ALPHA protocol

[Art Blade]

I bought a couple of games yesterday and forgot to mention this one. Thanks to Youtube where my favourite English game tester,  Tez710, is uploading his recent and ongoing playthrough of that game  -- see vid --

01.Alpha Protocol (Re-Sub) - Introduction

Because of him I learned of that game and I'll give it a try myself soon :)

Basically it's a TPS RPG, you're a special agent and hunting down rogue agents I got that wrong. You become a rogue agent and try to find out what the heck is going on using customiseable skills, martial arts, computer hacking, and of course weapons. It is an espionage thriller, various secret services and factions and individuals involved.. your actions determine what's going to happen next and you're the author of the ending. The game has incredible depth and depends on choices, choices, choices.. action and reaction.. I think there are more ways of playing that game than you're capable of doing unless you play it a hundred times. Most excellent  :-X

More to come :)

[JRD]

This game looks cool!  8)

Reminds me of Splinter Cell games, which I enjoyed a lot... only played the very first SC and there are a few of them - a new title, SC Conviction is out now!

I like how the guy play stealth. For what he said you can just go guns blazing as well, which adds for good replay value even for a linear looking game!  :-X

Keep us posted of how you like it, mate!

[Art Blade]

will do :)

My first impression from what I've seen so far on youtube and gameanyone.com is that the game graphics are not the highest of standards, actually it reminds me a lot of hitman:bloodmoney. Which is years old. But I don't care as long as the game itself is fun, and this one sure looked interesting enough to try it. I already watched all eight vids from tez710 which he has uploaded until now, and I saw that you get truckloads of items to buy and as many components to upgrade your outfit and armour and weapons and and and.. a lot of stuff to customise, in other words. Unfortunately, that tez710 guy just (5 hours ago) posted about repeatedly having problems with his youtube account (I knew about them, he mentioned some in one of his other vids) and was so fed up that he signed up with a new account just to post into his own channel that he was no longer going to upload any vids on youtube. I'm afraid that's it.. but that is only an aside. I'm still here and I will let you guys know what I think about this game  ;)

meanwhile, here a link for a non-commentary playthrough on gameanyone.com
http://www.gameanyone.com/video/224517

[Art Blade]

Unfortunately, that tez710 guy just (5 hours ago) posted about repeatedly having problems with his youtube account (I knew about them, he mentioned some in one of his other vids) and was so fed up that he signed up with a new account just to post into his own channel that he was no longer going to upload any vids on youtube. I'm afraid that's it..

Good news, he set up a new channel. So he'll continue uploading vids  :-X

[JRD]

I was watching a few vids from this tez710 guy some time ago... I like how he goes. It feels really spontaneous as if it was a friend of mine showing me a game!  8)

[Art Blade]

yeah.. and commits mistakes, curses wildly, misses stuff everyone else might have seen.. that kind of makes me suffer and laugh and agree etc.. really vivid  :-D

[Art Blade]

Man I want to get started. 8) Although I have got the game, I'm busy with all kinds of things.. and I will have to start with Wings of Prey. Well, weekend is near  :-D

What I like about those Tez vids is that you get to see aspects of the game other reviews won't show, like how it can be a pain in the back to get some game settings sorted. He fights with the GUI and controls like everybody else does. Which is helpful, I think, because you'll know what to expect if you buy a game he tested. I decided that some of the things that may be slightly annoying are still worth it because the game in general seems to be cool. And even if the graphics don't look extremely realistic or posh, I don't care as long as the story and fun are worth it. In the end, I bought it, and I'm quite sure that I'll be having some fun :) I always liked Hitman and that was not so far from what I've seen about AP  :)

[JRD]

Have you ever considered a formal invitation for a cup of coffee at the OWG headquarters?   ;)




edited on behalf of JRD.
Re-edited after Art`s edit on my behalf  :-D
Re-re-edited by Art: because that ^ is funny  ^+-+

[Art Blade]

Hehe, actually I already did that.  ;)

I checked out your site for a brief moment, it does seem pretty cool, ill have a proper look when i get home.

He's a busy man, so I don't know if/when.. but I hope we'll hear from him soon  :)

[tehsam016]

Looks like a decent enough game. Only thing that bothers me (as well as most shooter rpgs) is the fact that you don't get to rely on your own FPS/TPS skills to shoot, but instead your xp level handles all that. I mean, i get the fact that it makes you wanna play more to be more accurate, but whats the point if you have the skills to begin with? In my book, a headshot should be a headshot regardless.

[Art Blade]

From what I've seen, a headshot is a headshot. Tez remarked about it that he noticed how any weapon penetrates a body and demonstrated it with a tranquilizer round that went right through a guy and slammed into a wall behind him. Like in FC2, you could shoot anyone with your very first pistol in the head, but needed to buy accuracy upgrades for better aiming at bigger distances.

