I got it through Gamefly. I only played about 2-3 hours before giving up. I am sure the dialog system is excellent, but I couldn't handle the poor mechanics.
Ive played it. I do not like games where A perfect lined up head shoot misses because of a dice roll. Not to mention how going fully stealth BREAKS the game.
@DragonNinja789: The reviews are pretty spot on. The dialogue is pretty good, for the most part, and it's really impressive how your choices affect how things play out. It's pretty much the reason I continue to play. The game mechanics, on the other hand...
The shooting gets better after you pump a ton of points into a certain weapon class and unlock some special powers for it, but almost every fight in the game can be won by simply using melee. I've noticed that enemies tend to shoot at you less when you're beating their comrades to death, and your melee attacks do WAY more damage than any of your bullets (boss fights being the exception to that rule.) All the super-spy stuff like hacking and lockpicking are done through minigames, which get incredibly annoying as the game progresses--the hacking controls on PC are abysmal, and I do not know how they work on consoles.
I will say that I do like the mission variety; they're not all combat or all stealth. Some are just conversations, which is pretty sweet, and all of them are relatively short so you can play the game more or less in bite-sized chunks. Overall, I think it's a perfect example of a game on the cusp of quality. There's so much that goes right, and I love Obsidian as a developer, but the shit elements of the game cancel out most of the good.
@DragonNinja789: Nope. They'd have to redesign huge parts of the game to fix the problems. Check out the Joystiq review for the game. One of the early comments is supposed to be from an Obsidian employee, and he basically apologizes for the crap state of the game, talking about how messed up the development process was. I'm not sure if it's true, but it certainly makes sense given the host of problems the game has. It was supposedly "finished" in October, but it totally lacks polish.
The game has been slammed by almost everyone who has reviewed it and all the people who I know who have played it tell me the game is broken, not bugged.
I've played through it 3 times now and fucking love it. Also I'm the only one here who has actually played the game. Everyone else is just saying "well it didn't get a 9 out of 10 so it must be shit" Because they are all mindless sheep that can't form their own opinions.
I paid $50 on steam for it in a moment of weakness and sit's an alright game. I was getting into it at one point but I haven't had the chance to jump back into it. At one point in the game I just ran around while everyone was shooting at me and would hit them and shoot them point blank. It was easier than firing from cover.
No, it's not worth full price, but it is worth playing. If renting isn't an option definitely wait for it to drop in price. I rented it from Gamefly and had an okay time with it but there is just too many things broken/incomplete/frustrating to be worth $60.
I bought it on day 1. I say yep. But apparently I'm the only one who likes this game. Shame. Cause no game does choice better then that game and with that you can go back and play it differently multiple times. One choice can change the whole course of the game. Like I said, good for multiple play throughs.
I love Alpha Protocol, but I'd never buy it for $60. I rented it and played through it like 4 times or so, but I saw everything in the game during that time. It might be worth $20, maybe?
I didn't have a problem with the shooting. Assault rifles/shotguns/SMGs blow; if you use a pistol and get the perk that lets you line up crits from behind cover, it's pretty fun. Obviously, if you're an idiot and go in expecting a shooter, you'll be disappointed -- shots take time to line up. Alpha Protocol is really just about maxing out your stealth and pistol skills (ignore everything else until your second playthrough) and then coasting through the game, enjoying the story/intrigue/whatever. Also, make sure your first playthrough background is recruit -- it unlocks veteran on the second playthrough, which gives you a ridiculous amount of skill points to drop into whatever you want.
I think it depends a lot on if you like 3rd person action-adventure-spy sort of stuff. FWIW, I bought the game and played it through once; based on that, and how much I like the sort of game it is, I'd say 30.00 would be a good price.
I'd wait it out until it gets a bit cheaper. It should crash in price come Autumn when shelf space starts to get scarce, am waiting for the same to happen myself. Am interested in the dialogue and story but not so much the (reputedly) bad gameplay.
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