• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Alpha Protocol |OT| Bourne, Avellone, Denton, and the Agency's Sagacious Secrets

StarscreamLSU said:
I made a stealth/ melee fighter and you may want to rethink that. Stealth isn't handled that well. Make sure you put points in some weapons training. It's sort of encouraged through gameplay situations.
err what. worked perfect for me. only put points in stealth melee and pistol. how far are you and how are you playing?
 
subversus said:
Yes, same here, except I'm yet to discover any bugs/glitches. I'm playing very stealthy and using CQC wherever it's possible.
Funny enough, I'm playing guns blazing and having a ton of fun. The PS3 is full of graphic anomalies, but heh it reminds me of Mass Effect 1 and it's issues a bit.* I did come across one really awful, oh you did the objectives out of order oh you can't move on in Taiwan.

It deals with the elevator door opening in the Hotel, if you get the security badge and then do another objective the elevator door closes and stay closed. Therefore you have to make sure you get the elevator badge last

I had to reload it twice, it annoyed me, but it didn't make me want to stop playing the game.

*I think this all comes down to UT4 tech needs to deal with pop-in and screen taring better, or is this more of a issue that depends of a licensee's use of the engine.
 

duckroll

Member
Spirit of Jazz said:
Just out of interest Duck where did you place you skill points in? My melee was never anywhere near as powerful as my assault rifling, I was able to take out rooms in a matter of seconds and with brilliance I could literally stay in Red Dead Redemption's piss easy auto-aim mode for the entire game. It was akin to playing RDR but the enemy actually attempted to out flank me at times despite it obviously having the worst A.I. in history.

My points are currently placed into Stealth, Pistols, Sabotage and Martial Arts. I have zero points placed in SMGs, shotguns or rifles. I'm in Taipei now (I haven't done Rome or Moscow yet), and I have like maybe 5 or 6 levels in Martial Arts. I can take out any enemy with 3 punches or so, and the Triad mid-bosses took like maybe 5 punches to go down.

StarscreamLSU said:
I made a stealth/ melee fighter and you may want to rethink that. Stealth isn't handled that well. Make sure you put points in some weapons training. It's sort of encouraged through gameplay situations.

I actually like the stealth in the game. It's handled better than the shooting as far as I'm concerned. Sneaking around works. Using gadgets to distract enemies works. Silent takedowns work. It's been a blast as long as I don't have to actually shoot enemies coming at waves. When there's no alarm, using a silenced pistol is pretty effective too.
 

Llyranor

Member
duckroll said:
Stealth, Pistols, Sabotage and Martial
Heh, that's exactly the build I'm going for (when it freaking unlocks, maaan). I was also thinking technical aptitude, but it just seems to mostly affect medkits and ammo capacity, and I'd rather focus the skill points in my main set instead.
 
duckroll said:
My points are currently placed into Stealth, Pistols, Sabotage and Martial Arts. I have zero points placed in SMGs, shotguns or rifles. I'm in Taipei now (I haven't done Rome or Moscow yet), and I have like maybe 5 or 6 levels in Martial Arts. I can take out any enemy with 3 punches or so, and the Triad mid-bosses took like maybe 5 punches to go down.

Can't quite remember about the bosses but for the unarmoured triads that sounds pretty similar. Of course the reticle closes down pretty quick at that point with the right gear so it's pretty easy to get long ranged headshots.
 

duckroll

Member
Llyranor said:
Heh, that's exactly the build I'm going for (when it freaking unlocks, maaan). I was also thinking technical aptitude, but it just seems to mostly affect medkits and ammo capacity, and I'd rather focus the skill points in my main set instead.

Yeah, my thinking is that for stuff like ammo capacity I can simply make up for it by spending money on armor attachments like the ammo pouch. Not too worried about medkits either, because I figure if I use more than 2 in mission, I'm pathetic and probably deserve to be dead. :lol

Spirit of Jazz said:
Can't quite remember about the bosses but for the unarmoured triads that sounds pretty similar. Of course the reticle closes down pretty quick at that point with the right gear so it's pretty easy to get long ranged headshots.

