Multi-Plat Alpha Protocol

[Ecks]

Anyone else played this game? I didn't find another thread on it so here's one.

It's an espionage rpg made by Obsidian and Sega. It plays more like a third person shooter. I have to say, I could not put it down when I bought it on Thursday night. I played it for about 8 hours straight and then some after I took a short break, ended up playing it another 5 hours. I still don't feel like I'm even 1/3 through the game and it is completely awesome. There are so many multiple ways to complete a mission that I discovered some routes as I was playing through a mission level and didn't know existed at first.

I chose the Soldier/Commando route, because personally that's just my preferred play style.. blow shit up and take them all out. But I have to say I am totally going with a Stealth/Martial Arts build on my next play through of this game. I love how you have so many different options to play the story out, each having some kind of effect on the story as you play through it as well as having an effect on your character, be it attribute enhancements (also known as perks) or discounts on the black market, or extra money, or more or different products available on the black market. There may even be a few extra missions that pop up depending on the path you take, but I wont really know that for sure until a second or third play through of the game.

And yes, this game is totally worth playing multiple times. And even encourages it by having two special "classes" that give the game even more of a challenge by having you start out with 0 skill points or skills learned on your skill tree. When you beat that mode you have access to a new class which is basically all "classes" rolled into one being the ultimate "class" to pick and be a complete badass. This is also aside from the 4 basic "classes": a stealth based spy, a trained soldier, a technical gadget guy (kinda like a demolitions expert techie), or freelancer which lets you choose where you want to spend your initial stat points rather than having a preset laid out for you.

You even get to change the main characters physical appearance just about whenever you want, but only facial features, skin and hair color, and a few minor head accessories. Nothing as fancy as an MMO character creator, but nice to see there are a fair amount of options to make the character look how you would prefer.

So far this game is phenomenal. I can't wait for next week (I'm off all week). I'm so going to play the hell out of this game.

 

[Ecks]

One other thing, I can't say how it plays on the console systems. I bought mine for PC and have all the graphics turned all the way up, visually it's a beauty. But, I wish there was a fullscreen windowed mode. The game does not like to be alt+tab'd out of when in fullscreen mode and generally crashes. No problems with the windowed mode except that I see the windows tab at the top and I wish it just would go away sometimes.

 

[Bajaratt]

I really enjoyed the game. I beat it over the weekend, I want to go through again and try to pick some different choices.

 

[Ecks]

I finally beat it yesterday. Great stuff, started playing through it again on Recruit, going for a stealth/martial arts combo with likely adding toughness as well since I think it's useful no matter what setup you go with.

Gonna make some obvious changes this time around and see how it pans out.

I think I get more experience as a Recruit but I don't know for sure. I gained 2 levels from the starter area which I am pretty sure I didn't do last time, might have gotten 1 level last time.. but not 2.

 

[Shady]

I was gonna play this game.. but the critics SLAMMED it lol.

 

[Strid]

I was gonna play this game.. but the critics SLAMMED it lol.

That's usually all the more reason to actually play the game these days.

 

[Tyrath]

That's usually all the more reason to actually play the game these days.

The last game I did that with disappointed greatly. WKC.

 

[Ecks]

Hmm I highly enjoyed the hell out of this game, and it definitely has replay value. Which is always a plus in my book. I haven't read any reviews of the game but I have no idea how the hell they could be bad considering how awesome this game is.

I will say this, the game's story kind of trashes the reputation of the United States, yet at the same time.. really isn't too far from the truth. So if it got bad reviews based on that, then people have a major political stick up their ass. So fuck them. This game is fantastic. It has some graphical issues, definitely, but they can be looked past.

 

[Tyrath]

I dont think it got bad reviews for the story. Gametrailers actually said it was one of the better aspects of it. It got bad reviews for the gameplay issues. I tried out 30 mins of this myself, it feels like a lesser refined version of ME2. I'll try it more later.

 

[Bajaratt]

I dont think it got bad reviews for the story. Gametrailers actually said it was one of the better aspects of it. It got bad reviews for the gameplay issues. I tried out 30 mins of this myself, it feels like a lesser refined version of ME2. I'll try it more later.

Most of the reviews I've seen are either bitching about problems that I never encountered while playing the game(The AI being utterly useless, for one), or it seemed like the reviewer was just playing the game wrong. It seemed like they wanted to play it like gears of war, or some other shooter, when you're supposed to be sneaking everywhere and playing it like the RPG that's in the damn title.

I enjoyed Mass Effect 2 more, but this deserves a much better score than the reviewers were giving it.

 

[Ecks]

It seemed like they wanted to play it like gears of war, or some other shooter, when you're supposed to be sneaking everywhere and playing it like the RPG that's in the damn title.

Actually you can play it like a straight up shooter and go around shooting everything. The game was made to be played however you want to play it. I played through as a soldier/commando and had lots of fire fights my first time through the game, it was a lot of fun. I did some minor sneaking around but mostly focused on shooting because that was the way i built my character. Sneaking through the game is not the only way to play it. Levels are built to where you can go through guns blazing and blowing up shit, or you can go through sneaking with alternative routes. I built up my Assault Rifle/Sub Machine Gun/Toughness to the max with a few points in Sabotage and Technical Aptitude for the bonuses they give. It was really fun. You even get certain perks from it.

