Zero Punctuation: Alpha Protocol

[Mojito]

Here's Yahtzee's review of AP.

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...-Alpha-Protocol

 

Hilarious, loved it.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Considering Yahtzee, it almost sounded positive to me.

 

And by the way, it was hilarious.

[poetic obsidian]

He actually reviewed the game as an RPG and focused on...wait for it... RPG features. That alone puts his review above the rest of the others. Yet so many of the straight ahead reviews that we're supposed to take seriously couldn't grasp this basic fact.

[player1]

That's more positive then any recent game review he did.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

He pretty much nailed it, criticism and all. Mike is always a smug bastard.

[Alpha]

I want coco pops.

[WorstUsernameEver]

He pretty much nailed it, criticism and all. Mike is always a smug bastard.

 

In a sense it's interesting though.

You really don't influence Mike's personality during the game, but rather, his motivation and his actions (after all, is the dialogue really what Mike thinks? a manipulation?).

They could have chosen someone less.. uhm... well... smug for the role, though.

[Ulicus]

I found it interesting that the two gameplay elements he specifically singled out for praise were the skill-based system and the mini-games. And, yeah, am I weird for coming away from it thinking that it was -- overall -- a pretty positive review? I (perhaps incorrectly) got the impression he was implying at the end that he was going to replay it. Which is something of an endorsement in itself.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Ulicus

[Thorton_AP]

I lol'd

[phiont]

"All in all, Alpha Protocol is weak and poorly balanced like a 3-legged dog with an eating disorder."

 

For the most part, he seemed to like it. It's not often that he openly acknowledges finishing a game.

[Alpha]

"All in all, Alpha Protocol is weak and poorly balanced like a 3-legged dog with an eating disorder."

 

For the most part, he seemed to like it. It's not often that he openly acknowledges finishing a game.

 

He failed completely with that comment.

[zkylon]

Haven't watched it but poorly balanced sounds about right :D

[Libertarian]

Never liked his "humor", tbh.

[Jackalmonkey]

He pretty much nailed it, criticism and all. Mike is always a smug bastard.

I didn't see this as a problem. Mike's sarcasm and glibness allowed him to remain relatively consistent despite the various dialogue options.

 

Unlike past RPGs, where you're often free to bounce through an array of wildly different responses like a Magic Eightball of multiple personality disorder, all three of the dialogue stances seemed like plausible facets of the same personality. Mike might be a smug bastard, but within that personality is the potential for a wide emotive range - you can picture a smug bastard going hardass or softening up, depending on the situation.

 

The alternative would be a relatively bland and occasionally bipolar blank slate (i.e. Commander Shepard).

[Hassat Hunter]

Yup, sounds pretty fair to me... although obviously with his brandmark overexegorating.

[Spiked]

He pretty much nailed it, criticism and all. Mike is always a smug bastard.

I didn't see this as a problem. Mike's sarcasm and glibness allowed him to remain relatively consistent despite the various dialogue options.

 

Unlike past RPGs, where you're often free to bounce through an array of wildly different responses like a Magic Eightball of multiple personality disorder, all three of the dialogue stances seemed like plausible facets of the same personality. Mike might be a smug bastard, but within that personality is the potential for a wide emotive range - you can picture a smug bastard going hardass or softening up, depending on the situation.

 

The alternative would be a relatively bland and occasionally bipolar blank slate (i.e. Commander Shepard).

 

I agree with you To. The. Letter.

 

Good review, really.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

He pretty much nailed it, criticism and all. Mike is always a smug bastard.

I didn't see this as a problem. Mike's sarcasm and glibness allowed him to remain relatively consistent despite the various dialogue options.

 

Unlike past RPGs, where you're often free to bounce through an array of wildly different responses like a Magic Eightball of multiple personality disorder, all three of the dialogue stances seemed like plausible facets of the same personality. Mike might be a smug bastard, but within that personality is the potential for a wide emotive range - you can picture a smug bastard going hardass or softening up, depending on the situation.

 

The alternative would be a relatively bland and occasionally bipolar blank slate (i.e. Commander Shepard).

 

I agree with you To. The. Letter.

 

Good review, really.

I agree as well, I just hate the bastard anyway.

[Oblarg]

Sad thing is, that was a more accurate appraisal of the game's strengths and weaknesses than what most of the major American reviews gave. He didn't fall back on "clumsy shooting," in fact, he even praised that you had to skill up the guns before being able to use them effectively - he instead noted that the situations the game places you in makes it hard to work with the system in place, which was the real problem. The general surprise that he didn't rip the game to shreds in the comments is rather unfortunate, though. I guess it goes to show that as unreasonable he can be at times, Yahtzee is not one to jump on the hate bandwagon.

 

I thought it was a pretty good ZP. Quite funny.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Oblarg

[Mojito]

For Yahtzee, this is a very positive review.

 

If he didn't like the game, he would focus on its weak points - AI, animations, graphics. Let's face it - AI and animations are really ****ed up. Hell, he could've obliterated the game if he wanted. That's what he does the best.

He didn't mention any of these points AT ALL and focused on everything associated with the dialogue system - game's strongest point.

 

Yep. He liked AP.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Gorth
Circumventing the language filter

[Darque]

Way way way more positive than some of his other reviews

[SirPetrakus]

Did not see that coming. Very fair, very positive review. I was absolutely certain he would rip AP a new one. Well, surprise surprise!

[Grand_Commander13]

Okay. Okay, that was beautiful.

[Winterwolf]

Reading the comments there it seems to be a sort of review that both haters and lovers agree with.

 

"I agree with Yahtzee. This game sucks. I am surprised that he didn't mention how badly the crosshair sucked though."

 

"I agree with Yahtzee. This game is actually pretty good."

 

But regarding Konstantin Bryko. There is another way for us heavy stealth and martial arts guys dealing with him than assault rifles. That's how I did it and I didn't have that good pistol skills. But yeah that's true that you have to at least one set of guns skilled out pretty nicely in AP.

[zkylon]

Reading the comments there it seems to be a sort of review that both haters and lovers agree with.

 

"I agree with Yahtzee. This game sucks. I am surprised that he didn't mention how badly the crosshair sucked though."

 

"I agree with Yahtzee. This game is actually pretty good."

 

But regarding Konstantin Bryko. There is another way for us heavy stealth and martial arts guys dealing with him than assault rifles. That's how I did it and I didn't have that good pistol skills. But yeah that's true that you have to at least one set of guns skilled out pretty nicely in AP.

Well, Deus Ex was pretty hard to sneak by without having some points on sniper rifles.

 

I thought it was a pretty fair review. I must confess the plot lost me as well sometimes. I felt like you didn't spend enough time at each hub to fully understand the nature and purpose of each mission besides trying to stop Halbech.

[Winterwolf]

I think the plot not making sense is part of the charm. Together with no saving and dialoguse sytem it adds to the general sense of dealing blindly with forces greater than you.