Interview Avellone and MacLean interrogated about Alpha Protocol

[Monolith]

Tags: Alpha Protocol; Chris Avellone; Obsidian Entertainment

Gamebanshee had a chance to quiz Alpha Protocol's lead designer Chris Avellone and systems lead Matt MacLean, breaking the recent silence about Obsidian's wanna-be-James-Bond-title. <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/96452-alpha-protocol.html">Here's the interview</a>, damn worth a read.
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<blockquote><b>GB: At one point, there was talk that Alpha Protocol could be finished without killing a single enemy. Is this a result of using non-lethal weapons, or is it actually possible to utilize stealth and subterfuge to make our way through every mission?</b>
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Chris: It's not my intention to misrepresent the passive path - it will require the use of certain gadgets and weapons designed not to kill opponents. I do want to stress we worked hard to make sure there was a non-murdering path - it wasn't easy to implement this and the reactivity to it, but we thought it was important to put in a role-playing game, especially an espionage role-playing game. Taking the life of someone who may be innocent of any crime except being in your way is a big thing in the real-world, and it's a big deal in our game, too.
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We think it's important to give professional and Lawful Good-style characters options for dealing with enemies that aren't slaughtering them wholesale, and the enemy targets you encounter in missions, while they are shooting at you, have their own reasons and motivations for doing so that might make a player uncomfortable will simply blowing them away - sometimes these adversaries are doing their jobs, and they aren't evil or hardbitten assholes. In some respects, this is another moral dilemma players will have to deal with - and we recognize some players won't care at all.
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In addition, for players who study their opponents, make alliances, and understand the motivations of certain key figures we give them additional options. They can talk their way out of situations or make unlikely allies where a more combat-oriented character would find bullets and grenades being unloaded in their direction. <b>Fallout 1 and Torment's talk-solution focuses meant a lot to me as a designer, and Obsidian works hard to include those options in games because we feel it's an important part of role-playing.</b>
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I critically failed my cunningness check so no witty line finishing off this newspost.
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[Volourn]

Bullshit. Banal. Boring.

 

[Dionysus]

<b>Fallout 1 and Torment's talk-solution focuses meant a lot to me as a designer, and Obsidian works hard to include those options in games because we feel it's an important part of role-playing.</b>

That's really unfortunate. If KotOR2 and NWN2 are the results of Obsidian working hard on a diplomatic/noncombat path, then I should probably temper my expectations for New Vegas and Alpha Protocol.

 

[mikaelis]

Sounds good actually. A Splinter Cell approach rather than Thief, but it is not a stealth game after all. The question is how much focus they put on the "talk-my-way-out" approach. I hope it is a bit more than a few blatant/boring side quests...

 

[Ogg]

Note how he eludes the question on "not killing a single ennemy".

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

You must kill at least the terrorist in the tutorial.

 

[Vibalist]

Note how he eludes the question on "not killing a single ennemy".

Omg u cant use diplimancy on teh rats!

 

[Longshanks]

Note how he eludes the question on "not killing a single ennemy".

Huh?
He said you can go through the game without "killing" - but that it would involve incapacitating enemies in some other way (non-lethal gadgets/weapons). So it's not a non-violent, non-combat path, but a no murder path. There will be opportunities to skip combat with stealth or dialogue, but not all of it.

 

[DriacKin]

Well, it also confirms that you can go through the game without killing any of the game's bosses.

 

[Der Judenjäger]

Is it confirmed that the enemies will be able to kiill you by inducing massive amounts of boredom?

 

[gromit]

Note how he eludes the question on "not killing a single ennemy".

Answering conversationally != elusion / evasion. The question is asked if a no-kill playthrough is dependent on non-lethal weapons, and the first sentence of the answer says yes. For bonus points, the passive path is then referred to quite specifically as the "non-murdering path."

Its even admitted some people won't care about this distinction, to a degree that's not really the game's fault; it's damn hard to make a player think about the "lives" they take after decades of games featuring killing as the primary means of interaction with the world. If we had the option to brutally murder the shopkeepers in Shenmue, in full view of kitty-tending little girls, it could still be played for laughs and mustache-twirls.

There are only a few ways to really address the morality of this situation beyond a game-over, fourth-wall weirdness, or smacks on the wrist that again rely on an assumed connection between players and the gameworld / NPCs (oh no, Paul Denton is mildly disappointed with me!) However they can mitigate this with differing rewards / penalties, if NPCs care as much about the means to the end as we're told, and circumstances altered by that as much as we're told.

It's been said a few times (or at least I inferred) that one of the design goals in this game is to have consequences that are different, but roughly balance out, so it's not likely it'll hit a munchkin where it hurts if he goes all murder-happy. But, in all honesty, for an action-RPG with a plot about weapons, it's probably enough to taunt the completionist in him.

EDIT: Beaten while idling, submitted anyway.

 

[Lesifoere]

Well, it also confirms that you can go through the game without killing any of the game's bosses.

