Oh man, one of the endings from someone over at SA: (ending spoilers, duh)
LuftWaffle posted:
I just had a pretty crazy ending.
I was playing shotgun rear end in a top hat, (shotguns, fortitude or whatever it is, and hacking), and purposefully trying to piss off everyone I met. I couldn't bring myself to piss off Heck because his style was so inline with mine. Sported a lumberjack beard, aviators, and the floppy hat which just made it infinitely better.
Anyway, Mina, Scarlet and Madison hated me. I executed every person I could including the arab guys, Deng, russian 80s guy, Sis, and Albatross. I tried to kill SIE, and I fought her, but she walked away. I always chose the storyline that would cause the most casualties (saving Madison, helping Sung survive the assassination attempt but letting the riots kill tons of people). The first time I ran into civilian guards I used fire ammo on them. It was glorious. I never gave Scarlet any intel. I punched Leland at the first dialogue opportunity. I told Marburg to gently caress off. I let Mina die by leaving her in the facility.
When I got to the fight with Leland, after I killed him I at first spared him because I figured letting him live would probably be the worst outcome for mankind. As I'm standing there telling him he's going to jail and stuff, I see a laser sight train on my neck and I get sniped. It was Scarlet, she shot me. I was pretty sure I was going to die. She was threatening Leland as well. Then from the shadows STEVEN HECK shoots her from a million miles away with a shotgun and kills her, and then I execute Leland. Steven and I ride off into the sunset while he talks about bombs inside of bombs and Alpha Alpha Protocols.
This was basically my ending last time except
I had Leland call in Marburg to defend him, only to have Marburg give me a nod and walk away. And I let Scarlet live, even though I had the option of Heck shooting her.
I meant to go after Mina (backstabber though she is), but I had no idea where she was.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds.2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
A tip about the end when you have to make that choice.
If you look up at the doors you can go through you will see a big TV screen on both. Mina will be on one of them and you can save her by going through that door.
Beat the game on recruit, and it's not half bad. But whenever there's a firefight sequence the flaws start to show big time, and like someone else said the boss fights are pretty stupid. Nothing like getting some dude down to low health and about to finish him then a cutscene kicks in and you're powerless. That's some archaic game design right there, and though I admit the game has a lot of choice it takes it away from you in a few key instances and it really brings down the experience.
Basically an Obsidian game, good or at least interesting story, shoddy gameplay, and a annoying endgame. Some levels it seems like they got it perfectly, and then others it's like "WTF happened here?" Very fun in the good parts, very annoying in the bad parts, and kind of short. I would tell people to rent it first, in a week you could probaly complete 4 playthroughs.
How exactly is the game set up in regards to going from place to place? Is it set up like a mission structure similar to Splinter Cell titles, where you're dropped into each 'level', or are the areas you visit (Russia, Tai Pei, etc) almost like 'quest hubs'? From the trailers, I can tell there's cool cutscene storytelling, and I completely understand the actual gameplay mechanics (as it seems to be modeled after all other Obsidian games), but it's the stuff 'in between', if you will, like leveling up, and 'exploration', that I'm curious about.
Basically quest hubs. You do stuff in your safehouse, and then when you're ready you pick a mission and get sent there. Kind of dissapointing that you can't explore, and the levels are, while not as linear as some games, still very much so.
Wow! Just how many endings does this game have? I just beat Saudi and went over to Taipei. So far the recruit background is fun just for the fact that you suprise all these vets with your ability to be an up and comming badass. I imagine most of the 360 achievements filed under secret are related to the many choices you can make in this game.
Ok, so the controls are wack at times and stealth is broken but the story keeps pulling me in. Well this isnt the first time Ive liked a game alot of reviewers didnt have praise for.
*Looks at her 950/1000 score for Too Human.* :P Dont have a completed epic set in that game.
Fighting a boss, kill all his henchmen, run up to him and start beating the hell out of him in melee. Get him down to about 25% health when CUTSCENE.
Now we're magically on opposite sides of the room shooting at each other and yelling things, then he runs out and magically escapes past a magically sealing door.
