unskilled-

I think Mass Effect 2 created an expectation in some people, that AP, because on the outside it looks like a 3rd person shooter, should control in the same way. The fact that there's old school style rpg calculations running things under the hood really throws them off. Perhaps that isn't fair, but hey, it's their $60-$100, if they've gone off that style of game, they're free to buy something else. On the other hand, if you go into AP accepting that it's an RPG first and foremost, that stats will determine your success rather than reflexes and twitch skills, and are happy with that sort of game, you're bound to enjoy it. Really, on the 360, the graphics are better than what Dragon Age did (the PC versions would be another debate). And the AI is on par with ME1. Meh As for a conspiracy... doubt it. Sega's not a major player anymore, but there's no reason for gamesites to put them and their delicious advertising dollars offside for fun. What Mass Effect 2 did was raise the bar on what a CRPG should be. When the bar is raised, expectations are raised. What AP did was fail to meet everybody's expectations. Yes they were expecting an RPG, but they were also expecting a fairly decent shooter/stealth game to go along with it. That is where AP dropped the ball. I'm not a hater or anything, I actually like AP. The conversation system and the fact that your choices have consequences, unlike Mass Effect's "you win regardless of what you do" outcome, is ground breaking and raises the bar on how much choice is to be given to an individual player when determining how the story unfolds. That being said, the whole shooter part of the game failed to even come close to the bar set by Mass Effect 2. The stealth part of the game is essentially a poor man's Splinter Cell or MGS (take your pick). So yeah, I guess my expectations were too high coming in. Is that a bad thing?

Its 300 seconds, it tells you when you look at the information for the skill itself. Although if your refering to checking the timers for when you can reuse the ability again, they don't have that.

Like adding different items for different situations? Instead of the wonderEMP, have lock-cutters or auto-key workers or w/e, one use and its done. Changing the styles of lockable doors would help. I'm sure somewhere there are doors with keycards or retinal scanners or dna tests or stool samples or w/e. A Mission impossible style face maker thingy?

I'll never understand why people think that RPGs require intelligence to play. Well, some actually do, though we're talking mostly about some very old dungeon crawlers and that's about it, not to mention that's more of the intelligence you'd need playing chess and it's really a matter of maths, patience and planning. I.. honestly doubt that Alpha Protocol requires that level of planning and commitment though. If it did it certaintly wouldn't be cross-developed for consoles. Not saying that designers make games that are dumbed down for consoles, more so the fact that controls and ability to patch factor into complexity issues. You have Microsoft flight simulator on the computer for a reason.

I don't know why but I have the feeling Yahtzee will pass on this game. After all, hasn't he already repeated a lot of times that he hates arpeegees? No, JRPGS. He has a more favorable view of western RPGs.

Can't wait for Zero Punctuation's Review. ;D

I played ME1 after playing ME2 (after playing ME1!) and yeah, the weapons in ME2 are vastly superior. In ME1 you essentially had 8 different core weapons (for each type of weapon) thats went from level 1 to 9 throughout the game. The only variety aside from minor skin and model changes were the stat upgrades. They all fired the same too, so it never really felt like you've upgrade your gun aside from watching your enemy's healthbar drop more quickly. You goto ME2 and each gun is essentially unique. The 3 assault rifles all handle differently, with your standard balanced worldbeater, a AP-esque 3-shot rifle that is deadly for headshots and the best one you get aboard the reaper ship, the closest thing you'll ever get to a gat. Lots of recoil but a huge clip and awesome power. Same with the shotguns, sniperrifles and everything else associated with combat. Regarding AP, putting points into your weapon skills is more or less making you more deadly with them. As someone already said, you have basic proficiency with them, as well as all the other skills.. so leveling them up works in a manner as simple specalization in your given field (thus the focusing on 3 skills). When talking about action RPGs having to sacrifice alot of the things we love about RPGs to achieve the things we love about action games, well.. I don't really see why that has to be true. To me its a matter of establishing a solid game engine which lets you have a visceral combat experience (like ME2 or MW2) then establishing your skills and character statistics and traits around that. In terms of a real time 3rd person combat game like this, your basic RPG stuff would either limit you or enable you to do more within the gameworld. For example: There's a locked door. A character with high strength could kick it open, someone with high dexterity could pick the lock. If the locked door has someone behind it, a person with high charisma and/or intelligence can fool the guard into opening it for you. In terms of combat stuff like a lack of agility would hinder your ability to do your best John Woo impersonation, while a high strength will make you look like rambo dual wielding those two heavy machineguns. Skills with individual weapons would essentially be ability to aim faster (reticule gets smaller faster), better recoil control, faster reloading and some weapon specific skills (like being able to use your gun in CQC or shotgun or assault rifle if it has a bayonette). Going even further, traits and individual experience levels, level of training and numerous other factors would determine a person's individual skill and talent within the gameworld. Example: SAS people would be virtually unambushable due to their training, previous experience, natural abilities like strength, agility.. etc. AP has done this to some extent (Marburg's men vs Terrorists or CIA). In terms of combat it would determine line of sight/hearing and overall behavior in combat; such as using cover extensively to flank or hide like a coward. In out of combat situations (but still within a mission) it would determine patrol habits; such as thoroughness (checking all corners) and idle time before moving onto the next point in his route. When you do things, you do them well, or at least you plan it out well and try your best to follow it. Sadly with the need of publishers to rush developers into pushing out games before they are done, sadly it will not happen. Either that or it'll end up like *chokes back some tears* Duke Nukem Forever. *sniffle*