[Art Blade]

Now I can't wait any more. Playing Wings of Prey is fun but this game kept nagging at me all the time so this is it.. installing now  :)

Alpha Protocol
Readme File

Thank you for purchasing Alpha Protocol for PC.
This file contains updated and additional information that may not be found in the game manual.

For more information, news and updates, please visit the SEGA website at
http://www.sega.com/support


Table of Contents
1)  System Requirements
2)  Installation
3)  AutoPlay Menu
4)  Begin Playing Alpha Protocol
5)  Uninstall Alpha Protocol
6)  Controls
7)  Troubleshooting
8 )  Alpha Protocol web sites
9)  Technical Support


1) System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements:
Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista
Processor:
2.4+GHZ Intel or 2.0+GHZ AMD
Memory:
1 Gigabyte RAM (XP)
2 Gigabyte RAM (Vista)
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6 series (6800GT or better)
ATI 1300XT or better (X1550, X1600 Pro and HD2400 are below minimum system requirements)
Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes
Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers

NOTE: It may be necessary to update your hardware drivers.
Intel integrated graphics chips are not officially supported.


2) Installation
In order to play Alpha Protocol, you must first install the program on your computer's hard drive.
Please note that you may need Administrator access in order to install the game.

Insert the Alpha Protocol DVD into your DVD drive. When the AutoPlay screen appears,
follow the instructions on the screen to being installing the game.

If the AutoPlay screen does not appear, double-click on the My Computer icon on your
desktop, then double-click the DVD drive containing the Alpha Protocol DVD. Locate and double-click on SETUP.EXE to launch the install program. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation process.

Once you have successfully installed the game, you are ready to play!


3) AutoPlay Menu
The AutoPlay Menu will appear any time the Alpha Protocol DVD is inserted into the DVD drive:
Install Alpha Protocol - Install the game. Only available if the game is not installed yet.
Play Alpha Protocol - Begin playing Alpha Protocol.
Uninstall Alpha Protocol - Remove Alpha Protocol from your hard drive.
Readme File - View this readme file for additional information about Alpha Protocol.
Alpha Protocol Web Site - Go to the official Alpha Protocol game web site.
Technical Support - Go to the SEGA tech support web site.
Quit - close the menu.



4) Begin Playing Alpha Protocol
Now that you've installed the game, there are several ways to begin playing:
-Insert the Alpha Protocol DVD into your DVD drive and click PLAY ALPHA PROTOCOL.
-Click the Windows START button and select Programs>Sega>Alpha Protocol>Play Alpha Protocol.
-Double-click the Alpha Protocol icon on your desktop.

Next, the game launcher program will be displayed.
Select the screen resolution and language then press ENTER to start the game.

If the game fails to run properly, make sure to select a screen resolution that is supported
by your computer monitor.

Note: You will need to have the Alpha Protocol DVD in your DVD drive at all times in order to play ALPHA PROTOCOL.

[Art Blade]

 >:(( Had to interrupt and try again: For some reason some games seem to produce DVDs that cause the drive to rattle at some point (anti-piracy stuff), happened with WoP and other games, but took only a reasonable amount and then installation went on. AP did cause my DVD drive to rattle too but it wouldn't stop. So I opened the drive which of course resulted in some pop-up screens, I told win7 that it installed properly (not wanting to use default settings) and that caused the installation to stop with Disc1 in the drive. I decided to try my second DVD drive and that is running the installation right now.

[Art Blade]

Hah! No rattling this time, now installing from the 2nd DVD (two discs) :)

[Art Blade]

Works :) Online activation was quickly done from within the game (pop-up).

Funny enough, like Tez I had the same trouble with making the game remember changes in the setup. Exactly like him, I had to try a couple of times to get rid of the motion blur  ^+-+ There isn't much to choose in the options menu, graphic settings are very simple (like either low or high) and don't need tweaking much. Unfortunately in the keymapping setup there is no screenshot key  :(

As always, I decided to play on Easy, and chose to play as freelancer so I could spend my points on skills I like rather than playing some prefab type. Now I'll see how it goes..

