1961

By this you mean I unlock the “Advance Stealth Armor”, correct, which cost 150K, which I can’t even afford. I have only 60K!

Here I was hoping G22 would ship one armor free for me. LOL!

1962

Heh, even the interviewee doesn’t know how to spell his name.

I played a little of it again, and I have to agree that the dialogue stances mostly make no sense, and there is no way to predict from a stance choice or a single word choice what this idiot Thorton will wind up saying.

“Professional” is the most reliably dull and uninteresting, but sometimes it means “whiny” and sometimes it means “stupidly patriotic”; and it almost always means “don’t say what the situation really calls for”.

“Suave” mainly means “infantile” but sometimes it means “incredibly stupid”, and on rare occasions it actually means “cool”. Aggressive or whatever the other one is mainly means “dick” or “ass-hat” but sometimes it means “neither whiny or stupid” and there’s very little way to tell what the outcome will be.

It’s one thing for the person you’re talking to to react unpredictably, but it’s quite another for you yourself not to have any idea what your character is about to say. Anyhow, it’s a shame these outcomes are so unpredictable, because it’s otherwise not a bad little mechanic. If only the character wasn’t a moron, jerk, or robot most of the time, the concept would have worked out better.

1963

I just finished the US Embassy mission in Moscow and I must say that this is the mission I liked least. Too scripted and yet too in-your-face combat vs the subtle, espionage mission thus far… There was some urgency in the sense that the embassy was attacked. Yet when I disposed all the guards and was looking for a way to the 3rd floor, I was wandering around aimlessly looking for the damn elevator and it’s like the game is waiting for me to reach the checkpoint.

I don’t know, may be I am playing it while I’m too tired. But it gets on my nerve and I am glad I am done with that level.

1964

Thanks for the link! It’s a very candid interview, the dude is anything but a PR drone.

1965

I’m enjoying it more and more, but it still keeps throwing the bizarre at me. I’m escaping the hotel in Taiwan and the level keeps spawning guards with big guns. Normally I’m pragmatic - I don’t kill if it is easier to disable. But here it seems the best option is to take them down with the pistol - they are spawning so quickly, in numbers and aggressively closing me down (as usual they can see me through objects once alerted).

But as I kill each one I get the repeated update: Mina reputation -1. By the time I escape she’s gone from “liked” to “animosity”. I mean it’s a bit ridiculous. My life is at stake and she hates me because I do what I have to in order to survive. Maybe a -1 overall if it seems I killed a few too many over the whole mission, but a -1 for every kill makes the reaction seem ridiculous.

So now I don’t care about Mina at all, because obviously all attempts to be friendly with her will be ruined every time she handles one of my missions :).

1966

You lose rep with Mina for killing civilians. There aren’t that many places where the enemies are civilians, but the hotel security guards are one. Most enemies are not though. Usually it’s pretty obvious – Chinese police are civies, Chinese secret police are not.

In case you somehow missed it, you can hit ‘x’ to change to tranq ammo. If you use headshots you should have plenty. If you save the tranqs for the civilian fights you will definitely have plenty. And if you’ve been hoarding gadgets, drop a few shock traps and that will take out many.

Also, did you do hack the computer for Heck? That makes it a lot harder to escape.

Also, if you have high stealth, you can just run out of most places. You get exp and perks for bypassing guards.

1967

Also, you can totally play a psychopath who murders for fun. There’s a great YouTube video, “Mike Thorton: psychopath”, with the best dialogs that result from that attitude. It’s quite spoilerous, though, so you might want to keep it in mind for when you’re done with the game.

1968

Yeah I did Heck’s hack.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who is firing bullets at me no longer has “civilian” status. But I’ll try out the tranq shots. If they are better, then I don’t care.

I don’t like stealthing, even though I have high stealth. I prefer to use stealth to get close and disable my targets. I don’t like to leave people behind me, just in case I get spotted. I don’t like surprises from behind :).

1969

You’ll get a nice bonus if she hates you.

1970

Well, this is a RPG tradition after all. Achtung! Urgent! Urgent! Save your captured friend! Save your dying sister! Save the world! But don’t forget to pick up all the collectibles, do all the side-quests, and stand in that one particular shadow for 5 minutes to enable access later on to the secret-post-boss-fight dungeon.

It gets to the point that a time limit in a RPG quest is actually annoying, even when the limit is very generous. After one of those timed quests, it’s a relief to go back to the fake urgency of triggered events and NPCs who nag you to get a move on despite the fact the world will happily hold off from ending while you search around for that last gold star you need to make a full set.

1971

Wow, Madison can drop a shock trap on you? That’s hilarious.

1972

God that just makes me want to play it again. If only the boss fights and the end level weren’t such total ass…

1973

My takeaway from this is that the game was originally going to be a bit more linear.

1974

My takeaway was that voice acting still isn’t treated as seriously by most studios as it should be. And that’s not a reflection on Alpha Protocol.

1975

I’d just remind you guys that this is not a spoiler thread, so do use extensive Enter and Spaces if you need to :)

1976

Days later, I still feel good about rage-executing Brayko. I’m going to play through it again as a veteran, but I’m still savoring shooting that guy in the head.

Also, Heck was a great asset, and probably the best character in the game.

1977

Are you sure that he saw you or heard you through the doors? Enemies become alerted if you’re jogging (not sprinting) around, even through doors and up/down stairs.

Standing up when reloading: yep. That happens.

1978

I don’t know if they heard me or saw me but it makes no sense that they know exactly where I am. And I always sneak.

The reloading thing is scary, but I think it only happens if I reload mid-level. If I wait until I die, or reload after I exit, then I haven’t experienced a problem.

But I reloaded last night mid-level, after getting spotted in a difficult situation and I couldn’t be bothered to deal with it. When I reloaded the auto-save I was standing up, and the two guards I’d knocked out (not killed) were both chasing after me. The other AI, that I hadn’t killed, were all missing…

1979

How the hell do you kill Brayko! He’s one tough m-f-er!

1980

You did go to Taipei first, right?