Eabin on 30/5/2010 at 17:36
and just like thief there is the additional bonus that i don't have to starve during gaming, because i regularly find myself just lurking in a corner watching the guards walk around (if they move at all, that is)
Malf on 30/5/2010 at 23:24
It's a game that leaves a really poor first impression, which leads me to suspect that a lot of the reviewers haven't completed the game. As it goes on, it gets a LOT better, and yes, while the shooting and action may feel outdated, there's a lot to be said for the dialogue system and the abilities that open up later on in the game.
I don't give numbered reviews, but I'd say that this is worth any TTLGer's time.
Just make sure to ignore the dodgy animation & graphics and the appalling training level and you'll be fine. Oh, and make sure you put some skill points into Stealth and Sabotage. Sabotage helps massively with that incredibly shit hacking game.
Koki on 31/5/2010 at 07:15
Quote Posted by Koki
No, Alpha Protocol is shit and total waste of money. I wouldn't even get it for free, that's how bad it is.
And to think I only was trying to make a point how stupid it is to preorder games. I didn't expect I would be right accidentally!
It's like Bioshock all over again. Except with Deus Ex as the base this time.
mothra on 31/5/2010 at 10:43
the AI is bad, the camera spazzes out, reloading checkpoints usually puts you in plain view of the enemies, after 10 reloads the game crashes and so on and so on.....
then dated graphics and animations which I can live with so it certainly leaves a bad impressions when you pick it up.
*hate*
I started the game (as usual) as a spy and tried not killing anyone and going undetected. Well, I have patience, I even tried ghosting SC:Conviction and that game hates stealth but this is too much. After repeating one certain situation (no joking) for 37 times I gave up and shot them. This game hates stealth. AI never does what they should and spots you, now I have supposedly shot a guard and killed ppl at the embassy although I never killed a guard. And I hate to replay everything just to wait for a little "luck" with the AI or enemy placement. Ah, and you can't ghost at all since at some points there are triggers in the game for respawning baddies that you can trigger by leaving the room of the action and then they suddenly spawn INFRONT of you......
so problems over problems....
*love*
everything else. deadpan humor by Michael Thornton, dialogue system is very, very good, I really like it and after 2 hubs the story opens up and had some very good moments (dialogue-wise) and seems very dynamic and complex. that fact that I tried above shit-mission so often should tell you enough about the quality of plot and conversations. And Obsidian did not lie that they want to make any decision count and that you don't have a "bad" option. I already pissed off a few ppl and it turned out for the best :) while others love me and slip me info for free. I changed character to duke nukem now (meaning assault rifle soldier without any stealth) and the game rocks now. It's sad because the stealth mechanics - IF they work - are pretty good: silent running, invisibility and evasion combined with a device that lures away guards made for some really nice stealth infiltrations. But only if you are lucky. stealth usually means I have to relad every checkpoint a few times, making 1 mission last more than 1 hour - not because I fail all the time but rather because the AI fails. If you wanna play the story and not be bothered by the bad gameplay: go solider or tech, just don't use stealth or think you can ghost or even no-kill through a level.
So where does that leave me ? I have done 2 hubs sofar, LOVE the situations/story sofar and will replay it a few times. So a recommendation for story/RPG lovers, a no-no for stealth fans and BIG NO-NO for graphic whores. I got the game for 20euros in retail new so go for it, I think it deserves some popularity, if not alone for the fine RPG-ing. Timed-responses are so much better than in ME1.
Eabin on 31/5/2010 at 14:41
over at the (
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/28/alpha-protocol-game-review/3#comments) joystiq forums, a member named "a tired dev" claims to have worked on the title, and he doesn't have many positive things to say about the development:
Quote:
I worked on this game (a fact of which I am not proud). I'm not here to defend it; I agree with all these reviews.
First, a comment for the guy at Cheesecake Factory - Most devs eat in the office most days, if they do go out they tend to grab something at the food court and head back. I know the execs take long lunches, but they often use them for informal meetings as well. Most of the programmers and designers very rarely ate outside the office during the time I was on this project.
There was a ton of work put into this game. The problem is that is was a ton of undirected work, or work on things that were just stupid. The Executive Producer for the game, Chris Parker (also an owner of the company), seemed to think he was the world's greatest designer ever, and created all these absolutely shitty systems and wouldn't listen to any of the real designers or devs about things that just didn't work. And you can't exactly argue with one of the owners of the company when he doesn't want to listen. He basically took over the game and dictated exactly how everything would work (or not work, as the case may be). The other producers realized this early on and just gave up, leaving Parker to micromanage all the designers and programmers directly.
Sega also was a factor, because they kept changing the design requirements (yes they had heavy influence there), which never gave the producers and designers time to actually decide on one set of features to make and polish. The blame is still mostly Obsidian's because the execution was absolutely terrible, and it was obvious 2 years ago that this game should have been scrapped. Instead, though, they focused on adding still more features and never fixed the ones they already had. That is a recipe for tons of bugs and no polish... as is obvious.
This game was just an absolute failure of production, and it's no wonder that so many of the developers left the company, even after the 40% staff layoffs. I am still happy about some of Obsidian's other current projects, New Vegas included, because they are going pretty well. Their big unannounced project is looking great and is already much better than AP ever was, and that may end up being the game that everyone was looking for with AP.
Sega should have canceled AP instead of Aliens...
Jason Moyer on 31/5/2010 at 17:23
A disaster of Bloodlines proportions sounds like one I'm willing to gawk at for 40 hours.
I like that on most gaming sites I keep reading comments like "OBSIDIAN SUCK. KOTOR2 WAS BAD" and in the RPS comments everyone is comparing it to Deus Ex (the first) and Bloodlines.
This play right into my theory that everyone likes to bitch about how we never get games like System Shock 2 or Deus Ex anymore, but when we do get one everyone bitches about it having the same shortcomings as those games.
Sulphur on 31/5/2010 at 17:56
That's sort of what I meant. The thing with Bloodlines, though, is that it needed those patches to actually reach a playable stage. Seems to be the the same thing right here.
Except Bloodlines didn't also have minigames which, going by some of the footage, need to be tossed into the bin immediately.
Jason Moyer on 31/5/2010 at 18:15
Minigames look bad, but people are saying they're mostly ignorable if you invest in technical skills, and a pain in the ass if you don't, which is sort of how it should work in an RPG.
I played Bloodlines twice with just the official patch, never had an issue. I've considered trying one of the unofficial patches, but it looks like there isn't one without some degree of "this is what the developer intended" added to it, rather than pure bug fixes.
Eabin on 31/5/2010 at 20:26
i can agree whole-heartedly with rps, and he is right that the game picks up a bit later, and more than one mission has me wondering how it would have played out had i chosen a different approach. although i'm not sure if i can play it twice in a row just for that.
but then comes the next dialog....and i f*ing hate the main character. his sense of humor is not only plain and sexist, it also seems to be written for 14 year olds...so i'm left to choose the professional attitude most of the time, because i want to avoid that awry feeling i get when i listen to my alter ego otherwise.
edit: most of the time i'm just sad, seeing a game with so much potential ending up mediocre because of flawed game mechanics and poor execution.
