Alpha Protocol 2, suggestions.

[Reg1.1]

Now, let's get some personal info out of the way, before the flame war begins.

Me:17 years old/male

Why should my suggestions be read:Avid gamer with a love for the medium, upstart writer with a publishing deal, game reviewer for TheGAMEnet/PC mania/PC club/asorted forums (all retired due to people arguing, even though everything is just objective oppinion, and bosses saying I was being to harsh on games)

Reason for bad grammar: I come form a small eastern european country and write in my own language, engrish is bad.

 

 

Now with that stuff out of the way, a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, if you didn't guess already this is very, very, very important messege for Obsidian.

 

I love your games, I love what you do with the franchises you have been entrusted with. You did well on KOTOR 2 and you made NVN 2 very enjoyable. But there is always just one thing all Obsidian games lack. One gram/ounce of polish and/or outright stealing. Oh get with it, every game steals most of it's elements from other games, all adventure games have Mario elements in them, and most shooters are the same, blah blah blah what you say, this is my oppinion. Developers steal, BioWare does it, Epic does it, Bungie does it, infinity Ward does it, everyone does it (Zynga too) , except for Obsidian, you, yes you, Mark (worth it to **** with all the people named Mark). You Obsidian refuse to steal, why, why create something, when someone has already made the same thing better. It's not even stealing really, all shooters have you firing guns, does this mean they steal from old SNES games, hell ****ing no it does not.

 

Let's does this bit by bit.

 

 

List of things you need to improve on, if not jack from the right places in AP2.

 

Stealth/Cover system:

We have always seen cover systems in games, the sticky ones where you glue yourself to a wall like a parasitic tick wanting to suck the plaster of it. Except in one game. Splinter Cell: Conviction, there you just held a button to stay in cover and when you let go, you go out of cover, simple, yet it was the only cover system I would call intuitive or enjoyable, or useful, or fun, you get the idea. Play the game, see how well it's done, put that in AP2, instant gameplay level up, put points in Fun, achieve succes. Now to the other element, the stealth. Obsidian, WTF are you doing, you say your game can have stealth, but you don't put a simple thing to tell us how well we are hidden. I'm not saying a light meter or sound gauge or a breath holding button. The gaming community has (d)evolved beyond the need for those, hell not even the screen going black and white when hidden, here's an idea, when you use Perception, don't give me a ****ing arrow (actually please do, it is very helpful) instead light up the line of sight cone of every enemy in green (while making the entire area slightly more dark, so that it can clearly be seen (also highlight pickups when you use perception, it makes sence if you "perceive" things that you can see that that bag has cash in it), and when they are looking in your direction but not seeing you, but have a chance to start searching, light iy up in yellow, and when they spot you, in red. Or something like that, make stealth actually work. Hell if you can please make a walking speed control via the scroller, oh to hell with everybodies whining that no game needs it, it's in depth, more so that stupid XboxLive kids brains. Splinter Cell:Chaos Rising style, so that you can actually sneak up behind someone and shank his brains out (instead of duck/sprint/walk/poo your way to him, and have him obviously hear our secret agent, because he is so high and tense, that he can't contemplate how to walk slower) . Yes if I am citing way too much Splinter Cell it's because this is the stealth system section of the post, duh. Look if not take elements like that, then atleast, please play the SC games and get inspiration for your own way of doing it.

 

Action:

More weapons, more weapon types, very important. Now, please give us a reason to use anything other than ARs for the entire game, give pistols a chance at long range, make every headshot kill with one shot, make headshots hard to get, make the AI better, allow us look through the scope of our gun if it has one, give us different scope options, you get the idea. Also make the game less action oriented and moe stealth/action oriented, because I don't think a spy/secret agent is a front line soldier, look at Conviction again, there was a very nice balance there (**** YOU, yes I want this to be closer to Conviction, it was a good game, this will be better once it get's gameplay of the same level)

 

 

 

I want to write some more, but there is a specific mission in Tai Pei that needs taking care of, will finish post when I have time.

 

 

>>>Flame suit ON<<<

Enjoy your raging at me.

 

 

 

P.S. If you read this in Yahtzee's voice, kudos to you.

P.S.S. If my language is very bad, please excuse me, used to writing colums in a fashion close to this and it shows in my posting habits.

 

 

Cheers

"Raven"

Edited May 30, 2010 by Reg1.1

[Alpha]

More melee weapons and enviroment attacks/kill.

