Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Stealth and hand to hand can get kind of frustrating with bosses. From the sound of it, stealth and pistols is better.DrBo42 said:
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Alpha Protocol |OT| Bourne, Avellone, Denton, and the Agency's Sagacious Secrets
- Thread starter Tokubetsu
- Start date
Basileus777
Member
DrBo42 said:
You should some invest points in one of the gun skills (probably pistols or ARs). Melee isn't optimal against some of the bosses in the game. Silenced pistols fit well with going stealth.
Don't see where the technical issues are that reviewers are bringing up, at least with the PC version. Game is running at a rock steady 60 FPS, with a minor 1-2 FPS drop occasionally when loading. Graphics are decent -- nothing great -- but nothing bad either. So far, I'm enjoying it, even though I just made it to Saudi Arabia.
DrBo42 said:
Put all your points in stealth and melee then. You also shouldn't neglect sabotage and pistols. Health points aren't really important if you're going stealth, but you might need to up them a bit in the final chapters or earlier. But it's up to you really. I used pistols for silent takedowns only (headshots) and 2 points in them was enough for it. I improved assault rifles a bit (2 points in them) during one of the boss fights because his melee skills were better than mine. That was enought for the rest of the game. Don't rush with upgrades, upgrade your level only when you need it.
So after a few hours of playing I think this is one of the best games I've ever played. But jeeeez, buggy. Already ran into two:
-The text on conversation prompts DISAPPEARS. So all I see are the buttons and no idea what they do. I just left it on B since professional is usually B and usually ok.
-Game is running at 60fps not a drop ever, I take a zipline between two areas and the framerate drops to 1fps for a few seconds like it's streaming the new area or something.
Then there's just some design choice stuff like having your conversation prompt timer run out before the other person has finished asking you the question you are responding to! :lol
-The text on conversation prompts DISAPPEARS. So all I see are the buttons and no idea what they do. I just left it on B since professional is usually B and usually ok.
-Game is running at 60fps not a drop ever, I take a zipline between two areas and the framerate drops to 1fps for a few seconds like it's streaming the new area or something.
Then there's just some design choice stuff like having your conversation prompt timer run out before the other person has finished asking you the question you are responding to! :lol
Basileus777
Member
Bebpo said:
This happens when you try to force AA on.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Well from my experience, stealth and hand to hand skills don't really work well together. Hand to hand would work better if you dropped points into health and were just tanking.subversus said:
That made me so depressed. It looks so nice with 8xAA. The only consolation for me was that it still has something going on that makes the game look less aliased than games usually do.Basileus777 said:
Been playing a good bit of this now and decided to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. I am dumping points into Shotguns, Assault Rifles, and Toughness. Once you start putting in the points even going straight shooter starts to feel right. The shotgun can down a cluster of dudes in one shot if you have it charged up to max.
Basileus777
Member
DrBo42 said:
No, but if you beat the game as a recruit (start with no skill points), you unlock veteran which starts you with 3 levels in all skills.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
CQC as in the sneaking KOs? Because you don't need any points in Hand to hand for that right? Pistols just feels like it would be so much easier when fighting bosses.subversus said:
Rahxephon91
Banned
The game will be $44.99 at Kmart this week. I may actually have to jump on it now.
Stallion Free said:
yes
Yes, it's easier with pistols earlier in the game but later I was taking all bosses down in a minute or two. Actually it was the Moscow one only who was hard to beat in melee. And even then I had to beat him mostly in melee, like 60/40, because my gun skills were lacking.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Fuck Brayko, that's where I am now and he is fucking me up hard melee wisesubversus said:
Basileus777
Member
DrBo42 said:
It happens when you use AA.
How do you use the sound gadget?
I was like halfway through a mission and I thought I'd make a noise elsewhere so I fired it off pointing at a wall across the area and suddenly EVERY ENEMY CAME RUNNING AT ME GUNS BLAZING.
...did not end well
I wish there was a way to see how all the gadgets work and not just the couple you use in the training mission.
I was like halfway through a mission and I thought I'd make a noise elsewhere so I fired it off pointing at a wall across the area and suddenly EVERY ENEMY CAME RUNNING AT ME GUNS BLAZING.
...did not end well
I wish there was a way to see how all the gadgets work and not just the couple you use in the training mission.
This thread has been a rollercoaster.... :lol
I still haven't picked up the game...but some of these impressions of the later stages of the game are making it hard to wait the extra week or so I had planned.
As someone who was a huge fan of sneaking around knifing people in Chaos Theory... how does AP's stealth kills feel by comparison?
I still haven't picked up the game...but some of these impressions of the later stages of the game are making it hard to wait the extra week or so I had planned.
