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So, I played through this game twice at release and then left it alone until now. I must say, the sneaking around I did before was fun and all, but this time I adopted the "If problem, fire guns at it until it goes away" school of problem solving, while trying to get as many people to hate me as possible. And it was a ton of fun. There were a few things that were a bit strange there at the end, though. Like Albatross, I did everything in my power to piss him off, and he was at -10 dislike by the end, vowing revenge for Sis right before the final mission, etc. And then, he's... never heard from again for some reason. Also, your 'handler' for the last mission is a bit odd, how I chose Heck, and if I kill or ignore Scarlet, he shows up like he's supposed to, but if I decide to ally with Scarlet, he's never heard from again. I guess the game doesn't really know what to do if you have more than one friend at the end or something?
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Feb 6, 2013 17:26
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You can end up with both Mina and Scarlett on the boat with you. I think. I played through three times so I hope I remember correctly.
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Feb 6, 2013 19:45
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Aleph Null posted:You can end up with both Mina and Scarlett on the boat with you. I think. I played through three times so I hope I remember correctly. You'll always end up with your final handler (one of Heck, Scarlet or Mina or on your own if you kill that handler or if your handler is Sie or Albatross Edit: forgot about that one vvvv Hank Morgan fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Feb 8, 2013 |
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Feb 6, 2013 19:57
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Hank Morgan posted:You'll always end up with your final handler (one of Heck, Scarlet or Mina or on your own if you kill that handler or if your handler is Sie or Albatross Or you can ally with Halbech and end up with Leland
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Feb 8, 2013 02:45
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So I got my roommate started on this last night after drawing comparisons to it, Spec Ops: The Line, and Second Sight (all three have great story and so-so gunplay). When he got to that part of the gun range training bit, he asked "Can I shoot him in the dick?" Watching him play through this is going to be a blast.
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Feb 8, 2013 02:52
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What happens if you DON'T shoot him in the dick? Like, i've never been able to resist the urge, even if i'm curious about whether you get a different cutscene or something.
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Feb 8, 2013 18:02
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Another positive retrospective on the game from a mainstream source that originally panned it. There are going to be a lot of, "Why didn't anyone give this brilliant game a chance?" articles showing up in the next few years, aren't there?
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Feb 9, 2013 05:26
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Hannibal Smith posted:Another positive retrospective on the game from a mainstream source that originally panned it. Someone called this earlier, didn't they? AP really was a diamond in the rough. The gameplay was rough as guts but man, it really grabbed me.
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Feb 9, 2013 05:56
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The gameplay isn't even all that bad and its actually fun once you get the hang of it. Having high Martial Art skills and dropkicking and curbstomping every goon in the room never got old.
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Feb 9, 2013 06:03
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OK, bought it a couple of days ago, did Saudi Arabia and went for Rome next, just finished that mission. IT IS AWESOME. Holy gently caress this narrative. Because of the dossiers and some of the comments of this thread, I always keep second-guessing EVERYTHING the game throws at me. I love it. Tried to do my best to piss off Marburg, managed do it a tad but even though I went for the "Bourne route" of conversations he expected me to save Madison; so I apparently threw a wrench on their cogs when I stopped the bombings? By the way, the order of the missions matter? In a new playthrough if I do Taipei first for example it will change things? Also, is there any spoiler-free equipment lists or something? I wanna know what gear should I go for as an operative specialized at stealth/toughness/assault rifles. Thanks in advance. 
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Feb 9, 2013 06:41
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Transmetropolitan posted:
Certain mission options can become available to you if you do the missions in different orders; doing Taipei before Russia means that you can get Steven Heck to help you out in the Brayko fight, for instance
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Feb 9, 2013 06:43
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You can also leave a hub at anytime to go to another. I never had to do it, but its still handy to know.
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Feb 9, 2013 06:48
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One of the best pieces of advice I can give to a new AP player is to hop around to all three locations when they first open up, doing a few missions at each one to get introduced to the characters in each place. This will open up some options you may not have seen otherwise, give you some dialogue that will make you go "Holy poo poo, this game", and allow you to make educated decisions on where to go when.
