Alpha Protocol Already Getting Bad Reviews :(((

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kingkiller33

CAGiversary!
Dammit, I was so looking forward to this game. Even preordered on Amazon. But I checked metacritic, and low 70s score. I have a feeling this will price drop so fast that I'll feel like a total moron for dropping 50 bones on it.

The thing that appealed to me was the promise of high replayability and having numerous choices. It is the #1 game element that I love and the sole reason why I play Mass Effect many times.
 
They need to make a 24 game where you have a bunch of different choices and possible outcomes. I think this is what alpha protocol was trying to be.
 
Eurogamer gave it 7/10. Remember, they gave Red Dead Redemption a 8/10. Wait for more reviews before you get too down on it.

That being said, I'm not expecting a lot out of this game.
 
Wow, Joystiq just trashed it. Basically said the thing is a mess and totally broken. Obviously the countless delays were a bad sign.
 
Yeah, Joystiq really shat on this one. With a 6 month delay, it really makes you wonder what exactly they did in that time that still let them release a "technical nightmare" of a game.
 
I realize all the reviews aren't out yet, but the ones that are were enough to make me cancel my pre-order. I really, really wanted this to be good, but it seems like it's mediocre, at best.

Figure I'll hold off and just snag it when the price inevitably drops like a rock.
 
1Up's Video Review by Sharkey, the most cynical reviewer out there, is very good. I cancelled my Best Buy Pre-order but I will hopefully get it from Kmart on release day for cheap. I'm getting it!
 
Watch 1ups game night with it... its a buggy nightmare and you wont want it. I had real high hopes for it and like I said before I hope this doesnt scare away other developers from using the Mass Effect formula in their creations, it's still an untapped game type that I love.
 
Destructoid shat on this one too.
Jim Sterling (I know, I know, he's not everybody's favorite, but I trust his reviews) gave it a 2/10.
That's pretty damning. I didn't believe his 4/10 for FFXIII and after spending the money I realized what I waste it was...

I've been fully convinced to cancel my preorder and either rent it or wait for it to drop to $20.
Really disappointed.

Oh well, back to RDR.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']Wow, Joystiq just trashed it. Basically said the thing is a mess and totally broken. Obviously the countless delays were a bad sign.[/QUOTE]

Like I wrote in the K-Mart thread, keep in mind the Joystiq review was written by Justin McElroy... the guy who couldn't understand the concept of fishing in Nier even when the game told him right where to go, and his entire "review" was just a video of him whining about it.

I wouldn't put any of his reviews as credible after that.

It may not be a good game but I wouldn't judge it based on one or two reviews from a few blogs who seem to be giving it to their least credible writers.
 
Listen to me. Reviews these days do not mean shit. Look into a game, read up on it , and then decide for yourself. Talk to people on here that have played both other games you and they agreed upon and get their input. Judge things for yourself.

Personally I have found that I have enjoyed the hell out of alot of things that reviewers have shit all over. On the other hand, I have had games that the reviewers pretty much gave the dev's blowjobs over and I personally didnt care for them.

Moral of the story: Decide for yourself. Maybe there might be some issues in a game that bother you but the game as a whole ends up being something you love.
 
I'm still getting it because I don't always agree with McElroy or Sterling (that AC 2 score I'll never get over his logic) and I want to support games using the ME formula.

Whomever that was at Sony or Sega that trashed the game in that leaked document that caused the delay from Oct. 09 to June 10 can go fuck themselves. If this game had come out then (and by all looks it's the same as it was then) then it would be getting better reviews even by the likes of McElroy and Sterling.

But now we've had Dragon Age (and an expansion), Mass Effect 2, FF XIII, and to a lesser extent, NIER, Resonance of Fate, and Record of Agarest War so the RPG market is super crowded, and that's not counting Fable 3 and Fallout New Vegas coming out in the fall.

If this came out last Oct., it's the 2nd best RPG of the year behind Dragon Age. Now it's lucky if it will be in the top 5 of 2010.

I would say either get this for $45 at Kmart (or price match it at BB, WM, Target) next week, or wait until this fall when it'll be $30 or so. I've been waiting with baited breath for this game for 2 years and just hope it's a fun ride. I've given up on it being a long-delayed but classic game like Alan Wake is, now I just want Mass Effect 1 ish spy RPG that fun but slightly flawed.

Oh and Fallout fans, Obsidian is doing Fallout New Vegas also don't forget. It may already have the engine in place, but so did KOTOR 2 and remember what happened when they had a strict deadline for that one.
 