As someone who was a huge fan of sneaking around knifing people in Chaos Theory... how does AP's stealth kills feel by comparison?
Danne-Danger
Member
You can't loot bodies, though they do drop loot (metal gear style) from time to time.K.Jack said:
whatevermort
Member
I won't say much until I've played more, but I'm ploughing through the first area, and loving this. LOVING it. My wife played it on the PC, but I'm playing 360, and there's really not much in it between the versions. She reckons they look the same, I think her PC version - which is on a very nice system indeed - looked better, but really, either way, you're playing this for the game, and the game is great on both. So, yeah: get it.
whatevermort said:
Yeah I don't understand where the negativity is coming from about the early portion of the game. I'm also working my way through the first location and every minute has been utter joy.
Coming from Peace Walker and doing 40+ hours of stealth missions, AP feels both familiar and more exciting because of the rpg elements in both gameplay & story telling. Love it.
kai3345 said:
Well, anything is valid, but it's definitely useful to at least pour a handful of points into Stealth so you can get the permanent radar ability even if you don't plan to use it. And then a few missions pretty much require stealth (though never in a "if you get caught it's game over" way, you can still shoot, with consequences), so most people tend to go with that.
Basileus777
Member
So is the Embassy mission in Moscow just bugged? No matter what I do it
, even though I clearly never did that. I didn't kill anyone, I only used fists and tranq bullets and was never detected. The post-mission combat stats support this.
says I killed Marines
Basileus777
Member
kai3345 said:
Nope. That's all there is.
Danne-Danger
Member
Yeah that happened to me as well. I hacked a turret upstairs and thought that did it (though that was way after they'd all be dead anyway). Not sure what causes it, I went stealth and didn't touch anyone for the first half of the mission, then non-lethal on everyone else.Basileus777 said:
*Have you tried doing a non-lethal takedown/tranqing on all the
marines
Smallish endgame barely-spoiler:
The fact that it was
marines
I've got a few questions:
-Does your starting type effect anything at all besides initial stat/weapon loadout? Because since you can remove initial stats and rearrange them anyhow...it'd seem like a waste if that's all they affected and not make replaying it as a different class interesting.
-Is:
Suave - being a dick
Agressive - being a jerk
Professional - being normal
Because I thought Suave would be like smooth talking/charm but everytime I pick it he just says something like a conceited prick and pisses everyone off. It seems like anything besides professional pisses people off.
-Is there no stat for conversation? It's all just based on what the person likes and your responding attitude.
-Here's the big thing: is it just me or is the game too easy? You're given all these great skills and there seems to be zero penalty for setting alerts so even if you do set one off, you can just beat up the guards and turn the alarm off. Even if you die, the game checkpoints all the time and you just restart a few mins back. It basically seems like there is zero incentive to be super awesome and perfectly stealth everything besides personal satisfaction (which is always good). I wish at the end of a mission you got extra xp or something for no alerts or few alerts. no kills or few kills. Maybe it's just because I've come from playing MGS Peace Walker where at the end of the mission it does exactly that (bonus points for few or no alerts, minus points for each kill). I like being rewarded for taking the time to play well and not just being clumsy and setting off all the alarms and ko-ing all the guards.
Also it seems at first glance like there aren't a whole lot of things to put skill points into? Because I'm only a few missions in and I feel like I have 20%+ of my skills filled already (especially if you're not planning on using weapons, it seems like you'll max everything non-weapons right away). It seems at this rate like before rank 5-10 of the skills opens up I'll probably get almost every category to rank 5, which seems kind of lame since on replays instead of going a different path with my skill points I'll just end up good at everything each time. I hope I'm wrong and there are more skills that open up later.
I mean I think this game is amaaaazing, but I'd like to play a tougher, more realistic and more rewarding version if I could. Maybe a community mod will do that.
One thing I do like is that the guards seems smarter than MGS guards. They see further and sounds are more likely to set them off. I also really like all the ways you can change how the mission will be setup before even going into it.
-Does your starting type effect anything at all besides initial stat/weapon loadout? Because since you can remove initial stats and rearrange them anyhow...it'd seem like a waste if that's all they affected and not make replaying it as a different class interesting.
-Is:
Suave - being a dick
Agressive - being a jerk
Professional - being normal
Because I thought Suave would be like smooth talking/charm but everytime I pick it he just says something like a conceited prick and pisses everyone off. It seems like anything besides professional pisses people off.
-Is there no stat for conversation? It's all just based on what the person likes and your responding attitude.
