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

duckroll

Member
Llyranor said:
Oh yeah, I forgot about this little gem.

Mike: Heck, do you copy?
Heck: Like a floppy!
:lol

I'm in the final area. Loving the game. Rome was my fav, really liked Taipei as well. Moscow didn't have as big an impact; I freaking shouldn't have watched those pre-release interactive trailers; spoiled too much for Moscow for me :(

I've surprisingly had almost zero bugs. The only one I've actually noticed is that sometimes the item prompts disappear on screen, so you can only see them when you get near. Fixed by reloading checkpoint. It's happened multiple times, but that's the only annoyance I can think of bug-wise.

And THERE we have it. Someone who likes Moscow the least. See! This game has tons of variety! :lol
 

Pooya

Member
duckroll said:
Errr, it most certainly does.
enemies turn to bullet sponge with silencer on, I'm early in the game everything feels a bit random to me. Assault Rifle with silencer should be better but I didn't see one in the shop.
 
I just got to the part during the infiltration of Alpha Protocol where Thorton was telling Parker all about the allies he (I) made throughout the game, and how they're all going to be working against AP and Helbech.
I can't remember the last time a game rewarded me for my actions like this, fuck yeah. :D
 

Tamanon

Banned
miladesn said:
enemies turn to bullet sponge with silencer on, I'm early in the game everything feels a bit random to me. Assault Rifle with silencer should be better but I didn't see one in the shop.

You can buy Subsonic bullets.
 
miladesn said:
enemies turn to bullet sponge with silencer on, I'm early in the game everything feels a bit random to me. Assault Rifle with silencer should be better but I didn't see one in the shop.
Pistol is the only gun with a silencer (i.e. silenced for all types of ammo). The AR does have "silenced bullets", but you're limited to lethal ammo whereas the pistol has tranquilizers. Also, you’ll get other silencers further ahead that don’t have the damage penalty.
 

duckroll

Member
miladesn said:
enemies turn to bullet sponge with silencer on, I'm early in the game everything feels a bit random to me. Assault Rifle with silencer should be better but I didn't see one in the shop.

That's bullshit. I had a silencer on my pistol in the first play through since very early in the game, and it never made any difference. I would still line up critical headshots and take them out in one hit, the only difference being that no one would hear the shot.
 

Aedile

Member
miladesn said:
enemies turn to bullet sponge with silencer on, I'm early in the game everything feels a bit random to me. Assault Rifle with silencer should be better but I didn't see one in the shop.

Headshots via silenced pistol are probably the preferred stealth strategy early on in the game. Later on, with some ability cooldown reduction perks and gear, you can break every non-boss battle with Master Shadow Operative + Master Brilliance and just run around slitting throats in perpetual stealth.
 

duckroll

Member
Aedile said:
Headshots via silenced pistol are probably the preferred stealth strategy early on in the game. Later on, with some ability cooldown reduction perks and gear, you can break every non-boss battle with Master Shadow Operative + Master Brilliance and just run around slitting throats in perpetual stealth.

Slitting throats. :(

I wonder how many people played stealth like a spy, and how many people played stealth like ninja gaiden. It'll be interesting to see the ratio. Seems a lot of people favor killing instead.
 

Llyranor

Member
Game feels like it'd have worked better as a semi-realtime game or something. Rather than have it play like a subpar 3rd-person shooter and thus drawn unfavorable comparisons, they could have made the combat system more 'RPG-esque'. Movement and shooting could be something akin to Valkyria Chronicles or whatnot (where no one complains about the bullets going in a cone of fire), or some sort of real-time with pause system that would focus more on tactics than skill/aiming. The gameplay could remains almost exactly the same, but the method of interacting with it feels as though it would have been much better accepted.
 

Aeana

Member
The
Brayko
fight was really, really hard. I just barely scraped through with 2 bullets, and a sliver of health. I've been doing all right with the game, otherwise, though. Thankfully.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
miladesn said:
just finished Saudi Arabia, yeah I'm slow.

