Alpha Protocol: Hated by the same critics who loved Dragon Age 2

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Scorchy: Jul 15, 2006; Smug Statement: Elementary, my dear meatbag.

TheIllestVillain posted:

Does the PC version of this have controller input? I played the 360 version back when it was released and it was buggy as all hell so i didn't get far, i was hoping to give it a go on the big boy platform.

Yeah PC with a controller is the best way to play this game I think.

# ? Dec 16, 2012 10:26

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 03:06

Cirofren: Jun 13, 2005; Pillbug

Scorchy posted:

Yeah PC with a controller is the best way to play this game I think.

Seconding this.

# ? Dec 17, 2012 00:45

Jimbot: Jul 22, 2008

I haven't experienced any crashes at all, which is pretty great. The Quick Load is buggy as hell and sometimes an enemy glitches to a weird spot (like hovering above the ground, under a guard tower) but nothing game-breaking or anything like that. People who called this released terribly buggy was just chanting a tired mantra that's associated with Obsidian. Unless they used Quick Load a lot then yeah, you probably won't be fighting any enemies if you do that. Or receive calls from your handler.

# ? Dec 17, 2012 18:55

Scorchy: Jul 15, 2006; Smug Statement: Elementary, my dear meatbag.

Excerpt from a longer interview with Feargus Urquhart I thought was pretty interesting: http://kotaku.com/5968952/the-knigh...ying-games-ever

quote:

Over the next few months, Obsidian found themselves with something of a feast. While they were wrapping up work on Neverwinter Nights 2 in late 2005, Urquhart got a call from Sega's people, who were looking for a brand new original RPG. Problem was, Obsidian was all tied up. They had nobody available to work on a new game.

"[Sega was] like, �Why don't you come up with a concept and we'll negotiate a contract and when you're available it'll all be done?'" Urquhart said. "And we were like, �Ummm we're fine doing that... you don't feel it's a waste of time?' And they're like, �Yeah.'"

So they came up with a concept: spy RPG. They came up with a name: Alpha Protocol. And they came up with a main character, Michael Thorton, a superspy as suave as James Bond, as savvy as Jason Bourne, and as badass as Jack Bauer.

"[Sega] loved it," Urquhart said. "They said, �Hey, this is different. It's not dragons, it's not phasers.' You don't see a lot of spy RPGs. Sometimes we go: maybe there's a reason for that!"

And indeed, Urquhart admits that Alpha Protocol had some serious issues. The game's four-year development process was long and arduous, and the team sometimes felt like they didn't have a clear direction: was it a shooter? An RPG? A stealth game? All three?

"We meandered�I think that's the best way to say it," Urquhart said. "We meandered for quite a while on that project. It took us a long time to get to the point where we were where we needed to be."

They didn't have any sort of game specification document, Urquhart said, which is now something they require for all of their games: a listed, documented set of guidelines for exactly how a game will be designed and developed. They also didn't determine exactly who they were making the game for�action players? RPG fans? shooter addicts?�which Urquhart said was a serious detriment.

"We started getting into these arguments which were completely not helpful," he said. "Is it 70% RPG or 30% action, or is it 46% action and 50%... These things were not helpful. What we needed to say is: in a mission, Michael can do these things, you know, and this is the toolkit. He can unlock things, he can hack things, he can throw bombs, he can interact this way, he can interact that way."

Part of the problem was Sega's indecision, Urquhart said. "A great example is there was a whole segment of the game, which was really cool, and it probably cost $500,000 to make. It was a long sequence, lots of mocap and all this kind of stuff. And at the time Sega felt it just didn't fit the game... and so $500,000 cut. And you know, I understand: they pay us to make the game. It's totally their right to do that. It can just derail."

When it came out in June 2010 (after several well-publicized delays), Alpha Protocol was slammed by critics. Reviewers thought it was buggy, messy, and directionless. The game didn't meet Sega's sales expectations, and plans for a sequel were shelved.

But against all odds, Alpha Protocol (one of whose characters stars in the above image) has somehow turned into an underground hit. For every negative review out there you'll find a hundred fans who love the game, who replay it over and over just to see how their choices impact every scene and ending.

