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[Paracelsus]

someone still in a "coma".

Which is not him, that's for sure. Basically all the A-Rpgs can be finished pretty much with simple melee combat combined with healing items/spells.

 

[MattNY]

Those are my complaints but I assure you, I'm legit. This is not a good game. I'm a real lover of budget trash and awful games, but this was not even a good awful game.

Playthrough time:
First playthrough with girlfriend, playthrough time was about 5 hours + 1 hour to unlock the rest of the "bonus" content. Second playthrough, solo, took me 2 hours and 55 minutes to 1000/1000 the game.

Plot:
- If you're a fan, here's why this will drive you nuts: Jack and Sayid are portrayed as if they're consistently nutcases who do nothing but torture and beat up people. Major characters are completely written out (Alex, every non-Juliet, Ben, and Tom other, Ana-Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko, Walt, Boone, Shannon, Rose, Bernard). Major characters appear once or twice in the game and then disappear afterwards (Desmond, Sawyer, Charlie, Claire, Michael, Jin, Sun, ). The main character of the game discovers a number of significant Lost events before the rest of the castaways, resulting in a Nikki-and-Paulo-esque feeling of "why the fuck is this guy here when the main characters aren't here". Locke's character is basically a stoner, since they gutted him of all his practical acumen and left him with his bizarre pseudo-philosophical bullshit. Kate and Locke are the only characters with actual substantial parts. Kate's character is basically far kinder and almost a floozy than her in-show character. Locke's character inexplicably

Spoiler

lets the main character leave the island in the ending, dropping all protests he made all throughout the game

. The others are mischaracterized as well; Juliet has no characteristics worth mentioning,

- If you're not a fan, the game makes no sense. Major events in the plot happen without you being informed. Major characters are referenced without ever appearing on screen and no details given about them--who is Rousseau? Who is Arzt? Why did people leave the island on a boat? Why did some of them come back while others didn't with no explanation? Why is there suddenly a ton of food at the beach? The game does not establish ANY of the mythos about the Island, with the exception of during the ending and the smoke monster. For the remainder of the time, you're left wondering "Why don't I just leave the island normally?"

- The "new" story of the main character is boring. He's a journalist. He did something shady in his past. The development is about equivalent to one flashback episode of Lost.

Voice Acting:
- Ben, Sun, Desmond, Claire, Tom, and Mikhail are the real voice actors. Everyone on that list except Ben has only one or two lines. Claire does not sound like Claire, even though it's the same actress.

- The rest of the actors range from poor (Kate, Jack, Sayid) to AWFUL (Charlie, Locke; Locke's is SEGA Arcade game level bad).

Core gameplay:
- There is a trading system. You pick up fruit and beer and water and trade it for useful items. The trading takes place based on bartering. You offer so much in exchange for so much. You are shown the "dollar value" if what you offer and what you want. No one ever accepts a trade that is not a fair deal for them, and you're an idiot if you offer more than you have to since you already know the value of what you want. There are probably around 500-700 dollars worth of items to pick up in the game; to finish the game, you need about 150 dollars. You need to buy one gun, three torches, a lantern, and one can of lamp oil. Everything else in the game is extraneous. The game offers you items like extra bullets, but...

- Shooting. There is a shooting mechanic. There are three times in the game where you have to fire your gun, for a total of four bullets fired. You receive 15 bullets for free and there's a clip of ammo that you can't miss, bringing your total to 30 bullets. You can ONLY use the gun during these three scenes. The first of which, you have a long time to aim before you are shot. The second of which is a quick-draw competition. The third of which is a remarkably stupid scene where Jack and Kate are held hostage by the Others and you are given an infinite amount of time to decide what or who to shoot in order to save everyone.

- Photography. Every episode, you have a flashback where a limited 10 second-1 minute set of character actions is played out. You can adjust your zoom and your focus in order to capture the right moment in this set of actions. If you get it wrong, you have an infinite number of more tries. If you get it right, you progress. Outside these flashbacks, you use your camera to take pictures of stuff to earn achievements (Locke's wheelchair, the Medical station logo, Hurley's van, etc.) These are entirely optional.

