Alpha Protocol - EBGames product page

[Shryke]

how about Max Fightmaster?

 

gotta be one of the manliest names in the world. with a name like that how can he not bag all the chicks?!

[Hell Kitty]

Bigrocks McHugenuts.

[Sand]

I like to know how they entail to "redefine" the RPG without one of the major key elements of RPGs. Proper character creation.

[Xard]

Despite my weird initial disappointment (can't name reason for it either) I have to admit I've suddenly started to get very hyped about this game.

 

Sand:

 

Just stare something else other than character's ass when playing. It would allow you to play as male as well as help your reflexes with surprising werewolf encounters.

Edited March 14, 2008 by Xard

[LostStraw]

Will the game even be in 3rd person?

 

I'm definitely hyped about the concept, to bad the game is still so far from release.

 

Edit: Just found out it is 3rd person, yay for me being blind

Edited March 14, 2008 by LostStraw

[Sand]

WEREWOLF!

 

*runs and hides*

[Big Bottom]

Cojones McManManMan.

[Shryke]

Pecs McBuffDude

[walkerguy]

I hope it has hobos.

 

Mysteriously knowledgeable hobos screaming "the end is nigh" and giving your cryptic clues.

 

Seriously... you can save yourself some time and just use this:

(Just photoshop in "of kotor")

[funcroc]

raven28256's Gamespot blog post

 

Coolest Western RPG idea since Mass Effect?

 

I got the newest Game Informer in and they have a ten page article on what could possibly be the coolest idea for a WRPG I've heard of since Mass Effect. It is called Alpha Protocol by Obsidian Entertainment. What is the idea behind this RPG that has me ranting?

 

You are a modern super-spy. You are James Bond. You are Jack Bauer. You are Jason Borune. You are John Clark.

 

(What is with badass spies and short, four-five letter first names starting with "J?")

 

Not in the literal sense, but you get the idea. You play as rookie CIA field agent Micheal Thorton, who screws up on his first mission and gets framed in the process. He knows that something big is going down and has to figure out what, without the CIA's support. You have a list of names belonging to people all over the world as clues leading to the bigger conspiracy. The game consists of traveling around the world, tracking these people down while conversing with informants and taking on various side-operations connected to the main story that provide clues and other things to help you along your way.

 

In terms of combat, it will be much like Mass Effect. That is to say, it will be a third-person shooter. However, the game wants you to craft your own kick-ass super-spy. There are a number of different skills that you put points into to improve that particular area, like becoming better with pistols or hand-to-hand combat techniques. The developers said they want you to have freedom to develop Thorton how you want, while making sure that you can't just max all the skills and get a spy that enjoys the best of all worlds by the end of the game. You can go the Solid Snake or Sam Fisher way and lay low while enemies go past, relying on stealth. Or you can take the Jack Bauer approach and just start shooting things with your pistol.

 

When it comes to conversations, they are taking an approach that is like Mass Effect, but different at the same time. When starting a conversation you choose your "tone," but not what you actually say. That is determined by which tone you take. There are three tones: Smooth (And when it comes to the ladies, flirtatious), professional, and brash. This is much like Mass Effect's Paragon, Neutral, and Renegade system.

 

However, unlike Mass Effect, the conversations are more like cutscenes. You choose your tone and watch it play out just like a conversation in a cutscene or movie. You also have a limited amount of time while the NPC is talking to change your tone when Thorton talks next, resulting in different responses or just because you want to change your own reactions. This means the conversations are supposed to be more natural, and you won't run into times where, like in many RPGs, you get the same response no matter what you say. Also, once have had a conversation, it's over. You can't just go back to the NPC and redo the whole thing.

 

The game also deals with morality, but not in a typical "Light Side vs Dark Side" ordeal. Instead, Obsidian is aiming for more the morally blurred path than outright good and evil to reflect the real world of espionage. Sometimes you have to do dirty things as a spy, which the game promises to reflect.

 

I bet you are all asking "Well Raven, this is a James Bond-like spy RPG...Where are the hot Bond Babes?" Don't worry, Obsidian is promising numerous hotties that you can develop relationships with, be it romantic or purely sexual. Yes, you heard me right, you can go all James Bond and, apparently, bed every one of these ladies if you work it right.

 

This is a highly condensed form of a ten page article, so I'm leaving a lot out. I'd suggest reading up on this game. Alpha Protocol promises to be a great RPG, blending a unique setting for the realm of RPG games with what is basically evolutions of concepts we have already seen in Mass Effect. This looks to be an action-heavy espionage thriller of an RPG for everyone sick of more fantasy or sci-fi settings (Not that there is anything wrong with that).

[Humodour]

Conversation sounds fine; that's essentially what most games do anyway... though hopefully we get to actually see what the first few sentences of each response actually are; both Bloodlines and Deus Ex allowed that (and they're both more like the system described than your typical RPG is).

