Alpha Protocol Review

Introduction:

Repeatedly rejected, Alpha Protocol entering an area of original: RPG
contemporary bathed in the wonderful world of espionage. After a long
development and numerous delays, finally arrived on Alpha Protocol HD
consoles and PC. A boldness that is to his credit but boldness is not
everything and you have to assume its ambitions. The legendary secret
agent, which most closely resembles the Michael Thornton Alpha Protocol
is not Bauer, Bourne or Bond – although the game does not hesitate to
suggest any such comparison – that Shepard. Obsidian has borrowed
heavily from BioWare, a developer with whom he has always had close
working relationships, and Alpha Protocol can sometimes give the
impression of being as a mod of Mass Effect that the original game
itself.

There would however not really complain about a mod Mass Effect with a
modern, super spy, although Thornton land adventures are not as catchy –
not quite as successful, that any of Shepard suicide missions across
the galaxy, it is nevertheless an RPG action. In any case, the
willingness of young Californian studio came to present Alpha Protocol
at the high mass of the California video game. Flirting with much more
action RPG though despite this size, Alpha Protocol has unveiled details
throughout a comprehensive presentation.

Game Story:

The story, a complex web and loss, which gradually unravels as a bun in a
series of discussions and brutal fighting, will be instantly familiar
to veterans of any distant mission of Normandy. While the officer
Thornton bumping around the globe, gallivanting with women in enigmatic
aircraft and reaching agreements – or, often, do absolutely no
conclusive – with sheiks, chiefs of the Russian mafia and triads, Alpha
Protocol is slowly starting to stage a story of international intrigue
when a gun manufacturer is trying to ignite a new war and an arms race
for profits through the lavish panic that follows (all resemblance to
the delightful company Halliburton bribe the previous Vice-President of
the United States, Dick Cheney would be fortuitous …)

Mr Michael Thornton is part of the gus who have bad luck in life. While
happy with the idea of serving his country, he’s hired by an agency so
secret that even the great President, I am sure he knows it. The kind of
agency that offers solutions to problems secret themselves secret. But
now, always there is some vile minds to divert these laudable
intentions. Thus Michael Thornton becomes a pawn, manipulated, betrayed
and turned into a rebel officer. Stubborn like no other, it will
obviously try to shed light on the actions of various factions and pull
the strings until honcho.

To do this, he must travel the world, using over-equipped and luxurious
hideouts of Alpha Protocol as a starting point for each mission
relatively varied. If Alpha Protocol is very, but then very
action-oriented, it is nevertheless an RPG and for his defense, he
possesses certain qualities that area. His first scenario appears more
prepared even if it does not prevent a few cliches and most importantly,
a wealth of information that make it often confusing or difficult to
follow. But more importantly, what are its dialogues and its system of
relations that give a certain charm.

Checkout the trailers of Alpha Protocol:

Addict, still in vapes, Michael Thornton comes in contact with a certain
Mina Tang through the screen of a handheld. Neither one, nor two, the
latter told him that he is sued and must quickly find a way to escape.
Our hero has no time to understand what happens to him, except that it
wants to its physical integrity. Yet very soon, the mysterious Mina
explains to Michael that all this is a staged, mock to test his skills
to integrate the group Alpha Protocol . The opening sequence – which
serves as a tutorial – also gives a foretaste of what awaits us later,
ie a scenario based on false pretenses, lies, and other betrayals. In
short, everything expected of a spy story worthy of the name. In
retrospect, once the game is completed, the start of this adventure can
be seen as a warning. A warning cautioning the player does not rely on
first impressions …

Accustomed to ogle the work of Bioware (yes, do not hide) Obsidian was
somewhat inspired by the dialogue system in Mass Effect which is based
on a range of different responses in conversations. Suave, cool,
mocking, pro, etc. threatening. The main difference with the system of
Bioware being that the time is ticking for your answer and thus
determine your attitude and especially the impact you have on your
partner. First thing about it: dialogues are frankly the road. Second
thing: their real impact on subsequent events. Each character has met a
character of its own and will react in a particular way depending on
what you say. Pretend you’re crafty with a guy more into the underworld
business and instead of a neutral relationship or a certain "sympathy",
you reap aversion.