-I take back my previous comment that graphics are good enough, the game looks very bad and empty at least Saudi part , it's on par with Counter Strike IMO, but faces of main characters look a lot better.
-I like the voice acting, it's nothing like Mass Effect but it's still decent.
- I haven't unlocked many abilities yet but stealth abilities are pretty fun.
-I like to get behind the baddies and and knock the down by pressing B.
-Story isn't very interesting so far.
Is there any point in using the silencer on pistol? it seems it disables the critical hits.
I think Thorton is way better voiced than Male Shep. I don't play FemShep cuz she's not on the box and I have Jennifer Hale overload.
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Llyranor said:
Game feels like it'd have worked better as a semi-realtime game or something. Rather than have it play like a subpar 3rd-person shooter and thus drawn unfavorable comparisons, they could have made the combat system more 'RPG-esque'. Movement and shooting could be something akin to Valkyria Chronicles or whatnot (where no one complains about the bullets going in a cone of fire), or some sort of real-time with pause system that would focus more on tactics than skill/aiming. The gameplay could remains almost exactly the same, but the method of interacting with it feels as though it would have been much better accepted.
That's a terrible idea. I probably wouldn't have bought the game if that's how it had played.

Also, I had stealth and hand-to-hand completely maxed out by the end of the game and they do not work well together. So stop suggesting that people. It's an awkward build that has two complete opposites.
 
Stallion Free said:
Also, I had stealth and hand-to-hand completely maxed out by the end of the game and they do not work well together. So stop suggesting that people. It's an awkward build that has two complete opposites.
Not if you're non-lethal. :p
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Danne-Danger said:
Not if you're non-lethal. :p
I was non-lethal. They are both non-lethal in nature, but lend themselves to completely opposite approaches. Hand-to-hand does nothing to make stealth easier or better and stealth has no benefit for hand-to-hand.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Y2Kev said:
I think Thorton is way better voiced than Male Shep. I don't play FemShep cuz she's not on the box and I have Jennifer Hale overload.

What if you played as Andy Pettitte instead?
 

duckroll

Member
Llyranor said:
Game feels like it'd have worked better as a semi-realtime game or something. Rather than have it play like a subpar 3rd-person shooter and thus drawn unfavorable comparisons, they could have made the combat system more 'RPG-esque'. Movement and shooting could be something akin to Valkyria Chronicles or whatnot (where no one complains about the bullets going in a cone of fire), or some sort of real-time with pause system that would focus more on tactics than skill/aiming. The gameplay could remains almost exactly the same, but the method of interacting with it feels as though it would have been much better accepted.

I totally agree. If they made the gameplay phase based instead, with "realtime" moves for each character and action points for movement and actions in each phase, it would be much more tactical and much less janky. I think the fear is that something like that would sell even worse, because gamers "today" expect everything to be action based in some form or other... :(
 
Finally finished...
almost everyone died; Madison, Mina, Leland... I was the only one on the boat at the end. :lol I spared Westridge though, Thorton's killed enough people already.

Can't wait to play through again to do it all different!
 

duckroll

Member
lastplayed said:
Finally finished...
almost everyone died; Madison, Mina, Leland... I was the only one on the boat at the end. :lol I spared Westridge though, Thorton's killed enough people already.

Can't wait to play through again to do it all different!

Wait.
You spared Westridge? How? I didn't even SEE him in my game. He and Marburg escaped somehow in the chaos and I never saw them. I was too busy killing Scarlett, Parker, Darcy, and Leland. I rescued Mina and escaped with her on the boat with everyone else dead and the world in a much worse place than it was at the start of the game. Lulz.
 
duckroll said:
Wait.
You spared Westridge? How? I didn't even SEE him in my game. He and Marburg escaped somehow in the chaos and I never saw them. I was too busy killing Scarlett, Parker, Darcy, and Leland. I rescued Mina and escaped with her on the boat with everyone else dead and the world in a much worse place than it was at the start of the game. Lulz.

