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

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

A few years down the line I think Alpha Protocol will be this gen's Deus Ex; any discussion of it will result in a bunch of people starting a new playthrough. I've played it to death and still get the urge to have another go whenever this thread gets posts.

moller posted:

But then you miss out on the best sex scene.

I missed out on getting the achievement for not romancing any ladies last time I played because my wife was watching me play and insisted that I have sex with SIE.

StoneOfShame posted:

Just finished playing this for the first time and I have to play it again I know I missed stuff like like who attempted to assassinate Sung, I'm pretty sure Halbech are responsible but I'm sure in a game like this you should be able to find the assassin.

Oh yeah, you can find that out. There are three ways to do it, as I recall but two of them are just someone telling you and are pretty lame. The third one is great enough to make up for it though.

2house2fly fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Jul 30, 2014

# ? Jul 30, 2014 05:57

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# ? May 23, 2024 21:16

Polaron: Oct 13, 2010; The Oncoming Storm

StoneOfShame posted:

Just finished playing this for the first time and I have to play it again I know I missed stuff like like who attempted to assassinate Sung, I'm pretty sure Halbech are responsible but I'm sure in a game like this you should be able to find the assassin.

Oh, you can definitely find that person.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 06:04

Fathis Munk: Feb 23, 2013; ??? ?

2house2fly posted:

A few years down the line I think Alpha Protocol will be this gen's Deus Ex; any discussion of it will result in a bunch of people starting a new playthrough.

We're already a few years down the line and this thread is still going. Sadly the game never caught on with a big audience and I fear it will always remain an underrated niche classic.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 08:17

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Fathis Munk posted:

We're already a few years down the line and this thread is still going. Sadly the game never caught on with a big audience and I fear it will always remain an underrated niche classic.

All we have to do is wait for when it goes on sale for like, a euro/dollar, and find someone that still has the energy to gift like, a few hundred copies of the thing. That should solve things automatically!

# ? Jul 30, 2014 09:29

Hank Morgan: Jun 17, 2007; Light Along the Inverse Curve.

I'd strongly advise anyone who has beaten the game only once not to read spoilers and just play the game again with different choices to see what you've missed. I read spoilers after my first play-through and was spoiled on a lot of cool stuff that I wished I could have experienced myself.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 09:32

Tirranek: Feb 13, 2014

First time I played the game I didn't know who Albatross was until he came up as someone I couldn't select to help me at the end.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 11:46

poptart_fairy: Apr 8, 2009; by R. Guyovich

There's so many ways you can develop your relationship with Albatross. My favourite is definitely taking away what he holds dear, yet not pushing him to a point where he can turn on you. The tension on his side of future conversations is amazing, and Thorton can be so blase about it.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 12:10

Asbury: Mar 23, 2007; Can't post for 6 years!; Hair Elf

That first conversation with Marburg in Rome was probably one of the most suspenseful moments in a game I've ever had. Fright and jump scares in games are easy, but a low-boil suspense is hard to pull off.

Now that I've had some time to organize my thoughts, here's some random chat about the game (if anyone cares):

-No news to anyone, but it needed more time for QA. The load system bug, where the enemies disappeared (and where, in my case, manual loading locked up the system, so I had to ctrl-alt-delete and restart the game every time I died) was frankly egregious, and one of the most pace-killing bugs I've ever seen. In fact, while I do understand the purpose of the checkpoint system in a game like this, it desperately needed a quicksave option.

- The minigames were average and made terrible by poor controls. That first hack in the Greybox is what turned me off of the game for so long. I don't mind difficulty, but I hate fighting against my own input scheme. (Incidentally, this is also why I can't stand Dark Souls on the PC.)

- The first hour of the game showcase everything that's wrong with it--the opposite of other developers (e.g. Bethesda), which put huge detail into the first hour and try to awe the player but then peter out as the game goes on. Saudi isn't particularly interesting, your lack of skills makes things oddly difficult for the beginning of a game, and the choice/consequence system isn't yet in full bloom.*

- Thorton is pretty unlikeable and snide, no matter how you play him, but like the game itself, you get used to the flaws and learn to enjoy him. And since I'm being incredibly nitpicky, I'll go ahead and point out what I pointed out earlier: that crouch animation, something that any stealth player would be looking at for the entire game, really needed some work.

