Alpha Protocol the next Vampire The Maquarade:Bloodlines

[Reg1.1]

*Both games have an original concept.

*Both games feel highly unfinished uppon release.

*Both have an abnormal ammount of glitches and bugs for a new game.

*Both garner a small but strong community.

*Both stand out with original writting and good story.

*Both make the mistake of calculating in a RPG style when it comes to shooting.

*Both have a very distinct atmosphere.

*Both could have been larger than live succeses if they were more polished.

*Both are worthy of cult classic status.

 

 

Do you think that AP will get a list of patches addresing the issuesd it has, will it have a modding community as strong as VtMB, will it have a sequel, will it become playable after the patches?

[Slowtrain]

I'll buy it if it gets a patch, one at least. If not then, I dunno.

 

 

I've been looking forward to this game for a while, but I'm quite disappointed that it appears such a chop job. I was expecting more. If Obs and Sega stand by the game with a patch or two, then I'll feel a little more positive about spending my money.

 

And, yes, I enjoyed Bloodlines.

 

The development of this game has been a mess from Day 1, it seems. Where the fault lies, Sega or Obs, I have no idea.

[Tigranes]

*Both have an abnormal ammount of glitches and bugs for a new game.

 

Seriously? AP has nothing on VTM on bugs. Polish, sure, game could use a lot of polish, but polish and bugs are different.

 

I mean, have some perspective. There was Morrowind, where lots of people reported totally random crash to desktop while they were playing, Neverwinter Nights 1, where people had huge problems running the game, Dragon Age, where people couldn't get DLCs working and characters would disappear in the middle of your campaign, Gothic 3, where the DRM would freeze the game every 60 seconds while playing, and of course Obsidian's own KOTOR2.

 

In contrast, the worst of AP is bad checkpoint loading and jerky mouse. I mean, they're annoying, but this is a very smooth launch as far as RPGs go.

[TrueZarken]

I have to agree with Tigranes. I did play VTM by recomendation of a friend who lent me his copy and I couldn't put up with it for 10 minutes without going out on the internet in search for a patch. I have yet to run into any real bugs that a few people have reported in, except the obvious jerky mouse controls of the camera in a few levels, which can break the fun for a few seconds before I continue on. But it has as Tigranes stated a very smooth launch as far a RPGs go.

 

But Obsidian have really made a fantastic game and it is just a shame that major game reviewers are giving this such a poor score as a lot of people will listen to those review and walk right on by this game without a second thought and not make up their own mind or even worse they'll pirate it, which won't give Obsidian and Sega much encouragement for a sequal.

[Reg1.1]

I'm not saying it has the same ammount of bugs, but it does have them, and No I do not mean polish, say the checkpoint/ enemies disapear bug, the load checkpoint and Mike is standing bug, sometimes the game does not register objectives as completed, on the mission where you intercept Shaheed, I found an alternate route which lead to one of the main objectives not being completed, I was locked inside a building and couldn't get out, thus I had to reload the safe house, Ai sometimes bugs, and the drop from ledge droping you under the map and many more, as far as this goes, it has bugs, not as many as VtMB had, but still bugs and is one of the more buggy/glitchy RPGs uppon release, atleast for some people, me included.

[Deng]

I'll buy it if it gets a patch, one at least. If not then, I dunno.

 

 

I've been looking forward to this game for a while, but I'm quite disappointed that it appears such a chop job. I was expecting more. If Obs and Sega stand by the game with a patch or two, then I'll feel a little more positive about spending my money.

 

This game has less bugs than ME1, Dragon Age, and Gothic 1/2/3 on release.

 

Calling it buggy or a chop job is just ridiculous. There are bugs, and you probably will notice them, but there is nothing game breaking.

[Reg1.1]

Not less than Gothic, don't make me bring up God Boar of the "Slaughter your high level character" land.

[Kasabian]

Bloodlines, Gothic 3, these games were insanely buggy upon release, surely AP is not that bad. :D

 

I agree with Deng comparing it to such games is being ridiculous.

 

That said, other companies releasing very bugged games does not justify doing it yourself. But AP is one of the more bug free releases that has come out these days.

[HoonDing]

In my experience, Alpha Protocol feels more AAA than Dragon Age & Mass Effect 2 together.

[Arunak]

NO.

 

Bloodlines is a masterpiece, one of the best RPGs of the videogaming history. Its writing and dialogues animation are still unmatched, and It's a way way WAY better rpg than AP.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Arunak

[Rostere]

I haven't had any problems with bugs at all.

 

Of course the hacking minigame does feel clunky, but maybe that was intended

[Oner]

but there is nothing game breaking.

Not for you maybe.

[Morgoth]

VTMB > ME2 > AP > ME1

[HoonDing]

^ME2 has no place in that list.

[Morgoth]

Says the guy from Absurdistan?