"It's so weird to have this game where I can read a review and the poor game is whimpering in the corner and the press guy is just beating it," Urquhart said. "And I�we get e-mails. Just the other day, someone wrote a nice, very long e-mail about how they're playing through Alpha Protocol for the third or fourth time and they just love it... That is weird, to have a game in your career where it got reviewed poorly, but then it gets on all these lists. It's on these �Best games you've never played' lists or �Poorly-rated games you really should play' lists. And I always wonder: should I feel good about that?"

Sega has no interest in making a sequel right now�development was costly and challenging, Urquhart points out�but anything could change, particularly as word of mouth for Alpha Protocol continues to spread. "It sold okay," Urquhart said. "We don't know if they made money or lost money, but we do know�and that's the interesting thing�it keeps selling."

"Now, knowing everything we know now, we would love to do Alpha Protocol 2, and everybody here would love to work on it," he said. "[Because] we now know what it is and how to do it... I'm hoping maybe in even a couple of years, [Sega] will get to kind of a point where everybody has kind of moved on, and the baggage is swept away. People are still positive about the brand. We get asked [about a sequel] all the time, still. It's become a cult classic."

# ? Dec 17, 2012 18:58

2house2fly: Nov 14, 2012; You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!

It's heartening to know that, while it wasn't a smash hit, AP didn't completely tank as much as I'd assumed it did. Good word of mouth and frequent appearances in Steam sales probably helped with that. It's also nice to hear that they'd like to do a sequel; I remember when the Eternity kickstarter video went up and AP didn't get mentioned in it, I thought of Compte's posts in this thread about how troubled the development was and wondered if they just hated the game completely and never wanted to go near it or anything like it again.

# ? Dec 17, 2012 20:52

Acute Grill: Dec 9, 2011; Chomp

I think I'm going to start a playthrough of this game where I don't put any points into stealth or gadgets and just shotgun/SMG my way through the game with as much subtlety as Steven Heck on a subway. Any particularly good interaction with that path I should keep an eye out for?

# ? Dec 17, 2012 21:15

Crappy Jack: Nov 21, 2005; We got some serious shit to discuss.

Kalos posted:

I think I'm going to start a playthrough of this game where I don't put any points into stealth or gadgets and just shotgun/SMG my way through the game with as much subtlety as Steven Heck on a subway. Any particularly good interaction with that path I should keep an eye out for?

It's good fun to go speak to Grigori as soon as possible and beat the crap out of him so basically everybody in the game knows about Mike Thorton: Super rear end in a top hat.

It's also good fun to do the exact same thing and then act super nice and professional to everyone else and have them all express surprise that you're nothing like Grigori told them.

# ? Dec 17, 2012 21:22

Falls Down Stairs: Nov 2, 2008; IT KEEPS HAPPENING

I just finished this game for the first time and it was super, super fun in the middle, but gently caress the boss fights (copter fight :argh:

).

How far do I need to play into a second run before I start noticing differences? I'm tentatively mousing over some spoilers and gently caress y'all not kidding when you say you inevitably miss a ton in one play-through but I can't imagine Saudi Arabia being different at all.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 04:26

Riven: Apr 22, 2002

Falls Down Stairs posted:

I just finished this game for the first time and it was super, super fun in the middle, but gently caress the boss fights (copter fight ).

How far do I need to play into a second run before I start noticing differences? I'm tentatively mousing over some spoilers and gently caress y'all not kidding when you say you inevitably miss a ton in one play-through but I can't imagine Saudi Arabia being different at all.

Try playing with a different style. A run and gun play will have different character reactions and even enemy difficulty levels (depending on stuff you accomplish) than a stealth run through. And try the missions in a different order. I did Darcy's mission first and was completely stealthy, and instead of warning me to be quiet on her mission, she complemented me on how stealthy I had been so far, and told me to keep it up.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 05:24

El Tortuga: Apr 27, 2007; �Terrible es el Guerrero de Tortuga!

Riven posted:

Try playing with a different style. A run and gun play will have different character reactions and even enemy difficulty levels (depending on stuff you accomplish) than a stealth run through. And try the missions in a different order. I did Darcy's mission first and was completely stealthy, and instead of warning me to be quiet on her mission, she complemented me on how stealthy I had been so far, and told me to keep it up.

Depending on how you respond to the various people during the opening missions, you can see their attitudes towards you change as soon as Saudi.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 05:26

PureRok: Mar 27, 2010; Good as new.