-Here's the big thing: is it just me or is the game too easy? You're given all these great skills and there seems to be zero penalty for setting alerts so even if you do set one off, you can just beat up the guards and turn the alarm off. Even if you die, the game checkpoints all the time and you just restart a few mins back. It basically seems like there is zero incentive to be super awesome and perfectly stealth everything besides personal satisfaction (which is always good). I wish at the end of a mission you got extra xp or something for no alerts or few alerts. no kills or few kills. Maybe it's just because I've come from playing MGS Peace Walker where at the end of the mission it does exactly that (bonus points for few or no alerts, minus points for each kill). I like being rewarded for taking the time to play well and not just being clumsy and setting off all the alarms and ko-ing all the guards.
Also it seems at first glance like there aren't a whole lot of things to put skill points into? Because I'm only a few missions in and I feel like I have 20%+ of my skills filled already (especially if you're not planning on using weapons, it seems like you'll max everything non-weapons right away). It seems at this rate like before rank 5-10 of the skills opens up I'll probably get almost every category to rank 5, which seems kind of lame since on replays instead of going a different path with my skill points I'll just end up good at everything each time. I hope I'm wrong and there are more skills that open up later.
I mean I think this game is amaaaazing, but I'd like to play a tougher, more realistic and more rewarding version if I could. Maybe a community mod will do that.
One thing I do like is that the guards seems smarter than MGS guards. They see further and sounds are more likely to set them off. I also really like all the ways you can change how the mission will be setup before even going into it.
jim-jam bongs
Member
I finished my first full playthrough (started again after Moscow first time) yesterday and immediately started again. That was on hard with pistols, stealth and shotguns to start with, and I'm trying a stealth, pistols and sabotage recruit run on hard this time. Going non-lethal this time too, I'd filled an entire orphanage by the end of my first run.
It's a really well designed RPG. I'm really impressed with how many viable builds there appear to be, it seems that only the martial-arts heavy builds are really difficult to succeed with and even then you can mitigate that challenge with a high stealth skill anyway.
Kills are boring -- Mike just knifes the dude -- but the animations are slightly faster. Non-lethal takedowns are awesome, because there are quite a few different animations. My personal favourite is grabbing the guy's arm, bending him backwards and then delivering a swift chop to his Adam's apple :lol
It's a really well designed RPG. I'm really impressed with how many viable builds there appear to be, it seems that only the martial-arts heavy builds are really difficult to succeed with and even then you can mitigate that challenge with a high stealth skill anyway.
Concept17 said:
Kills are boring -- Mike just knifes the dude -- but the animations are slightly faster. Non-lethal takedowns are awesome, because there are quite a few different animations. My personal favourite is grabbing the guy's arm, bending him backwards and then delivering a swift chop to his Adam's apple :lol
TheVisualizer
Banned
Got it and played for a few hours, did all the Saudi Arabia missions except the last one, or what seems to be the last one and I'm liking the game even more than I thought I would.
Liking almost everything about the game, the gunplay and stealth aren't bad once you realize that everything hinges on how much you upgrade your character and gear, and ends up playing pretty similar to a dumbed down version of Splinter Cell Conviction.
The enemy A.I, is really the only weak point, they tend to charge you too much once they see you and can be lured into traps easily. I've had two occasions where I was behind cover and they called for reinforcements that ended up sneaking up on me but then running directly behind me and then around the corner without even seeing me. They also don't seem to have any range on their line of sight as I've accidentally killed a few guys right in front of sentries perched above directly in what should have been their line of sight and they didn't flinch. I don't think they realize dead bodies either. I'm playing as a stealthy character using primarily the pistol and bare hands, only resorting the assault rifle when things go to shit, since it takes a day and half to kill anyone with the pistol when you don't line up and critical shot. Despite my complaints about the shooting, in the grand scheme of things that part of the game is passable just like Mass Effect 1 was.
The graphics seem fine to me, its no beauty but they don't take away from the game at all for me, there is just enough detail to keep each environment from being bland. The dialogue system is great, as I already can't wait to try another approach to things on my second playthrough, I am playing as primarily Professional on my current one. The level design is better than expected with a few alternate routes for each combat area and I like the way the hacking minigames are implemented, they aren't cakewalks like Mass Effect's.
Overall it's been pretty enjoyable so far, if you like Mass Effect and/or Splinter Cell and are on the fence I would recommend you check this out at some point, don't be completely turned away by the reviews.
Liking almost everything about the game, the gunplay and stealth aren't bad once you realize that everything hinges on how much you upgrade your character and gear, and ends up playing pretty similar to a dumbed down version of Splinter Cell Conviction.
