Alpha Protocol - Obsidian's new RPG

[mur'phon]

Really? There was this game which happened to be the best ever where they did that before ME, though it was probably not the first.

[stoffe]

Also known as: the elevator shaft of Mass Effect.

Also known as: the comm room of Mass Effect.

 

It's not like Mass Effect invented any of those gameplay elements anyway. You have the same in Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines (2004) and Deus Ex (2000) for example.

 

Not that I mind. I don't need gameplay elements to be new and revolutionary. If something works well, and is well implemented there is absolutely nothing wrong with it recurring in different games.

[Pavlos]

I swear Pavlos. The only thing you must do is scourer the interweb for RPG info..

It actually doesn't take up as much time as you'd think; only an hour or so a day to search and post up anything interesting to either myself or the community.

[Arátoeldar]

It actually doesn't take up as much time as you'd think; only an hour or so a day to search and post up anything interesting to either myself or the community.

 

I know. I'm only teasing you. <3

[Ctrl Alt Del]

It's not like Mass Effect invented any of those gameplay elements anyway. You have the same in Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines (2004) and Deus Ex (2000) for example.

 

Oh, those features are commonplace on games, all right. I just said Mass Effect twice (and many other times throughout this thread) because to be honest, a lot of the game so far looks incredibly like Bioware's latest hit.

[stoffe]

Oh, those features are commonplace on games, all right. I just said Mass Effect twice (and many other times throughout this thread) because to be honest, a lot of the game so far looks incredibly like Bioware's latest hit.

 

And Mass Effect in turn looks incredibly like a bunch of older games. Game development seems to be mostly evolutionary, where they take (hopefully) good elements from older games with minor tweaks and put them together into new games. There isn't a lot of innovation within computer games (except on the graphics side) as of late.

 

In my opinion it's unfair to accuse one game of ripping off another, when the presumed ripped off game in turn would be an equally big rip off of older games when viewed from the same perspective.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

In my opinion it's unfair to accuse one game of ripping off another, when the presumed ripped off game in turn would be an equally big rip off of older games when viewed from the same perspective.

 

Yes, but it's equally unfair to take those fairly old elements and brag that they're revolutionary.

[stoffe]

Yes, but it's equally unfair to take those fairly old elements and brag that they're revolutionary.

 

Typical marketing buzzword. Seems like most press releases are required to contain that word (and a series of others in the same vein) nowadays. You'll find plenty of proclamations of new and revolutionary features in the Mass Effect press releases as well, for example.

 

I'll reserve judgment until the game is done just how revolutionary it is. Or maybe not. The (revolutionary?) dialog system in Alpha Protocol, as it has been described, is rather discouraging to me.

[Pavlos]

Source

 

Obsidian have released their first trailer for Alpha Protocol which can be found here.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Incredibly short trailer, but fairly good. I'd love to see how mature it's final content will be.

[Achilles]

Were those animations horrible or is it just me?

[Jeff]

I kind of see what you mean, but I didn't think they were too bad. Too short to really make a fair judgment to me.

[dowon]

Video developer diary with gameplay footage

[jrrtoken]

Link

 

A massive segment focusing almost entirely on Alpha Protocol on GameTrailers.

 

It's looking very, very nice so far. I just hope that Sega markets the hell out of it.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

^ It does look very nice, although I'm still suspicious of their "revolutionary" talk system.

 

Also, for the lulz, anyone noticed at 2:00, when the interviewer asks "And the action is gonna be good?", Feargus kinda stutters before answering "Er, absolutely".

[jrrtoken]

It does look very nice, although I'm still suspicious of their "revolutionary" talk system.

True, although almost every feature that BioWare has called "revolutionary" has often been sub-par, so it's not like anything new is afoot.

[jrrtoken]

Developer Diary #2

 

Lookin' great, I just hope that it really is as expansive as they say. Yet, then again, I always have high confidence in Avellone.

[jrrtoken]

Developer Diary #3 - Dialog

 

Judging from what their dialog system is being developed, I think this might really provide more options for purely social and conversational dialogs that aren't always 100% related to the task at hand. I.E., presentation and tone of voice could be a greater factor than what you really say.

 

If this true, AP might come close to my personal übermensch of dialog and conversations: A true, natural replication of real-world conversations. Well, at least it might happen if Sega doesn't rush them towards a deadline.