You could do what I'm going to do on my next playthrough which is selecting the choices randomly by rolling a die. :shepface:

# ? Dec 25, 2012 06:50

Nehru the Damaja: May 20, 2005

PureRok posted:

You could do what I'm going to do on my next playthrough which is selecting the choices randomly by rolling a die.

Some guy in this thread basically did that by playing with a video card bug that obscured all the text from the option wheel. He said he was always really high when playing so it never really occurred to him what was going on. But it led to Thorton playing out some kind of hideous Kafkaesque nightmare where he constantly undoes his own actions for totally arbitrary reasons. It sounded hilarious.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 07:11

PureRok: Mar 27, 2010; Good as new.

Ah, yea. Forcing Anti-Aliasing does that. I had that bug when I first played before I figured it out. Maybe I'll do that, but I think I have what goes where memorized so I'd probably subconsciously screw it up. But hey, now I can turn on AA.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 07:15

FIRE CURES BIGOTS: Aug 26, 2002; by Y Kant Ozma Post

This is really weird, when we try to play the game on my brother's xbox, the main characer hs no walking animation, he just hovers with his arms out, floating around. Yet it is fine on my xbox. Has that happened to anyone else?

# ? Dec 25, 2012 09:36

Falls Down Stairs: Nov 2, 2008; IT KEEPS HAPPENING

El Tortuga posted:

Depending on how you respond to the various people during the opening missions, you can see their attitudes towards you change as soon as Saudi.

Okay, I've started up a Recruit run and am answering with the Recruit options as often as possible. Let's see how things go this time. :toot:

# ? Dec 25, 2012 11:03

Fantastic Alice: Jan 23, 2012

Falls Down Stairs posted:

Okay, I've started up a Recruit run and am answering with the Recruit options as often as possible. Let's see how things go this time.

Make sure to do the gun training well enough to shoot Darcy in the balls man, or team up with the man who's initials are S. H.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 17:53

Acute Grill: Dec 9, 2011; Chomp

Falls Down Stairs posted:

Okay, I've started up a Recruit run and am answering with the Recruit options as often as possible. Let's see how things go this time.

I like Recruit Thorton, he's so excited to be a spy :3:

Shame the Recruit options don't persist through the entire game, though.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 18:18

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

Scorchy posted:

Excerpt from a longer interview with Feargus Urquhart I thought was pretty interesting: http://kotaku.com/5968952/the-knigh...ying-games-ever

This is kinda nice to hear. Alpha Protocol is still slowly gaining an audience :shobon:

It's pulling a reverse Dragon Age 2. I always kinda wondered what would happen if AP had been a big enough hit to warrant DLC that wasn't just those lame preorder weapon packs. Add another hub? I dunno how it'd work.

Fire posted:

This is really weird, when we try to play the game on my brother's xbox, the main characer hs no walking animation, he just hovers with his arms out, floating around. Yet it is fine on my xbox. Has that happened to anyone else?

You've unlocked the hidden class past veteran: Demigod Thorton.

# ? Dec 25, 2012 20:41

2house2fly: Nov 14, 2012; You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!

Wolfsheim posted:

This is kinda nice to hear. Alpha Protocol is still slowly gaining an audience

It's pulling a reverse Dragon Age 2. I always kinda wondered what would happen if AP had been a big enough hit to warrant DLC that wasn't just those lame preorder weapon packs. Add another hub? I dunno how it'd work

Assuming they could get the voice actors back, additional missions where you get to use Sie and G22 would be good, build up their characters a bit more. I also think it would have been cool to find out Darcy is in, say, Taipei for some reason and have to intercept or work with him. Maybe a mission with Parker as your begrudging handler for whatever reason. I always thought the Greybox characters could use some more presence in the story, and DLC would have been perfect for that.

Sigh... what could have been.

# ? Dec 26, 2012 01:00

Feedbacker: Nov 20, 2004

This is on sale at Green Man Gaming today for $2.62 after the 30% off code (GMG30-DPLIM-DN831).

# ? Dec 29, 2012 19:37

Pork Pie Hat: Apr 27, 2011

Feedbacker posted:

This is on sale at Green Man Gaming today for $2.62 after the 30% off code (GMG30-DPLIM-DN831).

