1781

One of the things Obsidian really praised about Bethesda as a publisher was their marketing department though – I suspect Sega was not as interested in that, especially if they thought the game was only going to be a lackluster seller (and the 6 month delay after 6 month delay kinda points to that).

I, too, wish there was going to be a sequel though. Now that the basics are ironed out, I think an iterative design could really have made the game way better for relatively few changes (especially judging from how much better NV is than AP in many of those respects).

1782

Yeah, I’m enjoying the hell out of it - way better than I was expecting.

1783

I have to imagine that it would be pretty easy to reboot the IP aspects and make a spiritual sequel, since the original IP may be tied up with Sega (and of course, the name is already suspect/tarnished for many gamers). My only concern is that the software engineering practices of Obsidian are what will continually hamstring their company’s efforts. How many titles do you have to put out that have reputations for being extremely buggy before you make some serious changes in work flow or personnel?

1784

Hurray. It fixed my 1036 error.

1785

Finished tonight! That was a great game, totally unexpected and worth so much more than the $7.50 I paid for it.

1786

7.50? Did I miss the sale on this? :(

1787

You sure did.

1788

Another thing that points to that was that the game was not being worked on during the delays. Sega didn’t pay Obsidian for polish, the game was forgotten for a year before it was released.

1789

Wow… just wow… I finished Saudi and chose Rome as my next destination. I was at the CIA listening post and boy, it was a tension filled mission. I try to play solely on stealth without killing anyone and this mission’s tension level reminds me of Thief: The Dark Project. Either that, or I have not been playing much stealth games - but it was a great experience to revisit.

So, um, why was this game criticized again? I checked metacritic and the user scores (for the PC version, the score was 73) was pretty positive too.

1790

Cognitive dissonance over the game’s RPG combat mechanics combined with its Splinter Cell style presentation mostly. Perceived low production quality, especially with regards to animation. General bugginess at launch. Of course, those are all things reviewers have no problem overlooking for the Fallout titles.

1791

I find the animation acceptable. Really, I have seen worse. Perhaps the hype and expectation of this game prior to launch is the key reason for the criticism. As for bugs - the one that I’m playing in Steam - I guess that’s already patched? I haven’t encountered any bugs so far.

I think the hacking mini-game would have played a big role as I can imagine it being pretty frustrated. But I was able to handle it. Sure I failed once a while but it wasn’t all the time and it wasn’t that tough. I am glad for the “Abort” option NOT triggering alarm. When I see that I could not make it, I just abort and try again.

1792

That’s exactly what I did. Thanks!

1793

So the Steam version isn’t already patched to latest? Well, that’s certainly annoying.

1794

I picked up the PC version initially. After playing it a while I thought the game would be more enjoyable on the 360 for the couch/controller factor. So I got a used 360 copy yesterday.

The 360 version is a lot harder for me, the gunplay I mean. I cant hit jack shit and am getting killed non stop. Obviously the mouse is more precise than a thumbstick, but I didnt think it would be that big of a deal.

I recently experienced the opposite, having played Fallout 3 on the 360 and then New Vegas on the PC, I found New Vegas much easier.

Also, the lockpicking mini game is a little bit harder for me, but the hacking is SO much easier. The cursors move much faster and more reliably.

1795

It’s not and I doubt it ever will be at this point.

1796

I had the same thought in the CIA mission. In my first game I used non-lethal takedowns against the CIA, but in my next game I wanted the perk for doing the CIA mission without even knocking anyone unconscious, and that made it even more Thief-like.

Shooting people who are unaware of you helps compensate for the reduced aiming precision of the controller vs. mouse. With the exception of guys wearing armored helmets, you can drop any non-boss with a crit headshot. Patrolling enemies will always have stopping points in their route, so sometimes I’ll just line up a shot where a guard’s head will be when he stops and I wait. With a shot pre-aligned that way, I can always get the crit indicator and take the shot before he moves.

Late in the game your endurance will be high enough that you can hang around in the line of fire and just keep shooting at guys who are shooting you, but in the beginning a firefight is more lethal for you than them, so avoid fighting fair whenever possible.

1797

Hasn’t this been discussed and dismissed earlier in the thread because the patch applies specifically to the disc version to deal with some installation issue or something? The Steam version doesn’t need the patch.

1798

Who knows?

This latest patch for Alpha Protocol updates the game to version 1.10 and addresses issues with game installation, fixes some activation issues and other minor technical problems.

Maybe it fixes something and maybe it doesn’t.

1799

Just finished my third playthrough on hard as bearded aggressive fuckup guy killing and antagonising everyone. This was actually more entertaining than playing the game properly.
Maxed toughness submachineguns and martial arts.
While submachineguns are pretty terrible in general they are quite fun to use in combination with toughness. Just pop the toughness special and the submachinegun special and spray bullets everywhere. There is quite a bit of destructible stuff placed in the levels, which I never noticed during my stealth/precision aim playthroughs. Plus I could kill a helicopter with one SMG special and I din’t have to bother to doge the rockets.

1800

Which sequence did you prioritize them in? Did you notice a lot of different reactions from characters? I know in Rome the results can be quite dramatic, especially if you are a sarcastic maniac.