Early Impressions

[Libertarian]

I love the game, honestly i would give it a 9/10 easy, maybe 8 if i was stingy but these reviews are killing peoples opinions of a great and fun game. One of my favorites instantly.

 

Yup, agree with that. 9.0 would be my personal opinion.

[Thorton_AP]

No one is forcing you to use quick save.

 

You are right, because it is not present!

 

You missed my point though, adding it would make the game far too easy. I would prefer people complaining that quick save is not present rather than them complaining that the game was no challenge.

 

The point you seem to be missing is that having quick save in the game gives people the option to play how they choose. Do you want to save before/after every fight, go for it. Would you prefer to save only after finishing each mission, you can do that too.

It has nothing to do with ease vs difficulty and everything to do with opening the game up to different play styles. At this point in time, in the gaming world, there is no reason not to have a quick save option. In my mind it borders on an ignorance of the gaming community to not include it.

 

My current complaint and frustration is that I am kicked out of missions far too soon. When I get into firefights I like to move through them seamlessly. This often leads to a trail of bodies and collectable items and then suddenly I'm ending the area and didn't know it so I can now not go back and collect the stuff I left lying around.

 

It's the little design choices like this that take me out of the game and show me the developers did not put player choice/control first.

 

Quick save does nothing to affect the play styles of the game. The option to have quick save is value added for sure, but there's nothing stopping you from cleaning up an area and looting the stuff in it before moving on. Especially since the "here's a group of badguys in an area" every checkpoint is established from the very beginning. I think your complaint about your "playstyle" of running around to clear out an entire area before looting is one that is easily remedied, and as far as things to bitch about for the game, insignificant.

 

The thing I like most about it is that the checkpoint system makes consequences more concrete. You can't quick save before a conversation point and play it out any way that you want to find the optimal path. You can complain that this affects your "playstyle" but the intent of the game is to make the player actually think and accept the consequences of their decisions. The same way that the early Splinter Cell games forced you to be discrete as Sam wasn't a bullet sponge that would die quickly.

[ckhound]

No doubt that the game is great, i actually didnt have any bugs of note, and the save system was very good at least in my opinion. Just completed it on ps3 and was a complete blast, with as i mentioned above, no bugs, and would still go with my 9 as a score for it, no doubt a gem among horrible games that get better scores from the big websites.

[Remlin]

Here is my initial impression after completing the Graybox, playing the PC version.

 

I haven't encountered any bugs or lag so far, granted I haven't gotten very far yet. The graphics so far look pretty decent. Character models remind me a lot of Mass Effect's, which if I remember were thought to be excellent. Seeing how Alpha Protocol is ported from it's Xbox 360 version to the PC, it'd be unrealistic to think that the graphics would be any better than what the Xbox 360 would have. The Graybox's environment is pretty drab, but it is supposed to be. They call it The Graybox, after all.

 

So far, I don't think combat is that bad either. I've been able to get head shots and one-hit kills, even on Recruit with zero attribute points. Not all the time, but 66-75% of the time. It helps alot if you wait for your targetting reticle to turn red and start narrowing. It might slow the action up a little bit, but hey, it's an RPG, not an FPS. The combat in Alpha Protocol reminds me a lot of the combat in Mass Effect. If you were okay with the combat system in Mass Effect, you should be okay with the combat system in Alpha Protocol.

 

Hacking took some getting used to, and I can see the point about the mouse pointer being a little weird on it, but once I got used to how it works, it was fine.

 

My one biggest complaint is using the mouse to move Michael Thornton around. It's annoying and definately could be better, but it isn't a gamebreaker for me.

 

My initial impression rating would be 7.5 out of 10.

[GhostofAnakin]

I kind of wish there was at least one or two more hubs, to further expand on the characters you come across. I like multiple interactions with the characters I meet. And no, playing e-mail tag with Scarlet doesn't count as interaction.

Edited June 7, 2010 by GhostofAnakin

[Libertarian]

I was afraid I wouldn't get any chicks in the sack, then I got all 3 during the final mission. Damn, Thorton doesn't do anything in moderation.

[Ulicus]

I was afraid I wouldn't get any chicks in the sack, then I got all 3 during the final mission. Damn, Thorton doesn't do anything in moderation.

Well, it was the game's climax.

 

And:

 

Infiltrate: I'm surprised you found all three romance options. I hid them pretty hard.

Edited June 7, 2010 by Ulicus

[Azure79]

I completed a game and am in the middle of my second playthrough.

