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

Neki

Member
fun fun game. played it a spy, but my choices was a very pragmatic soldier of fortune. let everyone live so i could call in big favors.
surprised no one ever burned me in the end

-chain shot with the pistol is super op, one shot some bosses with it lol
-cover system felt clunky
-stealth range is really finicky, wish there was an easier way to tell someone's vision of you.
-didn't really like how I had to fight even though I was a spy. Fighting a helicopter was the worse. But I guess bosses are needed?
- really liked the dialogue system
- mini-games were fun, but got a bit excessive at the end.
- don't understand why non-lethal bullets/silenced bullets are so expensive
- sad that you don't get a dying cutscene with some of the end game characters
- hated the saving system

overall, it was a very enjoyable experience, well worth the 2 dollars I paid, lol.
 

Jhoan

Member
I got this game about 2 days ago along with Majin and El Shaddai for 10 bucks. I decided to start with this game. So far, my general impressions are that it's the game that Mass Effect should have been in terms of dialogue, and the gameplay is surprisingly decent and not as bad as critical reviews made it seem.

I'm going through it as a recruit with a melee/hacking/stealth build. Beating up guys or taking them out silently is pretty satisfying; it turns into a beat em up game when I get detected and take guys out by using hand to hand combat. I don't like the hacking mini game all that much. The VA's pretty good, and I like the subtle facial expressions. I'm up to the very first mission after the training missions in Afghanistan so far. I haven't played much since then because of finals.

Otherwise, I'm really liking it; it's a surprisingly good game despite the lukewarm critical reception, but it being commercially successful. I love how high tech the safehouse is; it's pretty sweet. I'm looking forward to playing some more. It reminds me of ME1 with better/subtle dialogue choices.
 
OK I'm getting the hang of it, just unlocked constant awareness which will be very helpful, and I've started using chain shots whenever possible. Unfortunately it seems brilliance is gated off to me right now, once I get that I think I'll be more or less unstoppable.

Pistols will work against bosses in most cases, right?
 

Sober

Member
Brilliance is only gated off if you don't specialize in it (IIRC) and your level being low. I think after enough levels you will unlock more in that skill tree to put points in.

Anything works against bosses to be fair. You can try to hand-to-hand if you think you have the skill for it but pistols works best because chain shot is just that good. Line up multiple headshots on a boss usually does the trick.
 
Yeah I've bought everything in that tier but can't buy anything else, I guess my level's too low. Anyway thanks for the coaching, its helped a lot.

Other than hitting left on the D-pad there's no easier way to cycle through abilities right?
 
Yeah pretty much. I'm not great at stealth games.
Neither am I. Adding to my earlier post describing my playstyle:

I do my best to sneak behind them to do a takedown if it seems like there's a lot of them; otherwise, if I'm confident, I usually run up to an enemy and knock them out with a jumping kick (skill gotten by upgrading) and just take cover for my health to recover--or keep going and jump-kicking bitches over and over. Super fun and effective :D

This is a pic from my second playthrough:

CF933E8BF49D391BAB662F45A1442A660CFE8E08


The shots fired were for one boss in particular, since I was pretty weak and went with a new order of progression; otherwise they'd be lower or 0. And my pacifist playthrough was fucking RUINED because of a certain mission in
Rome =/
 
You guys were right. This game is awesome. Took me a little while to get used to it but now I love it. Best spy game since Goldeneye 64. So glad I picked it up.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Heck is a good friend to have. I ended up broing up with him in both of my playthroughs, I can't resist his charm.
 

Neki

Member
Neither am I. Adding to my earlier post describing my playstyle:

I do my best to sneak behind them to do a takedown if it seems like there's a lot of them; otherwise, if I'm confident, I usually run up to an enemy and knock them out with a jumping kick (skill gotten by upgrading) and just take cover for my health to recover--or keep going and jump-kicking bitches over and over. Super fun and effective :D

This is a pic from my second playthrough:

CF933E8BF49D391BAB662F45A1442A660CFE8E08


The shots fired were for one boss in particular, since I was pretty weak and went with a new order of progression; otherwise they'd be lower or 0. And my pacifist playthrough was fucking RUINED because of a certain mission in
Rome =/

Wouldn't you be more pacifist if you tranquilized everyone, instead of knocking them out? lol.

Also, what happened in that place you're talking about? don't remember any mission where you needed to kill someone.
 

