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LTTP: Alpha Protocol

I love this game and still play it from time to time. The way the story branches and twists based on your actions is amazing.
I followed the game before release and got hyped for it and was disappointed to see all the bad reviews when it was released. I still bit the bullet and bought it anyway and I'm so glad I did.
I always tell people when they borrow it to always pack a shotgun. It's like an "easy" button for combat, which unfortunately is where the game suffers the most.
 

Patryn

Member
Oh, fair warning: If you want a 100 percent no-kill run, you need to be aware of a major bug in one of the missions in Russia:

In the mission where you go to the American embassy, if you choose to sneak into it by taking the roof path, DO NOT engage or takedown the marine patrolling there. Any offensive action, even non-lethal ones, will read as you having killed that guard. In addition, doing so will have major ramifications on the story of the game. So just sneak by and leave him be. In fact, do not engage ANY marines just to be safe.
 
Nah after what you guys have been posting I'm just gonna mix it up between wasting guys and taking them out with normal takedowns =P

Still, I'm only really focusing on building up my Pistol, Stealth and Sabotage skills.
 

Droog

Member
Enjoyed it up till that boss in the disco (or restaurant, can't remember), fuck that guy, talk about ruining a game. You can't have a game that allows for stealth then throw a boss that requires heavy armor and gunning.

Make friends with Stephen Heck (I love this guy too) before this boss fight.
Heck poisons the dudes drugs making this boss fight a cakewalk. I think I discovered this on my third playthrough!
 

Patryn

Member
Make friends with Stephen Heck (I love this guy too) before this boss fight.
Heck poisons the dudes drugs making this boss fight a cakewalk. I think I discovered this on my third playthrough!

Also:
leave him towards the end of the game. Master Chain Shot + Steel Core Bullets. Should only take two chain shots to take him down. Do it right and you'll skip pretty much all the phases.
 

pmj

Member
The game really made me hate Heck. People say he's great and I feel that I've been missing out, but I probably can't humor him on my next playthrough either. I'll have to leave it to the third playthrough, if that ever happens.

But I think you have to try pretty hard to not receive his help, he'll do stuff for you even at -5.
 

Aranath

Member
Oh, fair warning: If you want a 100 percent no-kill run, you need to be aware of a major bug in one of the missions in Russia:

In the mission where you go to the American embassy, if you choose to sneak into it by taking the roof path, DO NOT engage or takedown the marine patrolling there. Any offensive action, even non-lethal ones, will read as you having killed that guard. In addition, doing so will have major ramifications on the story of the game. So just sneak by and leave him be. In fact, do not engage ANY marines just to be safe.

Ah, man, I wish I knew this beforehand. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the game kept saying that I had
killed the marines
. At least I know for next time now. Thanks for the heads up.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
On the second play through I chose to team up with and eventually to
save
SIE in Alpha Protocol and Mike's response when the choice is made is "Guess its time to go cougar hunting" hahahaha

Also teaming up with SIE is so much more helpful than Albatross when it comes to firefights

I also just found out that you get Brayko's gun if you execute him. I wonder if to other people you can choose to execute.

My 'Asshole Run' feels sort of like 'Man on Fire'. I love it. Where my first run was standard 'James Bond' and a little dry.
 

Sotha Sil

Member
Oh, fair warning: If you want a 100 percent no-kill run, you need to be aware of a major bug in one of the missions in Russia:

In the mission where you go to the American embassy, if you choose to sneak into it by taking the roof path, DO NOT engage or takedown the marine patrolling there. Any offensive action, even non-lethal ones, will read as you having killed that guard. In addition, doing so will have major ramifications on the story of the game. So just sneak by and leave him be. In fact, do not engage ANY marines just to be safe.

Ah, thanks. Got this bug during my last no-kill playthrough; kind of spoiled my fun.
 
Picked this up last year for cheap, was blown away by how your choices actually matter. Seriously, it's fucking awesome. Like how in Russia, if you be nice to Grigori, he won't tell Surkov about your presence, resulting in normal security at the embassy. If you be professional, he'll tell Surkov, but security will be relaxed, as Surkov will assume you're friendly. And if you kick the shit out of Grigori, security will be on high alert, and Surkov will be more hostile towards you in conversations, possibly resulting in different events later on.