The enemy A.I, is really the only weak point, they tend to charge you too much once they see you and can be lured into traps easily. I've had two occasions where I was behind cover and they called for reinforcements that ended up sneaking up on me but then running directly behind me and then around the corner without even seeing me. They also don't seem to have any range on their line of sight as I've accidentally killed a few guys right in front of sentries perched above directly in what should have been their line of sight and they didn't flinch. I don't think they realize dead bodies either. I'm playing as a stealthy character using primarily the pistol and bare hands, only resorting the assault rifle when things go to shit, since it takes a day and half to kill anyone with the pistol when you don't line up and critical shot. Despite my complaints about the shooting, in the grand scheme of things that part of the game is passable just like Mass Effect 1 was.
The graphics seem fine to me, its no beauty but they don't take away from the game at all for me, there is just enough detail to keep each environment from being bland. The dialogue system is great, as I already can't wait to try another approach to things on my second playthrough, I am playing as primarily Professional on my current one. The level design is better than expected with a few alternate routes for each combat area and I like the way the hacking minigames are implemented, they aren't cakewalks like Mass Effect's.
Overall it's been pretty enjoyable so far, if you like Mass Effect and/or Splinter Cell and are on the fence I would recommend you check this out at some point, don't be completely turned away by the reviews.
Basileus777
Member
Bebpo said:
It also affects a few dialogues in the game.
Bebpo said:
That's pretty much it. Suave is more smarmy than anything Bond would really say. Unfortunately you just have to figure out which characters respond best to which style, and try not to use the option too much or they might not like that either.
Bebpo said:
No stat for that. It's based on how much they like you and on occasion you will get more options for having dossier info on them.
Bebpo said:
The game is pretty easy, there's no real question about it. On normal or easy, playing stealth isn't the most efficient way to do things, it's quicker just to run through and shoot everyone. Even on hard mode it's not bad unless you charge in and get hit by a turret or grenade. There are story consequences for playing aggressive though. Mina and Albatross will like you more if you don't go on a killing spree and Leland and Marburg's dialogues reflect how quiet you've been. You can also unlock perks by playing stealthy.
I see, hmmm...
So it seems like for replays to have a different gameplay experience it's basically up to you to play differently (like MGS) and not that you can just pick a radically different class and have a very different gameplay experience (like rpgs).
Even if it's not very efficient, I think I'll try to continue a few alert, no kill stealth run for this playthrough and then I'll do a weapons based rambo playthrough; which is basically what I do the first & 2nd time I play an MGS game.
So it seems like for replays to have a different gameplay experience it's basically up to you to play differently (like MGS) and not that you can just pick a radically different class and have a very different gameplay experience (like rpgs).
Even if it's not very efficient, I think I'll try to continue a few alert, no kill stealth run for this playthrough and then I'll do a weapons based rambo playthrough; which is basically what I do the first & 2nd time I play an MGS game.
Danne-Danger
Member
1. The starting classes are pretty much for show (I think, unless they make certain skills cheaper maybe?) and maybe there just to guide the player into what role he could be playing. If you go with recruit you get extra dialogue, finish with that and veteran will unlock which does the same thing with different dialogue.Bebpo said:
2. Suave is smooth talking, aggressive is "bullying", and professional is what it sounds like. When to use them depends on the situation and the person. Follow what other characters are saying, if they tell a joke and are not being serious, try being suave, for example. If you do it right you'll get better rep, if you do it wrong you could get a penalty or nothing happens at all.
3. No stat for conversation is right.
4. It's pretty easy yeah. But the game does reward you for being stealthy. Some characters will like you a lot more if you don't make your presence known, which could lead to anything from extra money, weapons or even story related options further ahead in the game. The same goes for shooting everything, some characters like that. You also get experience for people you left behind on a mission (i.e. not killed or stunned), so you don't lose much from not taking out every guy in the level.
5. At the end of the game I had 3 skills maxed out and had begun working on a fourth. You get to specialize further ahead which opens up the last tier for 3 skills depending on what you choose.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Bebpo said:
I'm pretty sure that only recruit and veteran have any major effect, in that you often have extra conversation options for them. There are slight changes to conversation for the others, but no extra options or anything.
I think that the idea is:
Suave = James Bond
Aggressive = Jack Bauer
Professional = Jason Bourne
It's less about the type of reply and more about the type of character.
Basically every Mike Thornton has a high conversation skill from the start. He's a spy! Your choices make the difference.
Those things are taken into account, but the effect of them is more subtle. For example, raiding the base of a particular faction without being detected at all meant that the leader of that faction contacted me after I left and made an interesting proposal.
Hard, Recruit. Problems solved
Yeah I liked the guard AI for the most part. When it screws up it's mainly because of glitches and bugs, it's otherwise quite well designed.