Bad developers.
*bops Obsidian on the head with a rolled up newspaper*
No.
I hate when games do that. It's silly, lazy, and effectively ruins any strategy you were using. I remember when Infamous purposely kept teleporting me to the street level from a rooftop to get sniped by enemies.
Just got it today, been playing a few hours. Still dicking around in Saudi Arabia.
The game's not that bad. I mean, it's not good, but it's not that bad. It's uh, definitely more playable then I was expecting. Better than NWN2, Obsidian's previous effort.
Currently uploading my trials and tribulations to youtube.
Pointing a camera at the screen? Really?
I know it's not supposed to be a proper LP, but still.
KotOR 2 was almost exclusively a deconstruction of the first game, and of Star Wars lore in general. I think there's a fair comparison to it insofar as Alpha Protocol is largely a reaction to modern RPG design philosophy, even if it isn't as overt about it.
But the fact remains that nearly every fictional element in KotoR II had already been created and the devs merely had to pick what to utilize. Even someone just having watched the movies will have something like 12-14 hours of Star Wars primer material; even just watching the good movies is something like 6-8 hours of free info for the KotoR II fiction. For the average PAer, KotoR II is automatically more immersive since you're basically walking into a big fictional world someone else has created. In comparison, AP is a single game with a contemporary stand-alone setting which has to build it's own fiction while still keeping the player involved. Yeah, we've all heard of the Russian Mafia, but AP has to have its own Russian mafia. It can't just do something like pick the Sith and have tons of info which the player already knows and the devs don't have to explain. That's the part where I think the comparison doesn't match up. Everybody and their grandma knows about Jedi, but most people probably don't even know the basic purposes of the NSA, CIA, and FBI. It's a lot easier for a setting to be compelling when it's all very familiar before you even start the game.
I'd agree that a familiar setting means that a storyteller has to do less expositional work to do, but how compelling this automatically makes it is entirely down to the audience. To me, Alpha Protocol is engaging precisely because every element is new and reasonably fresh, from the setting to the game mechanics. Conversely, Star Wars games that are based either on or immediately around the existing films really struggle to carve their own path in your mental territory.
KOTOR was originally constructed as a means to give Bioware the creative freedom they needed to develop their style of game writing whilst still technically being a license - it's set 3000 or so years before anything the audience is familiar with, and the only thing remotely Star Wars in it are incidental to the plot - the weapons, the warrior-mages and varieties of gribbly aliens. Bioware kept to a comparatively simple tale within the absolute morality of the universe though, which enabled Obsidian to further change and freshen things to keep KOTOR II distinct - I'd argue that it's even less recognisable as a Star Wars game for it, but infinitely more engaging.
Right now, in terms of shooting in these sorts of games, it's:
Deus Ex < Alpha Protocol < Fallout 3 < Mass Effect 1 < Mass Effect 2
The only thing I've seen AP do better then ME right now has been the customization menu for your guns and armor. It's a bit more detailed and that's pretty cool.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Right now, in terms of shooting in these sorts of games, it's:
Deus Ex < Alpha Protocol < Fallout 3 < Mass Effect 1 < Mass Effect 2
The only thing I've seen AP do better then ME right now has been the customization menu for your guns and armor. It's a bit more detailed and that's pretty cool.
Just in terms of shooting, maybe. Everything else that Alpha Protocol allows makes the system much more dynamic and interesting than Mass Effect 1, which was just a really bad shooter wrapped in a pretty cool story. The same goes for Deus Ex, really; the open-ended nature of both the levels and your character's play style grants a lot of leeway against poor shooting, as far as I'm concerned. It's not at all supposed to feel or play like a shooter.
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All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
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Cannon GooseI need some GAGS!If only I had my gag book!Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Yeah, I always played Deus Ex as more of a explorative experience. Only resorting to my firearms if I really screwed up badly.
