Obsidian's "Alpha Protocol"

Most reviewers apparently were still soiling their diapers and learning to speak back when Deus Ex came out, so they don't know how RPG-shooters are supposed to work.
 
It was compared to Deus Ex in at least a couple of those reviews.

Try again.
 
Excusing Deus Ex's flaws while pointing out those of Alpha Protocol is what I'm getting at.
 
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...

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...

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...
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http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox360/news/article/12353/Alpha-Protocol-developer-not-proud.html
 
Tagaziel said:
Excusing Deus Ex's flaws while pointing out those of Alpha Protocol is what I'm getting at.
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It was a review of Alpha Protocol, why should he be reviewing Deus Ex in the same article?
 
Tagaziel said:
Most reviewers apparently were still soiling their diapers and learning to speak back when Deus Ex came out, so they don't know how RPG-shooters are supposed to work.
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Yep, only you know that.
 
Tagaziel said:
Excusing Deus Ex's flaws while pointing out those of Alpha Protocol is what I'm getting at.
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Deus Ex is a ten year old game.

Just sayin'.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if that insider stuff was true to some degree, but it bears mentioning that their source is a comment left on the Joystiq review. Yep.
 
Bad^Hat said:
Deus Ex is a ten year old game.
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And yet this ten year old game still wipes the floor with most modern games in terms of complexity, gameplay variety and richness of setting.

Alpha Protocol is basically Deus Ex, but set in 201*, not 2052. I've been playing it for 12 hours straight and am anxious for more. Sure, on their own, the elements feel a bit subpar, but the mix is excellent.

I like the varied cast of characters and impact my decisions have on the game. This is how C&C should be handled.
 
Tagaziel said:
And yet this ten year old game still wipes the floor with most modern games in terms of complexity, gameplay variety and richness of setting.
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That doesn't really negate his point at all.
 
Tagaziel said:
And yet this ten year old game still wipes the floor with most modern games in terms of complexity, gameplay variety and richness of setting.

Alpha Protocol is basically Deus Ex, but set in 201*, not 2052. I've been playing it for 12 hours straight and am anxious for more. Sure, on their own, the elements feel a bit subpar, but the mix is excellent.

I like the varied cast of characters and impact my decisions have on the game. This is how C&C should be handled.
Click to expand...
The only similarity I see to Deus Ex is in the way you suck at everything until you advance your skills, which was easily my least favourite part. It's just as silly for a cyborg as for a secret agent to be so bloody inept at the simple act of aiming a gun, newbie or not. I'm sure it goes deeper than that, but I only have videos to go on, so.

In any case, comparisons to Mass Effect seem just as justified given the obvious elements it shares. Speaking of, I'm curious to hear what you think about the dialog wheel in AP, since you weren't so keen on it in ME. :p
 
Bad^Hat said:
The only similarity I see to Deus Ex is in the way you suck at everything until you advance your skills, which was easily my least favourite part. It's just as silly for a cyborg as for a secret agent to be so bloody inept at the simple act of aiming a gun, newbie or not. I'm sure it goes deeper than that, but I only have videos to go on, so.
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It's a gameplay element. Tying your abilities to your character's skills is a good thing in RPGs generally.

You could ask the same question to Shepard in ME - why is an interstellar commando incapable of shooting an assault rifle properly if he's an infiltrator? Why is Gordon Freeman a perfect shot with any gun, despite being only a theoretical physicist? Why can the protagonist in any shooter soak up bullets like a sponge and not get lead poisoning?

The gameplay generally feels similiar to Deus Ex (having finished DE1 for the nth time last month makes comparisons easy), with multiple paths available, depending on your build, your weapon skill tied directly to the amount of points pooled into its skill, abilities similiar to how augs and skills work and the general "feel" of the game.

In any case, comparisons to Mass Effect seem just as justified given the obvious elements it shares. Speaking of, I'm curious to hear what you think about the dialog wheel in AP, since you weren't so keen on it in ME. :p
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I'm on the fence. On the one hand, it's an interesting choice for an RPG and isn't hailed as the next best thing since written dialogue and its use is consistent. On the other, not having written responses and only choosing stances and keywords puts me out of character a great deal. It's a bit annoying.

