already? Your thoughts?

EDIT: title corrected

 

[Irridium]

How is it in terms of bugs/ending?

Obsidian isn't exactly known for creating bug free/games with good endings (NWN2, Kotor2)

 

[Stone Wera]

First impressions AFTER beating the game?
That's pretty backasswards.

 

[Yossarian1507]

How is it in terms of bugs/ending?

Obsidian isn't exactly known for creating bug free/games with good endings (NWN2, Kotor2)

Bugs: There are some, but not many. Occasionally, agent Thorton chokes the air instead of the enemy and stuff like that, but nothing serious like in previous games.

Ending:

As a last mission: good and satisfying.

As a last cutscene (in case of my ending): nothing special + one 'WTF, nice!' factor

Spoiler

Scarlet uncovered as president Sung's assassin

After that, you get a last mission summary with info about several people and what happened to them, and during the credits, you hear the news report about what happened to the world after your mission.

Good stuff.

 

[Irridium]

How is it in terms of bugs/ending?

Obsidian isn't exactly known for creating bug free/games with good endings (NWN2, Kotor2)

Bugs: There are some, but not many. Occasionally, agent Thorton chokes the air instead of the enemy and stuff like that, but nothing serious like in previous games.

Ending:

As a last mission: good and satisfying.

As a last cutscene (in case of my ending): nothing special + one 'WTF, nice!' factor

Spoiler

Scarlet uncovered as president Sung's assassin

After that you get a last mission summary with info about several people and what happened to them, and during the credit, you hear the news report about what happened to the world after your mission.

Good stuff.

Well thats good to hear. I remember Kotor 2 and NWN2 were great games, but they were full of bugs and the endings sucked.

Glad to see it seems to be changing, it gives me hope for New Vegas as well.

And now I'm off to the store next time I have money.

 

[Marter]

I'm glad to hear it's good, and I'll be picking it up on Thursday.

 

[MisterShine]

Not reading anything you say here for fear of spoilers, though I'm glad you liked the game. But may I say this:

Your name is fantastic.

That is all.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Watch this Giant Bomb quick look [http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-alpha-protocol/17-2551/] before you buy it - it shows the gameplay and the stealth, shooting and AI all look awful. Don't go buying this thing because one guy said it was OK.

 

[The Madman]

Damn I'm good! Someone really oughta hire me as their professional gaming psychic.

I was right on, as usual, right down to the games average score so far.

I'll be buying the game when I've got some spare change, till then I'll be trying to avoid spoilers.

 

[kurupt87]

I'm going through it at the moment and I am enjoying parts of it, the story is good and the fact that I can tell that the choices I make are having a big impact on the story is great.

This game is really Obsidians attempt at a Mass Effect clone, it aint as good though. Not a surprise, but what is surprising is that the gameplay is considerably worse than ME1, which is two years old and had debatebly poor gameplay for its time anyway. It's ok if you go through it as stealth guy gameplay wise, but when you have to go guns blazing it feels really clunky.

The main problem I have with the game are the minigames. Ho lee shit. I think they were specifically designed by a insanely sadistic genius to piss the player off so he breaks his head bashing it against a wall. Seriously, in a game where you can play as stealth guy you cannot have such hard minigames that set off alarms, or if you do then you need to let the player save where they like, not only at checkpoints.

Ahhhhrrrg! They really irk me. I try to RP my way through this RPG, meaning that my sneaky spy sets off no alarms. I spend alot of my time reloading the last checkpoint, sneaking past/stealth killing the enemies and trying to pick that lock or hack that computer. Failing and reloading. Rinse and repeat. Alot of the time it's not even one of them, it's a room or building or floor of around five minigames (within one checkpoint is what I mean), each with the potential to bend you over and stick its boot up your arse. I've had to take a break from the game it's pissing me off so much.

A final moan is that the game gives you complete control over your characters development, so spy or soldier or engineer(gadget man). Soldier and engineer are noisy and combat oriented while spy is obviously stealth. The moan? That the game forces you into missions where you have to go full combat or have to go full stealth. It's not funny.

TL;DR - Story is ok, story choices are excellent, gameplay is poor, minigames are evil, forced mission types are bad.

 

[Yossarian1507]

Watch this Giant Bomb quick look [http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-alpha-protocol/17-2551/] before you buy it - it shows the gameplay and the stealth, shooting and AI all look awful. Don't go buying this thing because one guy said it was OK.

Don't dismiss the gameplay just after one clip either.

Stealth is fine, I beat the game as a stealthy guy, and had fun with it. It may look easy, and AI may look bad at the first glance, but finishing the mission without being spotted is not that easy after all, you have to do your best to succeed.

Shooting is extremely inaccurate at the beginning, I admit. After picking some skills in it, as well as gaining some perks for shooting a lot with chosen gun (btw - perks system is awesome), it becomes tolerable.

Of course, in terms of gameplay, it's nowhere near levels of, let's say Mass Effect 2, but it's still fun, and that's the most important thing.