[Kindred]

Its writing and dialogues animation are still unmatched

 

I've played the hell out of Bloodlines as my name might suggest, and having reinstalled and replayed in the last couple of weeks I can tell you you've got the rose tinted glasses on there. The writing on Bloodlines is good, but compared to the majority of modern games (Alpha Protocol included) it's facial animations are almost comical.

 

That's the one part of AP's animations that are up to scratch.

[HoonDing]

I am sure he meant boob animations.

[Kindred]

Oh yeah, jiggle physics.

 

The peanut gallery's contribution to videogame design.

[Arunak]

Its writing and dialogues animation are still unmatched

 

I've played the hell out of Bloodlines as my name might suggest, and having reinstalled and replayed in the last couple of weeks I can tell you you've got the rose tinted glasses on there. The writing on Bloodlines is good, but compared to the majority of modern games (Alpha Protocol included) it's facial animations are almost comical.

 

That's the one part of AP's animations that are up to scratch.

Maybe I've the rose tinted glasses on , but you (and your friend after you) probably can't see at all.

Go on youtube and try to analize them properly, please.

I know ME and AP dialogues animations are absolutely good (ME especially, having to be some sort of interactive movie), but just take a look at the gesticulation or the naturalness difference between the two. (I cannot explain it better than this, sorry)

Maybe I was also influenced by the perfect voice acting (or you think I'm wrong here too ), but at least I wouldn't try to consider them "almost comical", bec that's a plain bs.

 

VTMB > ME2 > AP > ME1

*

Edited June 1, 2010 by Arunak

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Ironically, I've encountered exactly 5 minor bugs in a playthrough of KotOR 2 and nothing major. However, the first KotOR constantly crashes and has a terrible PC UI and supports arbitrary resolutions that force me to play it in a window.

Edited June 1, 2010 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Wombat]

I haven't even touched the game and probably won't touch any game till I become less busy, at least, but Gamespot's score feels rather harsh. I don't know how much influence on the sales but a 60% score from a major game review site must be quite damaging...

 

Reading the review, I guess my fear about the game-play and graphics turned out to be legitimate, unfortunately. The majority of the gamers who are accustomed to the quality of modern shooters are unforgiving to a game which has more or less similar main gameplays. The same thing happened to VtMB. I wish it could have made at least the same score as Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines did, though. Watching game-play on the net, besides the awkward presentation, there seem to be conflicts between character advancement systems and shooter game-play. I cannot feel but that Deus Ex scheme doesn't seem to work well with contemporary graphics...the stealth and headshot don't appear to be believable at all. It appears character advancement elements and shooter ones are fighting each other in front of the eyes of the players. Is it impossible to make something like original Splinter Cell, which dates back to 2002, with much more various choices on gadgets/weapons/armor and their modification to replace the character advancement system? I cannot understand why they needed to repeat the same/similar mistakes as some of them did in VtMB... Of course, VtMB has its virtues but the game-play was not one of them, IMHO.

[Kasabian]

Well, Obsidian did not make VTMB, if your complaints about the company are due to a few staff members coming from Trokia which created that game, then surely you should praise them also for being Black Isle and bringing us Fallout II and Baldur's Gate II. Far as I am concerned games from previous companies years ago should not be use as examples for the current different company.

 

AP has little in common with VTMB, the gameplay is vastly different, the dialogue system is vastly different, the setting is vastly different.

 

The only similarity is they both had many complaints, though VTMB did deserve it for not being complete. Though that was not 100% Trokia's fault, they did use the first early version of the Source engine and that was quite bug ridden, which obviously affected the production badly.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Kasabian

[ProtocolX]

Hmm, I have not had any bugs at all (2 complete runs and now on Veteran run). I do have issues with the mouse in the hacking, but that has been fixed by carrying lots of emps to just bypass it all together where possible.

 

 

So from my end it has been a very solid launch of a very fun game.

[Mirage]

I hope it is like VTMB in the quality of the story/atmosphere, and the facial animations while sometimes a little crude in VTMB, they can be very subtle and are still more advanced than some of today's games. In the thread I made, someone made similiarities between VTMB and AP, I hope these are accurate. I'm looking for a fresh, absorbing experience.

[Reg1.1]

Let me get back in here for a sec. Now I am not saying that the games are alike in any way, other than the montioned ones, I compare them on the feeling you get when you play it, that distinct, "this is way better than most things out there at the moment, but if it only had .... wansn't .... and so on" VtMB is a cult classic, and am a part of that cult, I can easily see how AP will become a cult classic in the same manner. Bloodlines is one of the greatest RPGs ever, so is AP, because they do somethin new. If 20 years from now, when scouring my old games collection I find all the RPGs I own, I would rather play AP and VtMB instead of say Dragon Age (which is also a very good game) .

 

Back on topic, you can't tell me that both games aren't a fresh RPG that brings something new to the genre/have a small following/are cult classics (as far as I am concerened AP is a cult classic, look at the number of people in this forum, we are a cult [ minus the goat slaughter ] )