Right now, in terms of shooting in these sorts of games, it's:
Deus Ex < Alpha Protocol < Fallout 3 < Mass Effect 1 < Mass Effect 2
The only thing I've seen AP do better then ME right now has been the customization menu for your guns and armor. It's a bit more detailed and that's pretty cool.
Just in terms of shooting, maybe. Everything else that Alpha Protocol allows makes the system much more dynamic and interesting than Mass Effect 1, which was just a really bad shooter wrapped in a pretty cool story. The same goes for Deus Ex, really; the open-ended nature of both the levels and your character's play style grants a lot of leeway against poor shooting, as far as I'm concerned. It's not at all supposed to feel or play like a shooter.
See, I'm not trying to make myself out as some all-accepting Buddha of games, but to me a game plays how it plays. I don't sit down to play something and then instantly start complaining about how the cover mechanic isn't as good as game X, or why the shooting is far better in game Y. I just learn to create or adapt a playing style within the game's framework.
Alpha Protocol doesn't really play like anything else on the market - stealth is inherently tied to recharging abilities including invisibility, weapons (or at least the pistol) are a short-range precision tool that can only be used with planning, and hand to hand combat is legitimately more useful than guns in some situations. Rather than bang my head against the wall screaming about why my gun isn't hitting anything, I try to learn what does work. If I still find myself not having fun, then I would indeed find fault with the game - but I feel a lot of the (non-technical) critiscism for AP comes from people playing it on their terms, not the game's.
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AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
Right now, in terms of shooting in these sorts of games, it's:
Deus Ex < Alpha Protocol < Fallout 3 < Mass Effect 1 < Mass Effect 2
The only thing I've seen AP do better then ME right now has been the customization menu for your guns and armor. It's a bit more detailed and that's pretty cool.
Just in terms of shooting, maybe. Everything else that Alpha Protocol allows makes the system much more dynamic and interesting than Mass Effect 1, which was just a really bad shooter wrapped in a pretty cool story. The same goes for Deus Ex, really; the open-ended nature of both the levels and your character's play style grants a lot of leeway against poor shooting, as far as I'm concerned. It's not at all supposed to feel or play like a shooter.
See, I'm not trying to make myself out as some all-accepting Buddha of games, but to me a game plays how it plays. I don't sit down to play something and then instantly start complaining about how the cover mechanic isn't as good as game X, or why the shooting is far better in game Y. I just learn to create or adapt a playing style within the game's framework.
Alpha Protocol doesn't really play like anything else on the market - stealth is inherently tied to recharging abilities including invisibility, weapons (or at least the pistol) are a short-range precision tool that can only be used with planning, and hand to hand combat is legitimately more useful than guns in some situations. Rather than bang my head against the wall screaming about why my gun isn't hitting anything, I try to learn what does work. If I still find myself not having fun, then I would indeed find fault with the game - but I feel a lot of the (non-technical) critiscism for AP comes from people playing it on their terms, not the game's.
If you take every opportunity to maximize the pistol's accuracy, it's pretty formidable weapon outside of crits by the end of the game, but that takes time. Additionally, I stealthed through some levels entirely without any points in Stealth at all. Was it stupid and time consuming? Oh gods yes, but it's possible to do some of them. I say some because some levels (Lazo's boat for example) cheese you out of stealth with guards you can't eliminate before they sound an alarm.
Keep in mind that my only goal was to remain undetected. If you have objections to murdering several dozen people with a silenced pistol, you may be more interested in the stealth tree. I know I plan to heavily invest in it for my second playthrough.
David_TA fashion yes-man is no good to me.Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
For all the talk of the game being better with the 360 pad, if you have a PS3, there are DualShock drivers out there that will emulate a 360 controller. Works like a charm.
What the hell is with guards disappearing when you reload a checkpoint? I am a chronic stealth-game-checkpoint-reloader (shit, spotted, reload). But not all the guards are there when I reload, and it pisses me off because it robs me of the opportunity to truly try it again. My only option seems to be reloading back to the safehouse and starting over from scratch, including the briefing. Nerd rage!
