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Quick question: Is Alpha Protocol on the PC best enjoyed with keyboard + mouse or a 360 gamepad?
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Dec 9, 2011 01:13
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| # ? May 29, 2024 23:55 |
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360 gamepad. There are some minigames that are painful to the point of impossibility with a mouse. Others are hilariously easy though, so your mileage may vary.
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Dec 9, 2011 01:23
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I found it perfectly playable using KB&M, though hacking took some getting used to. Nothing insurmountable, though.
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Dec 9, 2011 01:28
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Ashley J. Williams posted:Aggresive tone: See, it's attitudes like that that screwed you out of your epilepsy pills! Mild spoiler for Moscow: An upcoming bossfight has loud music and flashing lights. It's a joke!
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Dec 9, 2011 01:57
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ArchRanger posted:360 gamepad. There are some minigames that are painful to the point of impossibility with a mouse. Others are hilariously easy though, so your mileage may vary. It's fine with KB+M; since it's not really a shooter, you don't get anything special for being a super badass with the mouse for shooting. The only times that precision matters for shooting, it's equally doable with keyboard or mouse. The minigames... Lockpicking is equally easy with a kb+m or 360; electronic bypass is easier with a mouse because you can really quickly cursor trace the right paths to bypass; computer hacking is tear-your-loving-hair-out frustrating with kb+m and is easier with a 360 controller. It still sucks, though. Awful minigame, the worst 
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Dec 9, 2011 02:01
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Agreed posted:It's fine with KB+M; since it's not really a shooter, you don't get anything special for being a super badass with the mouse for shooting. The only times that precision matters for shooting, it's equally doable with keyboard or mouse. Once you work out how it's supposed to work, all the minigames are a piece of piss with the KB+M setup (just not very fun). The hacking minigame is much more intuative with a controller, it's setup really poorly with a mouse. It works by scrolling the mouse very slowly in the direction you want to move the pointer, like you'd hold a control stick in that direction. It's terrible, because nothing else works like that, and moving the mouse faster actually makes the cusors move more slowly because you have to lift the mouse of the pad to move it back to the middle, which 'counts' as though you've taken your hand off the virtual controller stick. Once you get the hang of this, the hacking minigame is pretty easy. But really it doesn't matter much. Play with whichever you prefer.
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Dec 9, 2011 05:24
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:But really it doesn't matter much. Play with whichever you prefer. Yeah, really this. Control preference is not a deciding factor for this game (even if you want there to be, there aren't any advantages I can discern from keyboard control in terms of, oh, precision shooting or whatever - treat it like a shooter and prepare for disappointment, and since precision isn't a big deal, it's pretty comfortable to have a gamepad to do all the gameplay with, but either is fine). The inventory is actually a lot better with a controller, as is dialog. The mouse has the unnerving ability to click through the current inventory window into what's behind it, which is lazy on Obsidian's part but we know what we're getting into with Obsidian games, let's not poo poo ourselves, they're a bit buggy! As far as the computer minigame... I know how it works, that's not the issue, it's just so damned slow and unintuitive on the mouse side. I have the digital movement of the WASD side settled immediately, then I inevitably literally can't move the mouse's slow gently caress side to the right spot in time. So I don't use anything but a health pack, a radio mimic, and a poo poo-ton of EMP, funded by illicit memory alterations. And I -like- puzzles like that, granted my dyslexic wife gets a near panic attack looking at it but spotting the codes in the jumble is cool. I wish I could play that minigame but with my preferred control setup, not happening. Agreed fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Dec 9, 2011 |
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Dec 9, 2011 06:14
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Holy poo poo, I just went through the hardest drat part of this game so far. Basically after doing 2 of the hubs and then working on completing my third (Rome), there's a certain mission Investigate Marburg's Villa where you have to melee 2 guys at once. However the game had already reached a drat near impossible state to melee people due to me being, as previously stated, 2.5 hubs in. This lead to one of the most aggravating "boss" fights of all time. I basically had to throw off a chain and if I got hit twice, back off and regen some endurance so I can throw off a chain. This guys were monsters. They took 10ish punches to finish and they dodged 7/8 punches I threw their way.