So far, I would give it a solid 8. It won't be even considered into game of the year competition, but I believe it will get some decent fanbase, or in worst case scenario, it will become a cult classic.

Rent it, if you don't want to buy it. It's worth at least trying. I'm not spending my entire weekend to beat bad games

 

[Blue Musician]

Damn I'm good! Someone really oughta hire me as their professional gaming psychic.

I was right on, as usual, right down to the games average score so far.

I'll be buying the game when I've got some spare change, till then I'll be trying to avoid spoilers.

HAHAHAHAHA! That's a great prediction you made!

 

[Yossarian1507]

The main problem I have with the game are the minigames. Ho lee shit. I think they were specifically designed by a insanely sadistic genius to piss the player off so he breaks his head bashing it against a wall. Seriously, in a game where you can play as stealth guy you cannot have such hard minigames that set off alarms, or if you do then you need to let the player save where they like, not only at checkpoints.

Ahhhhrrrg! They really irk me. I try to RP my way through this RPG, meaning that my sneaky spy sets off no alarms. I spend alot of my time reloading the last checkpoint, sneaking past/stealth killing the enemies and trying to pick that lock or hack that computer. Failing and reloading. Rinse and repeat. Alot of the time it's not even one of them, it's a room or building or floor of around five minigames (within one checkpoint is what I mean), each with the potential to bend you over and stick its boot up your arse. I've had to take a break from the game it's pissing me off so much.

Maybe I'm weird, but hacking wasn't hard for me, I rarely lost more than a half of available time to hack any computer.

Lockpicking IS evil though. My friend, who plays AP on the PC says it's easy, and I believe him, because mouse sounds suitable for the job. L2 and R2 - definitely not. I swear, if I'll find person responsible for this, I'll hit him in the face with a wooden table.

Hint: Dunno about PC, but on my PS3, pressing start just before running out of time in 75 out of 100 times aborts the lockipicking/hacking without sounding off the alarm. It won't work always, but it will save you those annoying restarts from checkpoint.

A final moan is that the game gives you complete control over your characters development, so spy or soldier or engineer(gadget man). Soldier and engineer are noisy and combat oriented while spy is obviously stealth. The moan? That the game forces you into missions where you have to go full combat or have to go full stealth. It's not funny.

I didn't beat a single mission with guns blazing. Even if I started with hundreds of enemies around me, I just CQC one or two, sprint behind the nearest cover, activate Shadow Operative and go to my standard sneaky work.

TL;DR - Story is ok, story choices are excellent, gameplay is poor, minigames are evil, forced mission types are bad.

I mostly agree with this statement, though IMO gameplay is not THAT bad.

 

[Yossarian1507]

Damn I'm good! Someone really oughta hire me as their professional gaming psychic.

I was right on, as usual, right down to the games average score so far.

I'll be buying the game when I've got some spare change, till then I'll be trying to avoid spoilers.

Hah. Looks like you were right. If you loved the games from Obsidian though (and you wrote you like), then you'll definitely like AP as well.

 

[DividedUnity]

snip

I loved the game but the choices really dont matter. Like in

Spoiler

moscow where you can choose either G22 or SIE to help you with the embassy mission. It doesn't matter if you are on good terms with both whichever faction you don't pick attacks the embassy anyway.In the mansion attack in moscow whatever faction you ally with its leader always gets captured, the only difference it makes is to the start of the mission as if you ally with G22 you start with a sniper rifle or if you ally with VCI then you charge in on an APC. Also, its doesnt matter if you save madison or not the chapter ends with roughly the same scene.

. I didn't realise how little the choices actually changed anything other than a few exceptions. It commits the same crime as heavy rain so dont be getting any delusions.

Anyway ranting aside the game had some very good characters like Steven Heck and Sis who I really liked, assault rifles were the only weapon that were actually useful doing high damage with good accuracy. The dialogue system is good, the story was alright and when I finally found out that the assasin was

Spoiler

Scarlet

at the end I was suprised but other than that the end was anti-climactic with it being incredibly easy to beat the last few bosses. It was a fun game though but the stealh option can be a pain, I just played run and gun on my first play through till I got Veteran then played stealth but that is kind of a boring option compared

 

[kurupt87]

Snip

Maybe I'm weird, but hacking wasn't hard for me, I rarely lost more than a half of available time to hack any computer.

Lockpicking IS evil though. My friend, who plays AP on the PC says it's easy, and I believe him, because mouse sounds suitable for the job. L2 and R2 - definitely not. I swear, if I'll find person responsible for this, I'll hit him in the face with a wooden table.

Hint: Dunno about PC, but on my PS3, pressing start just before running out of time in 75 out of 100 times aborts the lockipicking/hacking without sounding off the alarm. It won't work always, but it will save you those annoying restarts from checkpoint.

Snip

I didn't beat a single mission with guns blazing. Even if I started with hundreds of enemies around me, I just CQC one or two, sprint behind the nearest cover, activate Shadow Operative and go to my standard sneaky work.