Frankly, I do. On my recent Thorton, I have the habit of using rather silly disguises every time I appear in a place where agents can be found Has anyone commented about how you change outfits? I was wondering if Obsidian put that in the game. Yeah. Sukov comments on your different outfits when you meet for him to get information after the embassy. If your wearing a stealth suit he says something about not being seen, if your wearing a tech suit he comments on the amount of stuff you can carry. If you wear civilian clothing I forget what he says, but Mike remarks about having to upgrade cause things are getting heavier (lol). Not sure what he says about the Assault suit, probably something about how your a one man A-team or something. Omen Deng does this too. If your in full battle gear when your at the subway station he remarks how you stand out like a sore thumb. However, if your wearing civilian clothing (not sure if the taipei hat is necessary) he comments on your good spycraft in blending in with civilians.. which makes complete sense cause why would Mike be hanging out in the open waiting around like an idiot in full gear? :| Woulda made more sense if you seen Mike put his bag of gear in the place where Omen Deng just happened to lock you in (So Mike could remark about good concidences or something).

Would be nice to have helmets.. to protect from getting shot in the head you know..

Haha, GTA: San Andres shoutout right there! That particular phrase predates GTA:SA by a good while. Maybe it does, but thats where I remember it from :|

Haha, GTA: San Andres shoutout right there!

True, but they also made the Combat pretty engrossing. Nothing like opening up on an enemy with the super machine gun. See thats the hard part. What should they focus on to improve? Is it the RPG mechanics or the stealth/action gameplay parts? I suppose you can say all the above cause you'd expect every to try and achieve perfection, amirite!? (i hope so) 1. Fine-tune the RPG mechanics: Tweak the skill set and level progression somewhat. 2. Rework the action portion. New models, better AI routines, better use of the physics engine (no, thorton ragdolling when he dies DOES NOT COUNT). Like what ME2 did. 3. Rework the stealth portion. Make stealthing harder, but more "realistic" in that the routes you can choose to infiltrate would match: ie; aqueduct or sewer (pretty standard infiltration route, yah?_, airvents like in mission impossible. You could even disguise yourself and bluff your way into the place (with appropriate clothing, not bluffing your way into the embassy with your combat gear, weapons and stuff on... come on). 4. Rework the tech portion. Doorhaxin, Computer haxin, Safehaxin.. all those minigames are golden (tweak controls tho). You could add some more minigames in the form of long-distance computer haxin (like from your safehouse to mine information that could be sold for money.. like those halbech emails you all stupidly sent to scarlet to get in her pants!). Think shadow run for the genesis if your wondering how it would be done. Also, add more gadgets and an ability to upgrade them since your a super smart tech expert (like making your stun-gun more effective, longer range.. etc). Also, I seem to remember a game that came out way back in the mid to late 90s called Spycraft.. anybody else hear of it? Maybe AP could reference that game for information or something.. :|