This may seem trivial if it was not able to provide information or
material. Similarly, some contacts will provide you with a bonus. A
basic example is that of Mina, your last valuable link with Alpha
Protocol, whose trust and sympathy-saving bonus of making you more
resistant comfort. By themselves, the dialogues have so powerful an
influence on how the adventure unfolds and on this point, frankly
Obsidian insured. And you can still add one more option: the ability to
kill the other person in certain circumstances. A lovely recipe that
allows the game to offer multiple connections and even a good
re-playability.

Key Features:

 

Homes & Castles:

Although there are many serious things that think for your recovery time
– on commercial airplanes exploded in flight, mercenaries private
militias invading embassies and corruption can gangrene to the highest
courts of power – the Thurs never forgets you enjoy fringe benefits that
are supposed to be part of the elite agents daredevil always between
two planes. It is depicted as the spying a beautiful set of heavily
guarded luxury homes, walls of video, and gadgets liners as it is a game
where we go from model homes in military installations faded by weather
.

Clear proof, if proof were needed, that is swimming in Surrealism
arrived within five minutes when the manager of an elegant
military-industrial complex was briefed in an office with a lit
cigarette in hand. Today, it may eventually be possible to obtain
permission to sand yachting on the esplanade of the Trocadero, but
everyone know that even the elite special forces no longer have the
right to smoke.

Even if it happens that intrigue you into the lounge of a hotel or a
court of snowy station, the missions of the game themselves draw more of
the first Mass Effect as the second . It’s a mixture – a mixture and
often flawed – RPG and shooter, that is to say that no one hesitates to
give you a shotgun to strike a pose, but if you want it to really
behaves like a gun, you should spend money and points for improvement.

While this is frustrating in the early levels, where one feels out of
its shelter to get super-soldiers with foam balls, as and when measuring
the progress of the game you start yourself feel pleasantly super
powerful, regardless of the type of ammunition in which you have chosen
to specialize. Each visit to the leaf characters or weapons stockpile is
a delight and, even if certain classes of weapons have no real
personality, so good you can become in handling them – I had difficult
to assess the pistols or SMG, because both seemed ineffective – if you
love your market and compare the benefits of a range of attenuators
back, you’ll find your happiness.

Enemies exception:

Although regular shootings and fighting in close combat is even less
distinguished, Obsidian has really excelled in some areas, clever ideas
like delaying the choice of character class after the first mission or
in how they use different color to differentiate parts of the world you
explore. A case in Saudi Arabia is probably very similar to a fund in
Moscow – I checked myself – but the orange light of the Gulf and dusty
blue and violet cold of Eastern Europe really give the impression to
traverse the planet.

In the same way, their levels are able to compensate linearity giving
you enough flexibility in how they explored, and they often offer
multiple paths and different approaches depending on whether you are a
stealthy character occurring in the shade or a slugger as nimble as an
elephant in a china shop that triggers alarms love of the game. Although
the standard enemies tend to be monotonous, the boss battles offer
sudden moments of madness, as we confront a rogue Russian mafia obsessed
with the 80s, which can blind you with the lighting of his department
homemade disco dance. Not far from it, Metal Gear Solid , but it
nevertheless provides a nice change.

Another RPG aspect:

The skill tree is provided and you will develop a tailor-made character
without problem. Each ability to activate certain skills are on the
ground. Similarly, your arsenal, which he pays cash, can be customized
quite sharp and in line with the style of heroes that you have
developed, the soldier who breaks down all the spy stealth. Not to
mention the inevitable hacking systems or locks to pick. In short, the
basics are there, everything seems for the better, there is more to say
yummy it will taste good. But then, Alpha Protocol is a terribly flawed
assembly that fails, far from it to live up to its ambitions or to
practice their skills.