Excitement!  ;D

[Art Blade]

 :D No screenshots, irfanView doesn't register anything, PRNTSCR only produces a black image. I'm in the setup of the game still, maybe during gameplay.  >:(( :-\\

[Art Blade]

Without proper skill upgrades, some things seem impossible. I begin to hate hacking into computers. There are two passwords left and right on top of the screen and below is a grid with random digits that keep changing. Hidden in the grid are those two passwords, recogniseable because their sequences of digits don't change. It's somehow as if you dropped two dead ants into a plate full of ants that kept running around.. try to spot two dead ants between a hundred of living ones.. it's not that easy to recognise for me. Time is running out and after like 10 seconds those hidden passwords get shuffled around on the grid and even if you had spotted one of them, they got relocated, and you've got to find them again. In case you found one, you need to move the left password around with a,s,w,d and place it onto its match on the grid, confirm with spacebar, and at the time you need to find the right password, move that around on the grid using your mouse and match it on the grid, confirm with LMB. I keep running out of time, when I managed to find the first, I'm too late for the second, and after 25 seconds it sets off an alarm which means guards are on their way. Apparently disarming the alarm once is enough (maybe due to Easy) but I have to run to the switch every time I set it off and shut it off again by simply pressing spacebar.

To deactivate the alarm, you need to solve a puzzle, there are numbers on a printed circuit board and you have to trace their circuits and click the corresponding outlet, all in numerical order. The circuits look like a maze that intertwines with other circuits, some are dead ends, some lead to a number that is not in the right order to be clicked just now.

Those puzzles that deactivate an alarm are rather easy to solve for me, but that computer hacking is just silly.

[Art Blade]

well, after a bit of practice, those hacking attempts are not that difficult any more. Phew  :)

I nearly forgot, the game saves automatically at checkpoints and then overrides that autosave with the next checkpoint and so on but you can also manually "save last checkpoint." Not exactly brilliant but better than nothing at all.  :-\\

Oh, no luck with PRNTSCR for screenies. A bloody shame, really, why so many games these days deprive us of screenshots.  >:((

[Art Blade]

The manual savegame came in handy once. I managed to miss one part of the tutorial and went straight to the main mission. Having missed out on weapons orientation, my starting gear was erm, sub-optimal ;) I reloaded, and found Mina who sent me on the training course. I'm still there, it looks easier than it is to get a real good score. You'll be evaluated both regarding accuracy and time. Accuracy can be a bitch, because shotguns and automatic weapons do tend to send a few rounds into the walls and by that diminish your score significantly. The assault rifle apparently can't fire single shots, you'll always disperse like at least three shots or you're just lucky if you manage to shoot a burst with less rounds. I saw a few times that despite proper aiming (any other game would have registered a bulls eye kind of shot) I completely missed a target, even three times in a row, same target! Whoa. Hehe  ;D

The game starts with a lot of dialogue / cut scenes blended with free roam (if you want to call it that) inside some facility. Thats why I missed part of the tutorial, I simply walked past a door behind which I would have found Mina's office and instead I got debriefed. The conversations are usually interactive, you'll get to see a few options to choose from which will determine how the chat goes, also your choice will influence how you're being perceived, resulting in positive or negative karma with your dialogue partner. Unfortunately the game presents you with those options to choose from while you're still listening, and the choice is time critical. Like, a count down time bar runs out and whatever choice you made until then will be your response, even if you haven't heard what to respond to, or almost. That's why I recommend either replay the tutorial or watch Tez's vids, so at least you get a chance to check out what will be happening the next time, or respectively, when you enter a conversation. Another recommendation is to manually save checkpoints to fall back to, in case you screwed up somehow during test courses or specific conversations. You can't screw up that badly because the game will go on, however it may be a good idea to do it the way you think is in your best interest.

I just thought, maybe they didn't allow screenshots so there won't be too many people judge the game by its graphics  ^+-+ -- it isn't that bad, though. I like the game so far, walking around and getting bonus missions even during a tutorial is rather nice. The way the game presents itself is, well, kind of a half-breed: neither a typical shooter nor a typical RPG nor a typical interactive film. The funny thing: it still works. I'm in it so deeply that I don't want to stop playing. It is immersive, alright  ;D

[Art Blade]

Now I had to laugh  ^+-+ After "failing" (for my standards) miserably during weapons orientation, and spite of having tried a couple of times, I finally aced it. How? "Critical hits." Take your time when firing. Forget about time evaluation. At first I scored only around 50 to 65 points, and when I went through it the last time, I took aim carefully. I don't know why my record states 24 (!) critical hits, but it was worth 120 points alone, so I scored 190 total. Mina said it was one of the most impressive scores she'd ever seen. And that leads to another bonus mission where some bloke who fancies Mina (she kind of hates him though) tries to top your score and Mina wants you to teach him a lesson with non-lethal rounds.. Instead of a headshot, I decided to land a "critical hit" where it counts the most in a man  :o ;D which gained me a very positive karma point with Mina. Hehe  ;D

[Art Blade]

Oh crap, I'm really lucky I decided to save and subsequently reload then, I just realised I also had missed out on gadget orientation which leads to a bonus mission that earns you a lot of money (20k) -- make sure you do fine when completing tasks so you do get those bonus missions. When I first got debriefed early, I started with I think $3,500 and few XP points. Now I'll be wealthier and more experienced when I go on a real mission. :)

[Art Blade]

just a remark on the computer hacking and the weapons evaluation. After the tutorial debriefing you get to see some stats, there I found out that I had 27 rounds fired with my shotgun and had an amazing 100% accuracy. With a shotgun. LOL! And 81% with an SMG. Also quite good, better than expected, but 38% with that assault rifle. As expected.

