Interview Alpha Protocol gets a preview

[JarlFrank]

Tags: Alpha Protocol; Obsidian Entertainment

Gamesradar has <A HREF="http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/alpha-protocol/preview/alpha-protocol-first-look/a-20080422121024489075/g-20080313162151178085"> previewed</A> Obsidian's new RPG Alpha Protocol with a James Bond like spy thriller setting.
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<blockquote>Yet what Obsidian want to stress more than anything is that Alpha Protocol is a role-playing game. You’ll have multiple missions open in different hubs around the world (locations currently being bandied about include Taipei, Rome, Moscow and Saudi Arabia) and you’ll be able to flit between them at will - each one containing one overarching operation and a cavalcade of minor missions leading up to it - be they stealing sensitive data on a hard drive, tailing suspects or extracting information from grumpy NPCs through bribery, diplomacy or murder most foul. </blockquote>
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So, basically this sounds very similar to KotoR's travelling system: There's multiple cities [in KotoR it was planets] and you can go to any of them at any time by travel, while in each of those cities there will most probably be a part of the mainquest storyline to uncover. And most probably you'll also be able to solve those mainquest parts in any order you want. Sounds good enough.
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<blockquote>A higher rank opens up different options and perceptions, while almost superhuman secret-agent abilities are on the menu too - working on a ‘use and cool-down’ basis during the action. The example that Obsidian conjure up when prompted is, amazingly enough, heightened reaction times that let you assess situations in slo-mo before letting rip with a six-hit chainshot to decimate a room full of gun-toting terrorists. It’s a mundane example, true, but Alpha Protocol’s over-the-shoulder chase-cam action does seem to be a step up from your average RPG. Combat will have you running and gunning, taking cover or sneaking about the place - but that’s not to say you won’t be able to build your character towards the hand-to-hand fisticuffs recently in vogue. </blockquote>
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The combat sounds very FPS-ish, but that's no problem for me, really. I like well done FPS combat in my RPG, if it fits to the game and the setting. But... superhuman spy powers? Why can't there be at least one RPG out there where you will *not* achieve some superhuman level of absolute power in the end, but where your abilities rather stay within the usual limits of the human body?
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<blockquote>In a lot of role-playing games, the people you meet retread the same conversations again and again - mostly accompanied by a frown or a smile depending on what armour you chose to put on that day. Not so with AP - where first impressions count. Meet someone and act all gruff with them and they won’t be all that impressed for a fair while - unless they’re a sexy woman who’s been designed to want to play rough and might like that sort of thing.
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“Essentially, the player chooses a ‘stance’ for Thorton (suave, professional,
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or aggressive - although the actual breakdowns branch a great deal from this) and then Thorton responds appropriately - and amusingly,” explains Rucinski, having selected his own internal suave stance. “The dialogue system is also set up so that you can’t repeatedly have the same conversation with an NPC to try to find the ‘best’ answer or all the information available. This means that if you are a jerk to a person you will get a reaction the next time you talk to them. It reinforces how important that first impression is.” </blockquote>
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Now, this sounds like some good news. Dialogue where the first impression actually counts, unlike most other RPGs where you can just quit the convo and talk to the NPC again, this time trying out different choices. This was especially annoying in The Witcher, where an NPC refused to talk to you for a few in-game hours when you acted too rude, but was all friendly again when you talked to him on the next day and gave you the opportunity to use other dialog choices. And considering that Avellonne is working on the game, I have rather high expectations for the dialogues.
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There are also some screenshots on that site together with the article, but most of them just show... well, combat and environment. No dialogue screens revealed yet.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.gamesradar.com/">Gamesradar</A>

 

[Bluebottle]

“Essentially, the player chooses a ‘stance’ for Thorton (suave, professional, or aggressive - although the actual breakdowns branch a great deal from this) and then Thorton responds appropriately - and amusingly,” explains Rucinski, having selected his own internal suave stance.

The writing for this is really going to have to be top class if stance selection is indeed the only interaction available to the player during dialogue. I can't see this playing too well either with the hardcore 'choices' crowd, or the TES LARP crowd. Sceptical.

“The dialogue system is also set up so that you can’t repeatedly have the same conversation with an NPC to try to find the ‘best’ answer or all the information available. This means that if you are a jerk to a person you will get a reaction the next time you talk to them. It reinforces how important that first impression is.”

Hopefully this wont just boil down to praying you're in the right stance this person responds to when you first initiate dialogue, otherwise it could easily turn into a quicksave fest.


Outside of the dialogue structure there's still hope for something akin to VtMB, but I'll definately wait to see how this one pans out.

 

[Starwars]

I'm still rather skeptical to the whole thing, but also quite intrigued at a few things. There is almost no Action-RPG as of yet where I've felt the combat is genuinely fun (and for the ones I do find quite good, the amount of combat + repetition usually kills it anyways). I doubt Alpha Protocol will change that, but one can always hope that the ratio of combat will be down if they're *really* gonna go for providing different paths for different characters.