As and when the list of characters is increasing and the possibilities
of action released by the cartoon-like growth gradually become – my two
favorites are a matter of escape that can not be noticed for a few
seconds even if the one is clearly visible, and a temporary boost from
the rifle with which it stuns enemies when touched – Alpha Protocol
begins to play its game status slightly parodic. Fortunately, the
scenario offers many moments of class, both in cinematics and text, if
you want to immerse yourself in the e-mails you receive constantly from
friends and foes. Even the action, consists of elements that really
second order themselves, finally manages to get motivated to go ahead
with an insistence amazing.

Once immersed in the action, we take full measure of the deficiency of
which does not succeed in convincing those who wish to play the card of
nag, nor those who would show more finesse. To be clear: there is no
balance in there. To start with the light, we can speak of the system
forcing locks, consisting of piracy found in a stream of numbers and
letters or two sequences of fixed short-circuit that is based on the
principle of the Labyrinth. Three important and not unpleasant, except
when you realize that it will be used every 4 minutes and the urge to
drop any optional use arises. A retail, as opposed to artificial
intelligence absolutely dismal whose behavior is pure folly. Here a
soldier will remain motionless until you are the first to open fire,
there is an army that will find you behind a pillar or because she heard
a shot at eight kilometers, and, sometimes, rarely , an opponent more
daring than the others will take you from behind.

And yet, one wonders if it has not lost simply by going to the toilet.
So, you, well hidden behind your cover, you just have to clean up or to
spin a hideout to another if you play stealth. Ah, ah, mistake, because
the cover system suffers from defects quite irritating. Without that we
seize them, you will not you hide behind a particular wall, on the
contrary, at other times, you tend to stay stuck, which is always nice
when a grenade falls to three inches from your beautiful yet fragile toe
or a guy smarter than the other shots to dislodge you Tatan. Worse yet,
sometimes it is impossible to draw you from your coverage. Aiming
simply refuse to engage. Remember also that the game has bugs, like
landslides or even his character’s total capital.

Although this is basically a linear adventure, the game takes very
seriously the fact of giving wide latitude of choice to the players. It
offers many moments where you have control over the important things –
who lives, who dies, who becomes an ally and who is to face a boss – and
on small things, how you approach a task may, for example , change the
opinion of your treating agent to you.

Unfortunately, the failures of blankets are not the only flaw of the
gameplay. If missions are varied, most require you at some point to
another to play the big guy, that players who opted for a stealthy
approach will especially appreciate. Under-equipped, not strong enough,
they will manage to deal with a horde of enemies doped amphetamines, and
downright suicidal. If you’re one of them – players stealthy, not bad
drugs – fighting against bosses will certainly please you as much as the
difficulty sometimes inexplicable that he may have to be discreet and
the superhuman endurance of the enemy that it is often better to rub out
with bare hands as the gun.

If instead you chose to play the card of the big guys, so it is terribly
soft gunfights that will frustrate you. The camera will also be a real
problem. Placed too close to the character, it offers a field of vision
disturbing, too narrow. If you play stealth, you can not see some guards
arrive, if we play nag, it seeks its target with difficulty. In
general, make certain investments camera movements painful for the
simple reason that only sees Pouic, a problem compounded by a very rough
level design, even if the merit of providing a degree of openness.

Mass Effect-like?

If the first hours of Alpha Protocol prove to be frustrating and
downright disappointing, our patience is rewarded (just) after the first
campaign in Saudi Arabia over. Indeed, the more we advance in the
adventure, the better the title (even with improving the level design
architectures that allow passing in various ways levels). We must
realize that the game is similar to an RPG and so accept that in the
early hours Michael is not an agent of exception. Exemplary fashion,
aiming to show (exaggerated) hazardous, so much so that Michael could
miss an elephant in a corridor. This system necessarily involves
double-edged debut winded but, in return, he brilliantly feel the
character’s progress over time. To this we must also add the learning of
special skills that feed and diversify opportunities for action heroes
but also pushing personalization inventory (weapons, shields, worn
objects) through a black market wealth.

