Top Ten Worst CRPGs
Top Ten Worst CRPGs
Editorial - posted by Jason on Tue 9 August 2011, 23:06:38
Tags: Alpha ProtocolMatt "Matt Chat" Barton seems like a nice, mild-mannered guy, the kind of guy who you ask to help you move because you know he won't say no. Apparently, though, he's seething with an all-consuming rage towards a handful of RPGs.
#6. Alpha Protocol. Chris Avellone, what have you done? How could the same guy who gave us Planescape: Torment produce a flop like this, particularly when the premise (an "espionage RPG") sounds so fascinating? Just hearing that phrase alone makes me want to buy it. But, yeah, we just got another mess with more bugs than a public lavatory without any soap left. Like Dungeon Siege 3, I'm kinda reminded of a bunch of frat guys trying to bake a cake. But they didn't plan well, and now they're out of time, so they turn up the oven to broil thinking it'll turn out just as great in half the time. What really makes this game so galling is that you can't help but see that it could have--should have--been so much better. Perhaps the "alpha" in the title is a not so subtle clue?Over at the Rampant Coyote, Jay Barnson instead shares RPGs he enjoyed but not many others did, including Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption.
The game was excessively linear. The second half, set in the modern world, fell a little flat. The endings sucked (no pun intended). And the dialog could be wordy as hell. But I was okay with that. White Wolf’s signature game world came alive for me with the first two acts of the game, taking place in medieval Prague. The setting – a mix of dark fantasy and real-world history – seemed very believable. Playing your character initially as an ultimately doomed crusader and monster-hunter, only to become the thing you once hunted — it was great stuff, long expositions and all.
#6. Alpha Protocol. Chris Avellone, what have you done? How could the same guy who gave us Planescape: Torment produce a flop like this, particularly when the premise (an "espionage RPG") sounds so fascinating? Just hearing that phrase alone makes me want to buy it. But, yeah, we just got another mess with more bugs than a public lavatory without any soap left. Like Dungeon Siege 3, I'm kinda reminded of a bunch of frat guys trying to bake a cake. But they didn't plan well, and now they're out of time, so they turn up the oven to broil thinking it'll turn out just as great in half the time. What really makes this game so galling is that you can't help but see that it could have--should have--been so much better. Perhaps the "alpha" in the title is a not so subtle clue?
The game was excessively linear. The second half, set in the modern world, fell a little flat. The endings sucked (no pun intended). And the dialog could be wordy as hell. But I was okay with that. White Wolf’s signature game world came alive for me with the first two acts of the game, taking place in medieval Prague. The setting – a mix of dark fantasy and real-world history – seemed very believable. Playing your character initially as an ultimately doomed crusader and monster-hunter, only to become the thing you once hunted — it was great stuff, long expositions and all.