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Dec 9, 2011 12:00
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Cerepol posted:Holy poo poo, I just went through the hardest drat part of this game so far. Don't play on hard. Seriously.
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Dec 9, 2011 12:43
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I'm playing on Normal and that loving Russian boss fight almost made me stop playing the game. I figured out you could return to the last Safehouse, which saved the game for me.
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Dec 9, 2011 13:46
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Quantum of Phallus posted:I'm playing on Normal and that loving Russian boss fight almost made me stop playing the game. I figured out you could return to the last Safehouse, which saved the game for me. Did you get Heck to buy the spiked coke for Brayko?
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Dec 9, 2011 14:32
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Sam. posted:Did you get Heck to buy the spiked coke for Brayko? I'm not sure, do you get that option once you've completed Taiwan?
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Dec 9, 2011 16:16
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Quantum of Phallus posted:I'm not sure, do you get that option once you've completed Taiwan? I don't think you even need to complete it, although I could be wrong.
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Dec 9, 2011 16:30
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Doctor Spaceman posted:I don't think you even need to complete it, although I could be wrong. I think you just need to meet Heck, really.
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Dec 9, 2011 16:46
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Sam. posted:Did you get Heck to buy the spiked coke for Brayko? You know, I couldn't even tell the difference when I did this. My first playthrough I did Taiwan first, but didn't pay for Heck's services (can't remember why). I was looking forward to something crazy happening on my second playthrough, but from what I remember everything was the same. What does it do exactly?
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Dec 9, 2011 18:05
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He loses health during the coking up rather than gaining it.
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Dec 9, 2011 18:07
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Gaggins posted:You know, I couldn't even tell the difference when I did this. My first playthrough I did Taiwan first, but didn't pay for Heck's services (can't remember why). I was looking forward to something crazy happening on my second playthrough, but from what I remember everything was the same. What does it do exactly? spikes the coke so he can't heal while he's high Hey, quick question, dumb question... I can go between safe houses whenever, right? Nothing says I have to play every mission in one area first and then move on, repeat, right? If so, the sheer abundance of choices and potential outcomes is paralyzing and awesome. I was just doing all of Moscow, so I had zero dossier info on Sis and only some on G22 when they showed up on a Yacht and I had to fight them - clearly that's information you get elsewhere, since G22 seems like a supernational take on the Alpha Protocol concept, with global rather than single-national aims. That much I was able to glean from the encounter with them on the Yacht and subsequent conversation. The only other game that has ever made it seem so fluid that there aren't right or wrong/BEST answers, you just do what you do and play the consequences is Bastion, and its choices are only explicit twice, leaving the rest up to the player to engage with the narration and the character's actions to form a unique interpretive framework. In the case of Alpha Protocol, it's much more explicitly done - engineered heavily into the game, very clearly a design goal that's ambitious and successful and it blows my goddamned mind. Could anyone give me a rough figure for playthrough time, so I can know just what I'm getting myself into, here? Hah.
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Dec 9, 2011 18:14
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The game can be quite short for an RPG, ~12 hours or so? Its replay value is huge, though.
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Dec 9, 2011 18:15
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MrL_JaKiri posted:The game can be quite short for an RPG, ~12 hours or so? Its replay value is huge, though. Perfect. That's doable. Thanks 
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Dec 9, 2011 18:16
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You know it only just occurred to me that Obsidian have thought of really inane, pedantic stuff to call you out in the game - clothing options, different answers between different people, etc - but I don't recall a single moment where it's brought up if you keep changing between hubs. You'd figure someone, somewhere, would crack smart about air miles or the like. 
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Dec 9, 2011 18:23
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poptart_fairy posted:You know it only just occurred to me that Obsidian have thought of really inane, pedantic stuff to call you out in the game - clothing options, different answers between different people, etc - but I don't recall a single moment where it's brought up if you keep changing between hubs. You'd figure someone, somewhere, would crack smart about air miles or the like. I'm sure Surhov would have had something to say about this is you ever met him again after skipping over his final mission by jetting out to Rome or Taipei.