I think part of why I really like using melee is probably my play style. With no points placed at all into heavier weapons, there's no way for me to really run and gun. In that sense, I guess it's pretty well designed from a RPG stand point. By investing skill points into my specific play style, I tend to use stealth a lot, and if I'm ever spotted it means I'm already really close to the enemies. So just using melee to take them out is much faster than trying to aim with a pistol at a close range. I have a shotgun as backup, but with no points placed into it, and no modifications, it's not a very good weapon lol.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
StarscreamLSU said:
I made a stealth/ melee fighter and you may want to rethink that. Stealth isn't handled that well. Make sure you put points in some weapons training. It's sort of encouraged through gameplay situations.

I had more problems with open fights for now. About 80% of my kills are stealth ones.
 
Really? I had a bitch of a time with stealth -- particularly towards the end. Dumped points primarily in melee, stealth and pistols.

I just started by second play through this morning, so I'll have to adjust. Enemy's ability to see me didn't seem to work that well. Sometimes I was able to get right up close, others they saw me across the room -- both when they were looking right at me.
 
Rome level question from my wife:

Should she save Madison St James or the exhibit? She says that she's torn and can't work out which is better in the long run.
I haven't played this yet, so have no opinion or thoughts on the subject, and she's just spoilt something story-wise for me, so any thoughts or opinions on the outcomes of each would be super-handy. Thanks.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
this game sucks me in and I haven't had so much fun playing stealth in a long time.

Don't know about the plot yet really. For now it's just spy stuff - missions briefings and debriefings. I'm in the last mission of Saudi Arabia chapter.

By the way you can't bring more than 2 medpacks with you on the mission. Seems like I might invest 1-2 points in health just in case. Also sabotage is pretty useful, 5 EMP grenades to lockpick/hack fast and safely is a must. Also does unsuccessful hack attemps results in alerting everybody? I tried to unsucessfully lockpick the safe and got borked.
 

Peff

Member
whatevermort said:
Rome level question from my wife:

Should she save Madison St James or the exhibit? She says that she's torn and can't work out which is better in the long run.
I haven't played this yet, so have no opinion or thoughts on the subject, and she's just spoilt something story-wise for me, so any thoughts or opinions on the outcomes of each would be super-handy. Thanks.

Haven't played that level yet but from the rest of choices the advantages you get from either choice aren't that important, it's more about going with your own choice. Someone must have played that part, though, so I'll let them answer.

As for the game itself, I'm having quite a bit of fun! Once you start getting better abilities and weapon statistics even the shooting is bearable, mostly because you can kill enemies with fewer shots. Also, yes, failed hacking activates the alarm, UNLESS you abort the mini-game before the timer ends, in which case nothing happens. That's pretty cool, because trying to lockpick stuff with the DS3's triggers... :lol
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Peff said:
That's pretty cool, because trying to lockpick stuff with the DS3's triggers... :lol

I tried to lockpick the safe and quit when I saw that I can't make it. Still got the alarm. I guess it's just a safe that triggers it, not PCs.
 

Ryan_IGN

Member
whatevermort said:
Rome level question from my wife:

Should she save Madison St James or the exhibit? She says that she's torn and can't work out which is better in the long run.
I haven't played this yet, so have no opinion or thoughts on the subject, and she's just spoilt something story-wise for me, so any thoughts or opinions on the outcomes of each would be super-handy. Thanks.

I was playing
the suave hero and saved Madison...only to have her make me feel like an asshole later for choosing her single life over the lives of hundreds. Only time in the game I regretted a decision
.
 
Servizio said:
One question, more like a feeler I suppose: Do you imagine the game to be at all moddable? It's obviously had no talk about mod tools and sounds painfully console centric, so I'd be very surprised but I have to ask. Any options that give any indication of that direction?