TL;DR - Story is ok, story choices are excellent, gameplay is poor, minigames are evil, forced mission types are bad.

I mostly agree with this statement, though IMO gameplay is not THAT bad.

I play on the PC and lockpicking is easier than hacking, it can still be a pain but it's definitely easier.

The hacking is mental though, the left code is controlled by w,a,s,d and space to enter it while the right hand code is controlled by the mouse with a left click to enter. Furthermore, the left hand keyboard code moves unbelievably slowly while the right hand mouse code is as twitchy as a gerbil who's drank a large double espresso with speed as a sweetener.

Edit - As for the exitting the hack/pick attempt strategy, I can't figure out how to actually do it. You see, I need to click that exit button with the mouse, but clicking the mouse enters the right hand code, which will be sitting in the bottom right which is, you know, most of the time not gonna be where its match is, and so sets off an alarm. If I've already entered the right hand code and am struggling with the left it should work, but if I still have the right floating around I can't use the button.

 

[Yossarian1507]

I loved the game but the choices really dont matter. Like in

Spoiler

moscow where you can choose either G22 or SIE to help you with the embassy mission. It doesn't matter if you are on good terms with both whichever faction you don't pick attacks the embassy anyway.In the mansion attack in moscow whatever faction you ally with its leader always gets captured, the only difference it makes is to the start of the mission as if you ally with G22 you start with a sniper rifle or if you ally with VCI then you charge in on an APC. Also, its doesnt matter if you save madison or not the chapter ends with roughly the same scene.

. I didn't realise how little the choices actually changed anything other than a few exceptions. It commits the same crime as heavy rain so dont be getting any delusions.

Maybe not in all situations, but yeah they do. For example:

Spoiler

G22 helped me with getting to and eventually rescuing Surkov from VCI. True dat, my pal got the opposite situation. BUT, after that, when I got info about Brayko, and after beating him my mission is Moscow ended, while my pal had a dialog somehow, in which Brayko pointed Mike back at Surkov.

What's more, I saw some video clips, in which, you are in the embassy NOT to rescue Surkov, but to pursue him. You fight his bodyguard as a boss, and then you get him on the helipad while he's trying to escape. How to do it? Dunno yet, but I will find out soon

It's still much better than any game did before, so well done Obsidian for that.

 

[DividedUnity]

I loved the game but the choices really dont matter. Like in

Spoiler

moscow where you can choose either G22 or SIE to help you with the embassy mission. It doesn't matter if you are on good terms with both whichever faction you don't pick attacks the embassy anyway.In the mansion attack in moscow whatever faction you ally with its leader always gets captured, the only difference it makes is to the start of the mission as if you ally with G22 you start with a sniper rifle or if you ally with VCI then you charge in on an APC. Also, its doesnt matter if you save madison or not the chapter ends with roughly the same scene.

. I didn't realise how little the choices actually changed anything other than a few exceptions. It commits the same crime as heavy rain so dont be getting any delusions.

Maybe not in all situations, but yeah they do. For example:

Spoiler

G22 helped me with getting to and eventually rescuing Surkov from VCI. True dat, my pal got the opposite situation. BUT, after that, when I got info about Brayko, and after beating him my mission is Moscow ended, while my pal had a dialog somehow, in which Brayko pointed Mike back at Surkov.

What's more, I saw some video clips, in which, you are in the embassy NOT to rescue Surkov, but to pursue him. You fight his bodyguard as a boss, and then you get him on the helipad while he's trying to escape. How to do it? Dunno yet, but I will find out soon

It's still much better than any game did before, so well done Obsidian for that.

That was one of the exceptions I mentioned. However, wheter you talk to Breyko or not it will lead to the same conclusion. The information you can now discover will be revealed later on if you don't. Same path just walking differently. You can say whatever you want about choices affecting what happens but the only ones that really effect the outcome are the ones at the final mission.

Spoiler

You can chooce to join Halbech and destroy AP, join AP and destroy halbech or you can choose to destroy both. Everything just leads up to that choice.

If you want to know how to get that mission just talk to breyko instead of shooting him

 

[Yossarian1507]

If you want to know how to get that mission just talk to breyko instead of shooting him

Spoiler

That's the thing actually. I talked to him, and got a big sum of money for sparing him, and yet it was the end of my mission in Moscow. Weird, huh?

Also, I pretty much expected that there won't be that many endings, etc. but IMO even if there are only

Spoiler

three

routes, they way you can have different allies and different events makes the really high replayability factor.

 

[DividedUnity]

If you want to know how to get that mission just talk to breyko instead of shooting him

Spoiler

That's the thing actually. I talked to him, and got a big sum of money for sparing him, and yet it was the end of my mission in Moscow. Weird, huh?

Also, I pretty much expected that there won't be that many endings, etc. but IMO even if there are only

Spoiler

three

routes, they way you can have different allies and different events makes the really high replayability factor.

To be honest ive gotten two of the endings. Both had the same end sequence but yeah it does have quite a high replay value.