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Dec 9, 2011 18:43
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Smol posted:Don't play on hard. Seriously. It's too late for that I'm nearly done and my pride won't let me lower it.
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Dec 9, 2011 21:21
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Game is currently 4 bucks on GamersGate. Very worth it, but the offer is only valid for today, so there's no much time to convince other people to try it. http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-ALP/alpha-protocol
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Dec 10, 2011 12:11
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One of the last few times this game was on sale, I gifted it to a friend of mine. He was touched, and decided to gift me another game right back. That game was Dragon Age 2. MMAgCh posted:I found it perfectly playable using KB&M, though hacking took some getting used to. Nothing insurmountable, though. This was my experience as well. I actually liked the controls on the hacking. It felt like it needed focus, sharpness, and the ability to see past matrix code, just like "real life hollywood-style hacking. 
Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Dec 10, 2011 |
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Dec 10, 2011 12:31
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Smol posted:Don't play on hard. Seriously.  ). The minigames does get a lot harder but I think obsidians intention was that the harder minigames were supposed to be limited to characters that leveled sabotage anyway.
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Dec 10, 2011 12:42
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I feel like I've bought at least 75% of the world's supplies of EMPs. I just bring 12-15 to every missions and EMP all the things.
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Dec 10, 2011 12:45
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Cerepol posted:I feel like I've bought at least 75% of the world's supplies of EMPs. I just bring 12-15 to every missions and EMP all the things. It wasn't until my third playthrough that I actually started using gadgets seriously. Even then it was just rigging up area's with Grenades in advance of an event I knew was coming because of previous playthrough. I just didn't feel the need to use most if any of the gadgets at your disposal throughout the game.
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Dec 10, 2011 13:02
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Doc Hawkins posted:One of the last few times this game was on sale, I gifted it to a friend of mine. He was touched, and decided to gift me another game right back. It's the thought that counts
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Dec 10, 2011 13:28
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I was buying used PS3 games today and there was a buy 2 get one free deal so now I have Alpha Protocol on two different systems. I've never played it on a console, but I can't imagine that its too different. I'm gonna do a Recruit Thorton and for all of my dialogue choices I'm going to start at the Professional option and for each choice, just rotate clockwise once. A very calculated schizophrenic Thorton. I'm curious to see how it turns out.
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Dec 11, 2011 04:51
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And that wraps up my playthrough. A total of 26 hours was spent playing according to steam and it was quite fun. There are some gripes I have with the game but otherwise I feel saddened that this game got trashed so hard by reviewers.
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Dec 11, 2011 10:24
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Cerepol posted:And that wraps up my playthrough. A total of 26 hours was spent playing according to steam and it was quite fun. There are some gripes I have with the game but otherwise I feel saddened that this game got trashed so hard by reviewers. As I understand it, one playthrough gets you maybe a quarter of the possible content, and it can take as many as ten to understand all the clandestine relationships organically (that is, not sitting with a FAQ as you check it all off). I agree though, with a thorough approach I'm finding 12 hours of "content" becomes 20+ hours of gameplay. Probably quicker in future runs, this is my sneaky, gadgety, pistol-wielding mostly professional recruit who is a humanitarian who only kills if there's a damned good reason e.g. gently caress the cokehead, world's better off without him in it and I had no problems aerating his cranium. Next run: SMG and martial arts focused veteran who doesn't have any taste for the fine art of diplomacy. At all. I figure that'll be a faster playthrough. Agreed fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Dec 11, 2011 |
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Dec 11, 2011 10:47
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Unfortunately as much as I would like to do another playthrough I don't have time. I have other games to play (Steam Anonymous here, working through my backlog). I might come back to it at some point though.
