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

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

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

Kaboom Dragoon posted:

You should get it, if only for the quality of the writing. One thing pretty much all Obsidian's games have is excellent dialogue, and this is no exception.

Not just that, this is literally the only game I've ever seen that had the tensest situation be a dialogue.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2011 22:38

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 23:14

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

woodenchicken posted:

What happens if you do that?

Also, speaking of Marburg (ending spoilers?): Why did my character become buddies with Marburg in the end? What could I have done that made the game think I wanted to be buddies with him after he had killed Thorton's GF? IIRC I pretty much called him out in every conversation. Maybe Thorton was supposed to be scared of him and relieved when Marburg didn't wanna fight?

Getting under his skin allows you to piss him so thoroughly off in Rome that he blows his cool. Technically, all his objectives have been completed at this point, Mike just being a minor inconvenience, so there's nothing keeping him there. If you piss him the gently caress off, he doesn't give a poo poo and fights you to the death, allowing you to kill him in Rome.

The final sentence is correct. Marburg is a dangerous badass motherfucker, and not fighting him after a long taxing fight through the Greybox is vastly better than having to fight him.

V pfft. Played it on recruit/hard the first time through. (I should not have done that). The minigames were absolutely ballsout insane.

Exercu fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Jul 5, 2011

# ¿ Jul 5, 2011 11:01

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

In Training posted:

Haha no way! That's awesome. I'm definitely going to be trying this on my next run.

One clarification question: If I am trying to turn Parker on Marburg, do I still just choose the Deus Vult option, or is it a later trigger scene?

Clarification for the spoiler: Doesn't matter, if you've uncovered Madison's secret all you need to do is, when you contact Parker, to tell him that Marburg attempted killing his daughter.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2011 16:08

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

Jose posted:

So can anyone tell me how viable a stealth/martial arts run would be? I'd quite like to do the whole game without using a gun if its not going to be too hard. Will be playing on recruit this time as well

There's no problem running even a non-stealthy martial arts run. Thorton is a serious beast in hand to hand combat.

V Heck, you can even run it as a semi-stealth run without a lot of stealth. It's hard to activate alarms when you're being punched in the face by someone sprinting around the corner.

Exercu fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Jul 6, 2011

# ¿ Jul 6, 2011 11:34

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

magimix posted:

Hell yes. My last playthrough was Melee/AR focused. AR was just there for the very few occasions when I couldn't get all up in someones face. Beyond that, I beat the poo poo out of almost every enemy in the game, including all the bosses apart from two (who I couldn't reach).

Melee plus Tougness is a potent talent combo, giving you Fury and Iron Will, allowing you to inflict damage at a crazy rate, benefit from time dilation, while being incredibly tough. Edit: And to be sure, the viability of melee doesn't depend on the use of Fury or Iron Will - they are just two cherries on the cake, as it were.

Fury + Epinephrine spikes = even crazier damage.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2011 23:20

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

Wandle Cax posted:

I'm liking this game but I am having a frustrating time with the Brayko boss.

This might come as a surprise to you, but there's a sprint button. Most people only discovered it out of necessity during this fight. when he is all drugged up, you don't stand a fucknut's chance of doing anything to him. Even the beefiest Thorton I've ever made got taken down in seconds in melee. Therefore, run, motherfucker, run, until he drops to his knees and you can shoot him a bit. Otherwise, you can go visit some intel contacts in, say, Taipei, and get some assistance for this boss.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2011 09:16

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

Rabbit Hill posted:

Has there been any talk of getting some DLC for this game?

I just played through the fight with Sis last night and this time took the dialogue option of speaking to Albatross about her locket, which irritated him and made her happy, and opened up some dossier info on the two of them implying that there had been more content about how they had met that had been cut from the game. I would love to see more of that.

Hell, I'd love to play a prequel as a young Albatross before G22. He owns.

Edit: What's the policy on spoilers in the games forum? I'm used to dealing with TVIV rules.

Generally we attempt using as many spoilers as possible in this particular thread, because the game is rife with stuff that you won't see on each playthrough.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2011 15:28

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

Jose posted:

Is it even possible for Heck not to like you? I've never annoyed him I don't think no matter what option I chose.

Heck doesn't like boring people who just talk business and not the fun explody kind of business.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2011 15:56

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

CCKeane posted:

This isn't true.

Martial arts have a number of buffs, but even without them, I had no trouble going through the games with just MA.

