ALPHA protocol

[Art Blade]

OK, here's the deal: Purchase it while you can (now). Then think as long as you need about whether or not to install and play it.  ;D

[Art Blade]

ah, on second thoughts.. the game is about choices.. some of them have to be made really quickly.. OK, forget it.  >:D

[mandru]

 :-D

[PZ]

Like always, I love the spoilers!  :-D

[JRD]

you gettin' the game?  ;D

I know I am, but will wait for the STEAM fire sale near Christmas!  ;) 8)

[PZ]

I know I am, but will wait for the STEAM fire sale near Christmas!  ;) 8)

I forgot about the fire sale - great idea - I think I'll do the same.  AC Brotherhood is going to keep my busy until then.  >:D

[Art Blade]

I think I'll be either still playing AP or return to playing it when you guys finally get it at the end of the year. :)

[PZ]

Sounds like we're going to need to add another board  :-()

[Art Blade]

might come in handy  ;D

[JRD]

As this is now an official post at the new AP board, I can say:

Not a physically open world game, but an open minded game as you do influence story and it won't go linear for too long!  :-X :-X :-X

[Art Blade]

indeed. :)

[Art Blade]

Oh man, I'm on my fourth playthrough (let's not forget about some variations I played using savegames) and only now I managed to find out yet another cool thing.. I was always wondering how to start a romance with Madison, this time I got lucky, so to speak. The interesting part is that this led to information that made me go  ??? wow, this game never ceases to amaze me  :-X

By the way, I started a topic for those character-specific infos and used spoiler tags for delicate info. :)

[Art Blade]

yay! I finally managed to kill Conrad Marburg! This requires planning and you need to do it across half the game to get it right  ;D woo-hoo!  >:D

[Art Blade]

I'm not exactly sure how many times I played this game through now, I believe it's four or five times (the problem is that I resorted to savegames and continued from there sometimes to find out what would happen if you did this or that, so in a way it's more than just those complete playthroughs).

However, so far no end has been the same. There are numerous endings of the game  :) :-X

Also, there are a couple of beginnings (depending on where you want to start, like Taipei, Rome or Moscow) that change how forthcoming events play out.  :) :-X

Although during various playthroughs you'll come across dialogues that will be familiar, but most of the times you have options, a lot of options, to change the dialogue and by that events in the game. Playing this through various times just makes you feel more comfortable, you'll know how to move and how certain things w@&k -- for example, once I found out that those EMPs (devices like grenades, used to disable electronics and to bypass locks) are the easiest way to "hack" computers or disable alarms (although alarms can be deactivated by a fake radio message, another gadget) and that using EMPs 25+ times will increase your carrying capacity from two to three per slot, and that you won't need more than 3x3 EMPs per mission (well, some locks can be picked manually to save some EMPs), life was a LOT easier.

In the beginning stealth is very difficult. I think most people who want to try stealth will give up that approach more than once during missions until they start a new career. Because by the end of the game you'll have enough experience and will know that stealth is a cool way to play AP. You don't need to, but most missions will play out a lot better and the benefits for playing stealthily are great. Generally speaking, the game rewards you for everything you do, but most of the best rewards come along with thoughtful play, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed and playing along with major characters (befriend them). Not always easy, might take a couple of tries (or playthroughs) but then.. :) The game gets better every time you play it.  :-X

Still, I cheat two times during the game (early on).

First, I treat myself to a LOT of tranquiliser rounds because I don't want to kill people and because tranquiliser rounds are rare and extremely expensive (something I don't understand, you can only carry like 30 or so around with you, later, with perks and upgrades, 50 to maybe 70, and buying them costs a fortune while finding them randomly scattered across the game is, well, random).

Second, I help myself to a lot of money so I can buy all intel and favourite weapons and armour. Of course I wouldn't need to do that, but it allows for a lot more fun and it gives me a lot to read (dossiers, emails).

With that, the game is exceptionally good :) I still need to get to know the arms dealers to unlock the good stuff step by step, so I don't cheat like the uber weapon and mega armour right from start, all I do is changing my background ("funding")  ;D

The stories and missions are still fun and I enjoy playing them every time. During my last playthrough I basically played exclusively with a pistol (the Assault Rifle was mere decoration on my back) and concentrated a lot to line up shots and shoot accurately. Before the end game (after that you can't see your overall stats) I had around 600 pistol shots fired and an accuracy of 96%  ;D

[Art Blade]

Finished yet another playthrough, this time around 560 pistol shots and incredible 100% accuracy  ;D - whenever I missed a target with the pistol, I replayed from the last checkpoint, hehe  :)

I tried different paths again and indeed the game surprised me with unexpected dialogues and scenes I hadn't seen before. As a variant, I chose to annoy some characters that I usually befriend and I managed to get to see that scene when Madison whacks me over the head with a statue and finishes me off with a shock trap. Hilarious  ;D Also, making reckless decisions sometimes payed off in unexpected ways, I thought I'd be "punished" but no.. the game has perks for everything you do but as mentioned before, the "good guy" type of playing is more rewarding. A good mixture of bad guy and good guy however keeps the game at balance and it is doable (probably always, no matter what you do, unless you manage to croak  :-D ).

It must have been the seventh playthrough now and still there are things left to do differently. I kept some things that I liked about previous playthroughs which I wanted to keep by all means and deviated when I thought it might be worth a try. A lot of fun, still  :)

[PZ]

Wow - 7th time through - sounds like lots of replay value to me  ;)

[Art Blade]

Add one to that  ;D (Started yet another playthrough)  :-D

[Art Blade]

you know, although this game has a couple of characteristics that are typical for linear games (can't free roam, levels may contain sections you can't go back to) there still is a lot of freedom. There are several missions that allow you to get from one point to another point using different paths (literally, paths, or there are buildings with stair cases and catwalks etc that connect one section with another one). It is more than likely that you won't find the best paths at once.