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Dec 11, 2011 10:49
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Agreed posted:As I understand it, one playthrough gets you maybe a quarter of the possible content, and it can take as many as ten to understand all the clandestine relationships organically (that is, not sitting with a FAQ as you check it all off). I agree though, with a thorough approach I'm finding 12 hours of "content" becomes 20+ hours of gameplay. Probably quicker in future runs, this is my sneaky, gadgety, pistol-wielding mostly professional recruit who is a humanitarian who only kills if there's a damned good reason e.g. gently caress the cokehead, world's better off without him in it and I had no problems aerating his cranium. A quarter of the content is understated. Even doing a total Fuckup retard thorton who learns as little as possible will still probably get ~60% of the story. Of course, you will still have no loving clue who many of the key players are and who are/were your true allies. If you do a perfect gamefaqs checklist run, you probably get closer to 95% of what's going on and who is involved with what. That last 5% relies on imperfect choices though. Still, it's worth sacrificing learning a lot of poo poo for the comedy that a pure aggressive or pure suave run produces.
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Dec 11, 2011 17:13
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There's more to the game than the dossiers. I'd definitely count "hilarious dialogue" as content you're missing. [edit] eg. In terms of actual things like quests, the Int <4 playthrough in Fallout 2 has absolutely nothing new and you are locked out of a lot of things, but as the dialogue is largely entirely different it's definitely new content. MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Dec 11, 2011 |
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Dec 11, 2011 17:32
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Agreed posted:As I understand it, one playthrough gets you maybe a quarter of the possible content, and it can take as many as ten to understand all the clandestine relationships organically (that is, not sitting with a FAQ as you check it all off). I agree though, with a thorough approach I'm finding 12 hours of "content" becomes 20+ hours of gameplay. Probably quicker in future runs, this is my sneaky, gadgety, pistol-wielding mostly professional recruit who is a humanitarian who only kills if there's a damned good reason e.g. gently caress the cokehead, world's better off without him in it and I had no problems aerating his cranium. Is there any reason not to execute Brayko? He's a douchebag, and unlike Shaheed or Omen Deng he doesn't help you with anything later on, at least not that I know of.
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Dec 11, 2011 23:17
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Sam. posted:Is there any reason not to execute Brayko? He's a douchebag, and unlike Shaheed or Omen Deng he doesn't help you with anything later on, at least not that I know of. You have just won the Olympic medal in being wrong. Next time you play try and get a positive rep with him, spare him and do the follow-on mission to his.
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Dec 11, 2011 23:20
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Hank Morgan posted:You have just won the Olympic medal in being wrong. Next time you play try and get a positive rep with him, spare him and do the follow-on mission to his. This is a positive about the game, though. gently caress that guy. Also he can help. I look forward to a less green Mike digging deeper in the future. I've got secrets and all that, but there's obviously stuff I'm missing so far.
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Dec 11, 2011 23:36
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I gave up on this the first time because the combat just peeved me off, but I guess I'll give it another try. Any tips for a first play through? I've read the OP and I'm fine with running through the game and making mistakes. I used to be a bit of a perfectionist where I'd keep reloading until I was satisfied with things, but I'm fine with not caring (I've managed a greedy thief in Skyrim well enough - oh I'm so daring!). My inclination for games likes DE HR is stealth, with silent take-downs through tranq darts and martial arts, though in HR's case I got bored of not using all of the weapons in the game. Instead I'm tempted to do a Deadpool run with SMG and dialog that's either 'erratic' (whatever I feel like at the time) or 'serious'. Magic fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Dec 11, 2011 |
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Dec 11, 2011 23:46
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Magic posted:Any tips for a first play through? Don't reload. Get 5 ranks in stealth. Don't worry about alarms and blowing up your cover. Karate chops are fun. Suave and Agressive options are the best.
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Dec 12, 2011 00:17
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| # ? May 29, 2024 23:55 |
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Magic posted:I gave up on this the first time because the combat just peeved me off, but I guess I'll give it another try. I would suggest avoiding SMGs your first time as they are the weakest combat skill in my opinion. Avoid recruit until you've finished the game at least once. If you're having trouble with a mission in a certain hub you can travel to a different hub and attempt missions there.
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Dec 12, 2011 00:29
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