Not really a preview or a FAQ, but a nice collection of info.

[Anarchosyn]

Since nothing substantial exists here in regards to a game feature summery, I figured I'd share a little data collection I posted on another forum. My apologies if such redirects are considered bad form; my intention is merely to share.

 

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=627981

 

 

In post number two I listed my sources, for the most part, but much was gathered from this forum (including developer commentaries where I could find them).

 

Not to criticize Sega but Alpha Protocol is already flying a little lower on the radar then I feel comfortable with. This TXB post was merely my tiny part in helping Alpha Protocol get the attention it deserves. With luck this won't be another Arcanum, Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil.

 

*eDit: That thread also acts as a sociological experiment of sorts. One can use the response and length of time it stays on the main page as a sort of litmus of how the general xbox community (culled from a sample of 143,717 registered users) views this title. 'Course, the sample size is thrown off since not all of the registered users are active, nor are all the viewers registered. Still, it's galling how little attention was being lavished on AP prior to that post (as reflected by a few commentaries).

Edited August 16, 2009 by Anarchosyn

[Oner]

Nice post and respect for the effort, though I would suggest that you should change some details:

There are nine different skills, and each one can be boosted up to ten levels.

3 skills can be "tagged" and thus raised to 15 instead of 10 ranks.

 

Three general play styles, roughly modeled off Bond (suave and diplomatic), Bourne (silent and deadly) and Bauer (angry and threatening).

Conversation-, not play styles, the way you put it makes it the whole thing confusing. Furthermore, the definitions are confusing too: Bourne is professional way to talk to NPCs, not a character with ranks in sneaking.

 

Slight customization options for facial and head hair, though depth is unknown (to me, at least).

I can't remember exactly, but you can check the customization in the safe house walkthrough.

 

According to a recent "tweet" from the Obsidian development staff it's now known to be possible to complete Alpha Protocol without killing anybody. Where this might sound boring to some of our younger members (or our patented ritalin popping FPS loving contingent ), many will recognize this capacity as a measure of flexible in design scope.

I'd also mention that you can kill almost everyone.

 

Again, very nice and respect.

[Zoma]

This is a great thread! Would be great if it could be stickied or copy paste the same info on this board as well.

[Sannom]

Someone would have to explain to me why I couldn't login this past week

 

Excellent thread you made there Anarcho, really helpful for those that would like to know more about the game or are still confused about some of its features. You made some errors here and there, but I think Oner spotted all of them.

 

Altough I must say I'm still surprised that people think there are conversation skills... Alpha Protocol gets away from a lot of the genre conventions, especially because of its secret agent theme. In this game, it is not your character who is good at intimidating or talking his way out of problems, its the characters you interact with that are sensible to one or the other approch. They all "work" but the consequences are really different.

[gamerguy845]

this needs to be sticky-ed

[Anarchosyn]

Thank you all for the kind words.

 

Oner - Corrections made, though I wouldn't say "play styles" is objectively wrong. I hesitate to marginalize the dialog from other aspects of game play, especially with this title.

[Matthew Rorie]

Nice work! I just put this on our twitter feed; I'll throw it on our Facebook page as well.

[Oner]

Oner - Corrections made, though I wouldn't say "play styles" is objectively wrong. I hesitate to marginalize the dialog from other aspects of game play, especially with this title.

But the dialogue is separated from other aspects of gameplay. Talking professional doesn't force me to play a (literal) sneaking backstabber, I can go shotgun blazing or grenade lobbing if I'm so inclined.

[Guest PoziomyPion]

Well Oner, you can always make your own FAQ

 

Nice job Anarchosyn, it's nice having everything in one place!

[Oner]

Well Oner, you can always make your own FAQ

Accuracy never hurt anyone. Oh wait..

[Anarchosyn]

Oner - Corrections made, though I wouldn't say "play styles" is objectively wrong. I hesitate to marginalize the dialog from other aspects of game play, especially with this title.

But the dialogue is separated from other aspects of gameplay. Talking professional doesn't force me to play a (literal) sneaking backstabber, I can go shotgun blazing or grenade lobbing if I'm so inclined.

 

I guess it all really depends on one's definition of "play style." This isn't a class based game, of course, so selecting the "Bourne" approach doesn't mean you're forced to use stealth and martial arts. However, the game goes constrain your approach to problem resolution through the limitations of its code. You effectively have three conversational play styles and two, perhaps three, game play style (stealth, tech and assault - though I hesitate to call "tech" its own approach as it may just augment one of the other two). One could argue that these still represent Bourne, Bond and Bauer in their non-conversational contexts.

 

So yes, it's true you can be Bond in conversation and Bauer in combat... but I don't think my phrasing precluded this conclusion. It's sort of implied by the classless nature of the game (and the lack of conversation skills).

 

Matthew Rorie - Thanks for the Facebook shout out. Glad you guys enjoyed.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Anarchosyn