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Feb 9, 2013 07:26
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There'll be the odd reference to the events of a previous hub as well. When I went to Moscow after Taipei Grigori commented on the outcome of my mission there, and in Taipei one mission had a couple of mooks chatting about what happened in Rome. One of my favourite consequence bits in the game: the end credits reveal that if Halbech's attacks in Rome and Taipei are successful the results actually work against them: if Madison survives the museum bombing she becomes a vocal anti-war speaker, and if Sung is killed the independence movement crumbles without popular support.
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Feb 9, 2013 07:36
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2house2fly posted:One of my favourite consequence bits in the game: the end credits reveal that if Halbech's attacks in Rome and Taipei are successful the results actually work against them: if Madison survives the museum bombing she becomes a vocal anti-war speaker, and if Sung is killed the independence movement crumbles without popular support. Actually one of those is playing into their plans and the other isn't Halbech was using agitators to start the riots in Taipei and create tension with China. If you save Sung, it's not enough to prevent it from happening, though the effect is lessened. However, in Rome blowing up the Museum piece was what was in their plans. Directly stopping it also isn't enough to stop tensions from rising between Europe and the Middle East. If you do both of these, you can intercept an email where one of the Halbech guys mentions that their plans aren't as effective as they could be, but still salvageable.
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Feb 9, 2013 07:50
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Two Finger posted:Someone called this earlier, didn't they? Back when I first started reading this thread - so over a year ago at this point, I think - someone predicted that within five years of AP's release, the same publications that savaged it in reviews and ensured it would be viewed as a dismal failure and a toxic IP and game design would be publishing glowing retrospectives describing it as a work of genius and weepily wondering why it never got a sequel and other RPGs didn't follow in its footsteps. So I guess we're a bit early.
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Feb 9, 2013 09:12
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ToxicFrog posted:Back when I first started reading this thread - so over a year ago at this point, I think - someone predicted that within five years of AP's release, the same publications that savaged it in reviews and ensured it would be viewed as a dismal failure and a toxic IP and game design would be publishing glowing retrospectives describing it as a work of genius and weepily wondering why it never got a sequel and other RPGs didn't follow in its footsteps. Yeah, but let's be honest - it was pretty obvious it was gonna be viewed as a 'why did it fail?' title. The game is too good to be anything but. Actually it's too good to fail in the first place, but that's the way the mop flops.
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Feb 9, 2013 09:27
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Two Finger posted:Yeah, but let's be honest - it was pretty obvious it was gonna be viewed as a 'why did it fail?' title. The game is too good to be anything but. Actually it's too good to fail in the first place, but that's the way the mop flops. Those guys originally from Black Isle always make games too good to fail. Yet they always do.
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Feb 9, 2013 12:36
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vyelkin posted:One of the best pieces of advice I can give to a new AP player is to hop around to all three locations when they first open up, doing a few missions at each one to get introduced to the characters in each place. This will open up some options you may not have seen otherwise, give you some dialogue that will make you go "Holy poo poo, this game", and allow you to make educated decisions on where to go when. Wait, what? I can "mix-and-match" the missions? I thought I had to finish a safehouse before moving to another. This game.
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Feb 9, 2013 15:54
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Sighence posted:So I got my roommate started on this last night after drawing comparisons to it, Spec Ops: The Line, and Second Sight (all three have great story and so-so gunplay). Wait, what? What part of the gun range training?
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Feb 9, 2013 19:41
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Riven posted:Wait, what? What part of the gun range training? If do well enough at gun training Mina asks you to take Darcy down a peg by shooting him from the catwalk above while he runs the shooting range. There are similar events for gadget and stealth training.
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Feb 9, 2013 20:14
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ToxicFrog posted:If do well enough at gun training Mina asks you to take Darcy down a peg by shooting him from the catwalk above while he runs the shooting range. And the post-mission text is hilarious, too. Due to a scheduling conflict....
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Feb 9, 2013 20:27
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I apparently suck at guns, because I get the other two post missions every time, but I've never gotten that one from Mina.
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Feb 9, 2013 20:44
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Riven posted:I apparently suck at guns, because I get the other two post missions every time, but I've never gotten that one from Mina.
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Feb 9, 2013 20:46
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Another newbie question: I don't get it - I decided to hop between safehouses following the recommendation some posts above and I dunno, but I felt that the sequences with Leland got a bit... Disjointed? Like, I am getting to the end of Taipei but there is still a couple of missions in Moscow left but he didn't mention anything about it. Or am I being just too impatient?
