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 Post subject: Alpha Protocol (PS3, 360, PC)
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:23 am 
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So you'll have likely seen this game in your local bargain bin, usually for around $10 or £10, likely less.

You'll have seen the cover, giving it all "Hey, this is like Metal Gear Solid, but with RPG elements, so its awesome, right?".

Well, its not that bad actually.

I picked up the PS3 copy for around £7 or something a few months back and have been giving it a going over.

You play Mike Thorton (not a spelling error), a newly recruited agent in the Alpha Protocol team, and your first mission is to escape the compound you've just woken up in. From there, its onto your first espionage mission and into the world of getting well and truly shafted by everyone you thought you could trust. I've only just landed in my third city (Saudi Arabia was the first, Taiwan was the second, Rome is my third, and the next one is Russia) and I've experienced twists pretty much everywhere, and I really don't know who I can trust at the moment!

But your experience may differ from mine, and its all due to the way in which you respond to certain people at certain points. Every now and again, you will have three different ways to respond to an individual, and these options are (not sure if officially) named after the three big secret agents of modern day: Bourne, Bond and Bauer. In short, you're either to the point, casual, or aggressive. Choosing a certain response will either give you - or deduct - reputation points with them, which not only directs how they talk to you, but also their actions towards you, and even how the game itself plays out. And at the start of every mission, you get to buy certain pieces of intel that will give you a slight advantage in your mission, or give you bonuses for completing certain objectives, or in later stages, get you backup from people you've befriended.

However, this can have drawbacks, as you're warned at the start that if someone likes you too much, they could make a mistake that causes missions to go tits up and possibly cost you your life. I've yet to experience that, but I'm pretty certain that its gonna frigging happen.

But enough about that - how does it play? Well, it really is nothing special, and I think it'd be safe to say that its the story that keeps your interest. You basically spend the entire game crouching, hiding in cover, and most likely with a silenced pistol dishing out headshots from the shadows, so to prevent alerts. Along the way theres terminals to hack, locks to pick, goodies and cash to pick up, and intel to find. Occasionally you'll dig up some dirt on a major player in the game, which you can either sell to the press, blackmail the person involved, or sell the info on the black market. Occasionally you'll get more intel on the people you're going up against, which will give you hints on how to speak to them, etc.

The scenery is pretty generic throughout, with nothing really special that screams "PLAY ME!". Weapons are run of the mill stuff for this kind of game, and enemies - while slightly intelligent - just patrol the same paths. The trick is taking them out without alerting others, because once they know something is wrong, alarms will sound, you will be hunted down, they will find you, and then you're on your own...

But not all conflicts like this need to end in gunfire. If you have a Radio Mimic item, you can use it - this mimics the radio frequency of the enemy, radioing that all is clear - those in charge of the alarm will shut it off, the patrollers will go from "Alert" to "Hmmm..." and eventually back to "All clear", much like in the aforementioned MGS games. But these items are limited - you can buy as many as you like, but you can only carry a limited number per mission.

As far as the RPG elements go, every level up you get 10 points to spend in a set of skill trees, much like in the Fallout games. First up is Stealth - level 5 of which should be reached AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, as it'll permanently mark enemy positions and states on your HUD, rather than it being a skill you have to use and then recharge. The rest are weapon proficiencies and unlocking/hacking/explosives/health/CQC trees, so you can be either a silent killer or a raging torrent of bullets and bombs, the choice is yours. Every tree has a few unique skills (like the Stealth one I just mentioned), which can be used as and when needed in the field.

So yeah, thats about it. While not graphically impressive, theres enough story in here to keep you interested, theres enough gunplay to keep your trigger fingers happy, and theres enough stats to keep your brain ticking over. But what makes this special is that you can essentially craft your own game - make your own friends, make your own enemies, kill people you want, let live others, and the game - and story - will change along with your choices. Also, Steven Heck is fucking legendary. Everyone needs a friend like him.

Scoring.

Alpha Protocol gets 37 cats per square ironing board.

Yeah I know, that makes no sense. Well, you'll either like it or you won't. Theres a lot going on in this game. I can play a shitty looking game anyday of the week and enjoy it, providing its got a good story, and likewise I wouldn't touch a gloriously detailed game if it played like a dead dog. Either buy it or don't. But if you like a good story and can live with middle-of-the-field gameplay, then you might be okay.

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 Post subject: Re: Alpha Protocol (PS3, 360, PC)
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:37 am 
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Also, the Rome safehouse has a Sega Saturn in it.

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 Post subject: Re: Alpha Protocol (PS3, 360, PC)
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:50 am 
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I need to play this game some more.

I agree, lots of critics hated on the game, and it got a lot of flak for not being sexy pretty, but from what I played, it wasn't bad.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.

Was interesting, at least.

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 Post subject: Re: Alpha Protocol (PS3, 360, PC)
PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:59 am 
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Level: 78 Chump
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12910 / 40346
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Location: Bradford, UK
XBL Gamertag: Blokeh
PSN ID: Blokeh
Steam ID: Blokeh
Wii system code: 2445-8086-3386-0718
HGW XX/7 wrote:
I need to play this game some more.

I agree, lots of critics hated on the game, and it got a lot of flak for not being sexy pretty, but from what I played, it wasn't bad.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.

Was interesting, at least.

Instead of reading my review, read this. Its basically my review, condensed.

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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ who don’t need no man ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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 Post subject: Re: Alpha Protocol (PS3, 360, PC)
PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:05 pm 
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Played it twice. Almost completely different each time.

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Something about Firefly? Hang on, thats definitely something about Chobot. No more ugly something or other jesus fuck what is this.
I KNOW I AM DOING MYSELF OUT OF A JOB MAYBE, AND THATS "MAYBE" AS IN "I THINK THATS WHAT WAS WRITTEN".
YES I could right (but probably meant write) better if you convented, hang on thats not even a real word, what the shitting fuck, screw this I'm off for a kebab and then bed.

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 Post subject: Re: Alpha Protocol (PS3, 360, PC)
PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:06 pm 
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420 / 7015
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oh... thats a good thing btw.

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What I think Dofuss wrote:
Something about Firefly? Hang on, thats definitely something about Chobot. No more ugly something or other jesus fuck what is this.
I KNOW I AM DOING MYSELF OUT OF A JOB MAYBE, AND THATS "MAYBE" AS IN "I THINK THATS WHAT WAS WRITTEN".
YES I could right (but probably meant write) better if you convented, hang on thats not even a real word, what the shitting fuck, screw this I'm off for a kebab and then bed.

http://www.appspy.com/author/268/alex-beech


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