A black market that supplied more or less depend on your relationships
with other characters. Like Mass Effect , the dialogue of Alpha Protocol
allow the player to interact via multiple choice answers. Based on your
answers, your partner will feel the sympathy, anger or aversion, which
may affect the rest of the adventure. However, these are minimal and can
be summed up various bonuses during your missions. However, there are
also moral choices to impact much larger and stressful – though without
the emotional power of a Heavy Rain – through the provision of a gauge
that requires the player to decide quickly. And as it is possible to
choose the order of its missions, on the other part, the changes can be
quite surprising but not stunning.

Old Stories:

Beautifully written and not without humor, the dialogues of Alpha
Protocol are undoubtedly the highlight of the title. If the history of
espionage is not exceptional, the links between the characters outweigh
the song and story, inspired by the TV series (Alias head, 24), can be
followed easily. And fortunately, since the title is sometimes over very
talkative (like the game, BioWare). Still, these dialogues are not
everything and not enough to mask deficiencies undeniable. The most
important of these artificial intelligence simply unacceptable. The
enemy rushes headlong towards you in the face of common sense and a
grenade at his feet, he will not swing a single centimeter. Mention will
also almost zero interaction with the scenery as the inability to close
a door after opening it.

It may seem innocuous words like that but I got stuck because of an open
door that I was blocking a passage. Result, he had to wait it closes by
itself (for some unknown phenomenon!) To continue my journey. It should
be noted finally that it is impossible to jump over simple sandbags
(sic). Welcome, we are well into 2010. And therein lies the problem, the
title acknowledges the weight of years spent on its development. It
accumulates too many flaws (mainly technical) and its undeniable (full
recovery in the evolutionary progression of the RPG genre, dialogue) are
turned against him sometimes. Alpha Protocol comes too late.

The reputation system of the game is fun, if limited – very often, you
really accesses to other reinforcements if your treating agent like you,
and you suffer penalties if he turns against you – but it s integrates
it rather cleverly in the dialogue system based on Mass Effect . The
options allow you to answer questions in a courteous, professional and
aggressive – Bond turns, Bauer or Bourne – give a liveliness that is
missing in the game from BioWare, because you automatically respond to
questions after a defined time even if you don ‘have not made a choice.
It is true that it is not uncommon to return from the kitchen after
grabbing a coffee, only to discover that the game has gone on without
you, down a tree of dialogues, so that your allies you feel like an
idiot now, but it also means that there is real consistency in the
course of the conversation.

There remains the technical question, again problematic. From an
aesthetic viewpoint, Alpha Protocol is singularly lacking in
inspiration, offering environments that despite their variety are very
bland, or rather an absolute classic. But it is especially striking
technical feedback. By dint of being repulsed, the title acknowledges
his age. Good old bug display textures typical of the Unreal Engine 3 is
here pushed to the extreme with textures that take several seconds to
appear at times, not to mention the questionable fluidity of the
display. The management is totally outdated lighting and interaction
with the environment virtually nonexistent. Even the character animation
is poor, starting with Michael Thornton when he moves stealthily, hard
not to laugh looking at his version of Sam Fisher approach bedridden
reeling, trying not to wallow. A perfect way to summarize the basic
problem of the game, his lack of balance.

Conclusion:

The various ingredients in Alpha Protocol may seem unappetizing taken
separately, but their mixture gives a result of a quiet efficiency.
Instead of ketchup, you certainly annoy more than they should, and among
its characters a stiff corpse and use weird things like the effects of
depth of field, it will be hard to convince you that The team has had
enough time to finish it.

The problem of an RPG / Action is precisely to get to mix two genres
that have little in common. However, Alpha Protocol is out consistently
on one side there is a progression in which the player is ably involved,
making choices often decisive, the other gameplay that can not adapt to
different approaches and appears therefore flawed, frustrating,
bastard, where you never know which way to turn and who suffers from
poor pitfalls. Too bad, because with a better balance and more cared
finishes, while purely RPG Alpha Protocol could give their full
potential in effectively impacting mechanical gaming.