Started up Alpha Protocol as the collective “you guys” convinced me to pick it up on sale five or so years back. There is definitely a degree of jankiness to it (and I hope I gain a better feel for when I can be seen or not as I get more time in) but it is not without its charms. Someone told me that I could basically play as an Archer-type which… yeah, that’s the path I’m gonna take.
Hacking and lock-picking are terrible though, particularly lock-picking. Perhaps my bumper (or is it trigger) is just a bit worn out but trying to get the right pressure on the lower ends is almost impossible.
The game is definitely not without flaws. Its charms are mostly in the way ‘choices and consequences’ are mechanized and given a disproportionate impact on missions, even beyond what you would at first assume. Anything from picking your handler to dialogue options to the order you do missions has an impact on the game as a whole along with other more overtly sign posted choices.
The combat, the stealth and the minigames are all v. janky, however, so it’s just something you have to get through to see the otherwise solid design. The game’s writing is so weird because on the surface level it’s all hackneyed bro-ish spy-fi but on the other hand it’s so structurally well-designed that it ends up working anyway.
As someone who generally goes stealthy I was warned to put enough points into pistol to unlock chain shot or whatever it is so that boss battles aren’t a nightmare, beyond that yeah I’ve already started loading up on the sneaking side. I’ll toss a few more into punch time as well as a couple missions in and my fists have already served me rather well.
Yeah you probably do want at least some points in pistols or another weapon just for the boss battles. Some of them are murder if you’re trying to melee it.
I basically got myself into a unwinnable scenario by too stubbornly investing only in melee and stealth and it fucked things for me royally. I gotta restart that game one day.
I think I mainly stuck with pistol, melee and stealth so yeah, you need at least one actual weapon skill to fall back on when things get too hairy. But for the most part I just did a lot of sneaking around beating dudes up and then running around and beating dudes up after I inevitably would get spotted (I wasn’t very good at the game but I had a good time with it).
Yeah I didn’t even bother with Melee. Stealth and Pistols took me through the whole game without issue. Chain shot does reduce all the boss fights to 30 second affairs.
Nintendo’s translations have wrapped around from understatedly clever to strainingly clever. I think the problem was one day we realized they’d been good for a while, then they realized we realized
it was cool when it came out, I played through the entire thing and I remember none of it and I’ve never had a desire to revisit it
there was some point where he tears off part of his shirt for some reason. that’s all I remember. uhh, maybe there was some shit with mirrors?
when that came out, it was the same time ubisoft released beyond good and evil and a new 3D rayman and they were all cool and forward thinking in different ways and it seemed for a brief moment that they were doing cool things, and then there was warrior within
Yeah, I can see how I might have gone for it at the time. I think I swore off it because of the beard though.
Playing it for the first time now just feels like an awkward, in-between game. And not an interesting in-between, but one on the way to something I’m not interested in. It’s strange how much of it is in ArseCreep.
I kept thinking I can grab onto the hanging cloth banner things.
Sands of Time was a pretty damn fun game when it first came out. One day I will give the sequels a chance.
I’m still playing Vandal Hearts 2. I’m 36 hours into it and on battle 36 of 54 assuming I don’t do any of the optional stages. I just want this game to end so I can start Thousand Arms or JB Harold Murder Club.