Main thing I thought was promising in this preview was that they mentioned that the game would still be fairly realistic in a sense. It'd be a waste of the setting if everything was completely lulz-y, I hope they find a good tone so that the story and characters can still be taken seriously.

 

[Jaesun]

I'm still skeptical on this one as well. I do like:

the system being developed is a classless one - with 10 skills in which to level up, each containing 10 slots to spend your valuable Advancement Points (or experience points) in. You won’t be able to max out your character; instead you’ll be molding the game into your chosen form of super spydom - whether its gruff no-nonsense headshots, sneakily hiding in the dark, bloody and silent close combat or gadget-heavy explodifying.

So Skillz and FEAR like SLO-MO?

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

You missed the best part, Jarl:

However, one of the main contributors in look and tone was Syriana. If James Bond is where the action comes from, Syriana has a big influence on the theme.

Fap-fap-fap...

 

[JarlFrank]

You missed the best part, Jarl:

However, one of the main contributors in look and tone was Syriana. If James Bond is where the action comes from, Syriana has a big influence on the theme.

Fap-fap-fap...

I might sound like an uneducated savage, but... could you enlighten me on what Syriana is?

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

It is one awesome film.

 

[Cleve Blakemore's Progeny]

Syriana is some recent movie that I haven't seen.

Definitely skeptical about the dialogue. At least there's some hope for it (unlike for other devs).

 

[Claw]

The writing for this is really going to have to be top class if stance selection is indeed the only interaction available to the player during dialogue. I can't see this playing too well either with the hardcore 'choices' crowd, or the TES LARP crowd. Sceptical.

Eh, I was kinda hoping the stance would be in addition to dialogue options. Otherwise it'd be less a dialogue system than a variable cutscene system.

Combat will have you running and gunning, taking cover or sneaking about the place - but that’s not to say you won’t be able to build your character towards the hand-to-hand fisticuffs recently in vogue.

Eh, what's he referring to here? I didn't even notice hand-to-hand were in vogue recently.

Why can't there be at least one RPG out there where you will *not* achieve some superhuman level of absolute power in the end, but where your abilities rather stay within the usual limits of the human body?

Awesome powers are more exciting? To the marketing department, certainly. I don't know what the designer was thinking, but I can't help noticing the "monkey see, monkey do" aspects of the design either. Great, another game with bullet time. I'm amazed every new game doesn't have it.

 

[MetalCraze]

Hopefully this wont just boil down to praying you're in the right stance this person responds to when you first initiate dialogue, otherwise it could easily turn into a quicksave fest.

according to devs no matter what your stance choice will be you will still get rewarded.
considering that to this date AP is still hyped as a arpg for dumb consoletards I think it is safe to say that they use the "rewarded" word only with a good meaning.

plus "the source of inspiration for dialogues is mass effect/fahrenheit"
now if you remember those games also had some kind of "stances" which were there only to give you a false impression that your choice matters.

 

[Shannow]

locations currently being bandied about include Taipei, Rome, Moscow and Saudi Arabia

"USA, France, China and Africa"
Odd one out.

I hate it when people do that...

OT: Sounds very KOTORish. The setting doesn't interest me at all, but as always: wait and see. Stating Syriana as major influence is certainly a step in the right direction.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

considering that to this date AP is still hyped as a arpg for dumb consoletards

O RLY?

Near-future is the byword, so as to allow for more gadgets and gizmos than ever before - but again, this is a Casino Royal style of spy, not the Die Another Day “OMG invisible car and surfing on melting CG iceberg” exercise in Ian Fleming grave-turning.

This preview is much lighter on EXTREME parts.

 

[fastpunk]

I don't know which one of you guys said it but here at The Codex a game sucks until proven otherwise. So I guess that explains the skepticism. Me, fool or not, I'm looking forward to Alpha Protocol. I don't expect PS:T or Mask of the Betrayer, but I do expect something fun and quite similar to Bloodlines. That little bit about mini-hubs only enforced this belief. And I must say that the hub selection is quite nice. Also, the few words on combat make me cautiously optimistic about that matter: the heightened reaction time example seems pretty cool and hand-to-hand combat is in. Dialogs are still in the dark, I guess we'll find out more about that later. Other than that I hope Obsidian get the chance to properly tweak and polish this product because it has good potential.

 

[MountainWest]

I don't know, man. I just don't feel it. I'd die for a game in the same categories as VtMB, Deus Ex or System Shock 2. And this seems to be aiming in that direction. Yet, something's amiss. Perhaps it's the lack of elves. Perhaps it's just that I'm no fan of the "evil terrorists wants to blow up world, stop them before the timer reaches zero... 3... 2... 1... phew"-category.

However, if the evil terrorists were to be exchanged with evil death cult who may or may not be - but they most certainly are - in league with the devil, then I'd be all over it. I'd be like a fly hovering above shit and no juvenile dialogues in the world could pull me away.

 

[MetalCraze]

considering that to this date AP is still hyped as a arpg for dumb consoletards

O RLY?