The writing is top-notch, and I love the humour, especially the e-mails. I'm generally not a fan of Thorton's personality (too much of a snarky douchebag no matter what convo options you choose), but his replies in a lot of e-mails are just fucking hilarious (polar bear rape).

Really wish Obsidian weren't rushed yet again with this one. Customization is kinda lacking compared with what was promised (one of the trailers showed a bunch of clothing options, like a tuxedo, but the game isn't particularly expansive in that department). A few plot threads, like the whole thing with Sis, went nowhere, which reeks of cut content. It'd be nice if someone modded a complete version of the game, like what was done with KOTOR 2.

But Steven Heck makes up for its shortcomings.
The ending where he saves you from that bitch Scarlet, and you both ride off into the sunset, is one of my favourite endings of all time. Honestly.

I loved that ending too.
 

Mr Jared

Member
Are there any mods for the PC version I should be aware of? I originally played this on Xbox, loved it, double-dipped on Steam but never really explored it.
 

Pollux

Member
While I'm loving Alpha Protocol on my first play through, I just want to say that Brayko is frustrating as shit. I've been trying to beat him for over an hour. I'm so tempted to just quit this game, and start over as a stealth build since everyone on here says that's the "best" way to play...
 
While I'm loving Alpha Protocol on my first play through, I just want to say that Brayko is frustrating as shit. I've been trying to beat him for over an hour. I'm so tempted to just quit this game, and start over as a stealth build since everyone on here says that's the "best" way to play...

have you done taipei yet? if not, do it. next time you start the brayko mission you'll have a bit of new intel available which will make it a piece of cake.
 

WX3

Member
Am I the only one that starts a new play through each time one of these lttp threads show up?
 
Am I the only one that starts a new play through each time one of these lttp threads show up?

to be honest I used to until I decided to do a youtube lp of the game on recruit. because I'm a bit of a perfectionist I had to replay sections over and over so many times to get them right for the recording that I burned out after the prologue.
 

Seda

Member
While I'm loving Alpha Protocol on my first play through, I just want to say that Brayko is frustrating as shit. I've been trying to beat him for over an hour. I'm so tempted to just quit this game, and start over as a stealth build since everyone on here says that's the "best" way to play...

Go to Taipei or Rome if you havent. When you come back to Brayko he'll be cake.
 

wondermega

Member
I worked on this game for a good one-and-a-half year of my life and still have not played the end result. I think I ought to pick it up by now :S Happy to see that it is still resonating with people-

I STILL haven't played and the thread bump has reminded me! I might pick it up this weekend finally if they have it at gamestop :/
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
I already did Taipei...can I still go do this thing you're talking about?

I think they're talking about picking up information on him? In the form of dossiers and general intelligence? Or maybe gaining experience.

He's a tough one though due to how vicious he is. When he snorts one out and goes wild try to run away from him (the center area usually works). Run around the square object in the center of the room. When he tires out unload on him using all the skills you can. I recently beat him on Hard and Recruit with a shotgun and toughness. Iron Will when he was about to chase me and 'Clear Room' when he tired out. Of course this is totally dependent on what skills you've chosen to build.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
only if you and heck are bros.

Which, so long as he choose the other options outside of the boring default, he should be. Only time boring option should come into play is the e-mails.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I have it in my backlog and plan to play it soon.
From what I heard it's definitely one of those "flawed" games where while enjoyment can still be had a little more work and polish could have made it outstanding.

luckily I always seem to love games like that.
 

Jhoan

Member
I've already posted in this thread, but having beat it recently trying to do a completely psychopath Hard run (didn't get it; missed 3 that I could've killed), it's still one of my favorite games in terms of choice and consequences. The ME series doesn't come close to this game's weight of your decisions. Psycho Mike is absolutely hilarious. There were a few moments where I felt bad about killing an NPC. I'll try to attempt it again on another run. My next run is going to be to go for the Thorton Inc achievement.

Pollux, Brayko's pretty easy if you spam Chain Shot and use Steel Core bullets. When he snorts the crack run around the box in the middle as he won't be able to catch up to you. I typically leave the Brayko Mansion Assault mission for last. Stealth and Pistol plus the Adrenaline Rush like move and Iron Will break the game.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Which is the most fun way of playing this game, as a stealth game or as an action game just gunning everything down.

