Alpha Protocol: Well-written?

[ComradeCommissar]

How do you kill Marburg in Rome?

You have to piss him off enough. Just be the biggest smartass/prick Thorton you can be.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I'm the first to admit that my tastes may not be as refined as some others, as my English is not very strong. To be honest I found the crass nature of the Suave options to be entertaining, as well as the smartass tone that Thornton would use when making them.

I agree. I'm just saying that that isn't what 'suave' means, and it isn't what most english-speakers would think of when the developer mentions Bond in relation to the 'suave' option. 'Suave' is usually used to mean the male equivalent of seductiveness - stylish, smooth, quick-witted and sexy.

That actually might be quite important for you if you ever try dating an english-speaking woman. When a women says that they want a guy who is 'suave', they're thinking a guy in a good suit (or similarly sharply dressed) who is going to take them out to dinner, not a guy who fires off arrogant put-down remarks Again, that might well be amusing, and some women are into it, but it's more what you'd call in english 'being a douchebag'.

I'm not saying that they tried to write suave and made it really lowbrow. I'm saying that they didn't write suave - whether good suave or bad suave. What they wrote was a good 'arrogant humorous' response, and that's fine.

 

[Roguey]

If you want to give credit/blame where it's due:

Much as with the level designers, we broke down the narrative sections into email (95% Matt MacLean) and set Travis Stout loose on the news and at one Hub (Taipei) as well as periphery characters in some of the other locales (Rome). Whenever possible, we set up the narrative team so each designer was married to a specific character (Travis = Stephen Heck, Hong Shi, Omen Deng, for example, and I got most everyone else, plus the dossier and banter for levels). Then once the assignments had been made, that designer would design the interactions for those characters over the course of the game. If I had an Omen question, I'd go to Travis, and if Travis had a question about a handler or SIE, he'd come talk to me. It was also good because it gave Travis a chance to write and contribute to the narrative (which shows in the Heck Taipei phone calls as just one example) and stretch his skills there.

So if you rolled your eyes at "big ass screen", "fuck of a lot of stairs" or "they will suck you dryyyy" it's probably safe to blame Avellone. I'm reluctant to call it well-written, but it was fairly entertaining to listen to even when it was dumb. I liked the emails and Taipei for the most part, so I hope MacLean and Stout continue to provide dialogue for future games.

 

[Volourn]

The writing is worse than MOTB but better than SOZ.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

The writing is worse than MOTB but better than SOZ.

And how's the game as a whole?

 

[Volourn]

None of your fuckin' business what my opinion on AP is until (if) I fuckin' decide to fuckin' tell you.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Considering how few characters there were in the game, it shouldn't have been incredibly difficult to make them well written and seem fresh. But at best there are two (three?) characters that are above mediocre, and the rest that are okay to meh.

 

[Azarkon]

If you want to give credit/blame where it's due:

Much as with the level designers, we broke down the narrative sections into email (95% Matt MacLean) and set Travis Stout loose on the news and at one Hub (Taipei) as well as periphery characters in some of the other locales (Rome). Whenever possible, we set up the narrative team so each designer was married to a specific character (Travis = Stephen Heck, Hong Shi, Omen Deng, for example, and I got most everyone else, plus the dossier and banter for levels). Then once the assignments had been made, that designer would design the interactions for those characters over the course of the game. If I had an Omen question, I'd go to Travis, and if Travis had a question about a handler or SIE, he'd come talk to me. It was also good because it gave Travis a chance to write and contribute to the narrative (which shows in the Heck Taipei phone calls as just one example) and stretch his skills there.

So if you rolled your eyes at "big ass screen", "fuck of a lot of stairs" or "they will suck you dryyyy" it's probably safe to blame Avellone. I'm reluctant to call it well-written, but it was fairly entertaining to listen to even when it was dumb. I liked the emails and Taipei for the most part, so I hope MacLean and Stout continue to provide dialogue for future games.

The more interesting question is how much input Mistoda had on the narrative. He officially cut all ties with AP upon leaving Obsidian, but since he was given the task of drafting the initial AP world, plot, and characters, I wonder how much of it was really his ideas that were being fleshed out. Industry politics prevent any bridge burning admissions, so anything official cannot be trusted with 100% certainty.

