L!

I won't complain about dice rolls and such, I can enjoy that in a spy themed game, problem with it is how it was implemented via the third person shooting, it just didn't work together. I agree that I am a fan of STALKER but you can't disagree it would have been better then how it is now where aiming was all down to how well you could yourself. If it was a turn based game, or in an isometric view, the I could have enjoyed the RPG of this game.

@tigranes; The boss fights can become quite hard but are easily beaten by exploiting or encountering bugs. I'm more of a seasoned shooter player (not some casual stuff like halo or call of duty) but I wasn't saying the shooting element was easy, it's just a mess and suffers because of the RPG elements that come into play with your skills, something I think shouldn't have been in the game all together where the stats are just on armor and weapons. Like I said before, it should have followed STALKER in terms of no leveling up or special perks given to your character, just your armor and weapons should be in effect. And no, the linearity here is still present in level design and story, the only effects it would have is what people would think of you, that's it. I aimed to not kill any on my playthrough, and what I got was a few compliments... a true non linear game wouldn't have you believe you're making choices that effect the game when it still ends in the same place just with different characters with different attitudes. Deus Ex does this as well and while it is a good game, I still believe even that game is quite linear. @darthcaine; I finished it. @irrelevant; I had high hopes for this game to express some real non linearity and some actual challenge, but it didn't live up to it's name as an 'RPG' spy game, just a console spy game with RPG tact onto it as an after thought. I mean, this was coming from an RPG developer company, it's just disappointing. @halthur; I can see now that stealth is just a mistake now and I should probably play through like a mercenary/commando, it's just being a spy is my favored choice. @gel214th; I was playing it on hard whilst taking the role of a recruit who starts with no skills or AP. I believe that would be the hardest combination possible with this game.

I think it's no secret about the difficulty for this being no problem, when I got this on Friday I put it on hard and started as a recruit, and I still got through it like it was nothing, it even pointed me in the direction of where to go/where stuff is, not that I would even need it due to the small stages, I mean come on. The abilities for stealth are far too generous, the RPG elements don't work like and RPG first, more like a third person shooter first trying to mix RPG with it but spitting it back out. To be honest, the only RPG part should have been buying equipment/talking to people, no special abilities/leveling up etc that make it too easy/more of a pain to shoot in third person. STALKER for example is something to take example off of. And the AI, just seemed lifeless or didn't care, and the bodies disappearing is just taking away all point of stealth, though you designed to be more accessible to running and gunning people. I partly blame that fact you made a console version for this that it suffered, but I'm sure there was more too it. At least the characters/voice/story was good... though the non linearity only came into play with whether you made characters hate you or not.

While it's quite nice that they have such optimism within their game, I would strongly suggest when making a sequel to do it right. As in, don't take away what people liked or what made it work, just add more on top of what people loved (not to mention, more difficulty but I think I have stressed this enough) and innovate along with that. This is where a lot of developers get this wrong and make something different not true to their fans of the previous game. Actually, there has been few games where a decent/worthy sequel was made. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS! LOOK AT THE BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY TO LEARN WHAT MAKES A GOOD SEQUEL GOD DAMN! But yeah, just making sure you have the heads up if you're successful with AP and plan on doing a sequel, hopefully you'll be taking suggestions from fans on a sequel after the first game is released.

Sure it could have just those basic forms of somewhat linear ways of dealing with enemies, but I would certainly like for them to explore a lot more into that. Let's say you're a sneaky CQC sort of character, you approach a big room full of enemies, you could try sneak past them, you could go into rage mode, or you could apply your martial arts to a fire alarm to force everyone out of there. Expanding on what you can do in area's determined by your skills, Fallout 2 way of doing it in a sense, will help push this game to non-linearity.

I was actually referring to Hitman and Deus Ex for their multiple ways of getting past obstacles, and how easy focused difficulty can take you away from that, not the difficulties from those games (though hitman left an impression on me). This was the point of my concern, a fear of linearity just to make the game more accessible for a casual user.

Well, for it to be overall much harder then the previous difficulty. Let's say for example, that easy mode allows an onscreen map showing where the enemies are, onscreen details of your conditions and ammo you have etc, quick regenerative health, gives tips as to how to get past something if you need them, enemy AI isn't that intelligent and doesn't do much damage/very weak to taking damage/stands still when in combat. Now, let's say the normal mode allows an onscreen map which you'll have to find but doesn't shows where enemies are, the HUD is just showing you the bare bones of what you need to see on screen, requires a health pack to get normal regenerative health, only gives tips on points where it's needed to progress through the game, enemy AI is a bit more sharp with regular patrols and does moderate damage during combat/takes a fair amount of damage/moves around when in combat. Then we get to a hard mode, no onscreen map, no onscreen details, requires health pack for slow regenerative health (and all items are expensive), no tips, enemy AI is intelligent with constant patrols and do critical hits/have strong resistance against damage or avoiding take damage/takes cover during combat and alternates cover every few seconds. Of course, these just being examples, I would love to see developers exploring how hard they can make a game with new ways. And it isn't just the difficulty I'm concerned for, it's the fate of those diverse Deus Ex/Hitman moments like when you see an enemy walking around in an open area, do you take him head on, do sneak past him, do you shoot that surprising conveniently placed box he always stands under to take a smoke break, do you throw a copy of the latest playboy out in the open and wait for him to pick it up so you can sneak behind and shiv him? Gimme what I want yo!

Define what the higher difficulty does? If it's just stronger enemies, then I'll be disappointed.

Third top secret down. http://www.seganerds.com/2009/09/22/sega-l...ny-information/ I didn't really get the feeling that the game lacked RPG , looked like it had plenty to me (oh well, more the better). And he is just talking about the first level, but still, I don't want Obsidian getting the wrong ideas, nobody likes hand holding!

Only read recently about the leaked SEGA information on Alpha Protocol about it being too hard and most likely for the reason of the delay. But never mind about that, let them polish all they want, what we should worry about is the possibility of the game being made more easy, a grave concern. Who knows what the man thought was hard, maybe he tried to rush in and kill everybody instead of doing a different approach, but damn it, don't dumb the game down, I've been waiting too long for this sort of game. What I mean by the dumbing down, well, having the game tell you how to execute a mission every step of the way, having the game aim for you, having the AI that couldn't outsmart a door. Not to mention, if the games focused on telling you how to play it, there will be no time for those multiple ways of getting past something, like in Hitman Bloodmoney, with there being multiple ways to assassinate your target, that would be really weak not to have that in this sort of game. Of course, this could all be pointless worry, who knows what Obsidian are changing with the game right now, but I'd hate to have my dream game suffer just to make sure everyone can play it, give the player some space and let them think for themselves as to how they should play it! Am I worrying for nothing?