So it is even more surprising and satisfactory if and when --during a different playthrough-- you found a path or staircase or platform etc that suits your style. Sometimes you can crouch around on the ground floor, but the same level may offer alternative paths using ladders, stairs, or jump from one rooftop to another one etc. So even if the mission design is somewhat linear, you may still find different approaches :)

[Art Blade]

Incredible. I've seen yet another outcome of one mission which led to a totally different start of another mission.

This time I used a different handler "B" for mission 1 which automatically made mission 2 start with that same handler "B". Usually I play Mission 1 with handler "A" and mission 2 either starts with "A" or allows me to choose between "A" or "B."

Handler "A" is stealthy and silent, mission 2 starts with a covert operation type of play, and with "B" I was really surprised to see myself in an armoured personnel carrier (APC) armed with a machine gun I found myself manning and started to shoot the living daylights out of guards I formerly took out with a silenced weapon or a sniper rifle from an elevated position.  ??? :-X

[Art Blade]

found an early vid (I hid it in the spoiler, hehe) recorded before AP was released -- you'll have a quick glance at a woman in an orange suit, Madison, with long hair, which is cut short in the release version. Also, some HUD elements are a little different.

However that vid basically shows us some part of what I've told you in my previous post.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdPkKbnyeME

[Art Blade]

This is insane, my eighth playthrough and still new stuff to see, new dialogues to listen to and new events to admire. I even had Brayko (one Russian mafia boss) send some support to Rome and after the mission I received a "well done" email from Brayko  ??? :-D :-X Also, SIE supported me some more.. it's just so cool.  :)

[Art Blade]

Finished the 8th playthrough: For the first time I had Scarlet with me when I left the island, never managed that before :)

This playthrough was kind of funny because at least 75% of the game I played as usual (stealth, avoiding kills by using non-lethal means, being friendly with people) which gained me nice and wanted perks and benefits. For some reason however.. ah, I remember: because I was testing ammo pouch capacities combined with various weapon upgrades which led to posting a new topic about those pouches.. so that made me reload and reload one particular savegame again, and again, and again.. until I was both finished testing and fed up starting from the same point all over. So that was the reason why I needed to vent off a little and went on a killing spree not overly concerned about accuracy and body count.

I went through missions like a hot knife through butter. It is so easy (quick) to play through if you kill everything that has at least as many legs as you have, and during like two missions I acquired perks for my assault rifle for the first 50 headshots and then accumulating 100 headshots ("In an impressive display of homicide, you scored 100 head shots with your Assault Rifle over your career.") yet another one. Hehe  ;D Also, my latest discovery, Flash Bangs, resulted in a perk with another nice description ("Having rendered 50 enemies languishing in a state of partial blindness and bleeding ears, you have proven yourself a master of flashbang tactics.")  ;D I didn't give a toss about "fellow American" agents when raiding the US embassy, and each kill of my countrymen (well, in the game they are) resulted in -1 rep with Mina Tang, in the end I went from +10 to a measly +1 with her.. so I killed her too. >:D It was great fun playing the game differently from that point after the ammo pouch testing, I might give it another try and start playthrough #9 as a real badass and I might swap my assault rifle for a shotgun because shotties have a very special ammo type.. phosphorous slugs. Which set targets on fire.  :-D

[Art Blade]

OK, #9 on the way.  :)

I took a short cut starting off somewhere in Saudi Arabia from a savegame, skipping the tutorial (as I had mastered that already the best way possible). I had to go back to the Middle East because I didn't find any shotties at the arms dealer right after that part of the game and I didn't want to walk around until I found someone. Also, I did want to kill a few people I had spared before that point. I want to know what the game will be like if those are dead.

And.. I bought a big shotgun with a few upgrades (sold my assault rifle). Then the first mission with phosphorous slugs.. LOL >:D Not only does one shot set a few people on fire (if they were standing close to one another), those guys usually even explode! (Unfortunately they don't rip apart and come raining down at you) What exactly exploded, I don't know.. probably their hand grenades which I set off by setting the bearer on fire  :-D I had to reload a savegame once because I didn't expect those explosions to eat away my armour and health.. I was about to croak after I killed someone up close and personal because I was in his blast radius and the force was immense ;D

And I had a good laugh when I combined flashbangs and my shotgun.. In a small courtyard with only two guards I placed a flashbang on the ground so one guard would step on it on his next round. Meanwhile I snuck up on the other guard and waited in his back with my shotgun ready.. when the flashbang set off, "my" guard turned around and ate a bucket full of burning pellets. While running to the second guard who was still holding his ears I heard the first guard explode behind me. Then that second guard got my knife run through his neck. No alarm was raised.  >:D

I love this game  ;D :-X

[eor123]

Browsed though the thread and watched some videos. Although I'm not a big fan of RPG's and prefer FPS's I thought I would give this a shot. Otherwise, it meets much of the criteria I look for in a game -- high immersive potential and realism.

[Art Blade]

That is good news :) And I'm sure I can provide help if needed :)

When I think about how I got into AP: I had never heard about it until I accidentally happened upon it (because I kept checking on Tez's new vids who just so happened to play it). It didn't look toooooo promising but somehow it had something that never let me rest until I saw it in my favourite games shop, so I bought it along with other games. I had started with Wings of Prey but kept thinking about AP, so I installed it although I hadn't finished WoP, the rest is history. I believe it is even cooler than HitMan, which was already a game I loved and still do :)