Gameplay Video findings

[Solivagant]

Ok so I decided to do a bit of frame skipping in the latest gameplay videos, the two-part demo walkthrough from gametrailers (the so called stealth playthrough), the two-part demo guns blazing walkthrough from jeuxvideo, and the latest Chris Avellone interview from gametrailers.

 

EDIT: You can click on the pictures and it'll take you to slightly higher resolution versions.

 

Here's what I found.

 

The ingame menu for Intel, Service Record (basically the character sheet) and Inventory.

 

The dossiers for the several characters of the game. You can select by Faction or by Individual, apparently.

 

Yancy Westridge, Alpha Protocol's Chief of Operations.

 

Sie's dossier. So she's actually German. I thought she was Russian all this time.

 

Alan Parker, Alpha Protocol's Senior Intelligence Analyst.

 

The Inventory, specifically the weapon modding area. You can change the barrel, magazine, sight or acessory on the gun.

I've read somewhere that this gun looks like it was modelled based on the FN Five-Seven, and it sure looks like it:

 

The FN Five Seven, for comparison.

 

Ingame the weapon is called Samael Sidewinder.

 

Another weapon, the UC Jackal. No idea what real weapon it looks like, anyone knows?

 

The Service Record's first screen. It reads "Michael Thorton - Freelancer" on the top. Freelancer, is it a class, a name related to his level 8, or his company affiliation? I don't think the game has classes, but who knows.

Edited June 7, 2009 by Solivagant

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

Good finds.

[Solivagant]

Sorry for the second post, but the forum appears to have an image limit for each post.

 

The new character sheet is a great improvement compared with this older version:

It appears they've dropped the Infiltration statistic in the new version.

 

Armor Selection, Thorton's wearing Night Operations armor here, with a Reactive Polymer Weave mod.

 

Gadget selection, he's got a first aid kit, the sound generator and an emp charge.

 

The hacking minigame.

 

"Perk Acquired: Blackbelt". The guy talking in the video mentions this, it's nothing new, but I really liked how they show these updates, item and perk gets, it's very subtle and disappears very fast.

 

Overall I think they've greatly improved the interface and ingame menus (compared to the little bits we had seen of it previously), and I'm eager to check out this stuff myself. Weapon modding and armor modding look nice, fast and functional. It reminds me of Metal Gear Solid 4's great interface for modding your weapons.

Edited June 7, 2009 by Solivagant

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Weapon customisation looks fun.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

If I had to guess, maybe they merged infiltration with sabotage and stealth, though I'm not sure what it did in the first place.

[Solivagant]

If I had to guess, maybe they merged infiltration with sabotage and stealth, though I'm not sure what it did in the first place.

 

If stealth is not being seen, technical aptitude is hacking and using pc's, sabotage is using mines and traps, then infiltration might have been lockpicking, I think. Of course, sabotage could also include that.

[Oblarg]

I think it's shaping up quite nicely. It could still use some polish, but I like what I see.

[Pidesco]

I don't like the whole completion percentage in the character profiles section. It encourages metagaming, and it means we can get all available info on a character in a single playthrough. It breaks the illusion that you're talking to actual people, as getting to know them is turned into a mechanical side game. It's analogous to what Bioware does with its games' characters and it sucks.

 

It would be a lot better if certain choices during the game got you different, mutually exclusive bits of info on the characters, and if you were never sure you had gotten all the info there was to know about the characters.

[Oner]

I don't mind knowing if I have every available info on someone or not. Besides, it's a single player game, let them meta-play in their house, on their computer with their copy if they want to.

[H]

I don't like the whole completion percentage in the character profiles section. It encourages metagaming, and it means we get all available info on a character in a single playthrough.

It does?

[Morgoth]

So, SIE is German and blonde, how stereotypical.

[Pidesco]

[quote name='H

[Cycloneman]

I don't like the whole completion percentage in the character profiles section. It encourages metagaming, and it means we can get all available info on a character in a single playthrough.

No it doesn't. Here's how you actually metagame with character profiles:

• Open your browser.
  
• Go to "gamefaqs.com"
  
• Type "Alpha Protocol" into the search engine
  
• Go to the "FAQs" section
  
• Open the "Character Profiles" FAQ, which will probably be there within a week of release.
  

Boom. "Metagaming" complete.

[Solivagant]

Did you guys know about the Armor modding? I wasn't even sure there was going to be Weapon modding, to be honest!

[Oner]

It was mentioned in the past, if memory serves.

[Pop]

So, SIE is German and blonde, how stereotypical.

What isn't a stereotype in games? Honestly.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

Is anybody else actually bothered by the presence of a blonde German in AP?

[Pop]

Funny that the blonde German gets a reaction but the bearded Arab doesn't.

[J.E. Sawyer]

So, SIE is German and blonde, how stereotypical.

Are you really concerned about hair color when it comes to stereotypes?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Your boss (at least I think he's your boss) is black, how stereotypical.

[mrmumbles]

So, SIE is German and blonde, how stereotypical.

Are you really concerned about hair color when it comes to stereotypes?

I believe the 'concern" is that it's a blond German, being that the "perfect" people, according to der F

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Oh ffs, she's blonde because it looks better on her.

[Tigranes]

The ridiculous attire and 'sweetie' lines are much worse than the hair colour, really. I probably wouldn't mind without those shades.

[Oner]

Considering AP is based on spy movie tropes (and probably subverting half of them), I don't see the problem.

[SirPetrakus]

I hadn't seen the jeuxvideo footage before. The game looked a lot better than in the gametrailers walkthrough. For me at least.