- Fuse puzzles. About half a dozen times in the game you need to solve a puzzle where you put fuses in holes. I thought the puzzles were neat, but they certainly wore out their welcome.

- Talking. Talking consists of back-and-forth between you and one other character. You can ask them about your inventory, which is useless. You can asked them small-talk questions, which are all throughout the game completely useless except to hear Charlie's impostor sing YOU ALL EVERYBODY. You can ask them a plot question to continue the plot. No choice, no variety, poorly written.

- Dharma IQ Tests. Three times in the game, you can answer 2-3 question Dharma IQ Tests to progress. The questions are like "Continue the pattern: Z, X, C, V, B, _" (the answer is N; look at your keyboard) or "Continue the pattern: 1, 10, 19, __". You're an idiot if you get these wrong.

- Run from the Black Smoke. Several times in the game, you have to run from the Black Smoke. It's sort of scary. Certainly a highlight in the game. You run from flag to flag in the jungle. If the smoke sees you, you hide in a thicket. It goes away, you continue.

- Crash Bandicoot. Twice in the game you have to run. You have two moves; jump over shit, duck under shit. It takes place like the old crash bandicoot levels where the boulders are chasing you, only this time it's the Black Smoke and later you are rushing towards an area for a certain plot-related reason.

- Walk through dark shit. Three times in the game, you have to walk through a dark area. Here's how it works; to progress, you need to light a torch or lantern. If you see bats or water, turn off your torch or lantern. You slowly use up the items and require replenishing to continue. If you turn off your stuff for too long, you die instantly.

This is literally 100% of the gameplay in the game. If you read this, you just played through Lost: Via Domus. Everything else in the game consists of walking from point A to point B and triggering the next gameplay mechanic. Don't think of walking in the wrong direction, since there are invisible walls everywhere. You thought you could explore? :lol

Graphics:
- Character models; ugly.
- Environments; gorgeous.

That's the long and the short of it.

You're an idiot if you buy this game. If you are an extreme fan or an achievement whore, this is worth a mild rent. I would not pay more than $5-$7 to play the game. This review is easily 2 points too high on an ordinary grading scale and 4 points too high on an EDGE-tough scale.

I couldn't agree more. I rented it and beat it. As a Lost fan, it is worth 5 bucks to blow through it. If you're an achievement whore, you also will find it worth the 5 bucks. If you are not one of the two above and you value their time and like to play at least decent games, then Lost is not for you.

 

[Skiptastic]

People who didn't like KOTORII more along the way than KOTOR confuse me. I can understand the ending, which was completely aborted by LucasArts, but the rest of the way? The characters were deeper and more complicated, the influence system made discovering more of the storyline fun and exciting, leading to more playthroughs with more variety. I just thought overall it was a great experience, until the end.

I was always disappointed that Obsidian wasn't given a second chance to continue down the storyline of the KOTOR series and keep that franchise alive while BioWare moved on to Jade Empire and Mass Effect. Obsidian showed so much promise with that first game. I get the feeling that if I played PC D&D RPGs, they would be one of my favorite developers.I'm real excited about Alpha Protocol.

You know, maybe I should go back and catch up on those NVN games...

 

[duckroll]

Has anyone mentioned that Brian Mitsoda (Vampires: Bloodlines) is the creative lead and lead writer on this game, and that Chris Avellone is the lead designer? Also, it uses Unreal Engine 3.0.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Ok, this game sounds remarkable. Or incredible, even. I hope they pull this off because this is exactly what everyone needs to be playing right now.

 

[TDG]

People who didn't like KOTORII more along the way than KOTOR confuse me. I can understand the ending, which was completely aborted by LucasArts, but the rest of the way? The characters were deeper and more complicated, the influence system made discovering more of the storyline fun and exciting, leading to more playthroughs with more variety. I just thought overall it was a great experience, until the end.

I was always disappointed that Obsidian wasn't given a second chance to continue down the storyline of the KOTOR series and keep that franchise alive while BioWare moved on to Jade Empire and Mass Effect. Obsidian showed so much promise with that first game. I get the feeling that if I played PC D&D RPGs, they would be one of my favorite developers.I'm real excited about Alpha Protocol.