Regardless, I didn't notice any major discrepancies in the level of writing. All the characters were in-character, so to speak, though I didn't like the Taipei hub all that much because it went overboard with the "lol Asians" stereotypes. Mind you, Moscow and Rome also had their share of stereotypes, but it wasn't the focus of either hub. Omen Deng wasn't that bad, but he was a man of few words.

 

[Rhalle]

Not bad. Could be way, way more dumbed down.

With that 'fierce' in there, I'd wager MCA recently had been watching Project Runway.

 

[sportforredneck]

Why would "I could smell something a little fierce" be from Project Runway? Something smelling "fierce" has been a phrase for years and years.

 

[roll-a-die]

Why would "I could smell something a little fierce" be from Project Runway? Something smelling "fierce" has been a phrase for years and years.

And ehh, Project Runway is not known for fierce, TYRA IS. Get your fact's straight, like totally.

 

[Drakron]

Yes, I know ...

Although I was less-than-impressed with the game overall, I have to say that some aspects of Alpha Protocol were extremely enjoyable.

And ...

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/03/25/ ... ng-review/

Very related

The problem is a game is a game, the moment the game aspect fails the rest is rendered useless.

 

[hoochimama]

Regardless, I didn't notice any major discrepancies in the level of writing.

I'd say the AP staff, arabs, albatross, surkov, grigori, marburg seem fairly realistic whereas Heck, Deng, SIE, Sis, Brayko feel like they belong to a different world, possibly GTA's.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

It's weird. Grigori was probably the only character that seemed... real to me. The rest seemed to be absurd caricatures, which I know kind of fits the bill of the spy movie genre.

One of the reasons why I feel the story and characters don't begin to make up for the abortion that is the rest of the game is that I think they had a chance to write a really good spy story here, but instead made it full of camp. I don't know, playing through Deus Ex and

Spoiler

going rogue

felt a lot more earth-shattering than when the same thing happened in AP. I can't place my finger on why, it may be just because I like Deus Ex a hell of a lot more.

 

[Zyrxil]

felt a lot more earth-shattering than when the same thing happened in AP. I can't place my finger on why, it may be just because I like Deus Ex a hell of a lot more.

Nah, it's because of pacing. In AP it happens basically after 3 short missions, you barely have time to get into the idea of your character being an agent, so what happens isn't really that big a deal. In DE it feels like much more of a twist, especially since your brother's in on it.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Well I even expected it the entire time. I guess it was just more well done since it was foreshadowed a bit. In AP you finish a mission and then all of a sudden "OMG GET OUT".

 

[Overweight Manatee]

I think a big part of the betrayal effect in Deus Ex was the fact that you had to actually break out of the compound and prison. And you could kill everyone or noone. Many of those random troopers had their own names and voice actors and personalities and everything. I could never bring myself to kill the first trooper sitting at the front desk in the UNATCO headquaters, he was always such a nice guy to me. Its a big thing to feel that you and all of those people you know are good are being turned against each other by someone above you. Not to mention the death clock that they put you on and all that other stuff that helps drive the story. In AP, we are teleported halfway around the globe to a place of our choosing to do relatively random missions and won't end up interacting with the former characters for a very long time.

And yes, the foreshadowing. AP has it, but its pretty basic. Like when Parker has you retrieve extra dossier information in the tutorial area on Nasri, information that you weren't being given even after Westridge said they were giving you all they had. You know stuff is up and its a spy game so of course something 'surprising' is going to happen, but it does end up feeling too sudden.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Another problem with 'going rogue' is the fact that nobody seems to care. I mean, you're supposed to be that giant loose end in the way of GLOBAL CONSPIRACIEZ!!1 but there're no AP agents going after you, nothing.

 

[treave]

The e-mails do hint at efforts to track you down but you're so super-secret that even Alpha Protocol can't track you down when you're operating under Alpha Protocol.

Even if you just massacred a building full of CIA agents.

 

[Azarkon]

Another problem with 'going rogue' is the fact that nobody seems to care. I mean, you're supposed to be that giant loose end in the way of GLOBAL CONSPIRACIEZ!!1 but there're no AP agents going after you, nothing.

Considering AP is three guys and a gal sitting in an underground bunker (with some mercs guarding them)... Yeah. But another agent being after your ass would've been great, I agree. Thought Darcy was being setup for such a role but then they gave the "his father is a Senator" excuse. Smells of cut content.

 

[Azrael the cat]

It's weird. Grigori was probably the only character that seemed... real to me. The rest seemed to be absurd caricatures, which I know kind of fits the bill of the spy movie genre.