What the hell is with guards disappearing when you reload a checkpoint? I am a chronic stealth-game-checkpoint-reloader (shit, spotted, reload). But not all the guards are there when I reload, and it pisses me off because it robs me of the opportunity to truly try it again. My only option seems to be reloading back to the safehouse and starting over from scratch, including the briefing. Nerd rage!
I mean, I'm really really surprised people are arguing otherwise
You are joking, right?
Becaue ME2 combat problem was, even if it was polished, in the end it was just FUCKING BORING.
A ZzzzZzz cover based shooter.
It was pretty boring if you played it on Normal.
So I didn't play it on Normal. Problem solved.
I didn't play it on normal. it was still boring and offered no real challenge. Insanity only made it more boring if that were possible (now it only took longer to kill stuff. "fun"). The enemies posed no real threat to you at all. but at this point we're all just dabbling in the realm of personal opinion and preferences. It's not the end of the world if someone thinks your favorite band isn't as good as you think they are.
As far as Alpha Protocol goes, I've reload checkpoints a lot too. I haven't really noticed that spawn thing though. I have noticed in some places that where guards spawn or when changes depending on your position (defending @ the Saudi base for instance) so it could just be that?
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
What the hell is with guards disappearing when you reload a checkpoint? I am a chronic stealth-game-checkpoint-reloader (shit, spotted, reload). But not all the guards are there when I reload, and it pisses me off because it robs me of the opportunity to truly try it again. My only option seems to be reloading back to the safehouse and starting over from scratch, including the briefing. Nerd rage!
I was doing the Nasri mission in Saudi Arabia last night when I sneaked past that courtyard with the tanks and stuff and triggered the autosave while exploring. I wasn't ready to move on yet, so I went back to the courtyard and all of the guards were gone. It made looting that area much easier.
Huh, I just picked up a PC Gamer UK and they gave it a solid 81%. It's weird, I honestly don't remember the last game that had such divisive reviews, they usually follow along the same format with one or two outliers.
So, I've been playing this game on PC for a while now. So far through Saudi, Rome and Moscow. Impressions:
-Bad graphics? I suppose I'm easy to please, since I didn't really notice/care.
-Couple of wonky animations, but overall better than say, in Bethesda releases.
-Few bugs encountered mainly with few sneaking portions and when taking cover. No serious bugs yet encountered.
-The plot so far is, while not revolutionary, very solid in quality and quite fun.
-The writing is good(duh...)
-Pistols are a little underpowered unless I wait for full aim or use THE SKILL, otherwise I've had limited experience with the weapons. Assault rifles are quite usable even without points invested when needed.
-Gameplay is quite serviceable. It's nothing super, but changing my mindset from GoW or similar, and start acting like if I was in an actual firefight I tend to survive very well.
-The camera is a little wonky at times, and if the game has been on for a long time, changing to inventory or map or whatever takes a while. This is somewhat annoying.
-Hacking can go suck a dick. Or at least, the controls for it.
Consensus: The game has serviceable(and occasionally fun!) mechanics, the dialogue and plot choices etc. are absolutely great, and Obsidian has made a great game with the limited budget they had. I am probably too forgiving by nature, but a lot of the complaints in this thread cover issues that I haven't either noticed before, or am not bothered by. So far, I've had a blast playing this, and in my books it's better than a lot of AAA titles with superior graphics and gameplay, as writing and atmosphere are very important to me. They've also made a game on a little covered subject matter, and being somewhat original nets points with me as well. I'd take a game like this over Call of Duty or whatever any day.
I can see how people might not enjoy this if they went in with vastly different expectations, or have difficulty adjusting their playing style to the game(not saying everyone has this, just that in my experience some people rarely stray outside few established game types due to difficulties in adjusting to different game mechanics). I would recommend AP to others, but with some reservations.
Regarding the reviews, I think some of the reviewers might've had a bone to pick with Obsidian or otherwise a bad day, as many of the criticisms about lacking graphics, animations, bugs etc. I've seen in other games which have received higher scores. Seems like my decision to no longer give a shit about reviews keeps serving me well.