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Feb 9, 2013 21:44
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I definitely prefer not jumping between hubs. It's pretty clear that the game was written with the assumption that you would complete each city one at a time.
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Feb 9, 2013 21:51
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Transmetropolitan posted:Another newbie question: I'd generally agree with you - I think the narrative flows better if you finish up one safehouse before moving on to another. The advantages to hopping around are mostly mechanical, such as being able to cherry-pick short and combat-light missions until you've leveled up a bit, but you can also unlock certain contacts / intel that will affect missions in other hubs.
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Feb 9, 2013 21:53
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I decided to throw this in yesterday and try out a shotgun rear end in a top hat playthrough since it comes well-recommended in the the thread. I spent a couple hours in the Greybox soaking up perks and getting 27/27 objectives. I get geared up and deploy to Saudi, and find that there is absolutely no way I can complete the mission I chose with the shotgun. Any tips, or should I just go pistol / stealth / MA like usual?
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Feb 9, 2013 21:57
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Ripley posted:I'd generally agree with you - I think the narrative flows better if you finish up one safehouse before moving on to another. Yep, like meeting Heck to spike Brayko's coke (Taiwan/Moscow spoiler) or making friends with SIE to piss off Marburg more (Moscow/Rome spoiler). titties posted:I decided to throw this in yesterday and try out a shotgun rear end in a top hat playthrough since it comes well-recommended in the the thread. I could never get into the shotgun, personally. Just pack an AR as backup and use it untrained or with 1-2 ranks, it's good enough as-is without much leveling and the active talent sucks anyway.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:03
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01011001 posted:Yep, like meeting Heck to spike Brayko's coke (Taiwan/Moscow spoiler) or making friends with SIE to piss off Marburg more (Moscow/Rome spoiler). Shotgun only really comes into its own once you have a few ranks of the room clearing or whatever it's called. That combined with flaming ammo destroys everything.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:06
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Yeah, the flame ammo is easily the best part of it, especially on certain bosses. I just kinda felt like it wasn't nearly versatile enough to be worth it, whereas I could kludge the other weapons into working. Also that backflip thing bosses do to get out of knockdown is bullshit.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:09
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01011001 posted:I could never get into the shotgun, personally. Just pack an AR as backup and use it untrained or with 1-2 ranks, it good enough as-is without much leveling and the active talent sucks anyway. That's how I did my other 3 playthroughs and it worked fine, even though I probably never actually fired the AR and just ran around with the pimp AK on my back the whole time as a trophy. I was hoping for a little variety in gameplay, but I guess I'll just settle for variety in story / events as I run around acting like a total cock. titties fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Feb 9, 2013 |
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Feb 9, 2013 22:10
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The difference here is that you actually use it while building up your shotgun skill, instead of just pistol-skip everything.
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Feb 9, 2013 22:15
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Transmetropolitan posted:Another newbie question: He'll mention whatever the mission is you were just doing, sometimes with context relating to other things you've completed and sometimes not. The game is probably designed to be played one safehouse at a time, but I think if you're just starting out it's helpful to try each location before picking one for sure, because the characters that get introduced in the first few missions can have effects on missions in completely different parts of the world. On the other hand, this game is custom-built to promote replayability, so if you feel like something is disjointed or like you're missing something, don't worry. Play through the game again and watch the butterflies flap their wings.
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Feb 10, 2013 01:51
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Joystiq wonders if Alpha Protocol is the new Deus Ex.
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Feb 10, 2013 02:01
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I guess you're skipping around the hubs and losing track of the plot, Sober, because we've already been over that plot twist earlier in the thread on this very page.
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Feb 10, 2013 02:36
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Sober posted:Joystiq wonders if Alpha Protocol is the new Deus Ex. Only when they and every other major game review site condemned it to hell and signed the death warrant. I can't say obsidian did themselves any favors with such a delayed release and troubled development but I immediately saw the weapon system implemented almost precisely like deus ex and could see past the obvious flaws.
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Feb 10, 2013 02:37
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I just wanna say that Steven Heck is one of the greatest characters ever created in the history of video games. That is all.
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Feb 10, 2013 03:16
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Transmetropolitan posted:I just wanna say that Steven Heck is one of the greatest characters ever created in the history of video games. You are correct.
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Feb 10, 2013 03:23
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The amount of new people flocking to this game is as equally pleasing as the plot twists. 
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Feb 10, 2013 03:46
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