habibi
1981
No, because they say it is better to do Moscow first to unlock the stealth armor… Unless you mean I have to hob to Taipei BEFORE Brayko which means I’m stuck. I don’t think I have any saves!!
You always have a safehouse save, and you can always leave your current hub to go do other hubs.
Quaro
1983
Woah, you only have to do the single yaht mission (and the followup it opens up) to get the stealth armor. I did that first, then I did brayko as the last mission in the entire game.
Also, if you are leveling tech, there’s a reason why you might want wait till you do Brayko. It opens up a couple options you don’t have otherwise.
habibi
1984
I’m glad the game automatically saved a session at the Moscow safehouse before the start of the Bryako mission and I am able to load that and go to Taipei!
Whew!
See? This game deserves all the love!
I found it even more gratifying to use his talents against my real adversary in Moscow, and I could only be thankful for him showing albatross a good time.
For stealth oriented characters, I strongly recommend taking out the guard retinue in the main lobby beforehand, so all you have to deal with are the reinforcements.
That never ever occurred to me. You can go back upstairs after you hit the lobby?
Yes, just don’t go to the exits. Resident Evil 4 and 5 trains you to strain the edges of levels needlessly for marginal advantage.
So I’ve done Moscow and Tapei. I’m loving the stealth and pistol combat, digging the mini-games more than I would have thought, but finding the forced action combat sequences to be annoying and unwanted. So far this is easily a 90%+ game, if you ignore the bugs, interface and lack of polish. And that’s easy once you get going. In terms of moment to moment action, this is easily one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played.
But back to the weirdness. What’s with the money? It seems like someone is stealing from my account. I checked and it appears that at the end of the mission, the amount displayed as what I’ve collected and the amount credited to my account is different. The one time I checked it was a matter of $10k, but I’m sure it’s been larger on other occasions. What’s up with that? I also checked my account after downloading a payment for selling info at the clearing house, and my account was credited with double the amount it told me I’d received… this happens every time.
The story and dialog is smart, but too convoluted for me. I’m losing track of what’s going on, despite the fact that they try hard to keep reminding me of the key story points. So many twists, so many characters… but they did an incredible job holding all that together, and then manage the story branches on top of that.
I like the dialog choice system too, when it works. When you get to choose between types of responses, e.g. arrogant or professional, and the dialog reflects those choices in a smart way, it feels really good. What isn’t good, however, is when it connects those choices to gameplay advantages, and gives you choice between “But…” and “Problem…” where “But…” gives you a +1 relationship with Mina and that takes away a 5% cooldown bonus!
I ended up culling a bunch of civilians in order to make Mina hate me again, because of that random relationship change.
But still, minor details. This game really deserves a sequel so they can get the peripheral stuff right. It’s a shame the reviews were so bad and that forced Sega to can it. A real shame.
The money is a mess, although the plot becomes clearer (in a way) the more that you play it. Glad you enjoyed it.
Also there are sure to be plot and character details that you won’t see based on your choices. It really takes multiple playthroughs to get all the information because some things are exclusive to a specific choice, like telling Mina via e-mail who to dig up information on.
Miramon
1991
I ran through AP again, as a recruit. It’s quick enough that this isn’t too wearing and tedious. I was too lazy to use alternate tactics, so I just chain-shot-killed all the bosses in about 6 real-time seconds. 2 seconds each for chain shot, brilliance, and chain shot again. This was true even of the final boss fight, sadly enough.
The plot really makes no sense at all when you look at the whole thing from above, but until you start getting some more revelations of what’s going on later in the game, this doesn’t matter that much. Halbeck = evil is enough to work with for the triple-hub part of the game, though the explanation for their evil is quite weak, as is the explanation of the government support for them. Having every NPC repeat over and over “Halbeck’s interests are the US interests” doesn’t make it true.
Of course the three movie models for this game don’t generally have very sensible plots either, but it would be an unusually cool thing if a game like this did in fact have a plot that made sense without losing anything from its entertainment value.
Anyhow, I still think the game has many redeeming and interesting features. It’s just a shame that the dialog options are so poorly implemented, that the basic cover/stealth gameplay is rather dull, and that the plot doesn’t have much logic to it.
I agree with various other people, by the way, Heck is by far the best character in the game.