If they'd wanted to really make this a true interactive spy thriller, they'd have to goto ridiciulous lengths in terms of player interaction with the environment. Such as: 1. Making your safehouse a location in the gameworld, not just a hub from which you quick-travel to and fro. 2. Going with #1, making each location where the missions take place more or less a miniature city. This'll make the more mundane things like traveling to and from a location where you just blew up more interesting.. cops on your tail and you having to lose them (GTA somewhat..). 3. Make a variety of missions. The mission where you scope out people with the sniperrifle was a good start. Do something more, like actually having to go to a ball and mingle with the crowd and gather information, bull**** and all that jazz.. bond style. Also, you could include simple tailing missions where you tail suspect from a to b. You could also wiretap people, places, etc.. Missions involving places in the middle of nowhere would be just that, nowhere.. multiple routes to infiltrate over a large area, like crysis almost. 4. The AI needs to be more unforgiving even on normal mode. Quicker reflexes, hear father.. and way way way way better line of sight. Maps would have to be redesigned so that guards would have actual patrol routes, take coffee breaks, pee breaks, food breaks etc.. this would mean maps have a finite amount of guards spawned at one time, not spawning at predetermined points when you reach a checkpoint. Reinforcements are possible, but they'd have to come from off map: ie. APC or airvehicle. 5. As much of a loneranger you are, some missions will require more assistance than your handler. Hiring NPC help to assist you *throughout* the mission would be another idea. Your list of hires would be determined by who survived last game and who you were friendly with, etc.. for example: if you kept scarlet alive, you could hire her as either sniper support or as a seductress for intelligence gathering missions (that involve balls, parties and such). Her unique skillset would determine her effectiveness at both. 6. Expand on the RPG system. Having a skill set is nice, but wouldn't being able to determine if your personal thorton was a bodybuilding brick house or a tiny jet-flee martial artist, or a suave deboniare or a mix of all the above? Having personal traits to choose from at the beginning instead of as achievements would make them more personal to your character. 7. [insert text]

What about sound? I'm assuming 0 sound reduction would equate to 8m before the enemy notices you (when stalking them from behind) [and your crouching] With that in mind 0 - 8m (advanced wombat armor) 1 - 7m (regular wombat armor) 2 - 6m (starting wombat armor, starting/regular/advanced tech suit) 3 - 5m (starting stealth suit) 4 - 4m (regular stealth suit) 5 - 3m (street clothes, advanced stealth suit) Lurker (evading or taking down 75 enemies silently) - 20% sound reduction Not sure if one of the handlers has an ability that reduces sound. I think albatrosses ability reduces sight range.

Mike Thorton and Steven Heck.. "Brokeback Protocol"

Yeah on my first playthrough I didn't waste any time getting in her pants. Second playthrough I actually took the time to talk to her (lol)! And yeah, she'll spill the beans if your understanding about it. Given that outcome, it seems she had no choice but to give up your position. My best guess would be it was an order from Parker or Weyland. The reason she was helping you out from the beginning is because, as she explained,

NOLF2 is similar in how you can upgrade your character through completing primary and secondary objectives. The intel in NOLF2 is mainly for experience and background.

The AI is pretty solid from what I've seen, given the type of skills and gadgets at your disposal. I don't think I've seen many games with AI that actually recognizes a comrade's fallen body. The biggest issues arise from the fact that the enemy AI doesn't key into their comrade's pitiful cries of getting pummeled, subdued or taken out silently. They do however response for cries of help and gunshots from their fellow comrades, which is refreshing.. which also makes tranqs to the face more crucial. Also their range of sight is pathetic even with non-stealth equipment on. Not to mention they literally have horse blinders on that keep them from noticing someone coming upto them from the side. But then again, this might all be different on hard mode. The other revolves around the stealth skills, such as shadow operative and evasive. With shadow operative you can literally sneak/walk around a room and subdue all the guards/enemies in sight of each other and they won't do a thing. The same goes with evasive. Whats really hilarious about this is that in certain circumstances you can literally throat-jab a train of unsuspecting (or stupid depending on your view) enemies as they come to investigate why their comrade has fallen down! So maybe including any sort of action will negate shadow operative would make it more sensible, since its about hiding and sleuthing about and not ninja assassin style stuff. I suppose this might be asking much, but wouldn't it make sense if the stealth suit had.. you know, octocamo or something? Just a simple graphical enhancement, like making your suit translucent or something.. kinda like when your evade turrets skill goes off, or a permanent looking shadow op (without the OP benefit). Helmet included/optional!

