I just finished Alpha Protocol. I did it in two sittings (would have done it in one if I didn't need to sleep or have work). Sure the gameplay isn't on par with say Mass Effect, but OMG does the story kick ass. Choices really do seem to matter, unlike most games. I got the feeling that pretty much everything could have gone differently had I made other choices. The ending (at least my ending) was one of the best endings ever and as my handler put it "Alpha Alpha Protocol!". All I want to do now is play it again and make other choices. My expectations were low after all the negativity about this game, but I don't think it has more issues than Mass Effect 1. Too bad they won't make AP2 or it could have been for AP1 what ME2 was for ME1.
Alpha Protocol
Game » consists of 11 releases. Released May 27, 2010
Control rogue agent Michael Thorton as he tries to unearth an international conspiracy in the near future (where everybody seems to have a hidden agenda or two) in this third-person action RPG.
Alpha Alpha Protocol!
Sigh, maybe I should check it out. I was really excited about it before it was released. Then my excitement waned and I've been avoiding this game ever since D:
I really do like making decisions in games though, real decisions, ones where there are no incorrect solutions.
I've completed it three times now, despite my own review still scoring 2 stars. The gameplay is saggy ass, but the story and character interaction is so brilliant and flexible that it was tough for me not to get back into it.
What I really liked about my multiple endings aswell, is that I have no idea how I got them. There's so many variables to put in place, it's tough for me to figure out why one ending went this way over the other. There are some obvious differentiations to pick apart but
I was expecting people to say "the game sucks, you suck, noob, go play a real game like 1337 ppl l1k3 m3 etc etc" but I guess it's not just me who liked it =) Good RPG's are like flight-sims, hard to come by these days (not like in the 90's when there were at least a couple of games for every fighter jet or gunship that existed or was a prototype), especially on consoles so I take whatever I can get even if it has flaws. I'm already at least 1/3 into my second game and now I'm being a complete a-hole some dialog between Thorton and Madison while she is sitting in the sofa at my place he: "Bitch" she: "Asshole" ^^
" I was expecting people to say "the game sucks, you suck, noob, go play a real game like 1337 ppl l1k3 m3 etc etc" but I guess it's not just me who liked it =)Allow me to be that person: Alpha Protocol is not a good game. If you don't want to read my lengthy blog on the subject, allow me to summarize it for you: AP is a game that does exactly one thing right, and that is making your choices feel like they have impact. However, the gameplay and RPG elements are mediocre at best, the main story lacks a soul and is kind of bland, and most of the characters aren't interesting enough to care about when the game wants you to care about them. Nonetheless, it's not the worst thing in the world. It's just a game that is all concept and very little execution.
" @dagas said:lacks a soul? that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." I was expecting people to say "the game sucks, you suck, noob, go play a real game like 1337 ppl l1k3 m3 etc etc" but I guess it's not just me who liked it =)Allow me to be that person: Alpha Protocol is not a good game. If you don't want to read my lengthy blog on the subject, allow me to summarize it for you: AP is a game that does exactly one thing right, and that is making your choices feel like they have impact. However, the gameplay and RPG elements are mediocre at best, the main story lacks a soul and is kind of bland, and most of the characters aren't interesting enough to care about when the game wants you to care about them. Nonetheless, it's not the worst thing in the world. It's just a game that is all concept and very little execution. "
oh I dunno, i felt the story had plenty of drive. I really liked Albatross, Heck, Deng... sure, there were some characters that felt needless to me (Sie, for instance) but a couple bad characters doesn't make the game soulless. Obviously I think it has plenty of soul, but I respect your opinion.
and as far as the voice acting is concerned, according to Thorton's voice actor, it was originally much more emotional, but making Mike emote more would kinda make him seem schizophrenic
With some mods to balance it (slow running speed, make it harder overall), and then some more mods to adjust fov and retexturing, its a great game.
But see, isn't it so much better when we can talk about games without resorting to insults? I can understand why people like Alpha Protocol. I just totally disagree.
I bought it for €15 on 360, I expect similar prices in the rest of the world. Probably even cheaper on PC.
@ArbitraryWater I kind of agree with you, it would be nice to be able to talk to anyone you want, walk around and explore the world etc. however they probably didn't have the budget for creating something like The Citadel in ME1. They had to focus on something and they focused on the choices. Sure it would have been better if they had the resources of Bioware, but since they don't I think they made the right choice. Good gameplay would not have meant anything if the rest of the game sucked because there is already a huge amount of third person shooters on the market. I rather have something that feels unique but flawed than just another good but not awesome game. It reminds me about Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines which had a combat system that would make AP seem great in comparison, but it still managed to stand out because of the great characters and atmosphere.
I wish someone took a chance one day and made a game all about choices. It seems to be an unwritten rule that you have to have combat in between, but to be honest I just plow through the combat to get to the choices, characters, story etc in games like Dragon Age, Persona, Alpha Protocol. Unless you can make combat awesome like Mass Effect 2 then it's just in the way of what I want out of the game. They could have skipped the entire dungeon crawling part in Persona 3 for example (at least in Persona 4 the dungeons had something to do with the story but in P3 it was just a generic dungeon).
Even in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey they felt they had to put combat in there even though it's not very good and doesn't really help the game at all. In the original point and click game The Longest Journey they didn't have anything like that, but I guess they felt they had to have combat just because they made the sequel a third person adventure instead of a point and click and the unwritten rule says you need combat in a third person adventure game.
" Picked it up and for the first few missions it just seemed like a generic "stop the terrorists" third person shooter. But after that mission it got so much better, Steven Heck should of been best character of 2010. Not finished yet but really enjoying it. "Same here, first missions were too long and tedious, but then it gets better. Until the first boss battle, which was horrid (but that was true in ME as well)
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