[Shinaju]

What you posted OP, was what I posted long b4 this game came out. In fact it was my first post. I was very disappointed they never took the time to polish the game, even if they delay it. It was pretty much gone gold at october, but Sega decided that Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 is going to take their sales, so they delay it. Yet after half a year, they didn't even bother to polish this game. People say KoToR 2 and NWN 2 was rushed, because of the success of the first games. Then what about AP? It sure isn't a sequel thats needed to be rushed. I don't know what Sega or Obsidian was thinking, but right now AP was a wasted of budget, a waste of good ideas, and a waste of talents. Obsidian is not a bad developer. In fact I consider them one of my favorite devs. But this is just stupid. I don't think its Sega's fault, because its not the first time Obs screwed up their game, but NWN 2 and Kotor 2 was acceptable, being a sequel. No innovation was needed. Now its a fresh start, they didn't even try to make this the best possible. What a waste...

[Tigranes]

they didn't even try to make this the best possible.

 

Really?

 

Arguably this was an even harder job than the sequels. With the sequels they already had a template - it was already done very successfully, they just needed to put in a few well-chosen improvements and do it in their own style. Here they had to create everything from scratch while learning a new engine.

[Reg1.1]

Learning a new engine could have been avoided if they just hire people with some experience, UE3 is by any meassure an old engine. Hell, it's not like experienced people aren't everyone anyway, modders have made things with less bugs and the like, not saying anything bad about Obsidian, they just needed to hire some experienced people. AP is not rushed as well, it's just not complete, even if they took time to tweak it, do you think they would have changed anything, or rather keep it as it is now, just a bit more polished, aka less bugs, but no new elements, what I am suggesting is refining the elements to make them fun and current age. Right now AP could have easily come out in 2007, todays standards for a stealth/action/spy game are just higher, thanks to the Splinter Cell series mostly, which is why I suggest taking inspiration from there rather than making everything from scratch and with no clue how to, because they haven't worked on a game where they needed to create the action, rather just refine what was there. The one thing they nailed was the story and dialogue (please give us like 2 seconds more to pick the option, it won't kill the tensesiness) . If Obsidian takes this franshise to it's true potential, shutting the mouths of fans and critics alike with the sequel, they will create an instant gaming classic, without the need for that much innovation, just refining and mixing elements we already know, love and most importantly want. Take the two new racing games that were released, Blur and Split-Second, both games are arcade and very fun to play, for one hour before it gets repetitive, sollution, more tracks, and ****ING COMBINE THESE TWO GODDAMN GAMES YOU ARTARDED DEVELOPERS, seriously, these games would have been so much better if they were one, so much reason to play for hours on end. Just like what AP would have been is Obsidian lowered their proud heads and actually put the Conviction cover system, took the RPG parts out of the combat and such.

[Trustin]

Taking the RPG part out of the combat? Thats the whole premise of the game, an espionage "RPG", The game would be dull if your character could do everything perfectly from the beginning

[Reg1.1]

Ever played Borderlands, ok let me elaborate, because I wasn't clear enough, take most of the RPG part out of the combat, **** criticl hits, only headshots are criticals (like in real life) and are one shot kills, unless someone has a helmet, where it takes more than one, they can also keep the aimed critical (which takes time to line up the shot) but make that random chance to get it, but headhots are always crits, but ofcourse make headhots hard to get. Make the gun skills make you more accurate, but not reduce your reticule, please no, just add a crosshair sway which get's reduced via putting points in the skill, so that if you are point blank behind a guy with a pistol trained on his head and miss because your stats arent up retardation is mother effing retarded like that. Make the combat, actuall combat, make it into a thrid person shooter for the combat, and have the RPG stuff just help that along, not dictate it, make the enemies though to kill, make their guns actually do damage, so that they give a reason to take cover at all, make this game fun damn it.

 

 

Also, quick edit, make the pistol chainshot skill look like Mark and Execute from Conviction/Deadeye from Red Dead Redemption, actually is more like what needs to be done, yeah, exactly like deadeye, because guns can not shoot more than one bullet from the barrel at a time, atleast make him move the gun and aim at the targets real fast, no need for slomo after you select everyone, just make him aim and shoot real fast, so that it has some realism. After all "this is game is all about realism".