Even on recruit/hard, popping epinephrine spikes + fury equals your opponent in a world of hurt, even Rome Boss can't fight sensibly against that poo poo.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 16:32

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

the_american_dream posted:

Probably should spoil that :/

And yea probably so Up until that point (I did Russia last) I arrested the Arms dealer, let Shaheed go til later, didnt fight Marburg to the death, and let Omen Deng go so I was trigger happy to execute a boss and Brayko was by far the baddest one anyway (if you dont count terrorism I guess)

Brayko is a loving dick, and deserves literally any asskicking he can get. But he's small fry. Utter reprehensible small fry, but small fry.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 17:42

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

Technique posted:

I unironically want Brayko's jacket IRL. Do those exist. Where can i buy one.

You need to find an unspecified number of gay cheetahs first.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 18:33

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

Ilustforponydeath posted:

Yeah, apart from the "game" part that is mostly really mediocre stealth and downright poor gunplay.

The ideas, script and character gallery are all really cool, though. Shame about the gameplay bit.

You mean poor gunplay like Mass Effect 1, a game that was also rightly criticised thoroughly for its diceroll gunplay?

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 19:56

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

The Viper posted:

Mina: Hey, quick question, did you ever get a password to the (x) server?

Thornton: (Snarky) Sure did! Username:MThornton Password:M1lfLuvvR

This loving game.

Do you happen to be Sean Darcy?

V Even better. She sends you a mail with some money in return for a promise that you never make such a crappy joke again.

Exercu fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Jul 8, 2011

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 20:06

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

The Vampirate posted:

Might have suffered what a lot of Obsidian games suffer from, being released in a lovely form and being patched into awesomeness over a year. It tends to lower initial scores. Many places do rereviews tho.

Except for the nearly complete lack of patching, yes. Patch fixed some installation issues and some other minor technical stuff. Nothing you'd ever notice while actually playing.

Edit: I bought it on the first day and there's really no difference now and then. The reviewers stating "that pistols are useless" were just as wrong back when the game just came out as they are now. There's some consensus formed that Obsidian games are buggy and unpolished, which literally shapes the opinion of every game Obsidian comes out with.

Exercu fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Jul 9, 2011

# ¿ Jul 9, 2011 21:40

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

Ahaha, I just for the fun of it read through a couple of reviews of Alpha Protocol. As we all know, most people who played this game without being completely disingenuous would say that it's a game with mediocre gameplay and amazing dialogue and a functioning plot. RPGFan claims to be fans of RPGs. I wonder what they have to say about the game...

rpgfan posted:

A wacky personality and a few bizarre idiosyncrasies cannot replace genuine character development and real emotion. As Thorton hacks into computers and picks up pieces of intel along the way during missions, the in-game codex reveals much of what little background characters have. God forbid Thorton actually talks to other characters to reveal this information.

[...]

Should we eventually learn through an anonymous Internet tip that a team of high schoolers wrote Alpha Protocol, I doubt there would be much surprise. At best, the dialogue is a functional vehicle to advance the plot; generic, flavorless, and verbose without saying much more than "go here, meet him, get intel." At its worst, it's fourth-grade humor, hackneyed one-liners, and hyperbole.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2011 21:36

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

SynthOrange posted:

Dont worry, just treat her like dirt and the situation will turn out for the best.

For certain values of best.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2011 09:59

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

Nehru the Damaja posted:

The goon who played through an entire run of AP with some video card problem that caused text not to show on the dialogue wheel did this on accident.

He was hoping to abandon Albatross, but the option he picked at random had him go save him. And then he shows up and blasts him in the head.. Alpha Protocol without text on the dialogue wheel is just this hilarious Kafkaesque nightmare game.

Someone must have been spying on about Albatross, he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was captured. Every day at
eight in the morning he was brought his breakfast by Sis - Sis was his bodyguard - but today she didn't come. There was immediately a knock at the door and a man entered. He had never seen the man in this house before. He was slim but firmly built, his clothes were purple and garish, looking like an entire coterie of gay cheetahs had died for it, all of which gave the impression of being very objectionable to fashion but without making it very clear why anyone would ever wear this.