I have noticed that guards' bodies despawn very quickly after you kill them. And you can't drag the bodies around like in Splinter Cell. It's very odd.
It doesn't happen everywhere but ther eseems to be specific areas wher eit does happen, the first area of the airfield being one of them.
It probably has to do with the fact that you go there twice (with two different complements of guards) and it's also one of the areas you can buy weaker guards for I think.
My attempt to play stealth no-kill on Recruit is reaffirming my inability to stealth. It's probably just my incredibly low skill, but dayum. I basically just gave up. I'll stealth where I can stealth, and then I'm SMGing down the rest. I'm done reloading checkpoints to save these assholes.
It doesn't happen everywhere but ther eseems to be specific areas wher eit does happen, the first area of the airfield being one of them.
It probably has to do with the fact that you go there twice (with two different complements of guards) and it's also one of the areas you can buy weaker guards for I think.
My attempt to play stealth no-kill on Recruit is reaffirming my inability to stealth. It's probably just my incredibly low skill, but dayum. I basically just gave up. I'll stealth where I can stealth, and then I'm SMGing down the rest. I'm done reloading checkpoints to save these assholes.
I think it is just down to experience. The only part I struggled to stealth was the bit with Shaheeds bodyguard, the rest I'm not running (while crouching) about without pausing or anything, but perhapos its because I can recall the guard routines from the last time through.
The strange thing is that I took out SHaheeds bodyguard first time on my first run without alerting anyone. This time it took like 8 freaking attempts.
I have noticed that guards' bodies despawn very quickly after you kill them. And you can't drag the bodies around like in Splinter Cell. It's very odd.
Yep. If you're gonna have the body finding mechanic the AI will follow, you need to be given the tools as a player to remove the bodies.
They did it kind of automatically though, which is the lazy way around it. No code for the player to manipulate, so the player is supposed to time his kill/takedown to happen in the intermediary period of no one looking at the place where it drops, until the time it disappears. Arguably you would "move it" in that time taken for it to disappear.
It's shitty, but at least they see and react to the bodies.
It doesn't happen everywhere but ther eseems to be specific areas wher eit does happen, the first area of the airfield being one of them.
It probably has to do with the fact that you go there twice (with two different complements of guards) and it's also one of the areas you can buy weaker guards for I think.
My attempt to play stealth no-kill on Recruit is reaffirming my inability to stealth. It's probably just my incredibly low skill, but dayum. I basically just gave up. I'll stealth where I can stealth, and then I'm SMGing down the rest. I'm done reloading checkpoints to save these assholes.
I think it is just down to experience. The only part I struggled to stealth was the bit with Shaheeds bodyguard, the rest I'm not running (while crouching) about without pausing or anything, but perhapos its because I can recall the guard routines from the last time through.
The strange thing is that I took out SHaheeds bodyguard first time on my first run without alerting anyone. This time it took like 8 freaking attempts.
I just don't have the patience for that. If stealth goes south, I just start cracking heads.
I tried the reloading thing early, but I just can't stomach it. I've got better things to do than keep terrorists alive.
It doesn't happen everywhere but ther eseems to be specific areas wher eit does happen, the first area of the airfield being one of them.
It probably has to do with the fact that you go there twice (with two different complements of guards) and it's also one of the areas you can buy weaker guards for I think.
My attempt to play stealth no-kill on Recruit is reaffirming my inability to stealth. It's probably just my incredibly low skill, but dayum. I basically just gave up. I'll stealth where I can stealth, and then I'm SMGing down the rest. I'm done reloading checkpoints to save these assholes.
I think it is just down to experience. The only part I struggled to stealth was the bit with Shaheeds bodyguard, the rest I'm not running (while crouching) about without pausing or anything, but perhapos its because I can recall the guard routines from the last time through.
The strange thing is that I took out SHaheeds bodyguard first time on my first run without alerting anyone. This time it took like 8 freaking attempts.
I just don't have the patience for that. If stealth goes south, I just start cracking heads.