I'm playing my second time on the Recruit option, focusing on building up Stealth and Martial Arts and likely Toughness or Pistol as well will probably put some points in Sabotage and Techincal Ap again since they are pretty useful.

I'm looking forward to trying out Veteran mode when I unlock it.

The only negative thing I can say about this game is that on occasions I had some visual glitches where the game froze for a second and my monitor went black as if it was really pushing my video card.. which is odd, but it would go back to normal after a few seconds and be playable again. This only really happened in a certain level. The only other glitch I had was when fighting Darcy on the last level, and he.. vanished toward the end of the fight. Health bar was still there, he just wasn't so.. I couldn't get past that portion of the game. Reloaded the checkpoint and fought him again and everything was fine. To me though, these weren't glitches that made the game unplayable.

The only thing that actually bothered me sometimes is when looking around the game did lag sometimes, probably because of the motion blur, but again, it wasn't an all the time problem. It did happen often, but again, wasn't something that made the game unplayable or unenjoyable.

 

[Bajaratt]

Actually you can play it like a straight up shooter and go around shooting everything. The game was made to be played however you want to play it. I played through as a soldier/commando and had lots of fire fights my first time through the game, it was a lot of fun. I did some minor sneaking around but mostly focused on shooting because that was the way i built my character. Sneaking through the game is not the only way to play it. Levels are built to where you can go through guns blazing and blowing up shit, or you can go through sneaking with alternative routes. I built up my Assault Rifle/Sub Machine Gun/Toughness to the max with a few points in Sabotage and Technical Aptitude for the bonuses they give. It was really fun. You even get certain perks from it.

I'm playing my second time on the Recruit option, focusing on building up Stealth and Martial Arts and likely Toughness or Pistol as well will probably put some points in Sabotage and Techincal Ap again since they are pretty useful.

I'm looking forward to trying out Veteran mode when I unlock it.

The only negative thing I can say about this game is that on occasions I had some visual glitches where the game froze for a second and my monitor went black as if it was really pushing my video card.. which is odd, but it would go back to normal after a few seconds and be playable again. This only really happened in a certain level. The only other glitch I had was when fighting Darcy on the last level, and he.. vanished toward the end of the fight. Health bar was still there, he just wasn't so.. I couldn't get past that portion of the game. Reloaded the checkpoint and fought him again and everything was fine. To me though, these weren't glitches that made the game unplayable.

The only thing that actually bothered me sometimes is when looking around the game did lag sometimes, probably because of the motion blur, but again, it wasn't an all the time problem. It did happen often, but again, wasn't something that made the game unplayable or unenjoyable.

While you can play in multiple fashions, most of the reviews that I've seen expected the game to be like gears of war and only tried to shoot their way through everything. Some they tried to headshot everyone from long distances with the pistol, completely ignoring when the game tells you that the shot will go anywhere in the circle, not only at the dot in the center.

They didn't understand that they had to get close to be accurate with the guns, or to spend points to improve the accuracy. I've seen reviews that said that the pistols are useless, and that it makes the game much more challenging to only use pistols; when I used pistols 95% of the time. They're absolutely broken if you use a silencer and buy chain shot and the critical shot skills. They were also bitching about stealth being useless, when they were using armor with almost no sound dampening, not putting points into stealth, and not using silenced weapons. I also wouldn't be surprised if they didn't mod their weapons to boost their performance, they were playing the game so bad.

You can play it multiple ways, but stealthing is really how they wanted people to play; so the reviewers are bitching about playing the game wrong.

Also, every reviewer bitches about the texture popping, which is just getting annoying. Texture popping is because of the Unreal Engine, Obsidian had nothing to do with that. I'm getting tired of reviewers blaming the game developers who only licensed the Unreal engine, but praising the hell out of the company that made it with all it's flaws.

If it was me, I'd give this game an 8.5/10.

 

[Elemmire]

Game seems like a bargain bin wait to me :\ the gameplay was kinda "meh" when I played it. The story was fun though. So ya, bargain bin. As an RPG alone it is pretty good cause of the story choices and the customization, but it just felt awkward to play for me.

 

[Ecks]

Oh Baj, I'm not completely disagreeing with you. But I do think it's silly to say the game was made to be played stealthy when it's clearly evident they had a guns blazing approach to all the levels as well. All those exploding barrels? Why even offer a Rifle, dual Sub Machine Gun, and Shot gun if Pistol and stealth takedowns were the preferred mode of play. They're only options, the whole game is set up for countless options of play.

And I will agree that apparently, from what you've described, the reviewers are absolute retards and likely were just playing the game wrong. I completely agree with that, because this game is amazing. The gameplay is awesome, AI is pretty smart and they act like they should. Personally I think for someone not to have enjoyed this game, they had to have been playing it wrong. Customization is key no matter what setup you are utilizing. Wanna go in guns blazing, make sure you've got accuracy and damage boost enhancements. You already described the stealth portion, so I'll refrain from reiterating. Hell you can go through the whole game using items only if you wanted, that's an option after all. And there are enhancements that make nades freaking uber.