Turn up the Kafka.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2011 06:17

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

Ze Pollack posted:

Just finished Rome.
I don't think I've ever been actively angry at a video game character before. Mr. Thorton broke his general-issue 'minimum bodycount rule' for purposes of Deus Vult, replacing it with an 'every last one of these motherfuckers except two for the police to question are going to be dead' rule. Also, given the slightest opportunity Marburg is going to be drinking the Steven Heck Special. There was really zero loving point in that poo poo. Honestly, man, we're supposed to be professionals, and then you kill the girl for no goddamn reason.

Outside of heightening the body count of innocents to raise global tension? Marburg knows exactly what he's doing. And he's a dick.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2011 06:26

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

Wolfsheim posted:

I know I should've expected it, but the comments on that article make my head explode

Obviously the game was terrible. There was no Push A for Awesome, nor any deep characterisation where you can ask people about their entire life stories while you chill out in their spaceship, and you can't just push A for perfect solution to everything. What hacks would ever make a game where you can't solve everything to everyone's satisfaction? I want my power fantasy where I save everything, thank you very much.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 10:19

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

PFlats posted:

I think a lot of the complaints do have some merit, actually. A lot of it has to do with preconceived notions, but still:

It's an RPG, but you don't really play that character. It's not playing a role, it's more like directing a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. You choose suave, and Mike throws out a ridiculously (and obviously) lame line that pisses someone off, when you wanted your character to actually say something suave and useful. You choose Aggressive, and your character might be a little tough, or might threaten the hell out of someone.

It's a game where you're expecting to play a super-awesome secret agent, but your character can't actually make much of a difference on the game world. Almost every location has some dichotomy where Mike cannot win. Watch a James Bond or Jason Bourne movie. How often does JB win? (Admittedly, 24 is a little bleaker.) Compare that to Mike.

It's an over the shoulder camera game with insane amounts of inventory customization and a bunch of weapons, but they matter so much less than which of the 4 weapon skills you've chose to work with. You can carry 2 weapons at once, but if you try to be good at both of them, you gimp yourself (unless you're a veteran, which means you've already beaten the game at least once.)

These are all design choices which I understand (the last one, a little less, but I think someone posted that Sega insisted on the skill over inventory thing) and I appreciate the fact that one man cannot always change the world, but it's hard to be surprised that people feel like the rug was pulled out from underneath them.

How often do Jack Bauer and James Bond outright win without innocents dying? The difference is that in James Bond and 24, plenty of people can die without it being literally highlighted. Rome Finale spoilers ahead

The Rome Finale shows it pretty clearly. How often has a love interest of James Bond bit it? I think it's roughly a fourth of them altogether. The difference is that often it's just considered to be a bit sad when a woman Bond has been with dies, and then we return to the campy spy action. It's pretty much because Alpha Protocol, unlike most hollywood action movies and series, calls you out on allowing innocents to die.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 19:09

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

epitaph posted:

It'd be cool if somebody who's less lazy than me could map out a conversation in AP and a conversation in Mass Effect along the lines of what was done for a level in Deus Ex; it'd highlight the desparity even more.

I doubt it's feasible to map the cafe conversation, though it would be the best for illustrative purposes.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 21:42

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

Category Fun! posted:

I'm guessing it's either something to do with weapon skills affecting gameplay or underage girls.

Clearly it must be 'weapon skills affecting underage girls'

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 19:47

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

Xander77 posted:

?

A lot of people have complained about AP's crouch animation and considered it unrealistic because it differs so much from the standard video game crouch-sneaking animation. The truth is that the general video game crouch will loving bust your knees and Thorton likes not getting his knees busted, so he walks like a human would actually do.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2011 15:59

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

vulgey posted:

Oh that slimy motherfucker I knew there must be a way to kill him!

There is, and it's easily one of the most satisfying things to do in the game. loving Winnie the Pooh, why are you so slimy?

# ¿ Sep 27, 2011 13:28

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

SolidKZ posted:

She does this regardless of how you treated her if you save her instead of the civilians. Or does she? I slept with her and she still left a voice mail saying she couldn't stand to be a distraction to me

Marburg himself highlights it if you save her. Can't remember the exact phrasing, but he completely tears you apart verbally for thinking you did something great for her. What you did was put the life of one you care about above the life of many. She will have to live with knowing that because she was captured, YOU, Mike Thorton chose to let those other people die. Marburg is a sadistic dick.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2011 12:06

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

RBA Starblade posted:

I like how you can set yourself up for success on certain missions but by doing so potentially gently caress yourself over down the road. With Grigori, for example, the game mentions that because I was professional, he would probably tip someone else off about me being there. Then when doing the hit on Dmitri SIE said hello and that she knew I was coming. I'm willing to bet that wouldn't have happened in that way if I had done something differently.