- The characters and their stories don't always work like they should. Rome: I picked up Madison, brought her back to the safe house, basically ignored her, decided to go after the bomb; Marburg shot her and the game had a forced pity scene I, as a player, didn't really feel.

- But somehow, despite all those issues, once I got into the game, I couldn't stop playing it. When AP works, there's nothing like it--the unique "contact" missions that are all dialogue and no gameplay are loving fantastic, and I would've loved a game that was nothing but those. (The gelato shop, for example, was absurdly suspenseful; every dialogue felt like it was telling me I really needed to kill the guy and get the gently caress out of there, but I somehow bluffed my way through it.) I'm already half-way through my second run, playing suave/recuit Thorton who fucks everything up, and the responses I'm getting from the characters are so entirely different that I can't believe Obsidian was able to pack them in. (Endgame spoilers): I did some peeking around and discovered that you can turn Marburg at the end? That you don't even have to fight Westridge? I love that while the story stays the same, the characters and their responses change just enough to make each run unique. It's loving brilliant, and a game design that's absolutely worth polishing and putting some variants on, and it's a shame that Obsidian probably won't ever make a sequel where they can do both those things.

*I always found that skill-based FPS/RPG hybrids like AP, DX, et al far more difficult at the start than at the end, which always struck me as a strange but perversely compelling curve.

Asbury fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Jul 30, 2014

# ? Jul 30, 2014 14:01

Riven: Apr 22, 2002

In reference to the spoiler above:

I've played through eight times and never had to fight Westridge.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 16:06

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

3Romeo posted:

That first conversation with Marburg in Rome was probably one of the most suspenseful moments in a game I've ever had. Fright and jump scares in games are easy, but a low-boil suspense is hard to pull off.

Now that I've had some time to organize my thoughts, here's some random chat about the game (if anyone cares):

-No news to anyone, but it needed more time for QA. The load system bug, where the enemies disappeared (and where, in my case, manual loading locked up the system, so I had to ctrl-alt-delete and restart the game every time I died) was frankly egregious, and one of the most pace-killing bugs I've ever seen. In fact, while I do understand the purpose of the checkpoint system in a game like this, it desperately needed a quicksave option.

- The minigames were average and made terrible by poor controls. That first hack in the Greybox is what turned me off of the game for so long. I don't mind difficulty, but I hate fighting against my own input scheme. (Incidentally, this is also why I can't stand Dark Souls on the PC.)

- The first hour of the game showcase everything that's wrong with it--the opposite of other developers (e.g. Bethesda), which put huge detail into the first hour and try to awe the player but then peter out as the game goes on. Saudi isn't particularly interesting, your lack of skills makes things oddly difficult for the beginning of a game, and the choice/consequence system isn't yet in full bloom.*

- Thorton is pretty unlikeable and snide, no matter how you play him, but like the game itself, you get used to the flaws and learn to enjoy him. And since I'm being incredibly nitpicky, I'll go ahead and point out what I pointed out earlier: that crouch animation, something that any stealth player would be looking at for the entire game, really needed some work.

- The characters and their stories don't always work like they should. Rome: I picked up Madison, brought her back to the safe house, basically ignored her, decided to go after the bomb; Marburg shot her and the game had a forced pity scene I, as a player, didn't really feel.

- But somehow, despite all those issues, once I got into the game, I couldn't stop playing it. When AP works, there's nothing like it--the unique "contact" missions that are all dialogue and no gameplay are loving fantastic, and I would've loved a game that was nothing but those. (The gelato shop, for example, was absurdly suspenseful; every dialogue felt like it was telling me I really needed to kill the guy and get the gently caress out of there, but I somehow bluffed my way through it.) I'm already half-way through my second run, playing suave/recuit Thorton who fucks everything up, and the responses I'm getting from the characters are so entirely different that I can't believe Obsidian was able to pack them in. (Endgame spoilers): I did some peeking around and discovered that you can turn Marburg at the end? That you don't even have to fight Westridge? I love that while the story stays the same, the characters and their responses change just enough to make each run unique. It's loving brilliant, and a game design that's absolutely worth polishing and putting some variants on, and it's a shame that Obsidian probably won't ever make a sequel where they can do both those things.