Westridge was my final boss fight, he was trying to escape by boat and I managed to stop him, right before Scarlett appeared and in a cut scene, shot me and then killed Leland.

Forget Mass Effect, the different ways this game can end reminds me more of Heavy Rain.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
HK-47 said:
What if you played as Andy Pettitte instead?
Couldn't take the drawl.

Thornton's facial animation is also muuuch better than MaleShep in both MEs. The encounter with Scarlet on the plane when Thornton says "Will dooooo" and blows his lips out in an O shape made me laugh so hard. I mean the only thing I could think of in Mass Effect was Shep's creepy "smile" when Garrus told him he had sex with some woman :lol
 

Pooya

Member
ok silencer doesn't disable critical hits but I think it makes it way slower, I'm a bit impatient :p. MT is getting very interesting, he has some very funny lines :lol
*Scarlet gives him the mag*
MT: Are these your legs
:lol
 
Stallion Free said:
I was non-lethal. They are both non-lethal in nature, but lend themselves to completely opposite approaches. Hand-to-hand does nothing to make stealth easier or better and stealth has no benefit for hand-to-hand.
I didn't have any problems with it. When you get rushed by enemies no matter what you do, having the option to just run up and punch them out was a godsend. And in the few instances where your stealth would go tits-up, you'd probably be in melee range anyway.

Besides, it's great against bosses and the occasional trash mob you get there. It's also cheaper than any gun skillpoint-wise (or was for me anyway, maybe your class has an effect on that?) which is good since ideally you won't be doing much combat with either a pistol or hand-to-hand if you go stealth.
 

Pooya

Member
Y2Kev said:
Couldn't take the drawl.

Thornton's facial animation is also muuuch better than MaleShep in both MEs. The encounter with Scarlet on the plane when Thornton says "Will dooooo" and blows his lips out in an O shape made me laugh so hard. I mean the only thing I could think of in Mass Effect was Shep's creepy "smile" when Garrus told him he had sex with some woman :lol
He has a personality unlike Shep, Shep was intended to be a generic character but Thornton has his own. flirtation in this game is so :lol :lol .
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Danne-Danger said:
I didn't have any problems with it. When you get rushed by enemies no matter what you do, having the option to just run up and punch them out was a godsend. And in the few instances where your stealth would go tits-up, you'd probably be in melee range anyway.

Besides, it's great against bosses and the occasional trash mob you get there. It's also cheaper than any gun skillpoint-wise (or was for me anyway, maybe your class has an effect on that?) which is good since ideally you won't be doing much combat with either a pistol or hand-to-hand if you go stealth.
With stealth, you should be able to take out anyone who was within hand-to-hand range, making hand-to-hand just a fallback. Pistols will actually allow you to attack enemies that are out of that range and are much more versatile (useful against turrets).
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I'm blown away by how much I flip flop on this. I'm pretty sure I am meh (or, at times, hate) the gameplay and LOVE everything else.

The newsreport after the
Brayko
mission was pure gold. "He was like the expletive offspring of expletive Ronald Reagan and expletive American ninja." And then the emails you can send...so good.
Password: m1lfluv3r
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
"THE MAN HAD ENOUGH COCAINE IN HIM TO MAKE A BALEEN WHALE SEE JESUS"
:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
 

daoster

Member
Man, I'm in the final area right now, and I really don't want to continue. Something about seemingly endless enemies kinda annoying me.
 

syllogism

Member
Y2Kev said:
And then the emails you can send...so good.
Password: m1lfluv3r
If you send her that, Mina emails you a Swiss bank account address containing 25000 as a bribe to stop you from emailing her dumb jokes like that
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
miladesn said:
enemies turn to bullet sponge with silencer on, I'm early in the game everything feels a bit random to me. Assault Rifle with silencer should be better but I didn't see one in the shop.