 

I don't tend to chose an option if it is simply labelled 'brutish' or 'intimidation', yet I may choose it without a second thought if instead of a label I actually got to read what would be said (at least initially).

 

So hopefully if this system doesn't show us what will be said, it at least allows us to change our tone to something else before any unintentional damage is done.

 

EDIT: I mean it's all in the naming. 'Professional' and 'brash' give negative connotations, and not in the 'good' form of "oh I'm a mean thug die die die" but more in the form of "I'm unemotional and boring" and "I'm immature", respectively; not things people want to role-play. Over-analysis? Considering how people subconsciously judge, no.

Edited March 18, 2008 by Krezack

[Spider]

The way I'm reading it, it doesn't pause to have you select answers at all. I got the impression that dialogue was like a movie. Playing on as you watch it. You can chose what tone you'll use, but it's more of a setting. You'll keep using that tone until you chose another, and you can change on the fly (although maybe not mid-sentence).

 

I could be wrong though.

[Humodour]

The way I'm reading it, it doesn't pause to have you select answers at all. I got the impression that dialogue was like a movie. Playing on as you watch it. You can chose what tone you'll use, but it's more of a setting. You'll keep using that tone until you chose another, and you can change on the fly (although maybe not mid-sentence).

 

I could be wrong though.

 

If it's only based on tone, then you could change on the fly. However this also means that you're saying the same thing regardless of tone.

 

Because I doubt that's the case, I imagine you'll have set break-points where your tone can change (like any RPG). More complex than the above, but offers more choice and immersion. Also more familiar to RPG fans (since it's exactly the same method Fallout, BG, etc use, excepting labels instead of sentences; the overall dialogue trees are identical in structure, though with perhaps less branching needed due to the illusion of increased choice, as in DX).

[Zoma]

Lots of cinematics?

 

Tricky. Doing it to the point of immersiveness would require lots of work for each conversation.

 

Is Mo-cap technology being utilized?

[Spider]

If it's only based on tone, then you could change on the fly. However this also means that you're saying the same thing regardless of tone.

 

I only used the word tone because it's used in the article. I do fully expect the actual words to be different depending on what style you chose.

 

Because I doubt that's the case, I imagine you'll have set break-points where your tone can change (like any RPG). More complex than the above, but offers more choice and immersion. Also more familiar to RPG fans (since it's exactly the same method Fallout, BG, etc use, excepting labels instead of sentences; the overall dialogue trees are identical in structure, though with perhaps less branching needed due to the illusion of increased choice, as in DX).

 

I'm still not sure about the break-points though. To me it doesn't seem like this article is saying that at all. I'm still under the impression that you'll be using one style until you specify to use another, rather than choosing for each response. I guess we'll know more when the full article surfaces, or when info gets released through more channels.

[Humodour]

If it's only based on tone, then you could change on the fly. However this also means that you're saying the same thing regardless of tone.

 

I only used the word tone because it's used in the article. I do fully expect the actual words to be different depending on what style you chose.

 

Errr what I mean by tone is that the character may use different words but the dialogue outcomes don't actually change; that's the only method available to ensure you can change tone absolutely whenever you please. Obviously this is a nonsense approach for an RPG, so I think it is:

 

Because I doubt that's the case, I imagine you'll have set break-points where your tone can change (like any RPG). More complex than the above, but offers more choice and immersion. Also more familiar to RPG fans (since it's exactly the same method Fallout, BG, etc use, excepting labels instead of sentences; the overall dialogue trees are identical in structure, though with perhaps less branching needed due to the illusion of increased choice, as in DX).

 

I'm still not sure about the break-points though. To me it doesn't seem like this article is saying that at all. I'm still under the impression that you'll be using one style until you specify to use another, rather than choosing for each response. I guess we'll know more when the full article surfaces, or when info gets released through more channels.

 

I mean that the dialogue will be governed by bifurcation paths at set points (at which time a tone change occurs, regardless of when you selected the tone change), not one linear path just with different words.

 

I think that's a safe presumption to make right? So that tells us that each dialogue tree will have at most 3^n possible outcomes, where n is the number of times you fork and assuming each tone fork is different in its effective outcome (unlikely to always be the case). Although in practice this probably isn't true given the fact that a fork for one tone at one point doesn't imply a fork for another tone at that point.

 

(Man I need to stop using 'assume'. Assuming makes an ass out of you and me. Princes assume the crown; nutjobs presume it's aliens.)

[Pop]

Is Mo-cap technology being utilized?

According to GI, yes. To what extent, it's hard to say.

[Zoma]

Is Mo-cap technology being utilized?

According to GI, yes. To what extent, it's hard to say.

 

ohhh, good to know.