*I always found that skill-based FPS/RPG hybrids like AP, DX, et al far more difficult at the start than at the end, which always struck me as a strange but perversely compelling curve.

That scene was goddamn fantastic. I wish I could play the game again the first time just to experience that again. What you're saying about the crouch animation, I've heard somewhere (I can't remember where) that they actually modelled that on a real crouch-walk, because apparently the traditional one you see in games (the squat-walk) will absolutely destroy your knees if done for any real length of time. I can't really speak to that, but there you go.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 16:07

Asbury: Mar 23, 2007; Can't post for 6 years!; Hair Elf

Two Finger posted:

What you're saying about the crouch animation, I've heard somewhere (I can't remember where) that they actually modelled that on a real crouch-walk, because apparently the traditional one you see in games (the squat-walk) will absolutely destroy your knees if done for any real length of time. I can't really speak to that, but there you go.

That speaks to a strange contradiction in the game: the animations aim for realism but the mechanics let the player literally turn invisible and freeze time. Might be why it seems so goddamned weird to look at--the medium (quirky game engine)and the tone (quasi-realistic spy story) are at separate odds.

Asbury fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Jul 30, 2014

# ? Jul 30, 2014 16:55

Jokymi: Jan 31, 2003; Sweet Sassy Molassy

Riven posted:

In reference to the spoiler above:

I've played through eight times and never had to fight Westridge.

That must mean you've never gotten the betray Leland scene, which is probably my favorite in the game.

"Terrible last words."

# ? Jul 30, 2014 17:04

Accordion Man: Nov 7, 2012; Buglord

3Romeo posted:

That speaks to a strange contradiction in the game: the animations aim for realism but the mechanics let the player literally turn invisible and freeze time. Might be why it seems so goddamned weird to look at--the medium (quirky game engine)and the tone (quasi-realistic spy story) are at separate odds.

AP takes place in quasi-realistic world in general because you have Omen who can turn invisible and good ol Brayko who becomes the invincible god of cocaine.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 00:21

Facebook Aunt: Oct 4, 2008; wiggle wiggle

3Romeo posted:

*I always found that skill-based FPS/RPG hybrids like AP, DX, et al far more difficult at the start than at the end, which always struck me as a strange but perversely compelling curve.

The idea is that at the beginning you are untried, so you struggle even against random mooks. Reality doesn't have a newbie zone where you kill bunnies and slimes for XP. Then because you are inherently awesome and pushing yourself to the limit you "level up" much faster than everyone else in the world. By the end you are kicking rear end and taking names, almost a force of nature rather than merely a man. Catharsis.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 00:39

Telamon: Apr 8, 2005; Father of Ajax!

Bless you, 3Romeo (and all other newcomers), because we get to relive those first few playthroughs vicariously through you. There were a few ugly bugs, a couple of schizophrenic Thorton scenes (which, ironically, could have been many times greater if Josh Gilman was allowed to perform more enthusiastically for one version of Mike or another), and that silly PC non-analog stick maximum crouch speed movement visual, but dammit if they didn't make a fantastic roleplaying game.

You say you're doing a sauve Thorton now? If you're not already there then I non-spoiler recommend you be an absolute suave-dick to Marburg while in Rome. Bonus points if you've already met SIE and are in good standing with her. I think it's my favorite single scene in the whole game.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 02:47

Asbury: Mar 23, 2007; Can't post for 6 years!; Hair Elf

Angela Christine posted:

The idea is that at the beginning you are untried, so you struggle even against random mooks. Reality doesn't have a newbie zone where you kill bunnies and slimes for XP. Then because you are inherently awesome and pushing yourself to the limit you "level up" much faster than everyone else in the world. By the end you are kicking rear end and taking names, almost a force of nature rather than merely a man. Catharsis.