Here's some gameplay for youz guyz: http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-alpha-protocol/17-2551/

Everyone listens to reviews nowadays so no one is gonna buy this sadly if the score pattern keeps up. This is good for me though when it's $20 in a month or two :) but bad for Sega/Obsidian.... If they didn't delay the game maybe it would have done decent but after Mass Effect 2 and around the time of other anticipated, they kinda fucked them selves in the knee. I get it if they need to fix some bugs or something but people only have so many 60 bucks to spend on all these games and keep a house lol.
 
A couple things:

Find a reviewer/writer who has similar tastes to you. For everyone who hates FFXIII there are a just as many who like it. Keep in mind Justin enjoyed Metro 2033 through its flaws, that might clue you in to his taste and style. Sterling giving a game a 4/10 or 2/10 is him just trying to make his name synonymous with not being afraid to had out sub 6 scores and trashing unpolished/oddball/unique games.

Also, don't be afraid to cancel a preorder if a review is swaying you. I've kept a couple stinkers preordered and had difficulty getting any resale value out of them after I finished them (even that same week).

Lastly, a game will always (with very few exceptions) go down in price.
 
[quote name='Spyder187']Listen to me. Reviews these days do not mean shit. Look into a game, read up on it , and then decide for yourself. Talk to people on here that have played both other games you and they agreed upon and get their input. Judge things for yourself.

Personally I have found that I have enjoyed the hell out of alot of things that reviewers have shit all over. On the other hand, I have had games that the reviewers pretty much gave the dev's blowjobs over and I personally didnt care for them.

Moral of the story: Decide for yourself. Maybe there might be some issues in a game that bother you but the game as a whole ends up being something you love.[/QUOTE]


Well it's hard to ignore the reviewers when they are all consistantly saying the game sucks. If Alpha had at least 1 or 2 good reviews, that would sway me. Gamespot just gave it a 60

With that said, I'm back on the fence. It seems the biggest gripes are the graphics, controls and shooting. The decision making and story is the part that I am interested in. I love making decisions and seeing it affect the outcome of the game. Less than stellar graphics don't bother me, and I can live with texture pop in. Hell, Mass Effect 1 had horrible texture pop in, yet it got a free pass on that one!

The real pisser is this game is pretty much the biggest title for the entire month. It's gonna be another dry summer for new games.
 
i was really excited for this game up until i saw some actual gameplay footage and it just looks so bland and boring. then i remembered its got the Sega name on it so i have no interest in picking this game up ever.
 
I was always afraid of this game, knowing what Obsidian did the KOTOR II. I had pre-ordered nevertheless, but I canceled today. Too risky for too much money. Will get it via Gamefly or when it drops to 10 bucks.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']The real pisser is this game is pretty much the biggest title for the entire month.[/QUOTE]

Transformers: War for Cybertron hits at the end of the month. It may end up not being very good, but I'd probably put it above Alpha Protocol for "biggest title" released in June.
 
I've played a few games with scores in teh low 70's (and enjoyed them), but I may pass on this one.

We still have Naughty Bear and Rock Band: Green Day in June, so those will probably eclipse Alpha Protocol.
 
[quote name='animalspinners']Like I wrote in the K-Mart thread, keep in mind the Joystiq review was written by Justin McElroy... the guy who couldn't understand the concept of fishing in Nier even when the game told him right where to go, and his entire "review" was just a video of him whining about it.

I wouldn't put any of his reviews as credible after that.

It may not be a good game but I wouldn't judge it based on one or two reviews from a few blogs who seem to be giving it to their least credible writers.[/QUOTE]
That video wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Nier was a terrible game.

Anyways, I'm really disappointed. Still might pick it up just because I love the premise, but I'm wavering now.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']The real pisser is this game is pretty much the biggest title for the entire month. It's gonna be another dry summer for new games.[/QUOTE]

Tiger Woods, Rock Band: Green Day, and Transformers are all bigger brand name games. Alpha Protocol is even with Singularity as the new IP's with the most coverage. The biggest test will be what sells more, Alpha Protocol, or Backbreaker as they come out the same day.

Crackdown 2 is the first week of July, then you spend the rest of the summer catching up on backlogs, buying XBLA/PSN games, or get into football if you like EA Sports football with NCAA in July and Madden in August. Dead Rising 2 is end of August, and then Halo Reach kicks off the fall gaming season the 2nd week of Sept.
 
1Up just gave it a B+ (83 equivalent on Metacritic.) Jim Sterling on Destructoid gave it a 4.0 (but he gave AC 2 a 4.0 and FF XIII a 2.0.)

