Cl_Flushentityhero

Social stealth would be cool. The Hitman franchise more or less pioneered the idea, and the beta for the new episodic title has made some strides in that area. Police will actually try to arrest the player for minor crimes instead of immediately going guns blazing. Obviously, this would interface well with the CQC skill in an AP-like game.

Sign me up. Obisidan, start taking more of my money already!

I've come to terms with AP2 not happening because of Sega. That said, Obsidian has been on a roll with a series of successful titles, one of which was a kickstarter that vastly exceeded expectations. Also, minor point that Pillars of Eternity has received some of the highest review scores this year amongst titles like Witcher 3 and Fallout 4. Pretty sure if Obsidian wanted to make a similar espionage-themed RPG, people would fund it on kickstarter.

Just thought I'd say, PoE is everything I expected and I love it.

I think deflection is a good choice. The benefit of killing things harder is built into the weapon stats; killing things harderer isn't a particularly interesting bonus. The assumption is that a character is going to use 2h in the majority of if not all situations, so patching up deficiencies in defense is logical and believable.

Yeah, but I can't equip my created character with the weapons and armor I want them to use.

It seems like the backer beta lacks a peddler of generic, low-quality items with which to spec your created character. Weaponsmith sells, like, two weapons; and the tanner sells two daggers. Seems like kind of a glaring omission, am I just not finding the right merchant?

Lack of balance? I assume you're referring to chain shot and shadow operative. Oh noes, teh stealth and teh pistols are really effective in a game about spies! On to the more important subject of how I would improve AP. -Social stealth, a la hitman series. If MT walks around with an assault rifle, people should act accordingly. This would open up different ways of completing missions depending on what gear the player chooses. -Fewer all-out assault missions, unless that's how the player wants to handle it. -More variety in outfits, with different uses (i.e. maintenance uniform gets you different places than a tuxedo, and has more pockets) -Enemies use different levels of force depending on perceived threat. Bouncers/security guards would probably try to verbally challenge and/or manhandle Thorton for trespassing, not shoot him dead. This ties into . . . -Improved CQC. This could be done in any number of ways. -More flexibility regarding boss fights. The option to flee from a fight, blow up the building from a distance, learn Gunther's killphrase, whatever. -Choices have more pronounced effects on the mission. Allying with somebody only to swap out their bad guys for another faction seems merely cosmetic to me. AP kind of plays like the opening action sequence of a Bond movie repeated over and over again. I'd rather the gameplay hit more of a range, or at least allowed for it at the player's choosing.

Why not have both?

I remember forum discussion on that prior to release, but nothing official or recent.

Assault rifles and toughness are the main skills, the rest is personal preference. Tech aptitude *will* provide general combat benefits, so if your goal is to resolve most situations by shooting people with the AR that's not a bad idea.

A ninja without martial arts? I mean, I suppose you could use flashbangs and takedowns, but that just seems wrong . . .

What's a true stealth operative game?

I know, let's create a thread in which most people overreact one way or another!

Most are kind of hybridized versions of various guns, though some are renames.

Good job Obsidz. I feel that AP delivers on the actual substance of a WRPG in ways that other recent games lack. It's major praise to say that I may never do another run of ME2 now, and that's more or less where I'm at. While AP falls short of my ideal game, it's about as close as any developer has been. There's plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking to be done on areas for improvement (some of which I mentioned over a year ago), but I'll save that for another post.

I think even people who didn't like Alpha Protocol can recognize its potential.

Well, I can't comment on Euro vs. American because I don't think the current evidence supports that distinction in review scores. My running theory is as follows: Reviewers who consider the choices and customization to be the 'substance' of the game like it. Reviewers who consider the TPS experience to be the 'substance' of the game dislike it.

Interesting.

You can send me your copy.

I'm jealous of you people already playing AP. That is all.

Best comments ever: "lol the beard is so out of place." "The beard is right where it needs to be, everything else is out of place."

At worst: $65 USD for a console game including sales tax.

This. And yeah, from what I've seen the melee could stand to be improved in the hypothetical sequel.

Agreed, but I don't know. At least you can cover it up with a beard.