I understand the principle behind it. I think it's a good one, actually, for exactly the reasons you mention. But that design decision has itself an Alpha Protocol result to it: While it can give a game a classic status (Deus Ex), it can also turn away a good portion of the audience, resulting in poor sales. There are exceptions to this, of course (Dark Souls), and I don't mean for it to sound like a flat rule, but I feel like AP could've had better reviews (and maybe been allowed a sequel) had it been a little more welcoming. Alone, it might've been fine, but mixed with the clunky interface and other design issues, I can see why it turned people off. Hell, I bought it when it came out and just now got around to beating it. I'm glad I did.

Telamon posted:

Bless you, 3Romeo (and all other newcomers), because we get to relive those first few playthroughs vicariously through you. There were a few ugly bugs, a couple of schizophrenic Thorton scenes (which, ironically, could have been many times greater if Josh Gilman was allowed to perform more enthusiastically for one version of Mike or another), and that silly PC non-analog stick maximum crouch speed movement visual, but dammit if they didn't make a fantastic roleplaying game.

You say you're doing a sauve Thorton now? If you're not already there then I non-spoiler recommend you be an absolute suave-dick to Marburg while in Rome. Bonus points if you've already met SIE and are in good standing with her. I think it's my favorite single scene in the whole game.

Suave/recruit/fail Thorton. Killing everyone I shouldn't and pissing everyone off I can (which is the opposite of my first run, where I killed rarely--except at the endgame--and was liked by literally everyone). I went to Rome immediately after Saudi and at the cafe Marburg's like, Jesus Christ, Thorton. I went from neutral to huge dislike in about seven sentences.

Accordion Man posted:

AP takes place in quasi-realistic world in general because you have Omen who can turn invisible and good ol Brayko who becomes the invincible god of cocaine.

I died like five times in that Brayko fight because I was laughing so hard I couldn't shoot straight.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 03:46

Cheston: Jul 17, 2012; (he's got a good thing going)

I recommend going Shotgun/Unarmed and doing literally everything that SIE and Heck suggest. Leland basically facepalms through half of the interrogation scenes. And you can get enough skillpoints that you can still stealth when you want to.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 03:59

Telamon: Apr 8, 2005; Father of Ajax!

3Romeo posted:

Suave/recruit/fail Thorton. Killing everyone I shouldn't and pissing everyone off I can (which is the opposite of my first run, where I killed rarely--except at the endgame--and was liked by literally everyone). I went to Rome immediately after Saudi and at the cafe Marburg's like, Jesus Christ, Thorton. I went from neutral to huge dislike in about seven sentences.

That's not the best part of suave-Rome Thorton. Keep going, you glorious bastard.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:01

HukHukHuk: Jun 27, 2011; I am the sound of cats and hairballs.

I played my Veteran run as unarmed/toughness/explosives and ran around with the gold AK and whatever the biggest shotgun was. Between constantly massive explosions and ending a melee combo with a shotgun to the dome, I was a shining god of death that everyone loved. :black101:

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:08

moller: Jan 10, 2007; Swan stole my music and framed me!

I do like that blasting someone in their groin with a shotgun from three feet away and then stomping on them on the ground until they stop squirming is a non-lethal takedown.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:32

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

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Yeah, you actually tend to end up with a surprisingly high nonlethal count when playing Shotgun rear end in a top hat Thorton, just because of the knockdown-stomp combo.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 06:09

Ginette Reno: Nov 18, 2006; How Doers get more done; Fun Shoe

I just started and I have no idea what I'm doing really. Conversations go really fast and I just try furiously to hit sarcastic, but I'm not always quick enough. Here is my guy, I call him the beard:

I plan to play him as the ultimate neckbeard fantasy. Im gonna aggressively hit on every girl and pick sarcastic and dumb responses whenever I can.

e: So far this seems a lot like Deus Ex: Human Revolution which I enjoyed a lot so I should be able to pick up the gameplay quick. That loving computer mini game is annoying as poo poo though and hurts my eyes.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 06:45

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

Ginette Reno posted:

I plan to play him as the ultimate neckbeard fantasy. Im gonna aggressively hit on every girl and pick sarcastic and dumb responses whenever I can.

