Alpha protocol: worth playing?

[RhombusHatesYou]

Alpha Protocol is a great game if you don't trip over a bunch of bugs. I've finished it 7 times on PC and enjoyed every minute of it.

This is the first game where actions have more impact on the game than just which end scene you get to watch and the story is morally ambiguous so even if you think you've done everything 100% heroic and good, bad shit can still happen.

Plus there's Steven Heck who is batshit crazy and very entertaining.

Downside is that some of the dialogue is cringe-worthy and skills are a bit unbalanced (some of them are more or less worthless and some are way overpowered).

 

[Zhukov]

Ehhhhh...

I guess it's worth playing if you can get it real cheap and you don't have anything better to do.

I can't honestly recommend spending money on it though.

Gameplay is clunky, story is stock-standard spy drama (not my thing, but other people like it), dialogue is not particularly well written.

 

[Vault101]

NO

I waited for the game for 8 months

And it was the biggest dissapointment ever. The combat was ME 2 clone (but in fairness not all 3rd person ARPG are ME 2 clones)
The RPG was pretty deep though, it wasn't you could be a sniper at lvl 1.



So heck maybe.....


BUT STILL NO

combat an ME2 clone?...3rd person shooting is 3rd person shooting (and I like 3rd person shooting) unless you expected somthing different, thats kinda like saying all FPS are COD clones

 

[Vault101]

Ehhhhh...

I guess it's worth playing if you can get it real cheap and you don't have anything better to do.

I can't honestly recommend spending money on it though.

Gameplay is clunky, story is stock-standard spy drama (not my thing, but other people like it), dialogue is not particularly well written.

I might give it a go, I was just seeing in case I run out of things to play and it seems to be split 50/50

and you never know, if I keep my expectations low I may be pleasantly surprised

 

[Trolldor]

The closest it is to ME2 is the third person aspect. For starters spamming weapons is likely to get you killed, and it's not a combat-orientated game, with the exception of boss battles.

 

[Sacul]

Yes it's worth it. The character is a dick, but a likable dick nonetheless.
The technical issues: Graphics, detection, AI are not as big a problem as the reviewers have suggested. In terms of gameplay breaking glitches it actually has none. (at least in my playthroughs)
The "stealth" upgrade chain does break the game near the end though. And some boss fights necessitate the use of guns, making fights much harder if you have no skill in them.

The story really reacts to your choices, way more than any game I've played before, and the dialogue system is pretty good too, I like the fact that it doesn't give you much time to choose, much like a real conversation.

I'd say do it, if you don't like it, then return it, but at least try it.

Pretty much this. I've played nearly 4 times now (PC) and I've only ran into a couple of bugs and they were certainly not gamebreaking. Like RatRace123 said the story really does react to your choices, also more than any game I've played before.

Plus, Steven Heck. That character alone gives the game a point.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I got it very recently, and enjoyed it a lot. I haven't got any replay out of it yet, but I definitely expect to, which is more than I can say for games like Prey or PROTOCOL.

It's definitely not the best game ever, but it is fun, nicely thought out, and I would say overall an enjoyable experience. Get it, but try and get it cheap if you can, because it does have some bugs and glitches that keep me from saying it's worth full retail. I got it for £20 instead of £40, and even that was pushing it.

 

[DanielBrown]

Got the game for 9£ to my PS3 and what I've played(maybe three missions)... it's not that good.
My main complaint about the game is the hacking mini-games. With the PS3 controller they're impossible to pull off.
Quit playing a while ago, but I'm gonna give it a new chance on Easy later on. Rather dumb the game down than keep struggling on Normal. F*cking mini-games.

If you find it cheap, like I did, I wouldn't say it's a bad buy. The game can probably be a lot more fun if you aren't completly incapable of using R2/L2 like I am.

 

[Rylot]

It all depends on if you like story driven games where actions have consequences, or combat based games. I rather liked the dialogue options and choices which either put you closer to group A and farther from group B as opposed to the over used good/evil systems of late. But the combat was sub-par for a AAA title. I liked it but I'd suggest renting it just to be safe.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

First off, PC or Console version? If console, no don't bother.

If PC, read on:

1. An honest to god interactive story. Remember all those blurbs you read on the backs of other RPGs that claimed to have interactive stories and were bullshit? Yeah, AP don't play dat' shit. Your actions have consequences, change the story and the outcomes. This is super-duper true for the ending sequence. I won't spoil it though! Plus the game will tell you at the end of missions what your decisions were, and what effects might be. This makes it a bit easier in subsequent playthroughs to do things completely different.

2. The skill system is a bit wonky. You MUST specialize in some sort of gun, and at least 2 points into the tech tree (for added times on the minigames), otherwise there are points in the game that you will be F'd in the A.

3. Building off that, Stealth is broken. In the beginning it kinda sucks, near the end you are a nigh-unstoppable killing and stealth machine, except bosses, who dont care if you can stealth. Up to you whether this is good or bad.

4. The gameplay is like an odd cross between Splinter Cell, Mass Effect and an evolution of Deus Ex. Its primarily sneak oriented (though you can run and gun if you please), but you have activated abilities with cooldowns that allow you to do extra stuff either with your weapons or with special items like flashbangs or what have you.

PERSONALLY, I find it to be an excellent game and I've had a lot of fun with it (I've beaten it 3 times now), so if this sounds cool to you, I say pick it up.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

edit: Oops! Forgot to add, on the technical issues-

The reason why I ask console or PC in the beginning is because from everything I've read the console versions were marred by a lot of bugs and glitches, and Sega said no to Obsidian doing any patch support for them, so its probably still broken.

