Alpha Protocol

[Nutria]

I think the real problem is that everyone else who isn't a boss is so easy, you don't learn any skills. You can have a terrible build and not know how the game works and get through a lot of it, and then suddenly you run into a boss and you have no idea what to do. If you're gonna have boss fights in your game, they ought to build on mechanics that the player has learned through killing off less important enemies.

There's nothing more infuriating than a game where I don't even pay attention to the combat through half of it because it's so easy and then suddenly right before the end there's a huge difficulty spike.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

All that talk made me download it.

I hope it's a replay. I'd be pretty darn amazed if a storyfag like you hasn't played this yet.

 

[fantadomat]

All that talk made me download it.

I hope it's a replay. I'd be pretty darn amazed if a storyfag like you hasn't played this yet.

Don't insult me,it is like 4th replay lol.

That said i had been a while since i had played good old obsidian games,ahhh the smell of fresh bugs in the morning. It is amazing how fun yet buggy their games were.Now they just make boring garbage .

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Now they just make boring garbage .

A shame, but decline is inevitable.

 

[fantadomat]

Now they just make boring garbage .

A shame, but decline is inevitable.

Yeah,they haven't made a good game in like 10 years. You could argue that PoE is ok game,but that garbage writing just killed any interest in it.

 

[Abu Antar]

You can melee every boss in the game except one. How do I know this? Because I did it with my stealth/martial arts build. Add a little bit of sabotage. They could be a bit annoying. Fury is incredibly powerful, and it is also more likely to connect even if the enemy blocks.

After that, I immediately replayed the game as a pistol wielding psycho.

 

[J1M]

You can melee every boss in the game except one. How do I know this? Because I did it with my stealth/martial arts build. Add a little bit of sabotage. They could be a bit annoying. Fury is incredibly powerful, and it is also more likely to connect even if the enemy blocks.

After that, I immediately replayed the game as a pistol wielding psycho.

Which boss did you fail to melee?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

You can melee every boss in the game except one. How do I know this? Because I did it with my stealth/martial arts build. Add a little bit of sabotage. They could be a bit annoying. Fury is incredibly powerful, and it is also more likely to connect even if the enemy blocks.

After that, I immediately replayed the game as a pistol wielding psycho.

Which boss did you fail to melee?

Darcy, probably

 

[Chippy]

Didn't you have to take out a

Spoiler

helicopter

at one point?. I forget.

 

[Abu Antar]

Yeah, I think that when he went into the tower, I sniped him or something.

Chippy Yeah, that section is forced on you.

J1M It was the Darcy fight.

 

[Nano]

Oh my god, the helicopter. I remember googling how to beat it, and it turned out the rocket launcher the game equips you with doesn't work on it, I had to use an assault rifle instead.

 

[Abu Antar]

Oh my god, the helicopter. I remember googling how to beat it, and it turned out the rocket launcher the game equips you with doesn't work on it, I had to use an assault rifle instead.

Not true. I took it out with two rockets on my first run, and three or four rockets on my second run.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, it takes quite a few rockets, but I've only ever beaten it with rockets. Additionally, the big boulder at the entrance to that section is your safe zone, and the easiest way to handle that part is to stay there or keep running back there until all the guys on the ground are dead. Avoiding the helicopter's lock-on is easy enough when there aren't other people shooting at you.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

While I've grown forgetful over the years, I'm not that forgetful https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/alpha-protocol.57232/page-15#post-7011767 I posted a lot more this time.

...

They don't make the boss fights effortless, as you yourself used to admit.

Holy shit, this post is like a hammer dropping. Fucking thorough.

Newsflash: I can't assign those cheap fucking icons to posts, so you get these trashposts of support. Blame Infinitron and his constrictive, selfish hands

 

[Tigranes]

While I've grown forgetful over the years, I'm not that forgetful https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/alpha-protocol.57232/page-15#post-7011767 I posted a lot more this time.

...

They don't make the boss fights effortless, as you yourself used to admit.

Holy shit, this post is like a hammer dropping. Fucking thorough.

Newsflash: I can't assign those cheap fucking icons to posts, so you get these trashposts of support. Blame Infinitron and his constrictive, selfish hands

Can't hate the guy, you call him out for randomly dumping quotes at you, he dumps more quotes at you

Sadly, it's not super convincing, given my actual early impressions of AP at release, in which I said:

They are well designed; they make sense; the instructions are easy to follow; and they are not too hard. However, the controls on the PC are quite clunky, especially for the hacking minigame, and this might spoil your ride. I think they are all right - but putting two points into Sabotage really makes them less annoying if you find them so.