Almost no UE3 games have a significant modding community. I wouldn't expect this game to have anything more than a few minor mods and ini tweaks.
 

Axiom

Member
whatevermort said:
Rome level question from my wife:

Should she save Madison St James or the exhibit? She says that she's torn and can't work out which is better in the long run.
I haven't played this yet, so have no opinion or thoughts on the subject, and she's just spoilt something story-wise for me, so any thoughts or opinions on the outcomes of each would be super-handy. Thanks.
I made a save at that decision point very curious where the story would go
if you save her
but not at all convinced my Thorton would do it, and afterwards despite the fact that choice has more interesting gameplay, the consequences pretty much scream
you chose bad and you should feel bad. Choice my ass, if the developers are going to make her living a complete copout and write her out anyway then they shouldn't let you make that choice in the first place
.

It's early days for this genre sure, but replaying the final mission and making different decisions results in many fun consequences that are handled differently and make doing it again pretty damn interesting...which makes the choice in the spoiler even more annoying with what I saw of how it's handled.
 

bathala

Banned
I'm thinking of going the stelath route when i get the game

does it have a cool down web u use the ability of sneaking, ot is it always active?
 
Servizio said:
Yeah, I think I'm gonna bite on this. I was having a last minute crisis of finance over it, but fuck it. It sounds like a good role playing game, emphasis on the role playing.
Exactly how I feel about it. I could do without spending the $50 on Steam. But hell, I'm a sucker for western RPGs - despite people railing on the game. I've loved games that the media has deemed "broken and unfinished," so really it doesn't bother me.
 
Okay, I probably dropped into the thread a bit late, but is the game just leaking to retail early all over the place? And what's the consensus platform to go with? 360 or PC? (I could go either, but I don't have a PC 360 pad...)
 
weekendCONFIRMED said:
Exactly how I feel about it. I could do without spending the $50 on Steam. But hell, I'm a sucker for western RPGs - despite people railing on the game. I've loved games that the media has deemed "broken and unfinished," so really it doesn't bother me.

Get someone in the UK to gift it to you for $36.
 

NIN90

Member
unbenannt0pph.jpg


Game is pretty cool once you get out of the tutorial.

And yes, that's a reply I sent to one of my colleagues.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
well, the game is officially fantastic for me now. I have no points in assault rifles and yet I can mow down every sucker even far away (but I bought a good rifle and upgraded it substantially). The size of the reticule isn't about accuracy, it's about damage you're doing.

The plot is opening up and things getting interesting. I see a lot of possibilities for a second walkthrough when it comes to choices. Also I'd like to try shooting/arrogant in conversation walkthrough. It could be interesting.

Writing keeps getting better. I chuckled couple of times. But it's not spectacular, it's on Mass Effect level with a bit loose feel.

The further you go into the game the more predatory/badass you feel. High production values could really save it and warrant a sequel. The lack of it is the only downside for me now. It's a bit sad that ME changed RPG-shooting for forever. Never again will we get stat-based shooting, because people whine too much about it not working in a usual way.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Crazymoogle said:
Okay, I probably dropped into the thread a bit late, but is the game just leaking to retail early all over the place? And what's the consensus platform to go with? 360 or PC? (I could go either, but I don't have a PC 360 pad...)

360 version is a bit broken but without a pad the game feels wrong.
 

ArjanN

Member
whatevermort said:
Rome level question from my wife:

Should she save Madison St James or the exhibit? She says that she's torn and can't work out which is better in the long run.
I haven't played this yet, so have no opinion or thoughts on the subject, and she's just spoilt something story-wise for me, so any thoughts or opinions on the outcomes of each would be super-handy. Thanks.

Don't look at spoilers and let her decide for herself, that's the whole point. The decision making is way more fun if you don't meta-game it by just going for what the best reward is. That choice actually made me hesitate for a moment. I'm having a blast with this game. :)

Ryan_OXM said:
I was playing
the suave hero and saved Madison...only to have her make me feel like an asshole later for choosing her single life over the lives of hundreds. Only time in the game I regretted a decision
.