I thought the plot was pretty straightforward, albeit with a good deal of handwaving.
SPOILERS BELOW
Halbec isn’t selling enough guns and weapons systems to make its CEO and other executives rich. So, the CEO uses its connections and political clout to get the super secret government agency “Alpha Protocol” to improve sales. If the US and Halbec are working together, that means Halbec’s empowerment also helps the country. Or, if that explanation isn’t good enough for you, accept that congressmen are corrupt and made the government (through Alpha Protocol) work for Halbec instead of the people. Westridge was a “good soldier” and did not question the orders. Parker just outright believed the line “good for Halbec is good for country.”
Now, Halbec is using its international connections and Alpha Protocol’s talent to destabilize the world and usher in a new cold war with all super powers buying Halbec weapons or risk falling behind. However, Mina believes the destabilizing actions will instead result in a real war breaking out, and only Thorton is in a position to stop this from occurring. Or, at least she says this is what she believes, though we later find out her true goal is to eliminate Alpha Protocol for real, instead of letting it reform under a new name as is Standard Operating Procedure. Thorton, on the other hand, can pick any motivation he wants for stopping Halbech, from simple revenge to a complex patriotism to a country that kicked him to a curb. There are seperate endings that let Thorton work for Halbec or rejoin Alpha Protocol (presumably under a different name).
I’m quite digging AP, too, playing a Stealth/Pistol/Sabotage style (since it keeps me from needing to move quickly, which can cause motion sickness). I’ve finished the first batch of missions in Taipei, up to the alpha symbol one, then switched to Rome for no other reason than I wanted a change of scenery. I’ve accomplished a few of the first missions there but it doesn’t seem to matter to the overall game much, although I’ve gained a couple levels in the meantime, and some more dossier info. Is there any advantage to jumping around in terms of gaining intel or should I just stick with a node until it’s finished? Sorry if it’s been discussed earlier, but I’m avoiding spoilers if I can.
Quaro
1994
Seems like it’s fun to establish connections with all the possible handlers and allies early so you have the most options later on. Particularly G22, Sie, and Heck, but also the various minor factions that can potentially play a role in other missions. A lot of time there are optional objectives that only show up if you’ve run into a particular person in another region first.
On the overall plot, I had in my mind this conversation with Parker from the training mission for the whole game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDwnHXa1sUg&feature=related&t=2m34s so it didn’t seem too incoherent.
Is there any reason why I can’t just spam incendiary bombs? Because so far, I’m not seeing one.
Quaro
1996
Not really. You won’t get mission stealth bonuses – which are generally +1 rep or some exp, not a huge deal, though they come up in some conversations in neat ways.
Also there are some maps with civilian guards too so Mina will dislike you if toast those guys.
None
1997
Yeah, this has really hurt my reputation with Mina. I went from +8 or +9 liked to -2 dislike in the span of a couple of missions because I didn’t bother to get tranquilizer shots and screwed up during some stealth bits. Then, during a conversation where I could have gotten back to 0 neutral, I misclicked.
habibi
1998
The hotel mission in Taipei has 3 handlers working together and I thought it was pretty cool!
Essentially, there’s no downside to jumping around between areas and possible benefits. Thanks. Guess I’ll stick with Rome until the alpha mission pops up then switch to Moscow for the same.
One interesting thing I noted was that it’s much easier to become friendly with my “enemies” than it is to increase my rep with my friends. Nice to know everyone likes me, but I’m guessing that I’ll start pissing someone off soon.
The Rome Museum mission was a bit annoying.
SPOILER
“I don’t understand why you chose my life ahead of all the people in the museum.”
“It was an accident: I chose the wrong wing because the game didn’t remind me which was for the bomb and which was for you. I would have been happy if you died!”
But that option wasn’t available.
MISSION FAILED!
Why? I don’t care if she lives or dies. Why is it a fail if I shoot her in the face? How come Marburg sees me when I’m invisible?
The boss fight was ridiculous. Marburg took 6 steel shells to the head at close range followed by full fury martial arts power, and he still wasn’t dead!
I mean if he looked like championchik it wouldn’t be so ridiculous, but he’s an old man in a suit.
There really shouldn’t be a mission failed in a branching storyline, except if I die.
