Review Alpha Protocol Reviewed

[Wyrmlord]

Outdated graphics

They were outdated when the game was announced.

 

[Jack]

My torrent bin. It wants it.

 

[fastpunk]

Oh noes, teh graphix aren't next-gen enough for codex standards. Whatever shall we do about it?! It like totally breaks my immershun.

 

[DraQ]

Duration -> 90 - The replayability factor is really high. You can play Alpha Protocol a lot of times without experiencing the same adventure.

Might be of some interest after all.

Due to my general disinterest in the game's theme combined with DRM, however, I will wait till the Codex reviews it and till they drop the DRM as they promise.

 

[Serious_Business]

I'm not knocking your tastes, either. I'm just, like, saying a game tries to do too much and ends as a superficial mashup of several genres instead of focusing in a single area may result in a good and immersive experience, sure, but in the end the gameplay will suffer, and that's a perfectly valid complain.

I don't really think having the choice between several half assed gameplay styles makes the gameplay any less half assed once you make your choice. Actually, it works against the gameplay since not only must it catter to the obvious builds, like full infiltration and full combat, but to all the hybrids in between. So the combat can't be really hardcore, since it needs to be doable by a less than ideal combat build, and the stealth can't be really hardcore, as it has to be doable by a less than ideal stealth build, etc. Everything, in the end, will be kind of half assed as it must be approachable in enough ways no build, other than one willingly gimping itself, can't potentially solve it. You will never find a carefully built situation were only a masterfull and precise and perfect understanding and use of several and very specific gameplay mechanics can get you through, because many builds will not be able to exploit that mechanic, etc. And then the game is not challenging, and then the game is not game.

But sure, diferent tastes and stuff. More power to you if you like it, i guess. I just kind of prefer games that are trying to slaughter me and make themselves a rug with what is left of me afterwards instead of games trying to make me feel a superspy or whatever it was this time.

That's exactly what he said, if you don't like DX (a game which tried to do everything and wasn't the best at everything) you're not going to like this, I'm not sure why you keep painfully arguing here. Please shut up now

That said, I'm not sure if AP is going to live up to Deus Ex. To me a lot of what DX did right was the setting. It looked bleak and dirty and not too far from contemporary reality, unlike the sequel which for some unknown reason was slick science fiction (floating robots anyone?). That broke down my enjoyement of that game a lot. Maybe I'm looking at it too much and it was just DX's ugly graphics speaking, but I still think it's a fair point. AP's setting looks obnoxious and forced, and I'm not sure how much fun that's going to be.

That said, the game looks like a step in the right direction, if only because their programmers and designers are not lazy bastards, like the most obvious example of laziness, Bioware. If this game gets recognition, and if the C&C is as it's being advertised, then maybe future rpgs won't be able to get away so easily with shit like the illusion of choice that's so gladly defended by Bioware while they fuck around in their offices playing ping pong instead of putting more time coding and making meaningful different paths for the player. That's a lot to hope for, and actually what I fear is that this game will have good C&C but it will go over the mainstream's head because of the 'outdated graphics' and no one will recognize their efforts.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Graphics -> 80 - The exteriors are not so bad but the models and their animations are far from perfect.

This is really fucking painful. Not because graphics are a determining factor, but it's because it's fuggin embarrassing to see AAA titles with constant emphasis on "immersion" and shit where characters move like stilted animatronics, when you saw more fluid animations on a fuckin playstation. It just reeks of laziness, so even if a quest is conceptually interesting it'll be ruined by the lifeless dolls involved in it (which sometimes are also blessed by amateurish voice acting)

 

[Brotherman Bill]

It's painful if you are a spoiled consoletard graphics whore. If you can enjoy 10 year old games, you can enjoy some new games with relatively bad graphics.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

that guy who doesn't care about outdated graphics?

all me, baby.







(however i *do* care about juvenile-shit dialogue)

 

[DraQ]

This is really fucking painful. Not because graphics are a determining factor, but it's because it's fuggin embarrassing to see AAA titles with constant emphasis on "immersion" and shit where characters move like stilted animatronics, when you saw more fluid animations on a fuckin playstation in 1991, in fucking Another World.

You were being uncodexian.
I fixed it.
Express gratitude.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I was thinking of 3d examples, but ok

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It's painful if you are a spoiled consoletard graphics whore. If you can enjoy 10 year old games, you can enjoy some new games with relatively bad graphics.

Wasnt talking about graphics in general, just stilted animation that belongs to early PS1 era on a new title. It screams "Yeah, we could have made this look better, but we didn't really bother lol"

 

[Grunker]

It's painful if you are a spoiled consoletard graphics whore. If you can enjoy 10 year old games, you can enjoy some new games with relatively bad graphics.

Wasnt talking about graphics in general, just stilted animation that belongs to early PS1 era on a new title. It screams "Yeah, we could have made this look better, but we didn't really bother lol"

Sometimes that's a good thing. Why was there so much room for new content implementation in BG2? Because they just say "we're lazy lol use same engine as one before".

I wish developers would just recycle proven engines most of the time, focus on implementation of stuff that matters.

 

[fastpunk]

I wish developers would just recycle proven engines most of the time, focus on implementation of stuff that matters.