For PC, I played it on release day, and I only hit one bug, which is where if you wear certain kinds of hats with crazy hair, if you then take the hat off it will default you to the buzz cut hair, and you have to switch it back.

Only bug I hit in the whole damn thing, with 3 playthroughs.

So, keep that in mind.

highly agree to this, although i did play it on console right when it came out and i didn't experience any of those bugs? so idk, i think people were blowing that shit way out of proportion..

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

The game is incredibly bad. It got some bad reviews from some technical issues, but they've been all mostly justified

Fix'd. The game was critically acclaimed for a reason. its that well done, especially in the writing and gameplay mechanics.

I'd prefer it if you didn't modify my posts. I posted them the way I did for a reason. I'm playing through it for the 3rd time, and the only visible issues are, as I said, some texture pop in, and some collision detection with going into cover.

Yes, and as such, i agree completely, posting this way really helps get a good look at the game and what it has to offer.

Then post your own comment...

I did. I love this game alot, its quite well and i dont know what people are talking about.

glad we all agree.

 

[WanderingFool]

The game is incredibly good. It got some bad reviews from some technical issues, but they've been blown way out of proportion. There is a little texture pop in and some weird collision issues but that's about it.

The story is your basic PMC trying to take over the world thing... not exactly a fantastic story or anything. But you meet lots of interesting characters, and your choices affect the rest of the story a lot more than any other game available (including the BioWare games.)

The gameplay is a ton of fun, and its where the game really shines. If you want to be a Jack Bauer type and go into every situation with an obnoxious pistol or assault rifle and beating the crap out of everybody and executing people after interrogations, you can. If you'd prefer to be the techie guy or the stealth guy, you can do those too.

I personally love being really really stealthy and choking/stabbing people to death. If I ever have to use a gun, its a suppressed pistol, and that's it.

It's likely pretty cheap for all platforms... I'd say take a chance and pick it up. Lots of fun.

This. all this. Flawed? Yes. But still a great game.

 

[The Night Shade]

Yes it is it's an experience and i have to tell the game is good i really like it

 

[DustyDrB]

First of all, the game has been patched and it plays better than it did at its release (I've only played it post-patch). Personally, I liked the game. It had omnipresent and annoying-as-hell minigames. But I did love the story, the spy setting, and the touches that make each gun class unique. It has a sort of Mass Effect 1 style leveling system, in which you fill blocks and gain abilities and become more adept at each skill you're investing in as you go.

The cons, for me are these:

- Stupid and grenade-spamming enemies.

- Unfriendly to stealth play-style in the beginning (though stealth becomes super powerful by mid-game)

- Mini-games, mini-games, mini-games. There are three of them and they are EVERYWHERE. The bypassing and lockpicking ones aren't bad, but the hacking one is Satan's tool to sabotage the game.

That's not enough to wreck the experience for me. The patch apparently improved the gameplay quite a bit from what I heard of the game at launch. Other than those issues, I loved the game.

 

[Quesa]

I utterly hated the writing and the characters, I could not care less about them and it caused me to quit pretty early on. The dialog branches just felt too heavily weighted, no more so than Mass Effect but it was just so clumsy. It's the only game I've purchased in the past five years or so that I've regretted spending money on (other than buying stuff for $1 on Steam that I never play).

 

[Sutter Cane]

YES YES YES YES YES YES! Alpha protocol is the most underrated game of the year. The reviews essentially tore it apart for the awful crime of not being mass effect 2. As long as you remember that it's an RPG first and foremost, and you need to level up to do nearly anything well. But yeah it got knocked down by reviewers because you have to put points into an area to do it effectively, for meing more of an RPG than an action game, and for technical issues (although they're not nearly as bad as say any game by Bethesda, and reviewers seem to give those a free pass). Your actions have concequences. Say you intimidate an informant, then in a later mission when you have to storm a government building, security will be beefed up.

but yeah go out and get it

 

[Eri]

The game is incredibly bad. It got some bad reviews from some technical issues, but they've been all mostly justified

Fix'd. The game was critically acclaimed for a reason. its that well done, especially in the writing and gameplay mechanics.

I'd prefer it if you didn't modify my posts. I posted them the way I did for a reason. I'm playing through it for the 3rd time, and the only visible issues are, as I said, some texture pop in, and some collision detection with going into cover.

Yes, and as such, i agree completely, posting this way really helps get a good look at the game and what it has to offer.

Then post your own comment...

I did. I love this game alot, its quite well and i dont know what people are talking about.

glad we all agree.

I'm sorry, Are you attempting to make me mad by changing my quote? Because if so, you failed. And if you weren't then what was your point?

 

[mexicola]

Yes it is definitely worth playing, I enjoyed every minute I spent on it. I personally didn't encounter any technical problems except some mouse issues but that was back when it 1st came out and it was solved by 30 seconds of googling. If you're into choices and roleplaying then give it a try. It has a slightly frantic dialogue system (none of that Bioware 5 minutes pauses in the middle of a conversation until you figure what you want to say). You often don't know what is going to come out and you're on a timer, but it makes for an exciting experience when you have to think fast. There's bound to be people who will tell you AP is the worst thing in anything EVER since it's not a game for everyone, in the end it's down to you and what kind of games you like.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

It's a Mass Effect rip off with a fuck load of bugs. The games' bugs are just as bad as any Bethesda Games, and if you can't stand the fact the Fallout games get near perfect scores with the amount of bug they have then you'll loathe this game. Decent story but the main character is very unlikable no matter what choices you make. The graphics are sub-par, the gameplay is a wannabe Mass Effect at best. That is, when your gun doesn't randomly float 5 inches above your hands while shooting. Pass and get Mass Effect if you already haven't. May as well Mass Effect 3 is coming this holiday season.