I tried the reloading thing early, but I just can't stomach it. I've got better things to do than keep terrorists alive.
Well I'm not having to reload, I seem to have gotten the hang of switching between Tranq chain shots, melee and straight up avoidance of enemies without spending huge chunks of time observing patterns. I reloaded on the airfield once but that was because that was the first time I used the pistol and I didn't realise it had lethal ammo in it until I checkeced my orphan count. So far I'm in Moscow and still have 0 Orphans! yay!
It doesn't happen everywhere but ther eseems to be specific areas wher eit does happen, the first area of the airfield being one of them.
It probably has to do with the fact that you go there twice (with two different complements of guards) and it's also one of the areas you can buy weaker guards for I think.
My attempt to play stealth no-kill on Recruit is reaffirming my inability to stealth. It's probably just my incredibly low skill, but dayum. I basically just gave up. I'll stealth where I can stealth, and then I'm SMGing down the rest. I'm done reloading checkpoints to save these assholes.
I think it is just down to experience. The only part I struggled to stealth was the bit with Shaheeds bodyguard, the rest I'm not running (while crouching) about without pausing or anything, but perhapos its because I can recall the guard routines from the last time through.
The strange thing is that I took out SHaheeds bodyguard first time on my first run without alerting anyone. This time it took like 8 freaking attempts.
I just don't have the patience for that. If stealth goes south, I just start cracking heads.
I tried the reloading thing early, but I just can't stomach it. I've got better things to do than keep terrorists alive.
Well I'm not having to reload, I seem to have gotten the hang of switching between Tranq chain shots, melee and straight up avoidance of enemies without spending huge chunks of time observing patterns. I reloaded on the airfield once but that was because that was the first time I used the pistol and I didn't realise it had lethal ammo in it until I checkeced my orphan count. So far I'm in Moscow and still have 0 Orphans! yay!
EDIT: And I had to reload for SHaheeds bodyguard.
I just finished saudi with 13 alarms, 0 kills and 0 orphans even though I
put two steel core rounds into gold AK dude's head and threw Shaheed off a bridge.
Since those didn't count, I'll probably try to play nice long enough to get Shadow Agent or whatever and see if that helps.
I have noticed that guards' bodies despawn very quickly after you kill them. And you can't drag the bodies around like in Splinter Cell. It's very odd.
Yep. If you're gonna have the body finding mechanic the AI will follow, you need to be given the tools as a player to remove the bodies.
They did it kind of automatically though, which is the lazy way around it. No code for the player to manipulate, so the player is supposed to time his kill/takedown to happen in the intermediary period of no one looking at the place where it drops, until the time it disappears. Arguably you would "move it" in that time taken for it to disappear.
It's shitty, but at least they see and react to the bodies.
Personally, I didn't see it like that. It was more of a "Don't kill people in the middle of the floor." to me, rather than 'GuardAway, apply directly to guard corpse!".
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I meant to go after Mina (backstabber though she is), but I had no idea where she was.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I just realized that I hadn't actually played through on Recruit yet.
Looks like time to restart.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Basically an Obsidian game, good or at least interesting story, shoddy gameplay, and a annoying endgame. Some levels it seems like they got it perfectly, and then others it's like "WTF happened here?" Very fun in the good parts, very annoying in the bad parts, and kind of short. I would tell people to rent it first, in a week you could probaly complete 4 playthroughs.
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Ok, so the controls are wack at times and stealth is broken but the story keeps pulling me in. Well this isnt the first time Ive liked a game alot of reviewers didnt have praise for.
*Looks at her 950/1000 score for Too Human.* :P Dont have a completed epic set in that game.
You are joking, right?
Becaue ME2 combat problem was, even if it was polished, in the end it was just FUCKING BORING.
A ZzzzZzz cover based shooter.
I hate when games do that. It's silly, lazy, and effectively ruins any strategy you were using. I remember when Infamous purposely kept teleporting me to the street level from a rooftop to get sniped by enemies.
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Pointing a camera at the screen? Really?
I know it's not supposed to be a proper LP, but still.