Amin to that! It makes me feel like a sad panda to think that some amazing pieces of tech will be retired after only two or three games. Like CryEngine 2, or CrystalD's Tomb Raider Underworld engine.

 

[racofer]

(80 + 90 + 89 + 88) / 4 = 87.25, not 88.

I wonder how much money it cost them to get those extra .75 points.

 

[Grunker]

(80 + 90 + 89 + 88) / 4 = 87.25, not 88.

I wonder how much money it cost them to get those extra .75 points.

Nothing. Reviewers today don't know how to type much less how to do math.

 

[Phelot]

Well, I can see how graphics and animation WILL be more of a determining factor in games. If your game depends more on atmosphere, cinematics, what they call "immershun" these days, then yeah it needs to be good looking.

Personally, I still prefer a dialogue screen with a nice portrait of the character. I don't want timed dialogue choices and mini games, nor do I want conversations that consist of short 5 word sentences.

IN any case, I still have no interest in this game nor it's setting other then being a little curious about what kind of scores it's gonna get.

 

[Azrael the cat]

(80 + 90 + 89 + 88) / 4 = 87.25, not 88.

I wonder how much money it cost them to get those extra .75 points.

Lol! It doesn't give you a lot of hope for game journos when they can't add 4 numbers together and divide by 4, with the help of a calculator. Or worse, can't figure out that if it's less than .5 it's more accurate to round down than up.

Mind you, I once worked with a moderately successful philosopher, with a quality PhD and highly acclaimed books sold on philosophy of religion and moral philosophy, and more than a few papers in political philosophy to boot, who had to send me an email asking how to convert a mark out of 25 into a percentage. I actually ignored the first email, thinking that no-one that highly educated could possibly be so inept at basic maths - I'm not sure that even COUNTS as maths, it's just multiplying the mark by 4 for fucks sake. I just assumed it had to be some in-joke that had gone over my head. And two hours later I got another email asking if I had received the first one, still asking for help converting the mark.

Some people are just numerically illiterate, and they pop up in the strangest places.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I wish developers would just recycle proven engines most of the time, focus on implementation of stuff that matters.

Sure, that usually leads to good things. But when they can put more work into animations, etc and don't...

If your game depends more on atmosphere, cinematics, what they call "immershun" these days, then yeah it needs to be good looking.

...same way the game needs to give me actual options to boast about "tactical decisions", it needs to be immersive for me to feel "immersed". Sliding across the floor in a pitiful mockery of a human running doesn't help things.

 

[Tycn]

Duration -> 90 - The replayability factor is really high. You can play Alpha Protocol a lot of times without experiencing the same adventure.

Might be of some interest after all.

Due to my general disinterest in the game's theme combined with DRM, however, I will wait till the Codex reviews it and till they drop the DRM as they promise.

I seriously doubt that they played it more than once. Could be Bioware-style illusoryreplayability.

 

[Jim Cojones]

(80 + 90 + 89 + 88) / 4 = 87.25, not 88.

Was it stated that their final score is an arithmetic mean of other four scores? I've never actually seen any gaming magazine having such rules. I remember one with weighted mean and still I found it quite unusual.

 

[Phelot]

(80 + 90 + 89 + 88) / 4 = 87.25, not 88.

I wonder how much money it cost them to get those extra .75 points.

Lol! It doesn't give you a lot of hope for game journos when they can't add 4 numbers together and divide by 4, with the help of a calculator. Or worse, can't figure out that if it's less than .5 it's more accurate to round down than up.

Mind you, I once worked with a moderately successful philosopher, with a quality PhD and highly acclaimed books sold on philosophy of religion and moral philosophy, and more than a few papers in political philosophy to boot, who had to send me an email asking how to convert a mark out of 25 into a percentage. I actually ignored the first email, thinking that no-one that highly educated could possibly be so inept at basic maths - I'm not sure that even COUNTS as maths, it's just multiplying the mark by 4 for fucks sake. I just assumed it had to be some in-joke that had gone over my head. And two hours later I got another email asking if I had received the first one, still asking for help converting the mark.

Some people are just numerically illiterate, and they pop up in the strangest places.

Eh... I believe the reviewer simply rounded the number (should have been down, but perhaps he was being generous) to arrive at that score. Though, I've seen some reviews were they dish out 7s, 8s, and 9s, and STILL give the game a 9.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yeah, it doesn't really matter if it was rounded up instead of down since all the scores are around the 80-90 range. If you're already rating it close to 100, 0.75 doesn't really make any difference. They probably didn't even use a calculator...

Reader: "Shit, 87? if it was 88, maybe I'd give it a chance..."

 

[forgotmypasswordagain]

always gotta round up to 88 - for hitler

 

[Azrael the cat]

Yeah, it doesn't really matter if it was rounded up instead of down since all the scores are around the 80-90 range. If you're already rating it close to 100, 0.75 doesn't really make any difference. They probably didn't even use a calculator...

Reader: "Shit, 87? if it was 88, maybe I'd give it a chance..."

Yeah, I know, I'm being a twat about it but if there's one thing that would convince me to agree to genocide it would be if doing so would eliminate crappy rounding errors and unnecessary apostraphes. Yes, that's my life:-(

 

[LazyD]

fake.

So why is this in RPG discussion?