Edited May 31, 2010 by Reg1.1

[Reg1.1]

Due to not being able to edit, here's the next suggestion, why can't we switch cover like Conviction, why do we stand up and sprint at the cover and get everybody alerted, and why when we roll out of cover do we stand up, WTF, oh and also, if we can roll, why can't we have a bad ass system like in Conviction where when you run and click crouch you slide, here you we can roll maybe and have a nice animation for rolling into cover, maybe like in Chaos Theory where when you hold down the crouch button while running you roll as opposed to crouching.

 

 

P.S. Don't think that if Conviction wasn't out I wouldn't give these same suggestions, for years people have been wanting a good cover system and the other ones are fueled by the SC series, because it did spy/agent game before this and layed down some ground rules.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Reg1.1

[Minchi]

Hmmm....I would say for a better Alpha Protocol....

 

1. Fix the graphical popups.

2. Let the player to design their own characters like in Mass Effect 2 (I know they were planning to do this but it was cut from the last minute...either they didn't have a female voice actor or the funds just got small for developing this game. They should of ask Jennifer Hale for that role.)

3. Better Gadgets, More spy weapons, and Spy armor.

4. Have a fully interactive world where its not like a hub or something and make it where u can explore the area without hanging around in the safe house all the time and give us more freedom.

5. Better Boss fights.

6. Have some fun picking out the music because in some stages the music don't play at all.

7. More ammo types, and realistic guns.

8. A better martial art system that allows the main character to learn different types from masters all around the world by complete side quests from each master.

9. Have a option to choose what type of dialog system you want. Like choose between from free moving (like not timed, like mass effect) and timed (the one that is currently being used in AP)

10. A better cover system.

11. A regenerating health system, I just hate the part where u hafta find those health stations and those midkits.

12. Having a totally huge branching story system that will allow to port your save files to the next alpha protocol game.

 

Thats my list for nao...I will add more stuff in when i remember some more stuff.

[Oblarg]

8. A better martial art system that allows the main character to learn different types from masters all around the world by complete side quests from each master.

 

Please, no. This would be so out of place it would hurt.

 

I thought the CQC worked great, though I'd like to see a bit more variety like the point-blank shot ability (maybe knife finisher, or something like that?).

Edited June 10, 2010 by Oblarg

[Minchi]

8. A better martial art system that allows the main character to learn different types from masters all around the world by complete side quests from each master.

 

Please, no. This would be so out of place it would hurt.

 

I thought the CQC worked great, though I'd like to see a bit more variety like the point-blank shot ability (maybe knife finisher, or something like that?).

 

Not actually man...just imagine just like u wanna learn the skills to be a fighter u could just learn off from other spies or experts its just makes it better. Because i think the one style they used in this game kinda blows...lacking touch...

 

And they should allow ya to learn weapon skills so its not always guns...like just imagine becoming a expert with swords and when the thugs attack ya with their guns u can deflect them back at them and then other things..good thing u started to noticed...

Edited June 10, 2010 by Minchi

[Oblarg]

8. A better martial art system that allows the main character to learn different types from masters all around the world by complete side quests from each master.

 

Please, no. This would be so out of place it would hurt.

 

I thought the CQC worked great, though I'd like to see a bit more variety like the point-blank shot ability (maybe knife finisher, or something like that?).

 

Not actually man...just imagine just like u wanna learn the skills to be a fighter u could just learn off from other spies or experts its just makes it better. Because i think the one style they used in this game kinda blows...lacking touch...

 

No self-respecting spy wastes time running around doing errands for a kung-fu master to learn his art. No. That would be painfully immersion-breaking.

[Minchi]

Look at James Bond...they have so many stories that he does all that too...and plus makes the game more playable too...

 

Like the one where he goes to Japan and gets killed and comes back as a samurai master...that one was a classic and he learns martial arts from them meaning they do have it in...

Edited June 10, 2010 by Minchi

[Amentep]

Look at James Bond...they have so many stories that he does all that too...and plus makes the game more playable too...

 

Like the one where he goes to Japan and gets killed and comes back as a samurai master...that one was a classic and he learns martial arts from them meaning they do have it in...

 

As I recall (and may be wrong since its been a long time since I read You Only Live Twice) the fake death is in the movie and he does a little training in ninjitsu with Tiger Tanaka's ninjas (and he does a little Japanese culture and gets a horrible haircut); the book doesn't have the fake death (Bond is renumbered 7777 and given a last ditch mission to save his career after the death of his wife) and has him spending a large amount of time trying to live as a Japanese man as well as Tiger having him train in staff fighting, karate and judo.