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I'd agree that a familiar setting means that a storyteller has to do less expositional work to do, but how compelling this automatically makes it is entirely down to the audience. To me, Alpha Protocol is engaging precisely because every element is new and reasonably fresh, from the setting to the game mechanics. Conversely, Star Wars games that are based either on or immediately around the existing films really struggle to carve their own path in your mental territory.
KOTOR was originally constructed as a means to give Bioware the creative freedom they needed to develop their style of game writing whilst still technically being a license - it's set 3000 or so years before anything the audience is familiar with, and the only thing remotely Star Wars in it are incidental to the plot - the weapons, the warrior-mages and varieties of gribbly aliens. Bioware kept to a comparatively simple tale within the absolute morality of the universe though, which enabled Obsidian to further change and freshen things to keep KOTOR II distinct - I'd argue that it's even less recognisable as a Star Wars game for it, but infinitely more engaging.
Not really.
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It was pretty boring if you played it on Normal.
So I didn't play it on Normal. Problem solved.
Alpha Protocol is arguably better than Mass Effect 1, I will agree with that.
Right now, in terms of shooting in these sorts of games, it's:
Deus Ex < Alpha Protocol < Fallout 3 < Mass Effect 1 < Mass Effect 2
The only thing I've seen AP do better then ME right now has been the customization menu for your guns and armor. It's a bit more detailed and that's pretty cool.
It's an Obsidian game thread. A good amount of it will be spent talking about Bioware.
Sort of in a "Answer to a question no one asked" sort of way.
Just in terms of shooting, maybe. Everything else that Alpha Protocol allows makes the system much more dynamic and interesting than Mass Effect 1, which was just a really bad shooter wrapped in a pretty cool story. The same goes for Deus Ex, really; the open-ended nature of both the levels and your character's play style grants a lot of leeway against poor shooting, as far as I'm concerned. It's not at all supposed to feel or play like a shooter.
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See, I'm not trying to make myself out as some all-accepting Buddha of games, but to me a game plays how it plays. I don't sit down to play something and then instantly start complaining about how the cover mechanic isn't as good as game X, or why the shooting is far better in game Y. I just learn to create or adapt a playing style within the game's framework.
Alpha Protocol doesn't really play like anything else on the market - stealth is inherently tied to recharging abilities including invisibility, weapons (or at least the pistol) are a short-range precision tool that can only be used with planning, and hand to hand combat is legitimately more useful than guns in some situations. Rather than bang my head against the wall screaming about why my gun isn't hitting anything, I try to learn what does work. If I still find myself not having fun, then I would indeed find fault with the game - but I feel a lot of the (non-technical) critiscism for AP comes from people playing it on their terms, not the game's.
If you take every opportunity to maximize the pistol's accuracy, it's pretty formidable weapon outside of crits by the end of the game, but that takes time. Additionally, I stealthed through some levels entirely without any points in Stealth at all. Was it stupid and time consuming? Oh gods yes, but it's possible to do some of them. I say some because some levels (Lazo's boat for example) cheese you out of stealth with guards you can't eliminate before they sound an alarm.
Keep in mind that my only goal was to remain undetected. If you have objections to murdering several dozen people with a silenced pistol, you may be more interested in the stealth tree. I know I plan to heavily invest in it for my second playthrough.
Battle.net
The game is taking pity on you.
Nah, just inconsistent loading code.
I didn't play it on normal. it was still boring and offered no real challenge. Insanity only made it more boring if that were possible (now it only took longer to kill stuff. "fun"). The enemies posed no real threat to you at all. but at this point we're all just dabbling in the realm of personal opinion and preferences. It's not the end of the world if someone thinks your favorite band isn't as good as you think they are.
As far as Alpha Protocol goes, I've reload checkpoints a lot too. I haven't really noticed that spawn thing though. I have noticed in some places that where guards spawn or when changes depending on your position (defending @ the Saudi base for instance) so it could just be that?