Actually, it's Surkov he tips off. If you're an utter oval office to Grigori, headslam and all, and you then show up to Surkov being all professional, he's confused because you're different from what his sources tell him.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2011 14:39

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

Meowbot posted:

I am having a lot of trouble with the coke head guy with the knives. I use pistols but no matter what I do I get nailed with the attacks plus the additional guards don't help things.

when he cokes up, sprint the gently caress away. There's literally nothing you can do to slow him in his pace, so keep running until he falls over all of a sudden

# ¿ Sep 29, 2011 18:55

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

Cthulhu Dreams posted:

You just need the magic of flying knee kick thing I love that ability so much, and it enables stomping on people's nuts.

It's ridiculous how effective a martial arts Thorton is. There's literally only three foes in the game that cannot be taken out with copious amounts of "apply force to forehead", and two of those aren't going to die from your regular weapons anyway.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2011 14:26

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

vulturesrow posted:

Someone made reference to Russia mission that was time sensitive. I already left Russia, only taking the time to meet with Grigory so I probably already hosed it away. Would someone mind telling me what that mission was? (put in spoiler tag obv).

You didn't. There's a mission called something like "Intercept Fnork*". If you don't actually go and do that when it's available, he gets away.

*Not his name.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2011 16:14

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

Dominoes posted:

I did all of the above, got a high reputation with him during the conversation by attacking his analysis, and He still called the guards and yelled at me. I think I did something to piss him off in the beginning of the game though, which may have affected it.

If you've got a reputation for being a no substance smartass, Parker will think you're plain lying, iirc.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 10:17

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

Vlad Antlerkov posted:

How'd you pull that off? I turned both Marburg (through his dossier and +10 reputation) and Parker (through the option that doesn't involve "Analysis Flawed"), and ended up with Parker and Marburg fighting each other, Parker dying, and then having to fight Marburg again. Guessing you have to turn Parker through convincing him his analysis is flawed in order to keep Marburg from showing up there?

It's the parker thing. Turning Parker through telling him that Marburg killed/attempted to kill his daughter just makes Parker try to murder Marburg (who realises that the only person who could have known that is Thorton. Alliance is off)

# ¿ Oct 14, 2011 13:34

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

X_Toad posted:

I wouldn't Alpha Protocol's storyline 'unfocused'. 'Unfocused' is more for open-world games like Fallout: New Vegas, while Alpha Protocol still keeps its players focused on a part of sorts.

I know this is more used as something derogatory for games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, but I really think that Alpha Protocol is akin to a 'choose your own path' adventure, except with a somewhat enjoyable and varied 'action' part.

Heck, AP is probably one of the most focused RPGs out there. Not really like there's a lot of filler missions in the game, huh?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2011 17:10

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

I'm just curious. What do you consider to be loose ends you've encountered? Just to record them for posterity.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2011 00:02

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

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.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2011 16:46

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

Phaeoacremonium posted:

It's completely understandable and to be fair, the review wasn't entirely terrible. The reviewer was just quite obviously looking for something completely different, i.e. a smooth combat system, completely overlooking the excellent dialogue system and fun plot. But water under the bridge. If the game had done better on the local review circuit, I probably wouldn't have been able to pick it up for so cheap around here until much later.

I'm probably only more or less halfway done. Will certainly play it again.

Well, yeah, except some reviews compared its reactivity unfavourably to Mass Effect, because it felt like none of your actions had any consequences in AP, unlike in ME. :p

# ¿ Dec 15, 2011 10:33

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

Wolfsheim posted:

I don't think any other game has that kind of thing, really. Like, every game protagonist has badass action moments but none that I can think of has the opportunity to absolutely verbally assault someone into submission. The Marburg bit gets a lot of love, but I also adore the 'Analysis Flawed' bit with Parker where you basically shove all of his wrong conclusions back in his face.

Just ended up repurchasing this game on PS3 after getting the itch, I'm still choking out guards in the tutorial and goddamn do I love this game.

In this way too, the closest analogue to AP is Planescape Torment. TNO can absolutely verbally assault someone into submission. "What can change the nature of a man" indeed.

# ¿ May 24, 2012 20:48

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 23:14

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

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