Funny, in Batman: AA I finished the entire game without killing anybody.

 

[denizsi]

Because whenever you knock down someone, he's teleported away for immediate medical attention by their alien overlords.

 

[gromit]

Because whenever you knock down someone, he's teleported away for immediate medical attention by their alien overlords.

I smell sequel (and respawn)

 

[Zeus]

Note how he eludes the question on "not killing a single ennemy".

I remember trying to play a non-lethal game of Deus Ex, because I'd heard it was possible in a preview or interview.

Well, it made for a challenging but rewarding game. I spent three days trying to get past guard dogs on a rooftop. Everything I did killed them. Gunshots (obviously), batons, even stun guns. There was no way I could get past these damn dogs without killing them.

Finally, I realized that it was possible to hit one with a tazer and not kill it. Maybe not all the time; it was random, but possible. Some of the time it'd survive, and that was enough to progress.

Then I read some random postmortem interview where one of the developers admitted that you actually had to kill two guys to beat the game.

You had to kill two guys.

So what was the !@#$ing point of all that? Who'd go through all the trouble of programming an ALMOST non-lethal win scenario?

I stopped playing that game and haven't looked back.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Did anyone ever tell you you're a fucking moron

 

[Phelot]

So what was the !@#$ing point of all that? Who'd go through all the trouble of programming an ALMOST non-lethal win scenario?

I stopped playing that game and haven't looked back.

LOL was it really that traumatic?


I like Avellone, I think he has great ideas and is genuine about games, but I have no interest whatsoever in this game.

 

[ricolikesrice]

Judging by previews, interviews and trailers, Alpha Protocol has heart. It has soul. If Alpha Protocol is gonna sing the Blues, you will want to listen. This is a game in the making by people who genuinely love what they were doing, and it's clear that rather than asking themselves "How can we best serve the market?", the developers instead ask themselves "Wouldn't it be awesome if . . .?" It has all the enthusiasm and the quirkiness (for better and worse) of an indie game, but the production values that only a multi-million dollar budget will buy.

Will it have flaws ? Probably plenty of them - but ultimately it's gonna be a great game. I am looking forward to Alpha Protocol more than i did to any RPG released in the last few years. Alpha Protocol is not gonna be"game as art," as Planescape: Torment and (more recently) Mask of the Betrayer have tried to be. Instead, it will be "game as game", something that has been equally rare recently in the RPG genre. Just by the trailers you can see that there is a focus on gameplay, on RPG mechanics, on depth of setting and on immersion.

All in all, I liked those AP previews very much. Someone might now ask ‘wait, what? So many inherent flaws from the console shooter design to the banal-shit-boring looking locations, but he still says it’s a very good game?’. Well, yes, the game will definitely not be flawless, but the cons are totally overshadowed by the pros, and most of the flaws are actually rather minor for this type of gameplay. Retarded 3PS action and shitty implemented stealth plus an awful character system may look bad but that is not what this game is about. What it's about is exploration of the role as a spy, getting to know many interesting NPCs, gathering loot, fighting challenging fights, , and of course… Chris Avellone s Writing. Believe me when I say that Avellone s Writing will imprint itself in your memory for a long time if you read the words properly, and I just can’t find words to describe how marvellous they will be.

Now we can only hope that this is finally released soon enough since I might say Alpha Protocol has everything it needs to become a monumental cRPG.

Alpha Protocol looks like it will be enjoyable, addictive, and deeply satisfying, and I wholeheartedly recommend pre-ordering it.

 

[entertainer]

have to give credit for effort

 

[Zeus]

LOL was it really that traumatic?

Traumatic? No, just terribly disappointing. Like playing a really cool RPG for a week only to have it suddenly turn into a deer hunting sim.

Like I said, what's the point of acting like your game has a non-lethap path of progression and then copping out at the last minute?

Maybe if it was incorporated into the storyline, I could accept it. Like The Rock in The Rundown, he didn't use guns--until his back was to the wall and his friends were about to be shot. Then we wigged out and went all cold-eyed commando on the bad guys. That wasn't a cop-out, it was a moment.

I can all but guarantee the two manditory deaths in Deus Ex didn't get that treatment, it was just the only way to solve the puzzle, and the scene would play out just the same as if you were a coldblooded killer who dropped every guy he met.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the game picks up on you never killing a single guard dog, and hits you with some cool, "Given no choice but to kill" cinema. If so, I eat my words. If not, they can eat a bag of

 

[MetalCraze]

Note how he eludes the question on "not killing a single ennemy".

Omg u cant use diplimancy on teh rats!

Truth!
AP is fucking awesome, shoot enemy with AK and make him fall or shoot him with a tranquil-gun and make him fall - that's two totally different ways to complete missions for you. And you can even roleplay that you are non-violent like in a true RPG.
Splinter Cell where you can just ghost through levels has nothing on AP, nothing.

 

[gromit]

Like playing a really cool RPG for a week only to have it suddenly turn into a deer hunting sim.

But I liked Gothic 3