The key point is that in any retrospective of Alpha Protocol, I don't think it would make sense to say "the minigames were notoriously difficult far out of line with other RPGs" or that "the bosses were notoriously difficult". There was a disproportionate amount of complaining about minigames that mostly came from the mouse smoothing issues - in the sense that criticism was deserved, but the real issue was, as always, Obsidian couldn't fucking code anything properly.

I'm sure Roguey will dig back into my Usenet or something and bring back more selected quotes, but dude, it's pretty simple - this game is essentially defined by janky ass shooting gameplay & completely ill-balanced skills board, and not so much "completely-bullshit bosses" or "impossible minigames".

 

[Roguey]

"the minigames were notoriously difficult far out of line with other RPGs"

I'd say that hacking is one of the worst minigames ever conceived. Can't recall a worse hacking minigame I've ever played. Even Shadowrun Hong Kong with its obnoxious similarities isn't as terrible.

"the bosses were notoriously difficult"

I wouldn't say this either, but they are a difficulty spike on normal difficulty, and would be an even greater one on hard. Not in a fun way, a frustrating one.

 

[Tigranes]

"the minigames were notoriously difficult far out of line with other RPGs"

I'd say that hacking is one of the worst minigames ever conceived. Can't recall a worse hacking minigame I've ever played. Even Shadowrun Hong Kong with its obnoxious similarities isn't as terrible.

"the bosses were notoriously difficult"

I wouldn't say this either, but they are a difficulty spike on normal difficulty, and would be an even greater one on hard. Not in a fun way, a frustrating one.

Well, we might just disagree, which is fine. I think most hacking/lockpicking/etc minigames are utter shit that shouldn't exist, because they are an actively boring time-waster. I liked the AP hacking because it actually is a nice little brain teaser, it's just the controls that are the issue.

E.g. I would take AP's hacking any day over, say, Bioshock (although I only played this a few hours, so I might be forgetting how it is in practice):

and while more similar, I think AP hacking is more fun than nuFallout hacking, because while both are pretty simple, AP's real-time version is done more quickly and supplements the "gotta do this before I'm seen" pacing of the actual game:

Finally, I suspect that with AP hacking, some people just really find it dizzying and impossible to see anything - I remember a friend of mine saying it was just like trying to give himself a seizure.

 

[Butter]

All hacking minigames are shit, and all minigames should be destroyed and replaced by skill checks.

 

[santino27]

Finally, I suspect that with AP hacking, some people just really find it dizzying and impossible to see anything - I remember a friend of mine saying it was just like trying to give himself a seizure.

That's me. Eleven years ago, I could barely read the text, an issue exacerbated by the real time constraints. These days, it would be even worse.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

All hacking minigames are shit, and all minigames should be destroyed and replaced by skill checks.

agreed, replace all combat with skill checks

 

[fantadomat]

and while more similar, I think AP hacking is more fun than nuFallout hacking, because while both are pretty simple, AP's real-time version is done more quickly and supplements the "gotta do this before I'm seen" pacing of the actual game:

LoL nu fallout hacking is shit,i just pick a bunch of shit at random and if i fail i reload,at least loading times are fast.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and if i fail i reload

why not just use a terminal command or mod to bypass hacking altogether then? you're cheating either way

 

[rusty_shackleford]

does it feel better if you pretend it's not really cheating?

 

[Tigranes]

and while more similar, I think AP hacking is more fun than nuFallout hacking, because while both are pretty simple, AP's real-time version is done more quickly and supplements the "gotta do this before I'm seen" pacing of the actual game:

LoL nu fallout hacking is shit,i just pick a bunch of shit at random and if i fail i reload,at least loading times are fast.

I will never cease to be amazed by the fanta way

I assume you are doing this with one hand while the other hand is torrenting the next game

 

[ERYFKRAD]

and while more similar, I think AP hacking is more fun than nuFallout hacking, because while both are pretty simple, AP's real-time version is done more quickly and supplements the "gotta do this before I'm seen" pacing of the actual game:

LoL nu fallout hacking is shit,i just pick a bunch of shit at random and if i fail i reload,at least loading times are fast.

I will never cease to be amazed by the fanta way

I assume you are doing this with one hand while the other hand is torrenting the next game

I mean, he's Burglarian, the letters and symbols probably look the same to him.