Crit headshot put down any enemy with one shot. Any enemy I've come across, at least.
 

lsslave

Jew Gamer
duckroll said:
Slitting throats. :(

I wonder how many people played stealth like a spy, and how many people played stealth like ninja gaiden. It'll be interesting to see the ratio. Seems a lot of people favor killing instead.

My stealth is neither of those!

I went on a bad-ass killing spree, yes, but as a long range assassin!

I have the best stealth mode going on, none of this "up close and personal" stuff, I take them out from a distance! :D
 

Bebpo

Banned
Since duckroll kind of mentioned it, the reason I think Rome is the weakest area is that:

In Moscow and Taipei you had multiple factions (Moscow: G22, SIE; Taipei: Triad, Heck, Scarlett, G22) so you had tons of choices that strongly impacted the latter missions in the locations. Even the e-mailing was nonstop fun because you were constantly communicating with all the people involved in the area. It's what I love about the game. Rome OTOH was fairly linear typical action movie story (guy investigates bad guy, bad guy says "stay out of my way", guy meets dumb blonde, she stays with him, bad guy kidnaps her and uses her as hostage), there were few choices you can make in Rome that affected things (just Marburg stuff) and there weren't any interesting handlers to interact with.

Plus I think I just didn't like it because it had zero G22 presence and they made everything better.


daoster said:
Man, I'm in the final area right now, and I really don't want to continue. Something about seemingly endless enemies kinda annoying me.

Did you not go down the stealth path? Shadow Operative makes normal grunts a joke. Plus you can just run through a level and ignore anyone outside turrets and bosses.
 

daoster

Member
Bebpo said:
Did you not go down the stealth path? Shadow Operative makes normal grunts a joke. Plus you can just run through a level and ignore anyone outside turrets and bosses.

Nope...for my first play through, I figure I'd go the run & gun approach, even if the gunning freaking horrible.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Hmm, well the guards are limited in amount (they don't spawn infinitely) and I'm sure you must have some awesome guns skills if that's what you focused on, so why not just hide behind some cover and shoot them all?
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
duckroll said:
And THERE we have it. Someone who likes Moscow the least. See! This game has tons of variety! :lol

I liked Moscow the least.

Rome > Taipei > Moscow > Saudi Arabia for me
 

Bebpo

Banned
Man, Nolan North was so good as Heck. People hate that he's in a lot of games, but the man is a great voice actor and really brings out the characters. Between Heck, Sigmund in Ratchet and of course Drake, there's a lot of range going on there.

Heck definitely had the most personality out of the side characters.
 
Just finished this today, it's fun game that turned out to be everything I hoped for when it was first announced. Can't wait to play again with a different build, reading about how everyone approached the game differently and the endings they got are interesting. I used mostly professional dialogue choices except with
Sie
since I wanted to bed her eventually. I went to Taipai --> Moscow --> Rome and did all missions for each hub and liked Rome the least, mainly because
Madison
was annoying. I bought all of the intel for each mission and searched each level pretty throughly for items and intel.

I put my points primarily into Pistol, Stealth and Sabotage with a few sprinkled into Assault Rifle and played the game kind of like Splinter Cell creeping around picking people with a silenced pistol and stealth takedowns. I mostly took out guys with the critical shot from behind cover, and used the chain shot when there were more than 1 that I couldn't divide and conquer. Whenever shit hit the fan and I needed to control crowds I used the assault rifle. I didn't use too many gadgets, mainly the radio to call off alerts early in the game and the EMP to crack safes before I leveled up my Sabotage skills. I didn't really use the Stealth skills too much either, I used the invisibility one to move short distances from time to time. The passive ones that temporarily turns you invisible when spotted and sensed the enemies and what direction they are facing were really useful though.