KenOD

a kinder, gentler sort of Scrooge
So tell me, how enjoyable would it be to play as the world's worst spy that barely gets the job done and makes all kinds of stupid choices/comments? I've been looking for a game to do that for ages as MUDs no longer entertain me and this sounds like it could offer that.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
So tell me, how enjoyable would it be to play as the world's worst spy that barely gets the job done and makes all kinds of stupid choices/comments? I've been looking for a game to do that for ages as MUDs no longer entertain me and this sounds like it could offer that.

yes, this game can offer that.
 
So tell me, how enjoyable would it be to play as the world's worst spy that barely gets the job done and makes all kinds of stupid choices/comments? I've been looking for a game to do that for ages as MUDs no longer entertain me and this sounds like it could offer that.

Yeah you can fuck up pretty bad in this game. My Michael Thorton is half James Bond, half Sterling Archer.
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
I loved this game from the get go but me being me chose the hardest difficulty for my first playthrough. Got stuck on a Launch (Read: Boat) in some boss battle with a chiq. Can't for the life of me get past it thanks to some incredibly dodgy collision detection. Can't seem to throw grenades from behind cover on the right hand side or they just sit on the ledge by me and I blow up.
 

Sober

Member
I just shot that fucking asshole
Marburg
5 times in the head at point blank range and he lived and escaped. WTF, game.
Yeah apparently there is only one real way to kill him there, I think you can find it on the wiki. I got pretty pissed cause I kept pissing him off on my 2nd playthrough and it didn't give. So next playthrough I am most definitely going to plan to kill him from the start.
 
He's probably wondering if it's worth connecting the 360 to the internet for any updates that could have possibly fixed something.
Yeah and I don't think there was one a single title update. Probably due to the way Sega and Obsidian had a falling out after this game (if memory serves). It's a shame, I'd be in line day one for a sequel.

Yeah despite my frustrations I mentioned earlier I love this game. Also just noticed this today in the after mission stat screen, :lol:

c26LG.jpg
 

Jhoan

Member
Steven Heck is hilarious. That is all.

Hell yeah, I love Heck. Even though it's Nolan North's Drake voice, there's something crazy about it that gives this character life.

I beat the game yesterday. Again the game was extremely good but surprisingly short compared to how much stuff there is to do in ME1. It's around the 20 hour range which is decent if linear even with the side missions. At least there's no Citadel in this game. I absolutely loved the writing in this game; it's what Obsidian does best and I've only played this game and FO:NV. Across both games, the writing is fantastic. With a few more months of polish, this game would have been even better.

As for my decisions:
I spared everyone I encountered, had no romances but could have gotten Scarlet. Mina hated me after killing the U.S. Marines, so I let her die in Operation: Full Circle because she didn't appreciate me rescuing her. I saved Madison, let Albatross die, got the riots information in China, went with Heck as my operator for Alpha Protocol (he's awesome). I initially killed Leland, but replayed the mission and spared him for the Pacifist achievement; Scarlet killing him was surprising even though Heck could have killed both of them but I chose not to let him. I killed Parker, chose not to join Halbech; hell of an ending riding off with Heck into the sunset like a boss.
I know I'm missing more decisions. I'm definitely doing another run with different decisions; the decisions in this game are extremely good and they have weight.

The most memorable missions were
the Museum in Rome, the ruins in Rome, the Boat in Russia, the Mansion in Russia, the last mission in China,
and the last mission. I would seriously love to see a sequel with more spy stuff, more tougher decisions and a more open world ala ME1. Ohh and a better cover system with less clunky stealth. But that's wishful thinking because Sega doesn't want a sequel (unless fans demand it). Great game for sure.
 

Amagon

Member
Beaten this game over the weekend and it was the most generic/plain "RPG" game I have played in a while. Reminds me like one of those, Choose Your Own Adventure books but mediocre as shit. I also got hit with nostalgia moments from the SEGA game, Headhunter while playing this. If I have to give this a score, it would be 5/10.
 
Beaten this game over the weekend and it was the most generic/plain "RPG" game I have played in a while. Reminds me like one of those, Choose Your Own Adventure books but mediocre as shit. I also got hit with nostalgia moments from the SEGA game, Headhunter while playing this. If I have to give this a score, it would be 5/10.