It's going to be around a 65-75 on Metacritic. Decent, flawed game that is fun for fans of the genre. It's the equivalent of people who bought Nier, Resonance of Fate, or Record of Agarest War and really liked them, or those who bought Metro 2033 and really liked that despite its flaws.
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']1Up just gave it a B+ (83 equivalent on Metacritic.) Jim Sterling on Destructoid gave it a 4.0 (but he gave AC 2 a 4.0 and FF XIII a 2.0.)

[/QUOTE]

Actually he gave this a 2.0 and FFXIII a 4.0. I actually agreed with him on FFXIII (though I couldn't have disagreed more on ACII). Given that a consensus seems to be forming, I went ahead and canceled my pre-order. I still have Alan Wake and Just Cause 2 to play through once I finish RDR, by the time that happens AP is likely to be cheap.
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']1Up just gave it a B+ (83 equivalent on Metacritic.) Jim Sterling on Destructoid gave it a 4.0 (but he gave AC 2 a 4.0 and FF XIII a 2.0.)

It's going to be around a 65-75 on Metacritic. Decent, flawed game that is fun for fans of the genre. It's the equivalent of people who bought Nier, Resonance of Fate, or Record of Agarest War and really liked them, or those who bought Metro 2033 and really liked that despite its flaws.[/QUOTE]


Anything that bloody doucherag Jim Sterling writes should be ignored. Any and everything that he writes has about as much credibility as a piece of shit in the toilet does. :lol:

I mean christ look at his review of Deadly Premonition. :roll: I agree it was good for being a $20 game but come on...
 
[quote name='VipFREAK']If this is any indication of the game... PASS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-OIUe3rHzM[/QUOTE]
That actually made me intrigued... I like the fact that as you level up you are a better shot ect. Like ME1... then you take that out it just turns into a shooter like ME2. Which some like, I don't. I'll play Uncharted, Gears and CoD for that.
 
Is that really AP? It says AP2 in the title.

I don't like the idea, then again... I tried ME1 and hated it. I've avoided ME2 since. They just aren't my kind of games and I doubt this one is either.
 
I'll buy it eventually. I've enjoyed games that reviews shit on (see: Velvet Assassin). Point is, whether you trust reviews or not, they help make or break whether you keep that full price day-one pre-order. In this case, I can't justify it.

Just today, that same $60 I earmarked for Alpha Protocol got me SSFIV, Trauma Team, and 3D Dot Heroes. From what I've seen of AP, this seems like the better choice.

It's a fucking shame, too, because I've been amped about AP for years now. Regardless, if this sells anywhere near where I think it will, I guarantee it hits $20 within 3 months, tops.
 
Killbomb posted this over in the Deals Forum...

[quote name='Killbomb']Taken from the AP board on another site as posted by Re_Animator:

"This was posted on Joystiq, and the information he provides just makes me feel bad for him and others who worked/are working there...

a tired dev @ May 28th 2010 2:37PM

I worked on this game (a fact of which I am not proud). I'm not here to defend it; I agree with all these reviews.

First, a comment for the guy at Cheesecake Factory - Most devs eat in the office most days, if they do go out they tend to grab something at the food court and head back. I know the execs take long lunches, but they often use them for informal meetings as well. Most of the programmers and designers very rarely ate outside the office during the time I was on this project.

There was a ton of work put into this game. The problem is that is was a ton of undirected work, or work on things that were just stupid. The Executive Producer for the game, Chris Parker (also an owner of the company), seemed to think he was the world's greatest designer ever, and created all these absolutely ****** systems and wouldn't listen to any of the real designers or devs about things that just didn't work. And you can't exactly argue with one of the owners of the company when he doesn't want to listen. He basically took over the game and dictated exactly how everything would work (or not work, as the case may be). The other producers realized this early on and just gave up, leaving Parker to micromanage all the designers and programmers directly.

Sega also was a factor, because they kept changing the design requirements (yes they had heavy influence there), which never gave the producers and designers time to actually decide on one set of features to make and polish. The blame is still mostly Obsidian's because the execution was absolutely terrible, and it was obvious 2 years ago that this game should have been scrapped. Instead, though, they focused on adding still more features and never fixed the ones they already had. That is a recipe for tons of bugs and no polish... as is obvious.

This game was just an absolute failure of production, and it's no wonder that so many of the developers left the company, even after the 40% staff layoffs. I am still happy about some of Obsidian's other current projects, New Vegas included, because they are going pretty well. Their big unannounced project is looking great and is already much better than AP ever was, and that may end up being the game that everyone was looking for with AP.