I think its most fun as a stealth game. You can play it like Metal Gear where you actively try to get through each checkpoint without being spotted. Run and gun action can be much, much tougher to the point of frustration. But its the type of game where you get into the character you're trying to play as. So asshole + run and gun, Stealth + professional etc.
 

Vossler

Member
I tried this last year after a steam sale pickup....combat is umm, different. Story seemed cool, but the hacking interface was among the worst I've seen. I've plans to go through it, just don't have the time.
 

Mindlog

Member
Which is the most fun way of playing this game, as a stealth game or as an action game just gunning everything down.
I really enjoyed playing through the game with both styles. The most fun I had with the game was tailoring my style to specific missions. I avoided killing 'innocents', but on missions vs 'enemies' I was a murdertrain.
 

Aranath

Member
Which is the most fun way of playing this game, as a stealth game or as an action game just gunning everything down.

I trained up stealth, pistols and assault rifles and went for stealth completion as best I could and then just went on a killing spree if I got caught. I thoroughly enjoyed both playstyles, so as the others have said, just go for whatever seems right for you.
 

pmj

Member
The stealth gameplay isn't exactly stellar, but it's certainly a lot easier and less frustrating than shooting. The gameplay is plain bad and broken no matter what you do, so it's best to stack the odds in your favor, at least if you're planning on playing on hard difficulty.

Going with assault rifles seems particularly hard and unbalanced, though I've yet to try out SMGs. It's actually easier to ditch the heavy armor and sneak with zero points invested in stealth, than it is to shoot your way through most levels.

So anyway, now I'm stuck at the Brayko fight and I'm not sure that this is doable at my current level (which is actually pretty high) and with the equipment I have. It's disheartening to unload a clip into his head at point blank and only take off a tiny sliver of his health. I'd have to give up on the mission progress, but I think I might have to do that and grind a few levels elsewhere, and maybe buy a better gun. Or grind levels and invest just enough points in pistols to get chain shot. Hmm.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
and maybe buy a better gun. Or grind levels and invest just enough points in pistols to get chain shot. Hmm.

I've found just a single point in damage for weapons can be pretty dramatic. Try and mod your weapon of choice to pump out max damage and that should do it.
 

pmj

Member
I doubt weapon mods will be enough as I've yet to get him down even to half health using my current weapon. Abusing his AI allows me to stay alive longer, but eventually he'll catch up and knife me, and it's game over. But I'll get it done somehow; if nothing else I have a couple of easy missions left to gain levels in. I'm not giving up.

A question, do you get anything beyond the occasional acknowledgement in dialogue for not killing anyone in a whole playthrough, and would bosses count toward this?
 
try a hard-as-nails build imo. that's wearing street clothes and killing everyone as noisily as possible.

the more damage you take the more endurance perks you get so it's surprisingly effective (and hilarious).
 

Piano

Banned
Just finished the game. Amazing ending.

I'm really disappointed there's no New Game + option. And I started my playthrough over a year ago when I had no idea it'd be best to do recruit mode so I could unlock veteran.

Dammit. I was hoping to do one more play-through as asshole shoot first talk later martial arts Thorton but I don't want to go through the game one more time just to get to the expanded dialogue options and more action points.
 

Atolm

Member
Just finished the game today. Obsidian and Avellone are amazing, they're light-years ahead of everyone else with the conversations and the branching system.

Now I need to play Fallout New Vegas asap.
 

Sotha Sil

Member
Reviving the thread for a small question, as I'm replaying it these days: I never managed to get the "Prevent Surkov's Escape" mission in Moscow (as a matter of fact, I didn't even know it was possible until quite recently). Is the trigger hidden into Brayko's dialogue tree? Thanks in advance!
 
god I hate alpha protocol. here I am with sleeping dogs, skyrim+dlc, xcom, hitman, dishonoured and at least four or five smaller things like ys to play and I just want to install alpha protocol again.

This is my next playthrough.

so. awesome. the perk which gives you a second wind when you die leads to some incredibly funny moments too.
 
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