You probably won't come back, but if you do could you please explain why you felt the need to put RPG in quotes?
 

edgefusion

Member
Ha, how weird for this thread to pop up just as I'm playing through it. I bought it not long after its release but stopped playing because I got stuck. I restarted from scratch just a couple days ago and am absolutely loving it. It's not the most polished game but there are some really great ideas in here that would be worthwhile to copy.
 
It is with great sadness that I have to report I finished the game today. I honestly didn't want it to be over. =\

Steven Heck = character of the year 2010.

Two parts of this game were bullshit though:

-Me not getting to kill Marburg despite putting 5 rounds into his head at point blank range

-the helicopter fight (I swear I put every single missile on target but it still didn't blow up). Finally my game glitched and I couldn't move and got kilt.

Everything else was awesome though and I'm looking forward to doing a full on Rambo/asshole playthrough. Hopefully I'll figure out how to
kill that dick Marburg, also I want to bang SIE.

I hope Obsidian makes another game like this, I know they can't use the Alpha Protocol name/characters but they could still do something similar.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
It is with great sadness that I have to report I finished the game today. I honestly didn't want it to be over. =\

-the helicopter fight (I swear I put every single missile on target but it still didn't blow up. Finally my game glitched and I couldn't move and got kilt.

This is definitely the roughest part of the game. It's frustrating and poorly designed. As for the first spoiled part, I
killed him in my last playthrough, but I must have made all the right choices.

Anyways, don't be too sad since the second playthrough is just as good, mine was vastly different from the first. Not just in the direction of the story and the way I made Mike act, but the way I played. If you went with stealth I recommend doing a brute force run next, it's great. especially when you go with intimidate/ruthless options in conversations. Psycho Mike is the best.
 

Grayman

Member
Yeah and I don't think there was one a single title update. Probably due to the way Sega and Obsidian had a falling out after this game (if memory serves). It's a shame, I'd be in line day one for a sequel.

Yeah despite my frustrations I mentioned earlier I love this game. Also just noticed this today in the after mission stat screen, :lol:

c26LG.jpg

Someone else once pointed out that the different parts of the world had more or less children. Might be fun to see if it goes deeper than that onto a person by person basis.
 
Regarding the first bullshit moment:
the only way to prevent him from escaping is to constantly use Suave replies when dealing with him, then you can actually kill him for real. It's silly because it's so randomly specific in a game which delights in letting you feel your way through it.

And the second:
yes that was just plain old bullshit. You don't want to know how many tries that took with my kung-fu master.
 
Regarding the first bullshit moment:
the only way to prevent him from escaping is to constantly use Suave replies when dealing with him, then you can actually kill him for real. It's silly because it's so randomly specific in a game which delights in letting you feel your way through it.

And the second:
yes that was just plain old bullshit. You don't want to know how many tries that took with my kung-fu master.
OK thanks for the advice. I'll give that a shot next time.
 

Unity2012

Member
In spite of the rough edges, this game is so much fun and it is so easily to be immersed.

One of those gems in the rough. Definitely a great experience, regardless.
 

Jhoan

Member
It is with great sadness that I have to report I finished the game today. I honestly didn't want it to be over. =\

Steven Heck = character of the year 2010.

Two parts of this game were bullshit though:

-Me not getting to kill Marburg despite putting 5 rounds into his head at point blank range

-the helicopter fight (I swear I put every single missile on target but it still didn't blow up). Finally my game glitched and I couldn't move and got kilt.

Everything else was awesome though and I'm looking forward to doing a full on Rambo/asshole playthrough. Hopefully I'll figure out how to
kill that dick Marburg, also I want to bang SIE.

I hope Obsidian makes another game like this, I know they can't use the Alpha Protocol name/characters but they could still do something similar.

Yeah, it's a short game, but it's a hell of a ride to the end. I'm guessing that you
chose him as your handler for the last mission too?
Regarding the second statement,
I didn't have any problems with it personally; I ran around from rocket launcher to rocket launcher, healed every now and then and used the the damage buff. Every shot connected and it blew up when it was supposed to. What did you decide to do with Leland and the black dude? Westinghouse I think is his name.

As I said before, if enough people ask for it then we shall receive. Obsidian definitely deserves to give the "Spy-action RPG" genre another go; it's first attempt was pretty good, but a second attempt could be even better.