Near-future is the byword, so as to allow for more gadgets and gizmos than ever before - but again, this is a Casino Royal style of spy, not the Die Another Day “OMG invisible car and surfing on melting CG iceberg” exercise in Ian Fleming grave-turning.

This preview is much lighter on EXTREME parts.

I was speaking about that rpg part more. but if to speak about a...
I'm just being skeptic about it because: a) consoles.
b) Obsidian and a hi-tech stealth/spy action gameplay? oh no no no. I won't believe until I'll see it.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Now, this sounds like some good news. Dialogue where the first impression actually counts, unlike most other RPGs where you can just quit the convo and talk to the NPC again, this time trying out different choices.

Not exactly. Sure, there "may" be some differing outcomes, but this good comes with the terrible malady of the whole "first impression" being a total crapshoot. The "stances" seem to be basically only the tone in which you do something, they probably don't tell you how your character is going to "act". And by act, I mean take action. For instance, if I'm a suave fellow, and happen upon some sort of big guy picking on the little guy scenario, there's at least two "suave" ways to deal with the scenario. One "could", in "reality", elect to be a suave nice guy who diplomatically stomps the big mean guy by using his suaveness to humiliate or emasculate him, or perhaps "suavely" applies a ju-jitsu joint lock and follows it up with a corny line. One could also choose to be a suave douchebag and curry the favor of the big mean guy by "suavely" joining in on the fun, whether with words or violence. So if the stance system is the only method of conversation, as it has seemed to be in all the previews so far, as opposed to a filter for dialogue trees, it's going to be like Mass Effect's extremely idiotic cousin with the player's choice having a huge disconnect from the character's actual actions, which is a bad thing in a role-playing game...a really bad thing.

 

[Hamster]

So if the stance system is the only method of conversation, as it has seemed to be in all the previews so far, as opposed to a filter for dialogue trees, it's going to be like Mass Effect's extremely idiotic cousin with the player's choice having a huge disconnect from the character's actual actions

+1
First impression being important is good, but combined with not having control over what exactly your extreme character will say, it leads to higher risk of suckage.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Every time a preview tells me that developers would like to stress that it's an RPG ("Yet what Obsidian want to stress more than anything is that Alpha Protocol is a role-playing game") I get a bad feeling.

 

[elander_]

"So, basically this sounds very similar to KotoR's travelling system: There's multiple cities [in KotoR it was planets] and you can go to any of them at any time by travel, while in each of those cities there will most probably be a part of the mainquest storyline to uncover. And most probably you'll also be able to solve those mainquest parts in any order you want. Sounds good enough. "

It's a Hub system like Bloodlines, DeusEx, Baldur's Gate and so on, except in Baldur's Gate these are called maps. If each Hub is big enough and offers enough quest and choices variety it may play similar to a small sandbox where consequences may be seen later when we visit that hub again. One of reasons why DeusEx IW failed was because they reduced the size of each Hub to very small maps. I hope these guys don't do the same mistake.

 

[denizsi]

Syriana

I think they only threw in the name to try attract the skeptics.

While reading the preview and the comments, I just realized something: for almost all the CRPGs I've come to love in years, I've never read an interview or a preview and get hyped about it. I didn't use to keep track of any game, read news and whatnot. All of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, there would be a game out there that somehow looked interesting and bam; it turns out to be one hell of a game. Fallout, Daggerfall, Troika games, PST, Gothic series, etc. Either I've never heard about any of these games until shortly before I played them, or I did hear but didn't look forward to them.

In contrast, many cRPGs I've initially or entirely looked forward to turned out to be shit. DXI, Lionheart, NWN etc.

 

[TheLostOne]

Every time a preview tells me that developers would like to stress that it's an RPG ("Yet what Obsidian want to stress more than anything is that Alpha Protocol is a role-playing game") I get a bad feeling.

I know exactly what you mean.

I am, however, expecting (hoping for) this to be more of an RPG than ME which I rather enjoyed despite its repetitveness.

 

[VonVentrue]

“Essentially, the player chooses a ‘stance’ for Thorton (suave, professional,
or aggressive - although the actual breakdowns branch a great deal from this) and then Thorton responds appropriately - and amusingly,”

That makes it sound reminiscent of the Blade Runner dialogue system...It was possible to choose the conversation topics instead, though (the feature which seems to be missing from AP).

I'm still not sold, AP might turn out to be much more combat-oriented for me to stomach.

 

[Maia]

I could do without "superhuman powers", but IMHO slow-mo is a gift to less twitchy gamers and a must in a third-person RPG with actiony combat. Call it hyper-aware state of mind or whatever. Hm... apart from the (lack of) dialog system this game sounds pretty interesting. The devil is in implementation, I guess.

 

[MetalCraze]

in the recent years slo-mo became more like a gift for retards who simply just can't hit that target which is 5 meters away from them.

 

[Brother None]

Still smells too much like Mass Effect/Fallout 3 for me.

RTwP Run-and-Gun RPGs must be the new "it"

It is one awesome film.

I thought it sucked, m'self, but to each his own.