One of the reasons why I feel the story and characters don't begin to make up for the abortion that is the rest of the game is that I think they had a chance to write a really good spy story here, but instead made it full of camp. I don't know, playing through Deus Ex and

Spoiler

going rogue

felt a lot more earth-shattering than when the same thing happened in AP. I can't place my finger on why, it may be just because I like Deus Ex a hell of a lot more.

Deus Ex was a longer and larger game. You had been playing as UNATCO for a hefty number of game hours before going rogue - even more if you obeyed orders instead of killing Anna (although you weren't publically rogue at that point). There was also a much more immersive portrayal of 'being a UNATCO cop' - you know, people telling you to minimise casualties, going off at you if you killed too many (or in some cass cheering you), office banter, overhearing Gunther accusing the drink machine of conspiring against him, etc. One mistake in AP's design was having each of the hubs completely isolated of each other, so that once you've done one you never go back to it (aside from the endgame assault on AP). Unfortunately that's a really common thing in crpgs now, and it stops you from seeing the consequences of what you've done thus far (c/f returning to hell's kitchen repeatedly in Deus Ex and witnessing the increasing creep of martial law). Going rogue would have felt much more momentous if (a) you had returned to AP every now and then, talking to Darcy etc about the ops and seeing the place updated, and (b) it hadn't been advertised and made utterly obvious that you were going to be playing a 'rogue agent'.

Deus Ex also benefited from the era in which it was released. We didn't expect a game that looked like a shooter to have ANY choices or reactivity. The C+C is entirely cosmetic in Deus Ex, far more cosmetic than AP, but it wasn't advertised to death. Things like the bathroom comment and killing Anna at the airport seemed incredible because they were so unexpected and there was absolutely nothing ingame to indicate that a choice could be made. It was trope subversion, turning the oldstyle 'complete the given mission directives' of almost all shooters at that time (c/f SS2).

As someone said above, the detail given to the personalities of the individual soldiers in UNATCO helped tremendously, as when you broke out they really went out of their way to make sure that every single UNATCO troop had a name and could converse with the player prior to him going rogue. I could never bring myself to kill any of them, as even when Paul went rogue every conversation you hear indicates that the groundlevel troops are all hoping he escapes. I stealth-prodded and tranq'd every fucking one of them on every playthrough - except for Manderley, who always cops a shotgun to the face (I've also repeatedly tried killing the bitch who reports me for innocently walking in the wrong toilet door, but for some reason she's set on immortal). Though even the Manderley killing is mainly for dramatic effect - every time, after hearing Walter Simons awesome little 'If you're still alive, that is. It seems your protege has returned to pay you a visit...' I feel like I'd be disappointing the game's narrative if I didn't take the fucker out

 

[Azrael the cat]

Another problem with 'going rogue' is the fact that nobody seems to care. I mean, you're supposed to be that giant loose end in the way of GLOBAL CONSPIRACIEZ!!1 but there're no AP agents going after you, nothing.

Considering AP is three guys and a gal sitting in an underground bunker (with some mercs guarding them)... Yeah. But another agent being after your ass would've been great, I agree. Thought Darcy was being setup for such a role but then they gave the "his father is a Senator" excuse. Smells of cut content.

Yes, especially with Albatross's comment about knowing his father if you kill Darcy, i.e. that 'this could bring some....complications'.

 

[Radisshu]

Manderley actually attacks you if you don't kill him right away, which feels kind of ridiculous.

 

[Zyrxil]

Another problem with 'going rogue' is the fact that nobody seems to care. I mean, you're supposed to be that giant loose end in the way of GLOBAL CONSPIRACIEZ!!1 but there're no AP agents going after you, nothing.

Considering AP is three guys and a gal sitting in an underground bunker (with some mercs guarding them)... Yeah. But another agent being after your ass would've been great, I agree. Thought Darcy was being setup for such a role but then they gave the "his father is a Senator" excuse. Smells of cut content.

Yes, especially with Albatross's comment about knowing his father if you kill Darcy, i.e. that 'this could bring some....complications'.

If you go the join+betray Halbech route, the ending mentions that Alpha Protocol being exposed helps Darcy's dad with his presidential campaign. I thought that was a pretty blatant setup for a sequel, where President Darcy sets up yet another Alpha Protocol to hunt you down.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well, I wouldn't mind a larger AP with tweaking.