 

There was one moment in the game that really made it for me. Spoiler below

 

 

In Rome, museum level. When Marburg gives you the choice to either disarm the bomb or save Madison, I found myself second guessing his intentions. I had studiously gathered intel and gained some influence with him during the previous meets. I knew that he was pragmatic when it came to the mission with intel saying that he would most likely cut his losses and retreat if things were proceeding unfavorably. I also knew that he liked to get in get out without too much attention on himself. So I figured he was bluffing with his threat to kill Madison. I figured once I had disarmed the bombs and taken out his henchmen, he would just make a run for it. Killing Madison then wouldn't make much sense from a tactical point of view and he seemed to be above murderous vengeance.

 

So I went for the bombs and successfully completed the mission. When Marburg showed up with Madison and let her go I started patting myself on the back for correctly reading him. Then Marburg shoots her through the heart. In that instant I realized that being a soldier and mercenary that highly valued loyalty and service, he would not tolerate any betrayal from his subordinates. I was furious that I hadn't thought about this and gotten someone under my protection killed. The subsequent battle was much more heated for that reason.

 

 

Many games present the players with choices, but this is the first time that I've thought of an NPC as an thinking individual and tried to adjust my choices accordingly. This makes Alpha Protocol a great game in my book.

 

My 2 cents.

[mothra]

i played the game already 3 times. I love it for the conversations and staring-contests between me and marburg/leiland

AND WHERE IS MY TUXEDO ?

I also want more of G-22. Albatross and SIS are 2 best characters but almost nowehere to be found

finished the game in civilian clothing and a few levels even with no detection at all (meaning not even takedowns or disables of turrets).

Edited June 8, 2010 by mothra

[WorstUsernameEver]

Ok, finally got the damn game.

I'll be brief : almost all the flaws cited are there (for now no bugs though, except a wonky death animation) but are not as bad as I imagined when I played.

The dialogue system takes some time to get used to, but feels really natural.... as I suspected, though, the idea of giving brief summary instead of at least the beginning of the line is stupid, so I ended up screwing up a couple of dialogues.

Writing isn't brilliant, but gets the job done and is sometimes funny. I'm playing Mike as a somewhat manipulative professional so he doesn't really strike me as the super jerkass some people make him to be.

Ah, also, I'm finding the game damn hard, but that's because I super suck at stealth.

As for the enemy AI, no bugs for now.

Ah, also, no mouse stuttering. Yeah!

[Hassat Hunter]

I'll be brief : almost all the flaws cited are there (for now no bugs though, except a wonky death animation) but are not as bad as I imagined when I played.

You're surprised about that? After all, we've only been telling you all along .

[WorstUsernameEver]

I'll be brief : almost all the flaws cited are there (for now no bugs though, except a wonky death animation) but are not as bad as I imagined when I played.

You're surprised about that? After all, we've only been telling you all along .

 

Yes and no. I knew what wouldn't bother me (subpar visual presentation, unrealistic combat mechanics) but also what would bother me (bugs, minigames, subpar writing, ****ty port).

Fortunately, for now, both the minigames, the writing and the interface, while they could use work, have satisfied me.

Well, actually the writing, is mostly preference.. I'm not a super fan of modern spy movies, and Thorton's own brand of humor is a bit.. juvenile. But the dialogues feel fluid, snappy and the voice acting so far is remarkable. Even Thorton's voice acting, for all the stances he had to voice, feels mostly pretty consistent.

[mr insomniac]

I'm late to the party, but my copy finally arrived in the mail today. Just installed it and began playing.

 

Well, the only game I've been playing recently up to now has been ME2, so making the switch from ME2 controls to AP controls takes a little getting used to. Kind of a "crap, that's not how you do that in this game" thing. I keep expecting Mike to turn around and give me the finger as he blunders his way through security cameras and into the middle of guards. On the plus side I'm getting good at hacking alarms.

 

I was about ready to give the computer hacking up as a lost cause, then I actually saw the unmoving bit of code, and it was like those 3D art posters that were popular awhile back, where you kinda had to unfocus and look through the picture to see it. Once you figured it out, you saw the picture every time.

 

I'm not far into the game at all - just talked to Westridge on a big ass TV screen (Mike's words) for the first time - but I'm getting into the whole spy thing already.

[Pidesco]

i played the game already 3 times. I love it for the conversations and staring-contests between me and marburg/leiland

AND WHERE IS MY TUXEDO ?

I also want more of G-22. Albatross and SIS are 2 best characters but almost nowehere to be found

finished the game in civilian clothing and a few levels even with no detection at all (meaning not even takedowns or disables of turrets).

 

Oh look, a TTLGer.

 

Welcome!

