Alpha Protocol

[distortedreality]

I picked it up for $40 AU a year or two ago - well worth my money. After seeing this thread I decided to re-install it, and am going to do another play through now that i've done one of Dishonored.

Really under-rated game. Or, put a different way, a game where the positive aspects aren't praised enough.

captcha - goes to eleven. Indeed it does, Nigel.

 

[Windcaler]

Okay so basically this thread is to ask folkses opinions on Alpha Protocol.

The reason I ask is because I hadn't heard of it at first (makes me feel shame because im an RPG gamer lol) and when I did hear of it some months after release I heard really bad things. Like really really bad things.

And I believed those things cos hey its an obsidian title. Obsidian are like Bethesda, their games are always buggy unplayable heaps of crap on release.

So I didn't bother investigating.

In my defence it was more because there were other "better" more interesting titles coming out around that time, and my own financial situation meant that I felt that I had to prioritise what I was purchasing.
So Alpha Protocol got forgotten about.

Until very recently when I was told some very positive things about it (the convo system?), and the fact that its like 15 quid from Steam now.

So wondering, is it worth buying?

I mean did obsidian get around to actually fixing the thing? Lol.

Opinions?

The game does have some bugs the the majority of them have been graphical in my experience. Ive played through the game a ton of times and I have no encountered a game breaking bug or one where control gets taken away from your character (something I heard of from the escapist).

That said, what you get in return is a true conversation system where some choices have do have significant consequences, stats based combat system where any playstyle is viable,and a cool spy story.

IMO the pros far outweigh the cons and yes it is worth the price on Steam right now

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

I enjoyed it. I rushed through the game so I can't say I really explored every option but it was interesting. I played a martial artist with toughness up the wazoo, so I basically just sneaked into a room then went crazy running up and knocking out every gun-wielding terrorist/special forces guy around. I didn't find the hacking or lockpicking minigame too onerous once I mastered it (didn't upgrade any skills to make it easier - the highest difficulties were quite hard but doable after a couple of goes.) At the end of the game, I reloaded just before I encountered the final boss, so I could go through the different conversation options and see the different possible endings. My character's general philosophy was to knock everyone out (due to the martial arts doing it as a default) but always killing the end of stage bosses.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

It's worth the money for the kung-fu, crouch walk animation and hilarious dialogue alone.

 

[AngloDoom]

I actually really enjoyed the game.

I came into the game with low expectations but I found it very fun. I played as a stealthy guy who used pistols and the game was just the right amount of difficult: I never felt like any slip-ups were as a result of anything but my own poor decisions. Admittedly, this couldn't be said of the dialogue, where there were a few times when I ended up upsetting (sometimes assaulting) characters who I was trying to get along with.

I had it for the 360 and encountered no bugs, with the exception of an unconscious guard clipping into a doorway, and the only reason I stopped playing it was because I put the controller down for a week and totally forgot what was going on. I personally felt the story was twisted to the point of obscurity, but that may be because I was mostly ignoring it assuming it'd be terrible.

For £15 you could probably get a better game, so I'd shop around if you want the game. Considering Human Revolution is currently in GameStation for £10 and is a much more recent game, you'd be screwing yourself to pay anything over £10.

EDIT - Whoops, turns out the £10 Deus Ex: Human Revolution I was on about is a preowned, not new. Apologies.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I absolutely loved every minute of Alpha Protocol. I did get it for $3, so that might be informing my opinion of it. I also didn't experience any of the bugs or performance issues people talked about. Maybe they got patched out?

Totally worth getting.

 

[AJvsRonin]

Yay! As someone who enjoyed AP the bashing on it seems to be quite hard. I was at a game shop and over heard the cashier warning a guy not to buy it when he brought up a 2nd hand copy to buy.

Sure it has it's problems but I enjoyed it.

 

[Jfswift]

It's actually pretty cool. I haven't finished it yet but I love how you don't really know who to trust in this game. They did a great job on the story. My only two criticisms are one, I don't really care for the opening / menu music. I'm not into hard synth stuff much. Also there's this boss fight (and I agree with yahtzee on this) where instead of letting you beat the guy, it goes to a cutscene and shows the main character firing the rocket launcher. I felt kind of denied. Those short comings aside it's decently fun, give it a try if you like a modern day "Mass Effect" type game.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

For me, it was the best game of 2010, yes better than Mass Effect 2.
The timed conversations were great and add a certain element of surprise, but you do have a hint of what you are about to say.
The stealth might not be too good and there are a few glitches but nothing more than other games have.
And it has the best performance by Nolan North before Spec Ops, Stephen Heck (I don't have a PS3 so I don't know about Nathan Drake).
The best part is the choices you make have actual consequences.
And I am a Pakistani, so I really liked that for once the Arab character is not a stereotypical villain.