There is also a record of the fastest hacking, mine was 6.46 seconds, LOL! That was pure luck I managed to get both passwords in that time.. compared to numerous attempts due to exceeding 25 seconds without solving the hacking puzzle, that is quite something ;D I don't do it that fast all the time!  :)

[Art Blade]

By the way, the game dialogues are not really funny, most of them are more or less about information. But one, so far:

Westridge: "Read much?"
you: "Not really. Mostly stop signs. Which I ignore.."  <cheeky smile>

;D

[Art Blade]

Now I'm in the middle of a mission in the Middle East. Took a lot of time to get started for real, taking on a mission that is, because there were so many things to check out first.

After the tutorial you find yourself in a safehouse which has got a couple of things to use and to check out before you go on a mission (at least I like to check stuff out that's there rather than to leave that behind without knowing whether or not it would have been useful). There are simple things like change your appearance (very few options) or read emails (might be useful, like Mina's email had an attachment that on opening transferred 10k to my bank account, hehe) or log in onto your arms dealer and do instant business (funny, you purchase items online, switch off the computer and check your inventory or your weapons locker where those items will be available already) which includes weapons and armour and other stuff, weapon and armour upgrades, and last but not least intel. When you purchase intel (ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand bucks) it will help you with your missions; some "intel" rids you of some opponents (fewer guards left on site) and some may be an additional mission. So what I did was buy some upgrades like a silencer for my pistol, ammo, of course hand grenades (also some pyro stuff grenades hehehe)  ;D

After buying hardware, I spent the rest of my money on software (intel) so I'm both broke and got almost all intel available for purchase now. Was broke, that is, because during my first mission (I was allowed to select which one to start with) I found a bag with cash, another 10 grand added to my account  8) I killed a few enemies with a very noisy pistol.. noisy? The silencer must have fallen off, I had to put it on again using my inventory, strange. Ah, I remember replacing some barrel which excluded the silencer. That is exactly the kind of stuff that I know from Hitman:Blood money. Actually, it is really quite similar to that game: You're an agent with a license to kill, an agency offers jobs, weapons, intel.. a safehouse.. very similar. Which I like  :)

So far it is very nice. By the way, the lip sync is alright. I remember Tez remarking about that, and I believe that FRAPS interfered with it, same with arms dealer menu: mine worked just nicely.

It is nice to be on a mission now, because the environment finally has changed; no more bunker facility with fake combat, this time it's "real" and I can make use of what I learned. Whenever possible, I rely on my martial arts based close quarter combat and I am quite proficient with it. The silenced pistol with scope (again, like HM:BM) isn't that silenced.. later there may be some upgrades, I hope :)

[Art Blade]

Ok, I finished that first mission. I had to infiltrate a place, disable the power generator, and retrieve intel from the terrorists by hacking into their PC (lol, 7.x seconds). Then new enemies popped up -- sure, stealth hacking and no alarm yet here they come -- and I had to get out from a maze of subterranean chambers and tunnels just to clear the extraction point for a black hawk. The hand grenades are not bad but incendiary bombs (special hand grenades) are just better.. they blow up and set nearby people on fire  >:D Any grenade is useful when dealing with enemies in an elevated and covered position -- lob one up and grin while walking away  ;D The mission looked nearly impossible to get into at first, enemies all around me and the hint to wait for a sandstorm to arrive was crap, I didn't feel like hanging around doing nothing and that sandstorm might never have come anyway. So I died two times when attempting to shoot enemies with my pistol or SMG, the next attempt was to blow up a truck behind which some guys were hiding and lob grenades into watch towers to take out MG shooters. No way to sneak in unnoticed, at least not for me with my basic equipment, so I did it loud and dirty. With success. Like I do in FC2: Leave no man behind. Alive, that is.  ;D By the way, kill one enemy and then wait for his friends, kill them and wait for more.. until they stop arriving there. Hehe  ;D

I haven't figured out why when I earned and found money my balance is not as high as I had expected. Do I have to pay for medical bills? No idea. I had guessed I'd have something like 30k but only got like 17k after the mission. Never mind. Something I really don't like is that after a mission and before you reach the next checkpoint you level up and only then it saves. I might try to skip distributing XP points and try to do it after having saved. Like that I could redo it by reloading a savegame without having to finish some last part of a mission again. By the way, so far I don't think there is a limit to savegame slots, I keeeeeeep saving a lot :)