Video Game watch

[Rockshilman]

[Gatac]

Sorry, Bioware. But I like Alpha Protocol much better than Mass Effect 2.

For those of you who don't habla, Alpha Protocol is a modern espionage RPG by the (in)famous guys at Obsidian. Obsidian is well-known for delivering 90% of a really, really good game together with 10% headpalm-worthy cuts, bugs and oversights. The best example of this is KotOR 2, which has only now - through fan patches - truly been made into the game it was meant to be. If you want to be nice, call Obsidian games diamonds in the very rough. (Ha, it's a gem joke, get it?)

So it was with this expectation - and several scathing reviews Kasey helpfully pointed out - that I started playing. And fuck me if I didn't fall in love right quick.

Everybody talks about the choices and consequences in this game, and they're not kidding. What you do matters in ways that seem natural when you play it but boggle my mind when I think about it as a writer. Making friends in Moscow helps you in Taipei. Let this guy go to flush his boss out of hiding and you see on the news that terrorists attacked a US base with weapons he supplied and killed twenty Marines. This is in stark fucking contrast to Mass Effect 2, where basically 2/3rds of the game have you chasing down companions and their loyalty subplots with no linkage whatsoever.

Which brings me to my next point, replayability. I already have two more playthroughs of Alpha Protocol planned. Once as Recruit (starts with no skills) who is always aggressive and lone wolf, pissing everybody off and going whatever's the most direct way to finish his mission. And after that, as a Veteran played cynical James Bond style, a suave protector of the status quo who charms the pants off the ladies and buries dirty secrets. I honestly don't know what I would do in a second Mass Effect 2 playthrough. Scan the other half of the universe for minerals? Deliberately not do loyalty missions and watch my teammates die? Focus on getting more Renegade choices? I don't know.

The gear system in ME2 is something I first disliked and grew to tolerate with time. My heart leaps with joy when I think about the AP gear, though. It's got breadth and you can tinker with everything, but unlike ME1, you're not swimming in vendor trash. Instead, most mission pickups are ammo (usually specialty ammo locked in rooms, though some enemies drop normal rounds) and cash. There's really no reason why you wouldn't want more specialty ammo, and with cash, you can just buy what you actually want on the black market. Now I recognize what ME2 was trying to do with their "upgrade" system, but this is much more satisfying to me - just the right amount of fiddly.

The combat is very...game-y. Like, old-school gaming. Line up your crosshairs for critical shots! A lot of people criticize that weapons are really inaccurate in this game, and I suppose they are if you're firing wildly and moving and generally - well, playing like ME2. If you want to get in people's faces, use the shotguns or SMGs. (I'm gonna try the SMGs next playthrough, actually - they seem like they'd be really good for running and gunning with some skill points in them.) The movement options are similarly game-y, with specific interaction spots. You can jump down here, or you can climb up here, but you can generally drop down from a ledge and climb over a fence away from those spots. It's a less naturalistic way than ME2's system, but I find in practice that it's not too limiting and that there's usually multiple ways to move through missions. Speaking of which, viable fucking stealth. One of the best things in the game is the Evasion ability, which - if you get spotted - gives you a few seconds of auto-stealth. It has a cooldown measured in minutes, which ensures you don't have it to cover for every fuckup, but it's a great "There when you really need it" ability. If you really didn't see that one guard coming around the corner. If you really need to dart from cover to cover across a guard's view. If you really need to rush this guy and take him down before he can sound the alarm. It's tense, and makes me feel badass when I pull it off smoothly. In comparison, ME2's Infiltrator and his pissy tactical cloak can get fucked. In the ass. With a razor.

The minigames break down like this: bypassing security panels or cameras leads to a switchboard with pins leading to nodes via traces, and you have to connect the right pins in the right order. More difficult circuits have more nodes and more labyrinthine traces. The first time I got a circuit where traces actually crossed, I grinned and thought "you motherfuckers". It's more difficult than ME2's "find the right pin pair and connect it" minigame, but it feels less samey and more satisfying. Lockpicking has you align pins and fixing them when they're in place. This is pretty easy with a mouse and keyboard setup. The last is the much maligned hacking, where you have to match two character strings in a sea of changing characters, and the strings move occasionally, too. I won't lie, it's the hardest minigame and the least suited to its PC controls. But it's far from impossible, and now that I've got it feels natural enough. We'll take ME2's mineral scanning minigame and call this one even, okay?

Now, the story and writing - this is where Alpha Protocol really shines. The framing device (flash forward to a debriefing with the bad guy) is a brilliant method to contextualize and tie the single missions together, and you get a good arc going even with the freedom of jumping between mission hubs. It's not as free as ME2's universe exploration, but you do almost always have a choice what to do next. Plus, as I said above, the order in which you do missions actually does matter. Make friends here, they back you up there. Hack a computer there, blackmail your contact for cash or intel here. Also, the moral ambiguity really works for me, and I find that I do some fairly involved roleplaying there. Take Steven Heck, for example, one of your possible allies who's like Burn Notice's Sam Axe crossed with a sociopathic conspiracy theorist, voiced by Nolan North. (In other words, completely awesome.) I buddied up to him in my first meeting and we became fast friends, but then he "helped" me do a hotel infiltration and got too trigger-happy. I've been back-pedaling from him ever since. I actually do give a fuck what my allies do and who my allies are in this game.

A big up for my man Michael Thorton, who's a bit low-key acted at times but comes through with a consistent wry sense of humor. Meeting assholes, playing them for all they're worth and then gloating about it is the best thing.

Oh, and your safehouses. Really cool, and you get what's effectively your own private batcave in Taipei. You really get a good feel of being a globetrotting superspy, and the messaging function is both deeper and less annoying than in ME2. (Yes, I'm talking about Kelly, aka Miss "I'll just shout if there's something so you don't really need to talk to me, but if you do I'll tell you the same thing with some psychobabble added! Also I'm really hot for aliens!") Incidentally, Heck sends you emails about his latest conspiracy gibberish. You get the option of replying to that with "Dear Steven, shut the fuck up. Love, Michael."

Whoever decided to put bossfights into this game should be shot, however. It's actually here, where the game feels the most like ME2, that it sucks the most. Fortunately, Chain Shot makes them less painful, and with my stealth specialisation I've actually been able to sneak up to several bosses and take them down with a close combat move. (In that case, sneaking past the guards / taking them down silently becomes a boss fight of sorts. I very, very much prefer that to pumping bullets into a target.)

Speaking of Chain Shot, the pistol is this game's sniper rifle. (Except when you do have sniper rifles in the mission, but you can't take those with you.) This isn't very realistic but kinda makes sense - pistols are all about surgically removing single enemies. Assault rifles kinda come second in the sniper department, but shine at really long ranges where it's sometimes hard to line up Chain Shot exactly where you want it to go. Still, if you're like me and love being sneaky and maybe not killing people, then a silenced pistol with tranq rounds will be your best friend and easily see you through 90% of the fights.

In conclusion...er...I think I'll go back to playing AP now.
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Gatac: Just making sure you are aware of life-saving buttsex.
Punkey: I've always been aware of life-saving buttsex. Best Red Cross training weekend ever.