 

I don't think in either case Bond really became a "master" of the techniques he trained in, although it probably helped him a good bit with his final duel with Blofeld in the book. And I think that's the issue with secret training - for a master to really impart his knowledge it'd take years away from the mission to accomplish. So either you have a game mechanic that happens a lot in video games where people get imparted magic knowledge of martial skills (which doesn't work IMO with an Alpha Protocol like setting) or you skip lengthy training period and have the character just get better at what they already know how to do.

[Hassat Hunter]

1) Drop cover systems entirely.

 

They don't work in ME1.

They don't work in ME2.

They don't work in GTA IV.

So it's pretty obvious they would also suck in AP. I wasn't surprised.

 

Cover systems suck, devs. Please, stop using them!

 

More weapons, more weapon types, very important.

Also make the game less action oriented and moe stealth/action oriented

Ehm... *does not compute*

 

Also, I kind of gotten the impression Conviction was the black sheep of Splinter Cell and all fans hated it? Then again one might get the same impression reading about AP on the internets, so I might be wrong.

 

EDIT: Reading on the thread, you do realise headshots already multiply damage, right? Completely seperate from "Critical Hit" damage?

EDIT2:

Make the gun skills make you more accurate, but not reduce your reticule, please no, just add a crosshair sway which get's reduced via putting points in the skill

This would be very nice for a sniperrifle, but for pistols, assault rifles or other weapons? No... just... NO.

EDIT3:

why can't we switch cover like Conviction

Actually, you can. In the extremely few times I used cover I noticed once you got to the sides of it, you could target different cover areas and leap over there (instead of the roll to the side).

EDIT4:

11. A regenerating health system, I just hate the part where u hafta find those health stations and those midkits.

HELL NO. If there's something worse than cover system in modern games it's regenerating health. ME2's battles usually where more "hide till you're healed" than actually trying not to get shot, which would make a lot more sense (and be interesting) no?

EDIT5:

like just imagine becoming a expert with swords and when the thugs attack ya with their guns u can deflect them back at them and then other things

I want whatever you are smoking, guy...

Edited June 10, 2010 by Hassat Hunter

[Oner]

I like the cover system.

[Scorpion27]

Same here!!!

 

Any game involving gunfight should have a cover system period! If only for realism!

 

I can tell you from experience, the first thing they teach you in either police or military training is to take cover and how to lay down supressive fire.

 

In both of those domain AP was probably superior to most games out there even those that advertise themselves as multiplayer shooters.

[zkylon]

I like the cover system.

Biggest problem with AP's cover system is that it's unpredictable. You're never quite sure what's cover and what isn't and sometimes inexplicably you can't jump from cover to cover, etc. Also, almost every time you try to exit cover by pressing the "enter cover button" (spacebar in PC) it's done non-silently. I would say cover is pretty flawed, since it's usually better to stay out of cover (since you can get hit while hidden under cover) and charge the critical hit.

 

I would never prefer a non-sticky cover system, though. I hate holding buttons. AP's cover system's fixable enough.

[Oner]

It's not flawless, but not something you just drop either.

[zkylon]

Any game involving gunfight should have a cover system period! If only for realism!

No. Some games are do cover well (R6:V), some don't (MGS4). Nothing should be all games. Period.

[zkylon]

It's not flawless, but not something you just drop either.

I'm not saying that (though i'd love TBS AP :D). It's just far from even good, though not as disgustingly awful as MGS4's. But it's fixable.

[camodevil]

Game upgrades for Alpha Protocol 2:

1-more random events

2- more storyline arcs

3-fix graphical issues/bugs

4-more gear/weapons/armor

5-more martial arts moves

6-more conversation choice arcs

7-more faction characters

8-longer game play

9-more initial character choices

10-more abilities

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Anyone notice the omega symbol on the boat at the end? Either it means the end of the game or it means there's an omega protocol on the way.

 

EDIT: I don't think we need a cover system. I'd have enjoyed this game more if it had been a straight-up first person shooter.

Edited June 18, 2010 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Luckmann]

[...]

 

Me:17 years old/male

 

[...]

 

Avid gamer

 

[...]

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

[unskilled-]

Rename to Syphon Filter: Alpha Protocol

 

Rename lead to Gabe Logan.

 

Finito.