I loved the hacking. Its pretty ingenious and "realistic" at the same time. It took me awhile to get used to it, and I get stumped every now and then, but its not overly taxing or something that requires an EMP nade every time. Only when the h4x0ring needs to be done fast does an EMP nade suffice. The only problem as people have said is the controls are a bit wonky for the mouse. Its not coupled with the mouse sensitivity option so it makes it annoying to jog your mouse 20 times to get it to the otherside of the screen. I think for the PC a simple drag and drop would eliminate the problems, and really wouldn't change a thing since only the most seasoned players (and skilled) can manipulate both keys at once at the same time. That being said, I lucked out once with both keys near the top! Finished in about 3 seconds If you really need practice then run the stealth course a bunch of times. I ran it several times before I got the no-detection and all guards eliminated bonus. Also, running the course and hacking the beginning terminal to get in counts towards your overall hack count, so 10 runs nets you an additional xp and perk!!!!! But yeah, if your getting your ass kicked by the hacking then just equip yourself with a engineer style suit that holds more items, and maybe an armor upgrade that gives you more item capacity so you can hold more emps. Buying the additional EMP capacity upgrades also gives you more room. And really, you'll at most need 10-12 EMP nades for any given mission (thats a high estimate tho). I don't even think you lose any XP for EMPing a machine (make sure you get the friendly EMP perk!).

I guess it helped that I beat the game as a spy first, but as a recruit it wasn't harder per say, Spend those wisely and you won't have too much trouble (along with taking it slow to let them skills recharge!). Also, for the moscow mansion mission . I shot a dancer cause she saw me, figuring there shouldn't be any witnesses, and dislikes me cause of it (-1)!

There's a difference. Crysis was a PC exclusive title, and was designed to use stuff that's was beyond the current tech level. Alpha Protocol is designed as a console game and the graphics on a PS3 or 360 don't exactly have much in the way of power behind them when compared to top of the line graphics cards. I don't know what you are talking about. The games on the ps3 and 360 have graphics that blow the majority of computer games out of the water. Its not a lack of processing power on the part of the consoles themselves.. rather, their limitations when it comes to upgrading to newer more powerful hardware. Yes Crysis is a PC exclusive title. The only reason behind that is because its graphics would melt anything not built from future technology, or at least when it came out.. they've optimized the whole engine so it runs a helluva lot better on systems that dont meet the requirements. The ps3 could easily run that game now, the 360 could but it might have to run on lower graphical settings. Anyways, I just finished it and the story was pretty awesome. Some awesome twists too! Wonder when the sequel's coming out (I'm guessing 2012).

Look at Crysis. That game came out in 2007, and its graphics blow these out of the water. You can argue that these graphics are comparable to ME1, but that game came out in 2008! Its 2010 right now! I will contend that my statement is incorrect, but the sentiment is not.

There seems to be a misunderstanding when people talk about an action-rpg hybrid. I guess you would have to devise an action-rpg scale to see where certain games fall into. This game falls into the action-side of action-RPG's due to the fact that, no, there is no RPG elements used in combat aside from your skills you use. This is no different from Mass Effect, since both determine hits as a physical thing (bullet hits body) instead of a numbers based thing (bullet may hit body, but due to a 95% chance to miss it misses). The only thing RPG about this game is the class skills and character progression. Interactions with other characters, at its very base, is not an RPG thing. What makes character interaction an "RPG" thing is the depth of interaction. All games have a story, but RPG games let you delve deeper into the story and backgrounds of people and other such things to give you an incentive to "roleplay" a specific character. Now, this game does not have the Mass Effect style of "tell me your life story cause I asked you", no, this game does it in a more realistic way, which is refreshing. With that wall of text out of the way, another one forms. This game has rudimentery RPG elements. Its combat is also lacking. That being said, I enjoy this game because of the sole feature it nailed perfectly: the Mass Effect style conversation ring. This alone makes this game have high replay value, since you are able to not just act like an **** (if you want to) but you can also back up your actions of being an ****, by shooting people or bottling them.