I loved that about that choice. Great writing in that part when the villain is taunting you about that.
 

Cep

Banned
Basileus777 said:
I'd start with normal. The bosses are a bitch on hard and you can't abort the hacking/lock picking/etc. mini-games without auto-failing.

That is not true.
 

Cep

Banned
duckroll said:
I think part of why I really like using melee is probably my play style. With no points placed at all into heavier weapons, there's no way for me to really run and gun. In that sense, I guess it's pretty well designed from a RPG stand point. By investing skill points into my specific play style, I tend to use stealth a lot, and if I'm ever spotted it means I'm already really close to the enemies. So just using melee to take them out is much faster than trying to aim with a pistol at a close range. I have a shotgun as backup, but with no points placed into it, and no modifications, it's not a very good weapon lol.

I would suggest an assault rifle as your backup.

Quick, accurate, long-ranged and extremely effective even without points invested.

Now, I have only used it a couple of times (mostly before I restarted to do a non-lethal run), but it is definately my favorite weapon aside from the pistol.

Llyranor[B said:
]Heh, that's exactly the build I'm going for[/B] (when it freaking unlocks, maaan). I was also thinking technical aptitude, but it just seems to mostly affect medkits and ammo capacity, and I'd rather focus the skill points in my main set instead.

Seems to be the build most people are doing. Mostly because the game just plays better with these.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
duckroll said:
A slight update on my impressions: after plugging in a 360 controller, my enjoyment of the game improved substantially almost immediately. It's obviously a game designed be to played with a controller as opposed to a keyboard+mouse set up, and it doesn't seem like they really changed anything in the PC version. When playing with a controller, many of the systems also feel more polished and refined.

The combat is still pretty awful, imo, so much so that I almost exclusively use hand-to-hand combat now. It seems poorly designed in this aspect especially, since weapons actually cost money to upgrade and customize, and ammunition is finite within missions - yet it is the unlimited and free melee attack which is the most powerful form of attack in the game. Kinda weird. There's pretty much no reason for me to ever invest anything into firing bullets at this rate. Even Chainshot isn't as effective as just rushing up to a group of 3 guys and just punching and kicking the shit out of them.

I'm really digging the new characters being introduced as the game progresses though. Interesting personalities, and having individual reputation stat tracking for each character/faction is a huge improvement over stuff like ME and ME2's overall morality scale, since it encourages me to experiment with different behavioral patterns with different characters without feeling that I have compromised my overall character's role playing aspect. :D


You playing on hard? If I get shot like 5 times I'm dead D:

I think the shooting is decent as well, but I use a shotgun so I put people down with pretty much every shot. When I activate room sweep, it's over for anyone anywhere near me. The incendiary shotgun ammo is also hilarious.
 

duckroll

Member
_tetsuo_ said:
You playing on hard? If I get shot like 5 times I'm dead D:

I think the shooting is decent as well, but I use a shotgun so I put people down with pretty much every shot. When I activate room sweep, it's over for anyone anywhere near me. The incendiary shotgun ammo is also hilarious.

Nah, I'm playing on Normal. Will probably do future replays on Hard though.
 

duckroll

Member
panda21 said:
i'm not sure i agree with this games definition of suave. i don't think it means sex pest.

Most of the styles available have to be interpreted through the Mike-lens. Thornton is generally a jerk, even when he's a nice guy. Many of the "professional" replies have a good amount of patronizing in the tone as well. I think the logic behind a lot of the writing is basically that Thornton is a jerk, and any reply you pick is simply an act he puts up to influence the other party in various ways depending on their personality.
 

panda21

Member
duckroll said:
Most of the styles available have to be interpreted through the Mike-lens. Thornton is generally a jerk, even when he's a nice guy. Many of the "professional" replies have a good amount of patronizing in the tone as well. I think the logic behind a lot of the writing is basically that Thornton is a jerk, and any reply you pick is simply an act he puts up to influence the other party in various ways depending on their personality.

ah ok, i guess that makes more sense.

just seems like playing with fire telling rpg nerds that is suave behaviour :lol
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
duckroll said:
Most of the styles available have to be interpreted through the Mike-lens. Thornton is generally a jerk, even when he's a nice guy.

