Alpha Protocol

[Felix]

Come on in and discuss all things Alpha Protocol

[Squee]

OMG OMG this is going to be so sweet! Looks really... freeform compared to the tight structure of Splinter Cell. Not that there's anything wrong with a tight structure - it makes the derailing of the plot more difficult (who hasn't found themselves ambling around the desert looking for trouble in Far Cry 2, or spending a week at a time going bowling with everyone you know in GTA4?) but freeform, do-whatever-you-like can be fun too (who hasn't found themselves ambling around the desert looking for trouble in Far Cry 2, or spending a week at a time going bowling with everyone you know in GTA4?)

[phat_chopps]

Is going to be completely open-world, or just slightly unbuttoned (like Crysis)?

The RPG elements sound cool though - perhaps this could get me interested in spy games? I doubt it.

[Felix]

It always looks a bit shaky and unpolished
I am a bit worried about this one, fearful that it isnt going to deliver.

There I have said it.

[Squee]

How wrong can you be? This game is going to be the best game ever and will usher in a golden age of prosperity and harmony in the world. Just you wait and see!

[phat_chopps]

Heh, you adore every spy game ever made though Squee! Even Espionage Island.

I'm with Felix here - I'm sceptical about this. It could turn out to be a broken mess of shattered dreams. But, yes, I don't like this kind of game so I suppose I would say that. Gotta admit though, the new Splinter Cell looks ace - if only it worked properly and wasn't published by Ubisoft.

[Squee]

GET PARACHUTE
WEAR PARACHUTE
EXIT PLANE

It doesn't get any more action-packed than that! Well, it doesn't in 1982. I don't think I ever solved that thing.

I'll let you all know in great, breathless detail how wonderful Alpha Protocol is, and how fully it fulfilled my expectations, very soon. Hopefully.

[Squee]

GET ALPHA PROTOCOL
PLAY ALPHA PROTOCOL
WRITE REVIEW

My review's up now and it gives me great pleaure to say it's a great game. It's not exactly 'free-roaming'... most of the time you're in a mission with very definite edges. Level design's not the strong point, actually, although there are some lovely houses in it. It's free-roaming in the way that you really do feel that your decisions have a knock-on effect that influences everything in a believable and realistic way. And that's awesome!

[Squee]

in the interests of balance, here's a link to a review that game Alpha Protocol 2/10:

http://www.destructoid.com/review-alpha-protocol-174617.phtml

[phat_chopps]

In order to back up your balance, I too have read an awful lot of bad things about Alpha Protocol... just saying!

Mind you, your review makes it sound a lot of fun - is there much scope for mucking around (such as rearranging the furniture in a room, or putting the Queen's food on her throne so she glitches when she sits on it)?

In other musings... Did Obsidian really write all those games? I mean, I know that they formed from the embers of Black Isle who wrote some of them (apart from Baldur's Gate - wasn't that BioWare and published by Black Isle), but I thought that a lot the Black Isle talent had gone elsewhere, not to Obsidian? And didn't Obsidian write KotOR 2 but not the first one?

The reason I ask is because, well, I've always considered Obsidian to be a poor man's BioWare. Although my opinion was always based on the above assumption which may be horribly wrong, in which case my interest in Fallout 3: New Vegas has just inflated to rude proportions.