[Oner]

Through the looking glass-er?

[Pidesco]

Yep...

[WorstUsernameEver]

Is it normal that Darcy called me Mikey when I've never met him before, when he was assigned as my handler in a Saudi Arabia mission?

Must admit I'm warming up to the writing by the way.. it's kind of something in between a love letter and an affectionate parody of spy stories/movies.

The perk system is absolutely fantastic and incredibly reactive.

Definitely feels like a 'learn by doing' system done right.. hope to see Obsidian expanding on it for one of their next projects.

[C2B]

Is it normal that Darcy called me Mikey when I've never met him before, when he was assigned as my handler in a Saudi Arabia mission?

Must admit I'm warming up to the writing by the way.. it's kind of something in between a love letter and an affectionate parody of spy stories/movies.

The perk system is absolutely fantastic and incredibly reactive.

Definitely feels like a 'learn by doing' system done right.. hope to see Obsidian expanding on it for one of their next projects.

 

Yep, belongs to Darcy's personality.

[Sparta]

I bought this game along with Red Dead Redemption and only really tried it today(week later). This game is fun, but definitely not the greatest game off all times(Red Dead Redemption is). I love this game as much as I hate it. SEGA has always released buggy products, and so I really wasn't expecting a flawless game anyways. Enemy AI seems to have been programmed by someone who just graduated 2nd grade, and got their degree from a cracker jack box. Inventive plots though, and I hope a trend forms from espionage rpg's,

[Kasabian]

You are joking right, RDR is just GTA with horses and a hell of a lot more buggy.

 

At least Alpha Protocol has a compelling storyline, which RDR completely lacks.

[Libertarian]

I'm a huge Rockstar fan, but RDR being "the greatest game of all time"? Lol, not a chance in hell.

 

Anyways, I've yet to finish RDR, but that's more because it's not that amazing. It is a great game, though. However, it's just GTA IV with a new coat of paint, no doubt. Feels identical.

Edited June 10, 2010 by Libertarian

[GhostofAnakin]

I bought this game along with Red Dead Redemption and only really tried it today(week later). This game is fun, but definitely not the greatest game off all times(Red Dead Redemption is). I love this game as much as I hate it. SEGA has always released buggy products, and so I really wasn't expecting a flawless game anyways. Enemy AI seems to have been programmed by someone who just graduated 2nd grade, and got their degree from a cracker jack box. Inventive plots though, and I hope a trend forms from espionage rpg's,

 

See, this is something I don't understand. Alpha Protocol is being hammered for "retarded enemy AI" (and yes, the enemy does do some dumb things), but yet other games with similarly "retarded enemy AI" don't get bashed for it.

 

Like in the post I quoted, the love for Red Dead Redemption. I played it (even finished with the 100% completed challenge), enjoyed it, and might even re-play it. But I didn't find the enemies any smarter than the ones I've encountered in AP. During gun fights, on multiple occasions, the enemy would stand out in the open and fire at me constantly, even though there was cover they could duck behind, and even though I was behind cover and they had no chance of shooting me. Or they'd charge at me for unknown reasons, despite the fact I was in cover and they were wide open for a shotgun blast to the head.

 

In fact, I found RDR's combat even easier due to that automatic aiming thing, where I just had to aim in the general direction of an enemy and it would lock on to them.

 

Again, that's not to suggest I didn't enjoy RDR ... I actually did, quite a lot to be honest. But the enemy AI wasn't any better than what was in AP.

Edited June 10, 2010 by GhostofAnakin

[Sparta]

Haha your right RDR AI was stupid. In fact RDR did have sort of the same bugs Alpha Protocol had. I wish Alpha Protocol had some kind of evasion skill like dodging or rolling out of the way. When crouched behind a wall, there is usually some sort of lag before you can get out, and if someone tosses a grenade at you, all you can really do is pray. The fight with that Russian guy in the mansion(my way of refraining from spoiling) is so frustrating.

[Hassat Hunter]

I say it before, but here it goes again.

 

AP's AI is actually better than that of most games. Issue is it's needs to do more here than just shoot back intelligently, like most other games (ie. ME2, RDR) and hell, that is even a problem for many games.

Hence, it suffers from the same sindrom as Deus Ex, it's better but still gets critisised for being 'stupid'.

 

And yeah, I don't neglect that it does still have some glaring issues, like the inability to detect auto-turrets...

Edited June 10, 2010 by Hassat Hunter

[Sparta]

Not all reviews are bad by the way, in fact I would never even considered picking it up if it weren't for http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/xbox2/a...ocolstrev1.html