Reviewers must not have payed much attention during the firearms portion of the starting level. It freaking explains how every gun works best. And yeah, pistols are godly, even if you never put any points into them they are still 1 shot kills if you utilize them right. They absolutely suck for long distance firefights, but then if you're having long distance firefights you should be using the rifle, if not then you're doing it wrong.

Each gun has it's strengths and weaknesses and all of them have a place to be used. Though to be honest.. the shot gun is kind of pointless unless you just wanna use a shotty. The Rifle is the all purpose kick ass gun for people not playing stealth mode. I personally think it's best accompanied with the SMG for close quarters shooting, but the Rifle is also quite good for close quarters as well. It's just how well you want to preserve rifle ammo vs. your other gun's ammo. But to be fair, I never really had an ammo shortage. Plenty of ammo sprawled around the levels, plus what drops from enemies, not to mention you can stockpile before EVERY mission if you want.

But yeah.. I'm playing stealth mode on my current playthrough and having a blast. It's amazing how godly stealth is, but I haven't able to focus much on toughness, so my HP and survivability when I do get spotted is pretty low if they start shooting at me. Hand to hand is pretty freaking amazing too, I feel like a kung fu master and I've only put a few points into the skill.

This game is so much fun that I just don't understand people that don't like it. You've gotta be playing it wrong to not enjoy it, or you've got the wrong mindset about the game. You've gotta look at it like playing a Metal Gear game, but at the same time, know that you can go blow shit up if you want to. There are key points where some measure of stealth is highly advantageous but the whole game doesn't have to be played that way. Just utilizing cover is a good way of being stealthy by itself.

On my first play through, I wasn't set up for stealth, but then even when you go all commando on the game, there's no real reason to actually get the best defensive armor. I personally found the middle armor to be more useful for it's slots and added item spaces. Plus it didn't completely ruin my ability to sneak up on some enemies when I needed to, or to sneak around a level for a better offensive position before an assault.

 

[Bajaratt]

Oh Baj, I'm not completely disagreeing with you. But I do think it's silly to say the game was made to be played stealthy when it's clearly evident they had a guns blazing approach to all the levels as well. All those exploding barrels? Why even offer a Rifle, dual Sub Machine Gun, and Shot gun if Pistol and stealth takedowns were the preferred mode of play. They're only options, the whole game is set up for countless options of play.

But in order to shoot accurately at any real distance, you had to hold your crosshairs over the enemy for a few seconds. That's not exactly "run and gun" when you have to stop, aim for a bit, then fire for every shot. You can do it, I just don't think that's how it was intended, given how a lot of the gameplay mechanics are actually functioning. You are right that there is multiple ways to play it, my roommate went through most of the game without killing anyone, he did a bunch of levels without firing a shot; just stealth take downs or completely avoiding enemies entirely. He got several perks that I did not get just for completing the levels without ever hurting anyone.

Pistols are just as good at long distances once you get the last critical shot upgrade, it expands the length to 40 meters, which is long enough for almost all of the combat sections. I could two-shot any boss I came across with that and chain shot.

 

[Ecks]

But in order to shoot accurately at any real distance, you had to hold your crosshairs over the enemy for a few seconds. That's not exactly "run and gun" when you have to stop, aim for a bit, then fire for every shot.

Pistols are just as good at long distances once you get the last critical shot upgrade, it expands the length to 40 meters, which is long enough for almost all of the combat sections. I could two-shot any boss I came across with that and chain shot.

Not true of the Rifle, all you need are decent accuracy enhancements and the Rifle is fairly accurate without having to hold the crosshairs on an enemy. When you're in a full on firefight with multiple targets, you just don't have the luxury of waiting for a 100% accurate shot line up. But with Rifles you don't have to do that because the firing zone is fairly small to begin with and as long as you pulse the gun and don't just spray and pay (a tactic picked up from playing Counter-Strike) you will hit your target quickly while going back to utilize your cover so you don't get lit up as well.

No.. you really can't run and gun.. unless you're relatively close range and using the dual SMGs, that's about the closest to 'run and gun' the game gets. I guess it's more of a tactical shooter if you play with guns blazing because of how important utilizing cover is.

I'm too tired to carry anything else on further.

 

[Romper]

If I enjoyed the ME series would I enjoy this game? Looking for something new to play, and have quite a few games that I have beat a few times that I'd trade in. This looks like it would sate my desire to be a spy while having the decisions of what to do from the rpg elements that make it like ME.

 

[Ecks]

I believe you would enjoy this Romper.

 

[Bajaratt]

I think you would enjoy it as well. This is the only game that I can recall where your decisions actually have an effect on not just the plot, but the gameplay in levels/boss fights. They took most of the best aspects of mass effect and added them to a semi-stealth based shooter.

 

[Strid]

The console versions just went down to $40 at Gamestop. That's probably a perfect price to pay.