 

[Kekkonen1]

One thing that really bugged me about it and made me stop playing was the enemy AI. It basically had some really no-no flaws that you just can't have in a stealth-game, such as hive-mind AI (if one enemy sees you, regardless if he manages to alert others or not everyone immidiately knows where you are).

It could have been great, as it stands it felt quite unfinished.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

It has shitty combat mechanics and mini-games that can be annoying as fuck at times. There's pixel skipping as well that can make it hard to aim at longer distances.

It contains some of the best RPG mechanics out of perhaps any game. The responsiveness of the dialogue system is amazing as to how you can push peoples buttons to make them act rashly, or say what they want to hear to get on their good side. The story is well written. The dialogue is well written. There are some really interesting characters that aren't one dimensional(Steven Heck, need I say more?)

I bought it on sale for like 5$ because I was being cautious, but probably would have paid more for it. I can deal with shitty combat mechanics if writing is really good, because I really like RPG stories. If you can't overlook that aspect, then the game probably is not for you.

And I am a Pakistani, so I really liked that for once the Arab character is not a stereotypical villain.

ummm...

Spoiler

He kills a bunch of innocent civilians on a plane for the shock value. Just because he's being used as a puppet by an American spy organization and a corporation does not make him any less evil; it just makes him stupider.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

It's a good game with great a great story in which choices matter and forthcoming missions and NPCs Thorton meets adapt to the player's approach and style. I've played it through 4 or more times since its release in 2010 and probably will again in the future.

It sadly falls a little short of greatness because of a few poor design choices (minigames, checkpoints, unintelligent AI, weapon selection, unbalanced and out-of-place skills, etc) and reported bugs, which I have to admit I've personally never actually encountered at all in all the playthrus (minus rare texture pop-in).

It joins the category of "flawed gems" alongside VTM: Bloodlines, Borderlands and what I'm currently playing, Sleeping Dogs. It's a shame Sega simply wrote-it-off so thoroughly, as there will never be any mods, DLCs, patches or sequels, because I think done better it would be a masterpiece.

Pro-tip: Carry 2-3 pockets worth of EMP grenades for dealing with all hacking minigames. You're welcome

 

[Bat Vader]

I really enjoy Alpha Protocol. I like how the conversation system works and how the choices I make do make an impact on the story. I like how if I do one mission in one place a character could talk about it in another mission.

I would love to see a sequel or even see Obsidian team up with another developer to make a sequel. Like perhaps they could team up with Bioware, Bethesda, Arkane Studios, or CD Projekt Red.

 

[dekuton]

Personally i enjoyed the hell out of this game. the only design decision i never understood was making smgs dual wielded...when your a spec ops/secret agent i will never understand the idea of dual wielding smgs. 2 clips later youve killed a handful of people.at close range. ugh

 

[FitScotGaymer]

Eek.

Lol.

Go to bed and come back to 3 pages of replies. Wow.

Thanks folks.

Based on what people are saying, I am going to hold off on buying this until the Steam Xmas sale, and put my money towards something else.

Thanks again

 

[dancinginfernal]

You should play it. It's a game that presents fantastic ideas, and executes a lot of them brilliantly.

However, some not so much. It's also quite a bit buggy, so be aware of that.

 

[Arina Love]

better than every mass effect game. and your decisions matters.

 

[Doom972]

I played through the PC version (purchased from Steam) three times. I haven't encountered any bugs. The only 2 things that annoyed me was one needlessly difficult boss fight (described in Zero Punctuation's review of the game), and one needlessly difficult lock that required me to switch from using my gamepad to using my keyboard and mouse to solve it quickly enough.
It's one of my all time favorites and I highly recommend it, if you can bear with the problems I described and maybe some bugs that will require you to reload to a checkpoint or restart a mission (didn't happen to me, but I read some complaints).

 

[wabbbit]

I really tried to like this game but it was the dodgy mini games for things like hacking that annoyed me. I failed so many times at hacking simple things.
The stealth was ok, a bit annoying that it is like Chaos Theory when you are caught in which every mo' fo on the map knows your location even in pitch black