This game would have been cutting edge if it came out 2-3 years ago, before the likes of Mass Effect and the later iterations of Splinter Cell. The game does deliver on its promise of providing a user driven story. As much as Mass Effect can claim, it doesn't give you the ability to determine whether someone lives or dies, and the resulting consequences of said decision. Oh, and also the "side missions" (if you can call them that), such as going out of your way to retrieve additional data or completing objectives purchased from the clearinghouse does add a crucial part to the gameplay. Other games added sidemissions for extra experience, money, loot, additional background information etc, but they've never gone so far as to actually have a direct impact on your future missions and dealings with people (general rule of thumb, the more information the better). However, the graphics look like last-generation graphics. This is an unfortunate and inexcusable decision because of the hardware platforms this game has been designed for. Regardless of whether this was multiplatform, or whether the game was designed for console first then ported to PC second, this looks like a first generation x-box or ps2 title. In addition to this, the whole animations and general body skeleton seem wonky. The feel of running, ducking around corners, firing your weapons.. they all feel completely unnatural. The speed of which Mike wallhumps when taking cover is amazingly stupid fast. If the cover is small enough, he won't even move his legs when wallhumping (moving side to side when up against a wall). Another cavet with this game is that it doesn't really break the traditional mode of offering up areas with multiple infiltration routes while placing them all within 2 feet of each other. It is nice to market the game as offering the ability for people to choose stealth or rambo mode (or bruce lee if your into CQC), but it doesn't really make much of a difference when a good majority of "stealth" routes involve you either sneaking past enemies or knocking them out and sneaking past security cameras. The combat itself is nothing special. Comparing it to Mass Effect, its more balanced in that enemies won't bumrush you enmass when they first spot you. However, due to the cartoonish physics effects of how mike runs, ducks and all that other jazz.. its not engrossing. When you fire a gun, you don't "feel" the recoil, nor do you feel the weight of your boots hitting the floor as your walking/running.. the only time you "feel" something is when your using hand to hand and even then thats due to liberal use of visual impact effects and slow-motion beatdowns. Aside from the cosmetic upgrades (seriously, the stat bonuses of the upgrades mean jack), all weapons are essentially the same aside from 1 to 5 increase or decrease in a corrisponding stat. There's no fully automatic assault rifle, apparently all of them default to 3-shot bursts. There's no option of going single shot, triple burst (default) or fully automatic. So basically, aside from blowing your money on a weapon that will do 5 more points of damage, there is no decernable difference. If the guns had a huge variance in their stats, then there would be reason to throw down 15000 for the top of the line assault rifle, instead of throwing down 15000 for the top of the line assault rifle thats only slightly marginally better then what you start out with. Sniper rifles, ugh. Why are they not a usable, upgradable weapon? You'd think that as someone who does wetwork for a shadow organization, a sniper rifle would be your best bet for taking out targets of interest and scouting out your area of infiltration, yet they've relegated the sniper rifle to a glorified one-hit medium ranged weapon. I guess my first impressions left me wanting more. More stealth action gameplay and less shoddy RPG battle mechanics. I guess the whole problems I see (my opinion) stem from the fact that this game's engine isn't upto snuff or wasn't utilized properly. Either that or you'd need a whole new different engine. Good story telling mechanics and an interesting player driven story, but the whole feel of the game from simple walking and interacting with the environment, the look of the environment; from how the levels are structured to how your supposed to interact with them, as well as the graphics in terms of character modeling and animations.. they all lack polish and refinement. This series has potential, but it needs to realize the complete experience that this type of game offers, and hopefully it won't limit itself to cross-console development hell.

Fixed! Seems the problem stemmed from my Internet Explorer being fubared for some unknown reason. After installing IE8 the Activation Console worked properly. Even the website button is working properly now. The weird thing is that firefox is still my default browser, and when I was having IE problems it wouldnt work, but now it would(?). Activation took only a few seconds and now all I have left to do is play the game! (lets cross my fingers and toes and hope I don't run into anymore game-stopping errors like this!)