Oh and one other thing that I found that was pretty cool about this game: you can play as Dudebro in this game. Equip a beret, thick sunglasses, the thickest beard, and viola, John Dudebro is in the game. I was rolling with it for a good portion of the game; it was pretty funny.
 
Yeah, it's a short game, but it's a hell of a ride to the end. I'm guessing that you
chose him as your handler for the last mission too?
Hell fucking yeah I did. Next time I'll roll with
SIE, as I want Thorton to smang her.

Regarding the second statement,
I didn't have any problems with it personally; I ran around from rocket launcher to rocket launcher, healed every now and then and used the the damage buff. Every shot connected and it blew up when it was supposed to. What did you decide to do with Leland and the black dude? Westinghouse I think is his name.
Oh I
executed both of those dudes without even a second thought. In my playthrough I tried to make the decisions I like to think I would have made as Thorton. I had zero mercy at that point, especially after what happened to Madison.
 

Gravijah

Member
copy arrived yesterday and i've done a few missions today and so far i'm really loving it. i've been focusing on pistols, stealth and endurance, though i'm not entirely sure how many different skills i can safely invest in yet.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
copy arrived yesterday and i've done a few missions today and so far i'm really loving it. i've been focusing on pistols, stealth and endurance, though i'm not entirely sure how many different skills i can safely invest in yet.
Cool. Be sure to bounce around between the various locales after you get the chance to (after Saudi Arabia hub is done), was much more fun for me hopping between areas every few missions.
 

Jhoan

Member
Oh I
executed both of those dudes without even a second thought. In my playthrough I tried to make the decisions I like to think I would have made as Thorton. I had zero mercy at that point, especially after what happened to Madison.

My first time playing through the mission,
I spared Westinghouse, but killed Leland. When I replayed the mission, I spared both of them so I could get the achievement for not executing no one. Scarlet ended up killing Leland instead because she came into the picture in the end as the assassin who was hired to kill the president of Taiwan. I chose not to let Heck kill her. I could have romanced her if I wanted to, but maybe next on the next run.
 

Sober

Member
And the second:
yes that was just plain old bullshit. You don't want to know how many tries that took with my kung-fu master.
My first time through
I missed a few times and didn't reload but you can definitely shoot it down with other guns, it is pretty much just a miniboss with no visible hp bar.

My first time playing through the mission,
I spared Westinghouse, but killed Leland. When I replayed the mission, I spared both of them so I could get the achievement for not executing no one. Scarlet ended up killing Leland instead because she came into the picture in the end as the assassin who was hired to kill the president of Taiwan. I chose not to let Heck kill her. I could have romanced her if I wanted to, but maybe next on the next run.
Also, I did a playthrough where you might not even learn that Scarlet
was the assassin, though I guess that's mostly through not finding her at the finale.
 

Jhoan

Member
My first time through
I missed a few times and didn't reload but you can definitely shoot it down with other guns, it is pretty much just a miniboss with no visible hp bar.


Also, I did a playthrough where you might not even learn that Scarlet
was the assassin, though I guess that's mostly through not finding her at the finale.

Ohh I see. I read in a FAQ that if
you run of missiles, it would made it harder especially since my I was only rocking a pistol and a shotgun with the pistol being my only long range weapon.
SMG's in this game kind of suck. Especially since you dual wield them, which doubles the recoil. An Assault rifle would have probably
have been ideal to take it down.

I see. It's because
you chose to speak to Parker instead of Omen Deng. Since I chose to speak to Omen Deng, I ended up having to fight and kill Parker. I also wasn't honest with Scarlet at the hotel before I went to Alpha Protocol.
 

egocrata

Banned
Just got this in the mail, can anyone tell me the benefit of choosing recruit?

It makes the game quite a bit harder, as you begin with no AP at all, but you get different dialogue choices. If you beat the game as a recruit, you can play again starting as a veteran, which is pretty badass.

I just got this game last week, and I am really enjoying it as well. Such a hidden gem.
 

Patryn

Member
It makes the game quite a bit harder, as you begin with no AP at all, but you get different dialogue choices. If you beat the game as a recruit, you can play again starting as a veteran, which is pretty badass.

I just got this game last week, and I am really enjoying it as well. Such a hidden gem.

The game's story also works a lot better as a recruit.

But, yeah, to unlock the closest thing to NG+, you have to finish as a recruit.
 
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