You know, maybe I should go back and catch up on those NVN games...

I agree. The middle (the meat) or KOTOR II's story was way more deep than KOTOR's story. It had so many civil wars, betrayals, back-stabbing... the characters were so much more deep as well. It was admirable that, in a game based around a black-and-white conflict, they inserted so many shades of gray. I really think it's a shame that Lucasarts didn't let us see where Obsidian was going with the story.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Gameinformer has a few video interviews up in the Unlimited section. What I've seen so far has been mostly just stuff mentioned in the article, but seeing as how this is set to be the Game of Forever, what might normally be considered useless nuggets is, of course, gold.

http://www.gameinformer.com/Magazine/Insider/Articles/Article/200804/A08.0313.1744.49842.htm

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Wait, Unreal Engine 3? I didn't see that. Booo!

 

[xS1TH L0RDx]

KOTOR II (AKA probably my favorite RPG last gen).

thank you. KOTOR 2 was fantastic.

Spoiler

it saddens me that people worship shit like shenmue but trash kotor 2, which was actually good.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Gameinformer has a few video interviews up in the Unlimited section. What I've seen so far has been mostly just stuff mentioned in the article, but seeing as how this is set to be the Game of Forever, what might normally be considered useless nuggets is, of course, gold.

http://www.gameinformer.com/Magazine/Insider/Articles/Article/200804/A08.0313.1744.49842.htm

Yeah. This game is quickly becoming one of my most wanted games. I'll probably go the Bourne route with this game.

EDIT-Do they show video footage of the game?

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

thank you. KOTOR 2 was fantastic.

Spoiler

it saddens me that people worship shit like shenmue but trash kotor 2, which was actually good.

The segment on in the ice-fortress with the silver haired chick was the best segment in a console WRPG, it was good beyond that but it was broken and fell apart at the end. Also Shenmue is a freaking random game to bring up, KotoR or Mass Effect seem a little more relevant...

Obsidian have proved they can pull off some amazing things and MotB was a solid title, I have high hopes for Alpha Protocol.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Yeah. This game is quickly becoming one of my most wanted games. I'll probably go the Bourne route with this game.

EDIT-Do they show video footage of the game?

Not that I've seen. I only watched the first couple of segments though.

 

[ram]

hopefully you can customize your character - because i dont want to play with generic 08/15 guy.

screens so far are mediocre - nothing spectacular. reminds a lot of 24-the game from sony imo.

 

[deepbrown]

Rainbow Six Vegas 2: 9.25 (SO: 9.5)

Game Informer got paid by Ubisoft again (remember AC?)

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

Rainbow Six Vegas 2: 9.25 (SO: 9.5)

Game Informer got paid by Ubisoft again (remember AC?)

I thought GI reviews were sort of "LOL" around here these days anyway? They get great exclusive content, but that's about it for that magazine.

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

hopefully you can customize your character - because i dont want to play with generic 08/15 guy.

screens so far are mediocre - nothing spectacular. reminds a lot of 24-the game from sony imo.

You haven't actually read the article, have you? Customization goes deep, well beyond just the cosmetic and into this Deus Ex 1 level of skill and ability choice.

 

[McLovin]

I knew Turning Point: Fall of Liberty was bad but wow a 3?!

 

[Vizionblind]

ouch: http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox360/news/article/12353/Alpha-Protocol-developer-not-proud.html

 

[Mush]

TIMEWARPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

 

[MassiveAttack]

 

[Pooya]

great job junior! you found the oldest Alpha Protocol thread to bump, there is an OT already, to make it even worse your news is GAF->Internet->GAF kind.:lol

 

[Shrennin]

EDIT:

(and old thread is old)

/:

This is what I get for not keeping up with the AP thread.

 

[Gillian Seed]

Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Shenmue are both AAA Titles!

 

[dragonflys545]

:lol :lol

 

[TheThunder]

dude..

 

[hamchan]

Professor Layton and the Curious Village: 7.5 (SO: 8.75)

WAT

 

[GK86]

Oh snap, Saints Row 2 is coming guys!

 

[Nirolak]

I realize this is ancient, but they actually posted a rumor about EA making a console? :lol