I think it's a drawback.
 

duckroll

Member
subversus said:
I think it's a drawback.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, just an observation of how I feel it is written. I don't really think it's a drawback so far though, but I'm not that far in the game. Definitely going to do replays too, and maybe I'll see how much depth there really is in the writing and conversations then.
 
I just finished a second run through the game on recruit so I could unlock veteran. With a combat focused build I was able to blast through the game in about 5 hours.

I killed everyone and picked the more aggressive choices. There weren't really any surprises in terms of alternate outcomes other than I discovered that
Mina was the person who triggered Alpha Protocol status for Mike and she works for some other organization.
.

With regard to the story in the game, it has a spy movie plot with some clever dialogue. Other than the slow start and the crappy ending, I enjoyed it. Just don't expect introspection, great character development, or some deep overarching theme. Most of the characters are spy movie archetypes. In other words, it's not Torment or MOTB.
 
NIN90 said:
http://www.abload.de/img/unbenannt0pph.jpg[IMG]

Game is pretty cool once you get out of the tutorial.

And yes, that's a reply I sent to one of my colleagues.[/QUOTE]


This game just keeps sounding better and better. Do they respond to these emails?
 

Peff

Member
Boy, the hotel mission was a lot of fun, though
I lost a handful of points of respect with Mina because I didn't have any more sedative bullets :( and it was all Steven Heck's fault!
. Man, despite how rough the game is, it sure is a lot of fun, and the way the dialog keep referencing events you did is very nice. Better than the sum of its parts, it seems.
 

Q8D3vil

Member
i'm thinking of buying this on pc but i have some 2 questions.

1- support sli ?!
2- can i run it in 60 fps max setting using gtx 295 ?!

thanks
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
Q8D3vil said:
i'm thinking of buying this on pc but i have some 2 questions.

1- support sli ?!
2- can i run it in 60 fps max setting using gtx 295 ?!

thanks


SLI should be fine and yes a 295 will kill this game.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Basileus777 said:
I just finished a second run through the game on recruit so I could unlock veteran. With a combat focused build I was able to blast through the game in about 5 hours.

I killed everyone and picked the more aggressive choices. There weren't really any surprises in terms of alternate outcomes other than I discovered that
Mina was the person who triggered Alpha Protocol status for Mike and she works for some other organization.
.

With regard to the story in the game, it has a spy movie plot with some clever dialogue. Other than the slow start and the crappy ending, I enjoyed it. Just don't expect introspection, great character development, or some deep overarching theme. Most of the characters are spy movie archetypes. In other words, it's not Torment or MOTB.

Is it the missing ending to KotOR II!?
 
rainking187 said:
This game just keeps sounding better and better. Do they respond to these emails?

Yep, you usually get an email to which you can respond in one of the three "attitudes", which will generally elicit a response and may affect how the recipient feels about you.
 

ArjanN

Member
panda21 said:
ah ok, i guess that makes more sense.

just seems like playing with fire telling rpg nerds that is suave behaviour :lol

It's pretty much the James Bond approach. Of course in real life Bond would be sued for sexual harrassment.
 
I've played around with taking different choices during the ending sequences and
the ending where you join Halbech, kill Westridge, and then betray and kill Leland and form your own organization using your allies
is pretty awesome. I still haven't figured out
if/how you can fight Marburg again during the end.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Shit,
I bumped into this obsessed with 80s rock mafioso and I don't know how to beat him! The problem is that I'm also out of medpacks. He regenerates his armour, he's hard to beat in melee (and that's my specialization), I can't stealth-kill him, etc
GAF, help!
 
Top Bottom