I think Obsidian said at some point Thorton is written like what a 15 year old thinks being a spy would be like.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 08:06

Deltasquid: Apr 10, 2013; awww...
you guys made me ink!

THUNDERDOME

Scorchy posted:

I think Obsidian said at some point Thorton is written like what a 15 year old thinks being a spy would be like.

Basically they looked at all the spy tropes under the sun and said "Okay, guys, listen, this is COOL as hell right? Put it in."

# ? Jul 31, 2014 11:23

Rush Limbo: Sep 5, 2005; its with a full house

Alpha Protocol is basically every spy film ever slapped together and you can choose which one you want to play on the fly.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 16:12

Fathis Munk: Feb 23, 2013; ??? ?

Ginette Reno posted:

I plan to play him as the ultimate neckbeard fantasy. Im gonna aggressively hit on every girl and pick sarcastic and dumb responses whenever I can.

You doin' good :allears:

~~For extra fun watch the reflection in the glasses. It's a different landscape in each act and it never matches the surroundings.~~

E: Disregard, that's for these glasses

Fathis Munk fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 19:12

Ginette Reno: Nov 18, 2006; How Doers get more done; Fun Shoe

I dunno if this is how I'm supposed to play this but I've been pumping my points into hand to hand and SMGs and I pretty much run around like Arnold Schwarzenegger beating people up and shooting them.

I mean I try to stealth around but I always end up getting spotted eventually and when I do I start karate chopping mother fuckers. I don't even use my gun that much unless I'm being overwhelmed. I'm guessing my retard style of play would be not so good on the hardest difficulty, but it seems to be working just fine on normal.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 03:46

Accordion Man: Nov 7, 2012; Buglord

You can't really ghost AP, so what you're doing is fine.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 05:10

Polaron: Oct 13, 2010; The Oncoming Storm

Ginette Reno posted:

I'm guessing my retard style of play would be not so good on the hardest difficulty, but it seems to be working just fine on normal.

Never play Alpha Protocol on hard. It just isn't remotely worth it or fun (and I say this as someone who refuses to play the Mass Effect games on any difficulty but Insanity).

# ? Aug 2, 2014 05:27

Speedball: Apr 15, 2008

Ddraig posted:

Alpha Protocol is basically every spy film ever slapped together and you can choose which one you want to play on the fly.

You can be cold and professional Jason Bourne, you can be suave and sarcastic James Bond, and you can be angry-as-hell Jack Bauer.

The three JBs.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 06:37

ArchRanger: Mar 19, 2007; I'm tired of following my dreams, I'm just gonna ask where they're goin' and meet up with 'em there.

Speedball posted:

You can be cold and professional Jason Bourne, you can be suave and sarcastic James Bond, and you can be angry-as-hell Jack Bauer.

The three JBs.

I remember in one of the reeeally early previews in Game Informer Mike used to have a JB name as well. Wonder why they changed it.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 06:47

Exercu: Dec 7, 2009; EAT WELL, SLEEP WELL, SHIT WELL! THERE'S YOUR ANSWER!!

Ginette Reno posted:

I dunno if this is how I'm supposed to play this but I've been pumping my points into hand to hand and SMGs and I pretty much run around like Arnold Schwarzenegger beating people up and shooting them.

I mean I try to stealth around but I always end up getting spotted eventually and when I do I start karate chopping mother fuckers. I don't even use my gun that much unless I'm being overwhelmed. I'm guessing my retard style of play would be not so good on the hardest difficulty, but it seems to be working just fine on normal.

I've played through on hard as Mike Thorton, Jackie Chan impersonator. It's certainly doable, and very cathartic. But as others say, can't recommend playing on hard at all.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 06:54

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

I'm planning to play on Hard once, for the achievement (I don't really care about 100% cheevos or S-rank or whatever, but since I keep replaying it every few months I might as well aim for it) but I'm not looking forward to it.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 14:35

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

2house2fly posted:

I'm planning to play on Hard once, for the achievement (I don't really care about 100% cheevos or S-rank or whatever, but since I keep replaying it every few months I might as well aim for it) but I'm not looking forward to it.