I thought I spared all civilians going with the tranquilizer rounds and non-lethal takwdowns but apparently something went wrong during the Moscow Embassy mission and I didn't hear the end of how I was responsible for
U.S. Marines being killed
. For that mission I declined help from
Albatross and his G22 guys showed up at the embassy guns blazing looking for Surkov, so maybe they are indirectly blaming me for Marine's deaths on G22's hands?
. I ended up sparing almost all characters except
the Saudi boss (killed him following orders) and Leland (killed him for being so smug)

Some interesting tidbits about characters from my playthrough:
-I didn't see or hear from Yancey again after his 1 handler mission in Saudi Arabia.

-I didn't trust Scarlet so I mostly kept her out of the loop, only fed her 1 story as a reward for helping me in Taipai, ended up talking to her in the end right before the last mission and gave her video footage for safe keeping and never saw her again. She went missing during endgame, Leland said they captured her but I think he was bluffing.

-I figured Mina was using me all game long so I kept it strictly professional, but she kept trying to force romance on me, especially on the boat after the end game which was awkward since I turned her down like 5 different times. Pissing her off from time to time and seeing her facial expressions was one of my favorite parts of the game.

-I played hard to get with Sie all game long and she ended up a big part of my game as I got her to be my handler for quite a few missions, saved her from being tortured by Brayko and had her show up at Graybox at the end for some rough sex and to help me battle it out with the army
 

daoster

Member
Well, I finally beat that game, and that was a shoddy ending...not rage inducing like KOTOR2, but pretty maddening all the same...

I enjoyed the game, and I'd love to see a sequel, but between the mixed reviews and (probably) abysmal sales..Sega probably won't green light one...

Oh well, time to replay it with a more Stealth build...
 
miladesn said:
ok silencer doesn't disable critical hits but I think it makes it way slower, I'm a bit impatient :p. MT is getting very interesting, he has some very funny lines :lol
*Scarlet gives him the mag*
MT: Are these your legs
:lol

Why are you even trying to play stealthily if you are too impatient to wait another second or two to continue on undetected?
 

Bebpo

Banned
I think the Moscow Embassy mission is kind of bullshit and people are starting to notice it.

No matter what you do, it seems like you're always going to get blamed for MARINE DEATH. So even if you're playing a no kill run, Leland will hold that against you as do maybe others and it makes you feel "wtf I didn't kill anyone!?!".

If you talk to SIE, G22 attacks and blows up the place and kills marines.
If you talk to G22, SIE attacks and blows up the place and kills marines.

It's basically an unchangeable plot point that the embassy gets attacked and you get some blame for MARINE DEATH, boooo.
 
Bebpo said:
I think the Moscow Embassy mission is kind of bullshit and people are starting to notice it.

No matter what you do, it seems like you're always going to get blamed for MARINE DEATH. So even if you're playing a no kill run, Leland will hold that against you as do maybe others and it makes you feel "wtf I didn't kill anyone!?!".

If you talk to SIE, G22 attacks and blows up the place and kills marines.
If you talk to G22, SIE attacks and blows up the place and kills marines.

It's basically an unchangeable plot point that the embassy gets attacked and you get some blame for MARINE DEATH, boooo.

I imagine there is some way around this, you might need to manipulate the characters a certain way before this mission?
 

Flunkie

Banned
All the videos I've seen tell me not to even think about buying this game, but then I come in here and read what you guys are saying and it makes me want to check it out. :(

..And that isn't helped by my summer backlog (near the end of RDR, barely have started Alan Wake).
 
TheVisualizer said:
I imagine there is some way around this, you might need to manipulate the characters a certain way before this mission?

I think it's just a bug, not a design decision. The game always thinks you went aggressive even if you didn't.

Flunkie said:
All the videos I've seen tell me not to even think about buying this game, but then I come in here and read what you guys are saying and it makes me want to check it out. :(

..And that isn't helped by my summer backlog (near the end of RDR, barely have started Alan Wake).


Wait then. This game is likely to collapse in price.
 
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