For UK Goons it's �1.75 which is insanely good value.

# ? Dec 29, 2012 20:37

treiz01: Jan 2, 2008; There is little that makes me happier than taking drugs. Perhaps administering them, designing and carrying out experiments that bend the plane of what we consider reality.

So I was thinking about this game today, and I remembered reading this thread back when the game was new. Sure enough, the OP still made me want to play the game right then and there. So I decided to buy it and it's currently downloading. Steam is giving me 3mb per second and higher, so in like 45 minutes I'll be playing this game for the first time! I really liked Mass Effect, and New Vegas had such better characters and story than Fallout 3, Obsidian is really good at nailing that.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 22:34

Fantastic Alice: Jan 23, 2012

treiz01 posted:

So I was thinking about this game today, and I remembered reading this thread back when the game was new. Sure enough, the OP still made me want to play the game right then and there. So I decided to buy it and it's currently downloading. Steam is giving me 3mb per second and higher, so in like 45 minutes I'll be playing this game for the first time! I really liked Mass Effect, and New Vegas had such better characters and story than Fallout 3, Obsidian is really good at nailing that.

Talk to Steven Heck as soon as you can, trust me on this man.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 22:36

theshim: May 1, 2012; You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

xanthan posted:

Talk to Steven Heck as soon as you can, trust me on this man.

Aw come on, that's not for a ways in. Saudi Arabia takes a while, especially on a first run.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 22:38

Fantastic Alice: Jan 23, 2012

theshim posted:

Aw come on, that's not for a ways in. Saudi Arabia takes a while, especially on a first run.

Come on man, tell me it isn't worth being buddies with him at least once.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 22:39

theshim: May 1, 2012; You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

xanthan posted:

Come on man, tell me it isn't worth being buddies with him at least once.

It absolutely is! But let the man discover the best parts for himself.

Not like Wen. No, sir, not like Wen at all.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 22:41

rawdog pozfail: Jan 2, 2006; by Ralp

Don't set the difficulty to Hard, it makes the mini games bullshit. Have fun!!

# ? Jan 2, 2013 22:41

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

That has got to be literally the most useless post I've ever seen.

First off it's spoilered, and second, he doesn't know who that is.

Go to Taiwan is what he means.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:00

treiz01: Jan 2, 2008; There is little that makes me happier than taking drugs. Perhaps administering them, designing and carrying out experiments that bend the plane of what we consider reality.

I will follow all of that advice at the same time.

Also I saw that a lot of people like using the 360 pad for this game? I am garbage at shooting with analog sticks and I played Mass Effect with mouse and keyboard. Gonna try that first as it's my favorite.

Steam is giving me up to 12.1mb per second! 7 minutes left on the download! Do I have to install the 1.1 patch for the steam version or does it auto update?

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:15

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Holy Calamity! posted:

Don't set the difficulty to Hard, it makes the mini games bullshit. Have fun!!

This, oh god this. Its not any more challenging, just a lot more bullshit and not in a fun way.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:17

Line Feed: Sep 7, 2012; Seeds taste better with friends.

I think you'll be fine with mouse & keyboard, treiz. That's what I used. In fact, I didn't find the hacking minigame to be nearly as bad with m&kb as you all led me to believe. :colbert:

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:25

Sankara: Jul 18, 2008

Veteran makes Hard bearable, but there's no point in playing on Hard. Unless you want the achievement, I suppose.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:26

Cirofren: Jun 13, 2005; Pillbug

Steam auto updates, Rookie is worth playing and not that much more difficult, but you're probably going to want to do multiple playthroughs anyway as it's short but you can't experience everything in one go.

The game plays a bit bitter with a gamepad but unfortunately you can't switch controller and KBAM on the fly so if you prefer KBAM you'll have to accept the hacking will take a few tries to get used to.

After the first country more will open up. You don't have to fully complete one before going to the other you can do some missions and then jet off and come back later. But go to Taiwan first on a first playthrough.

There are no wrong paths so don't feel the need to savescum to get particular results, the game unfolds nicely even if you're setting off every alarm and failing to convince anyone to help you.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:28

Acute Grill: Dec 9, 2011; Chomp

treiz01 posted:

I will follow all of that advice at the same time.