I was doing the Nasri mission in Saudi Arabia last night when I sneaked past that courtyard with the tanks and stuff and triggered the autosave while exploring. I wasn't ready to move on yet, so I went back to the courtyard and all of the guards were gone. It made looting that area much easier.
Also Spoit, that is an awesome find.
-Bad graphics? I suppose I'm easy to please, since I didn't really notice/care.
-Couple of wonky animations, but overall better than say, in Bethesda releases.
-Few bugs encountered mainly with few sneaking portions and when taking cover. No serious bugs yet encountered.
-The plot so far is, while not revolutionary, very solid in quality and quite fun.
-The writing is good(duh...)
-Pistols are a little underpowered unless I wait for full aim or use THE SKILL, otherwise I've had limited experience with the weapons. Assault rifles are quite usable even without points invested when needed.
-Gameplay is quite serviceable. It's nothing super, but changing my mindset from GoW or similar, and start acting like if I was in an actual firefight I tend to survive very well.
-The camera is a little wonky at times, and if the game has been on for a long time, changing to inventory or map or whatever takes a while. This is somewhat annoying.
-Hacking can go suck a dick. Or at least, the controls for it.
Consensus: The game has serviceable(and occasionally fun!) mechanics, the dialogue and plot choices etc. are absolutely great, and Obsidian has made a great game with the limited budget they had. I am probably too forgiving by nature, but a lot of the complaints in this thread cover issues that I haven't either noticed before, or am not bothered by. So far, I've had a blast playing this, and in my books it's better than a lot of AAA titles with superior graphics and gameplay, as writing and atmosphere are very important to me. They've also made a game on a little covered subject matter, and being somewhat original nets points with me as well. I'd take a game like this over Call of Duty or whatever any day.
I can see how people might not enjoy this if they went in with vastly different expectations, or have difficulty adjusting their playing style to the game(not saying everyone has this, just that in my experience some people rarely stray outside few established game types due to difficulties in adjusting to different game mechanics). I would recommend AP to others, but with some reservations.
Regarding the reviews, I think some of the reviewers might've had a bone to pick with Obsidian or otherwise a bad day, as many of the criticisms about lacking graphics, animations, bugs etc. I've seen in other games which have received higher scores. Seems like my decision to no longer give a shit about reviews keeps serving me well.
My attempt to play stealth no-kill on Recruit is reaffirming my inability to stealth. It's probably just my incredibly low skill, but dayum. I basically just gave up. I'll stealth where I can stealth, and then I'm SMGing down the rest. I'm done reloading checkpoints to save these assholes.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I think it is just down to experience. The only part I struggled to stealth was the bit with Shaheeds bodyguard, the rest I'm not running (while crouching) about without pausing or anything, but perhapos its because I can recall the guard routines from the last time through.
The strange thing is that I took out SHaheeds bodyguard first time on my first run without alerting anyone. This time it took like 8 freaking attempts.
Yep. If you're gonna have the body finding mechanic the AI will follow, you need to be given the tools as a player to remove the bodies.
They did it kind of automatically though, which is the lazy way around it. No code for the player to manipulate, so the player is supposed to time his kill/takedown to happen in the intermediary period of no one looking at the place where it drops, until the time it disappears. Arguably you would "move it" in that time taken for it to disappear.
It's shitty, but at least they see and react to the bodies.
I tried the reloading thing early, but I just can't stomach it. I've got better things to do than keep terrorists alive.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Well I'm not having to reload, I seem to have gotten the hang of switching between Tranq chain shots, melee and straight up avoidance of enemies without spending huge chunks of time observing patterns. I reloaded on the airfield once but that was because that was the first time I used the pistol and I didn't realise it had lethal ammo in it until I checkeced my orphan count. So far I'm in Moscow and still have 0 Orphans! yay!
EDIT: And I had to reload for SHaheeds bodyguard.
Since those didn't count, I'll probably try to play nice long enough to get Shadow Agent or whatever and see if that helps.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Personally, I didn't see it like that. It was more of a "Don't kill people in the middle of the floor." to me, rather than 'GuardAway, apply directly to guard corpse!".