Sega should have canceled AP instead of Aliens..."


Looks like it's probably legit.[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='Fjordson']http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-alpha-protocol/17-2551/

Giant Bomb quick look. Doesn't look too promising. Jeff does say he's digging the characters, stories and conversation aspects of the game, though.[/QUOTE]


the menu for customizing weapons and your skills/talents looks really well done...but my god the gameplay & shooting looks painful. definitely doesn't look like a game you would have fun playing
 
I've been watching people play the game live via streams and I've got to say...not impressed. It was one of the games I was looking forward to this summer and I'm waiting for it to hit bargain bin status, which won't be long. Voice acting was awful and the visuals looked bland. One guy even went so far as to pull the game out of the console and take a pair of scissors to it. I think it was a burned copy anyways, but he was pretty fed up with everything about it.
 
I was going to blind buy this, but I can't ignore all of the reviews. 2/10? 4/10? B+? 7? The reviews for this are all over the place. I really want to play it, but I can't get this at full price. I just can't. It pains me to say this because I've waited for over a year for this.

It also doesn't give me much hope for New Vegas.
 
Just sent an email to Gamestop, thats the second time I have canceled my AP preorder.
The first time was because of the delay games they were playing.​

Up until about an hour ago, was really looking forward to AP. Despite some of the reviews, had no problems paying $45 for a game somewhat like ME, just with wonky controls and questionable AI.​

Then I saw the Giant Bomb video.​

No thank you Obsidian.
See you in the Fall, or maybe not.

----edit

Just found an email from Gamestop, they don't want the it either, order is still going to ship.​
 
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UPS dropped it off a couple hours ago.
Trying to figure out if I should keep it or not now that it's in my hands.

I take back what I said after watching several gameplay streams, it doesn't look that bad. Sure it isn't pretty but it looks better then it did a few days ago.

Might end up flipping a coin later to decide.
 
Wow, this game looks terrible going by that GiantBomb QL. It looks so generic and clunky, the AI reminds me of an early PS2 game to be honest.

I'll still play it, but I'm going to wait until it is alongside Dark Sector in the bargain bin.
 
From everything I've personally seen, heard, or watched, this game seems like it belongs in the $20 range.

It's one accomplishment is that it has inspired me to go play more Mass Effect.
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']From everything I've personally seen, heard, or watched, this game seems like it belongs in the $20 range.

It's one accomplishment is that it has inspired me to go play more Mass Effect.[/QUOTE]

What wouldn't inspire you to go play more Mass Effect?
 
I'll probably give in and grab this tomorrow. I watched gameplay videos and stuff and it really doesn't look bad at all to me.
 
If you liked Mass Effect 1 you'll probably enjoy this game. If you hated the combat from Mass Effect 1 then stay far away. I'm having fun so far. No issues getting pistol shots as long as you take a sec in aiming for the critical hit meter to start activating.

Stealth does seem to be a good way to go as the game encourages it and all the stealth takedowns are one hit knockouts. You can also decide to kill them instead (you get two prompts) but that will get you negative rank with your handler.

It was a little annoying to have to replay the training missions multiple times to get a score over 100 for each and open the optional side missions in the training chapter. Good thing is for second playthroughs (or the first one) you can skip the training, although that may affect handler relationships. In terms of your starting character, you have 5 choices. Stealth based, gadget based, assault based, freelancer (you get to assign the starting points yourself,) or recruit, when you start with nothing at all. Being a recruit gets you more options in dialogue, an extra achievement if you beat the game, and unlock the ability to start the game as a veteran, where all of your stats start at level 3 (usually only 1 of the 10 categories starts at 3 if you choose one of the preset options) and there are new dialog options again.

For the romance there are 4 ladies you can seduce in the game, and you have to go about each differently. There are 5 point achievements for each one and a 15 or 20 point one for getting all 4 in 1 playthrough. You also get a decent amount of xp for each encounter and some bonus perks as well.

Edit: Just read the RPGamer review and it seems the PC version is almost a different game from the 360 and PS3 versions. A lot less AI bugs and graphics issues on that version. Combat still the same though. Looks like the PS3 version is the worst one, as some people in the comments on the RPGamer review said their PS3's froze requiring a hard reset after turning on the TV in their safehouses sometimes.
 
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Im a field agent and I cant stealth even though Im doing all the right stealthy actions :/

Why cant I be stealthy?
 
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