Good effort, though. Having played through both ME1/2 and playing now through AP, I think it's a nice alternative, but an alternative only - nothing beats classic dialogue trees.
 
I'm actually beginning to lean towards buying this on the 360.

More and more people I talk to who have played it says that it grows on them, and many of them genuinely like the game after getting past Saudi Arabia.
 
Saudi Arabia wasn't bad. Although, Taipei is much better story-wise, IMO. Obsidian knows how to spin a good yarn, so I'm not surprised.

Also, I expected Omen Dang(sp?) to be a bit tougher, beat him on my first try.
 
I think Rome is the best character-wise. Just wait for the lunch sequence.
 
Tagaziel said:
Having played through both ME1/2 and playing now through AP, I think it's a nice alternative, but an alternative only - nothing beats classic dialogue trees.
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OT: in the world of text adventures, where written text and prose is the only gameplay element, there is an ongoing research for something new and different about dialogues. Trees are usually seen as something from the past but, yes, I think that in graphical games they actually work. I like classic dialogue trees and I liked the ME1/2 take on those. You are sort of an expert of storytelling in games, so I may use your help when I'll start working on a new text adventure :)
 
Tagaziel said:
I think Rome is the best character-wise. Just wait for the lunch sequence.
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I'm in Rome now (just transferred from Taipei), so we shall see. I hope it is superior character-wise, as I have been engrossed so far!
 
Mirage said:
I'm in Rome now (just transferred from Taipei), so we shall see. I hope it is superior character-wise, as I have been engrossed so far!
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Look below for a tip (no spoilers):

Don't cap
the Arab

Paulaner said:
OT: in the world of text adventures, where written text and prose is the only gameplay element, there is an ongoing research for something new and different about dialogues. Trees are usually seen as something from the past but, yes, I think that in graphical games they actually work. I like classic dialogue trees and I liked the ME1/2 take on those. You are sort of an expert of storytelling in games, so I may use your help when I'll start working on a new text adventure :)
Click to expand...

I'd be honoured. If you'd like to see my latest jab at storytelling, it's the Shi sub in the Fallout 2 Restoration Patch.
 
Game owns. I've gone through it 4 times already and every single time I've had completely different things happen story wise. The variation in this is pretty insane. I think if this would have come out like 2 years ago before the ME2 hype train it would've been a bit more well received by the reviewers.

If you don't mind the fact that the game has zero polish (which is easy to ignore, pump all of your points into stealth and pistols and martial arts and you've broken the game) then it's pretty great.
 
NO YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ENJOY THIS GAME

unless it actually is good, and what's so good about it anyway
 
Stigmata said:
unless it actually is good, and what's so good about it anyway
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Story, characters, choices and their consequences, atmosphere, hacking minigame, voice actors, characters, setting, in-game economy, choices and consequences, locales, story, did I mention choices?
 
Just beat it. Flaws aside, it was an awesome game. Also,

I like how you can decide to join Halbech, then betray Leland at the very end.

I'll probably take a day break, then I'll start playing again.
 
its only challenging because trying to select the second line of code with the mouse is the most godawful thing ever.
 
I like it, I just wish controlling the mouse wasn't so difficult, although I already got used to it.
 
A co-worker said a friend described this game as "stupid." He noted that taste is subjective of course. I know that the game has its flaws, but the labryinthine(sp?) story possibilities are what keep me coming back. Some of the voice acting is very high quality, and the dialogue/overall story is noticeably above average. At times, I do feel like I am playing a movie.

If some of the gaming elements were refined, this concept could make for a stellar sequel.
 
Got my copy of this for the 360 now, gonna play it after I finish my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2, looking forward to it.
 
Might go rent it now that I watched a few episodes of Archer.
 
I may wait until this game gets a few patches, as the technical bugs and glitches seem to be a prominent complaint. It does sound fun though.
 
There are no major technical problems with the game, at least, not to my experience (and I'm playing it straight out of the box).
 
I've heard the console versions are less buggy and have better controls than the PC, but I haven't played both versions though.
 
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