[Jae Onasi]

I'd love to see what they do with the dialog--exploring the different dialog trees is one of the more fun parts of playing any RPG for me.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Still pretty skeptical over here. It's Mass Effect all over again.

[jrrtoken]

Still pretty skeptical over here. It's Mass Effect all over again.

Okay, but I can say the same exact thing for Mass Effect 2, as well as BioWare's preceding games which ME borrowed from heavily.

 

To the point, nothing is truly original. AP might have gameplay similar to ME, but considering that Obsidian is going into murky territory by having an RPG set in the present day instead of a redundant high-fantasy or deep space atmosphere, I'd have to give them some credit for adapting a gameplay formula and massively editing it to include some innovation. They did the same thing with Star Wars; They warped, changed, and put in things that would be unheard of in Star Wars, but yet, it still felt like Star Wars, and I loved it.

[Jae Onasi]

There's nothing wrong with using elements that work, game-play-wise, and re--using those if they are popular features or help enhance the experience. We expect certain HUD organization and controls in FPS games' and some people get bent out of shape if it's changed. Taking a working system and making enhancements to it is perfectly acceptable in my book. Why re-invent the wheel if people like how it''s already working and want more of the same, or at least substantially similar?

[Miltiades]

Agree with the above.

 

The only thing I'm still worried about is the time bar during the dialog. I don't like being forced into a choice in a certain time frame, I like to ponder my choices. Except for a better flow in the conversations, it also seems to have no use.

 

A remark I've seen somewhere else that's worth mentioning, is that the choices in the dialog itself, going by what we've seen in the videos, aren't very varied. I can see clicking on professional getting boring after a few times. So I hope the choices are going to be varied.

[Sharen Thrawn]

Still pretty skeptical over here. It's Mass Effect all over again.

From a gameplay point of view, it will be similar. But I'm positive it's story will be far superior to that in Mass Effect. Besides, as PastramiX said nothing is trully original, but when it comes to the RPG genre, a modern-day espionage role-play adventure is an actually freash idea, definitely more than a space opera. I'm really excited for this game. This may be the it title for Obsidian if they are able to polish it on time.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Okay, but I can say the same exact thing for Mass Effect 2, as well as BioWare's preceding games which ME borrowed from heavily.

A sequel, which, understandably, won't stretch the original formula much.

 

To the point, nothing is truly original. AP might have gameplay similar to ME, but considering that Obsidian is going into murky territory by having an RPG set in the present day instead of a redundant high-fantasy or deep space atmosphere, I'd have to give them some credit for adapting a gameplay formula and massively editing it to include some innovation. They did the same thing with Star Wars; They warped, changed, and put in things that would be unheard of in Star Wars, but yet, it still felt like Star Wars, and I loved it.

When you take an entire new game and shape it after another it's fine'; we call it inspiration. When you copy most of it's aspect changing setting, story and another characteristics that may very well be branded gimmicks on this case, we have a problem.

 

At any rate, I was referring more to the dialog, which was the clear focus of the last video. I already had this same conversation with the thoughtful Stoffe and I think we reached a conclusion to wait and see for ourselves. Still, those dev diaries present us with the great (dis?)service of further exploring their dialog system, and one can't help but voice his preliminary impressions about it.

 

To paraphrase, if I'm not mistaken, Pavlos, while the system looks undeniably like the Mass Effect conversation wheel, it also looks worse, since the choices have been reduced to voice tones, instead of short phrases, interjections and [actions].

 

There's nothing wrong with using elements that work, game-play-wise, and re--using those if they are popular features or help enhance the experience. We expect certain HUD organization and controls in FPS games' and some people get bent out of shape if it's changed. Taking a working system and making enhancements to it is perfectly acceptable in my book. Why re-invent the wheel if people like how it''s already working and want more of the same, or at least substantially similar?

No problems there, if they were improving it. Issue is, the way they're marketing this, things seem worse, not better, or even the same.

 

From a gameplay point of view, it will be similar. But I'm positive it's story will be far superior to that in Mass Effect. Besides, as PastramiX said nothing is trully original, but when it comes to the RPG genre, a modern-day espionage role-play adventure is an actually freash idea, definitely more than a space opera. I'm really excited for this game. This may be the it title for Obsidian if they are able to polish it on time.

The premise is one thing, and also something I'm excited about. But if all I cared was that, I'd keep reading literature classics on my free time instead.