As someone who lived through this hell, I recommend some variation of shotgun rear end in a top hat for your Hard playthrough. If you try to be sneaky, you will fail, because every single minigame becomes pretty much impossible unless you have the reflexes of a god, and you'll be setting off alarms all over the place. But then you can just set everybody on fire with a shotgun or whatnot. Just don't try to be sneaky.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 14:43

hectorgrey: Oct 14, 2011

Well, time to play this game again. I've never really done shotgun rear end in a top hat. I'm almost tempted to make things more interesting by not taking any points in Stealth or Pistol. Is it strange that this is the only RPG I've ever played where I actually have trouble being an rear end in a top hat to certain characters?

# ? Aug 2, 2014 14:48

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

Crappy Jack posted:

As someone who lived through this hell, I recommend some variation of shotgun rear end in a top hat for your Hard playthrough. If you try to be sneaky, you will fail, because every single minigame becomes pretty much impossible unless you have the reflexes of a god, and you'll be setting off alarms all over the place. But then you can just set everybody on fire with a shotgun or whatnot. Just don't try to be sneaky.

I found I always run out of phosphorus rounds, is there some way to get more?

# ? Aug 2, 2014 15:00

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

hectorgrey posted:

Well, time to play this game again. I've never really done shotgun rear end in a top hat. I'm almost tempted to make things more interesting by not taking any points in Stealth or Pistol. Is it strange that this is the only RPG I've ever played where I actually have trouble being an rear end in a top hat to certain characters?

It's actually pretty satisfying, because some characters will stand right back up to Mike and call him out for being a dick. And then there are other characters who are just SO SATISFYING to be a dick to. It really works in this game, as opposed to in most other games, where the evil path is just like the good path except nobody likes you. Here you can call someone a bitch, feel all smug about it, and then reap your reward when you get a vase smashed over your head.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 15:14

Accordion Man: Nov 7, 2012; Buglord

My favorite example is Albatross especially if you kill Sis. Taunting him like the smug rear end in a top hat that you are to have him attack the Gray Box because it would be his only way to get his revenge on you is great.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 16:39

...!: Oct 5, 2003; I SHOULD KEEP MY DUMB MOUTH SHUT INSTEAD OF SPEWING HORSESHIT ABOUT THE ORBITAL MECHANICS OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT A LAGRANGE POINT IS?

Telamon posted:

That's not the best part of suave-Rome Thorton. Keep going, you glorious bastard.

If you're talking about pissing Marburg off enough that he gets sloppy and lets you kill him early (in the museum), I've never been able to do that without getting the maximum negative amount of reputation points available for him and you kinda have to start that early. This includes getting the suave perk at the very beginning of the game and also befriending SIE. And you also have to be careful when you first meet him; one of the answers you need to give is the aggressive one, not the suave one. That's a lot, but if you pull it off, it's great.

Accordion Man posted:

and good ol Brayko who becomes the invincible god of cocaine.

That's why you should befriend Heck before going to Moscow. You can have him spike Brayko's coke so it has no effect on him. I think it might even hurt him or daze him but I'm not sure. Of course, it can also be really fun to get Heck to be your enemy, becoming the target of his hatred.

Crappy Jack posted:

As someone who lived through this hell, I recommend some variation of shotgun rear end in a top hat for your Hard playthrough. If you try to be sneaky, you will fail, because every single minigame becomes pretty much impossible unless you have the reflexes of a god, and you'll be setting off alarms all over the place. But then you can just set everybody on fire with a shotgun or whatnot. Just don't try to be sneaky.

Honestly, Hard's not that bad if you're also doing Veteran. I finished it no problem and the best skillset is the same: Stealth + Pistols. Of course, that requires doing a Recruit playthrough first, but you can do that on Easy or Normal.

Edit: And you can still easily stealth your way through Hard; I did. I just filled my pockets with EMP grenades and bypassed every mini-game.

...! fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Aug 3, 2014

# ? Aug 3, 2014 00:39

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# ? May 23, 2024 21:16

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

Wait... you can do a Veteran playthrough on Hard if you already playred Recruit on Normal? All of a sudden I'm dreading that Hard run a lot less.

# ? Aug 3, 2014 00:45

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

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