Also I saw that a lot of people like using the 360 pad for this game? I am garbage at shooting with analog sticks and I played Mass Effect with mouse and keyboard. Gonna try that first as it's my favorite.

Steam is giving me up to 12.1mb per second! 7 minutes left on the download! Do I have to install the 1.1 patch for the steam version or does it auto update?

The Mini games are pretty clearly designed with controllers in mind. The rest of the game works perfectly fine with mouse and keyboard.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:33

Sankara: Jul 18, 2008

Oh, big tip: If you die or gently caress up or whatever, load saves manually. There is a weird bug associated with using the quickload.

# ? Jan 2, 2013 23:43

divernb: Feb 15, 2012

I think one of my favorite things about Alpha Protocol is the after mission debriefing. The reports read as if they were created by someone at the agency who documents what you do vicariously, and can sometimes be outright wrong depending on the actions you take during the mission (Like if you lie, for example.) It also serves the purpose of explaining what consequences you will face due to your actions during the mission.

# ? Jan 4, 2013 03:53

Facebook Aunt: Oct 4, 2008; wiggle wiggle

treiz01 posted:

I will follow all of that advice at the same time.

Also I saw that a lot of people like using the 360 pad for this game? I am garbage at shooting with analog sticks and I played Mass Effect with mouse and keyboard. Gonna try that first as it's my favorite.

Keyboard and mouse is fine.

When you get to the hacking mini game you have to move two cursors, one uses the keyboard and works well. For the other side you have to use the mouse, and because it is a port the mouse doesn't act like a mouse. It doesn't matter how fast you move the mouse, only what direction in which the mouse is moving, because the cursor moves at a fixed rate. Unintuitively this means that the fastest way to move the cursor around is to move your mouse as slowly as possible. If you try to hurry by moving the mouse fast you'll reach the edge of your desk, pick up the mouse, move it though the air to the other edge of the mouse pad, and then slide it along the desk as fast as possible over and over again. While the mouse is in the air the cursor doesn't move at all, so it takes twice as long to move the cursor where you need it to go. Move the mouse as little as possible and hacking is easy. Slow and steady wins the race.

# ? Jan 4, 2013 04:28

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

divernb posted:

I think one of my favorite things about Alpha Protocol is the after mission debriefing. The reports read as if they were created by someone at the agency who documents what you do vicariously, and can sometimes be outright wrong depending on the actions you take during the mission (Like if you lie, for example.) It also serves the purpose of explaining what consequences you will face due to your actions during the mission.

I love when we find out that, after the final mission, Mike remotely downloaded and watched the clip of SIE raping him a ridiculous number of times.

Class act, that Thorton :q:

# ? Jan 4, 2013 06:51

treiz01: Jan 2, 2008; There is little that makes me happier than taking drugs. Perhaps administering them, designing and carrying out experiments that bend the plane of what we consider reality.

Angela Christine posted:

Keyboard and mouse is fine.

When you get to the hacking mini game you have to move two cursors, one uses the keyboard and works well. For the other side you have to use the mouse, and because it is a port the mouse doesn't act like a mouse. It doesn't matter how fast you move the mouse, only what direction in which the mouse is moving, because the cursor moves at a fixed rate. Unintuitively this means that the fastest way to move the cursor around is to move your mouse as slowly as possible. If you try to hurry by moving the mouse fast you'll reach the edge of your desk, pick up the mouse, move it though the air to the other edge of the mouse pad, and then slide it along the desk as fast as possible over and over again. While the mouse is in the air the cursor doesn't move at all, so it takes twice as long to move the cursor where you need it to go. Move the mouse as little as possible and hacking is easy. Slow and steady wins the race.

Thanks for the advice! Also to the guy who suggested defocusing your eyes to find the static numbers in the hacking game. It worked and I passed through the first mission in Saudi Arabia. This really is a cool game, I didn't intend to go stealthy but it's working quite well for me. Threw a silencer onto my pistol and I take out like half the guys in the level with silent takedowns.

# ? Jan 4, 2013 17:13

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 03:06

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

Doctor Reynolds posted:

Oh, big tip: If you die or gently caress up or whatever, load saves manually. There is a weird bug associated with using the quickload.

Better tip: Use quickload and don't deal with enemies anymore :downs:

# ? Jan 4, 2013 17:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Alpha Protocol: Hated by the same critics who loved Dragon Age 2

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