Fimbulvetr
Member
Just finished Alpha Protocol, like, two hours ago. It honestly surprised me how much I enjoyed it.
Choice:
Michael Thorton: As far as protagonists functioning as avatars go, Mike works. Im pretty cool with blank slates, but tend to prefer avatars that have a basic semblance of character; enough that they themselves arent entirely boring and it makes their interactions with other characters more believable, but not so much that the choices youre allowed to make dont gel with it.
The best part is player influenced characterization thats actually acknowledged by the game. You talk about being a patriot to everyone, theyll bring it up in other conversations. Stuff like that gives off the feeling that youre adding more to Mike than just a few throw away lines that will be forgotten as soon as the scene they came up in is over.
Dialogue: At last, the dialogue wheel has a tangible reason for existence. Okay, its not exactly a wheel in AP, but its the same basic concept; a simplified interface for that allows the player to quickly asses their choices by making the process of choosing faster, paraphrasing dialogue, and giving options with similar effects consistent placement within that interface. The actual change is usually just cosmetic, since picking choices from a list isnt much harder and the end result with the wheel is just that its slightly faster. Some would even argue stuff like paraphrasing is counterproductive when it ends up not getting the point of the full line across to the player.
In making dialogue timed around the flow of a normal conversation, AP made the streamlining of dialogue choices worthwhile. You need to be quick with your words, so being able to switch options very quickly, knowing where certain choices will be beforehand, and paraphrasing need to be there or none of it would work. And since, as stated earlier, timed dialogue flows more naturally, it not only spices up the meta-game behind dialogue choices, but also feels much better from presentation standpoint.
Intel: Like logs, minus the realization that everyone in the universe mustve randomly decided to write diary entries based entirely around whats happening in the story and scatter them exactly where youd happen to be passing. So its more Metroid Prime than Bioshock.
Being able to bring up Intel during dialogue was ace, both because it added credence to the Intel itself and it worked as an alternative to special stat based dialogue choices. They also helped in planning how to garner different effects on the influence of characters youve never met, without outright giving you the answer.
Influence: Not much to say here. I liked how characters would gain or lose it even for stuff like how you complete a mission (Though it might be a bit biased, as stealthy non-lethal runs tended to garner the most praise. Then again, I can see someone like SIE or Heck responding positively to up-front murder fests).
Stuff that isnt choice, I guess:
Gunplay was weird, but it didnt really phase me much since I was playing a Stealth build. So shooting only came up when I wasnt just KO-ing people from behind, but even then it usually only consisted of the occasional silenced potshot to the head while hiding behind something. Bossfights were easy enough with just melee and a shotgun. I almost never used a gadget that wasnt an EMP.
None of it was especially frustrating though, so theres that.
TL;DR: Player agency in Alpha Protocol actually adds a lot to both gameplay and story where most non-Obsidian companies would end up with jarring disconnects, and missed opportunities. Everything else was meh, but the way Choice/Consequence worked was enough to carry the entire game for me.
Choice:
Michael Thorton: As far as protagonists functioning as avatars go, Mike works. Im pretty cool with blank slates, but tend to prefer avatars that have a basic semblance of character; enough that they themselves arent entirely boring and it makes their interactions with other characters more believable, but not so much that the choices youre allowed to make dont gel with it.
The best part is player influenced characterization thats actually acknowledged by the game. You talk about being a patriot to everyone, theyll bring it up in other conversations. Stuff like that gives off the feeling that youre adding more to Mike than just a few throw away lines that will be forgotten as soon as the scene they came up in is over.
Dialogue: At last, the dialogue wheel has a tangible reason for existence. Okay, its not exactly a wheel in AP, but its the same basic concept; a simplified interface for that allows the player to quickly asses their choices by making the process of choosing faster, paraphrasing dialogue, and giving options with similar effects consistent placement within that interface. The actual change is usually just cosmetic, since picking choices from a list isnt much harder and the end result with the wheel is just that its slightly faster. Some would even argue stuff like paraphrasing is counterproductive when it ends up not getting the point of the full line across to the player.
In making dialogue timed around the flow of a normal conversation, AP made the streamlining of dialogue choices worthwhile. You need to be quick with your words, so being able to switch options very quickly, knowing where certain choices will be beforehand, and paraphrasing need to be there or none of it would work. And since, as stated earlier, timed dialogue flows more naturally, it not only spices up the meta-game behind dialogue choices, but also feels much better from presentation standpoint.
Intel: Like logs, minus the realization that everyone in the universe mustve randomly decided to write diary entries based entirely around whats happening in the story and scatter them exactly where youd happen to be passing. So its more Metroid Prime than Bioshock.
Being able to bring up Intel during dialogue was ace, both because it added credence to the Intel itself and it worked as an alternative to special stat based dialogue choices. They also helped in planning how to garner different effects on the influence of characters youve never met, without outright giving you the answer.
Influence: Not much to say here. I liked how characters would gain or lose it even for stuff like how you complete a mission (Though it might be a bit biased, as stealthy non-lethal runs tended to garner the most praise. Then again, I can see someone like SIE or Heck responding positively to up-front murder fests).
Stuff that isnt choice, I guess:
Gunplay was weird, but it didnt really phase me much since I was playing a Stealth build. So shooting only came up when I wasnt just KO-ing people from behind, but even then it usually only consisted of the occasional silenced potshot to the head while hiding behind something. Bossfights were easy enough with just melee and a shotgun. I almost never used a gadget that wasnt an EMP.
None of it was especially frustrating though, so theres that.
TL;DR: Player agency in Alpha Protocol actually adds a lot to both gameplay and story where most non-Obsidian companies would end up with jarring disconnects, and missed opportunities. Everything else was meh, but the way Choice/Consequence worked was enough to carry the entire game for me.
