I wish I felt that way, I really loved the character interaction and story but the game. So Broken. I couldn't stand it beyond 3 or so missions.
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I felt the same at first but once I unlocked the always on "sense" ability and the "chain shot" it improved massively. I learnt to accept the ropey mechanics and just have fun.Comment
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Shouldn't even be close to anyone's game of the year, but it doesn't deserve the kicking it got. If the stupid DRM wasn't still half-broken for me, I'd be still on my second playthrough. Stealth is shockingly easy, pretty much an instant win button, and rambo-ing through it with a shotty isn't too far behind. And the conversation trees change a great deal and not very much at the same time; you can take a fair few different approaches to things, yes, but you'll mostly come across the same situations again and again. You can mess around with any number of gadgets and what have you, but there's rarely any serious point to it.
I do like it, though. Broken and flawed and nonsensical and Obsidian seriously, seriously need to pull their fingers out, but there's still that weird spark that Bioware simply don't have (ignoring people and letting characters die in Mass Effect 2 just isn't the same as it is with Alpha Protocol).Comment
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Now finished. I can't disagree with anything you say Eightrooks. Still loved it.Comment
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I have to agree with all posts on here that the game is broken and flawed, and that it is also quite playable at the same time. No where near game of the year tho
The controls are shocking for the first couple of hours as it all seems very convoluted. The mechanics of the game just don?t seem quite right as you play it. A couple of niggles that I have found are that the combat is severely lacking both in firing guns and hand to hand. It?s also very slow to turn and keep a bead on moving targets, especially at close range, (this may just affect the console versions tho).
Also the interface is a mess. Upgrading weapons, and buying and equipping stuff (especially on the fly) is just downright confusing at best.
The speech option doesn?t really work as, as someone has pointed out, you have to make a choice before the end of the conversation.
The mini games are plain stupid or not stupid, just badly implemented. The hacking game is nonsense. You have to use the two thumbsticks and two shoulder buttons to do it which is an arse. You don?t really get long enough either and make a mistake and alarms are blaring. But I have found pressing circle to cancel out tends to work.
Lockpicking and Door hacking are the easiest but one mistake and it?s alarmsville which happens a lot.
But apart from all that, there is something that keeps me going back to it. The actual gameplay itself, is quite good and the missions up to now are varied. The only real issues gameplay wise (aside form the stuff I?ve mentioned) are that the camera seems far too close to the player and not flexible enough. It would have been better had it been more like Splinter Cell. The stealth sections work okay and the creeping up and killing soldiers is quite satisfying.
I almost gave up after the first hour as the game just annoyed me but I have to say that now I have done a few missions, its getting much better. It does look like a game from the last gen, but I have to say it?s worth picking up for under a tenner.Comment
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This arrived in the post last night (finally) I didnt get round to playing it yet, but will do so in the weekend, or maybe tonight, if time permits
I got it from Amazon, and it came with an additional booklet attached to it, which looks like an instruction manual? Anyone know why there is an additional booklet attached to it?
I could open and find out, but lost track of time yesterday and didnt get round to it, and now its annoying me thinking about it.............
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Well I've been putting in a few hours on this over the weekend. That book I got attached to the game box is some 'Field Manual' which is pointless and a waste of paper........ dunno why they couldn't have just attached it to the instruction manual, or better yet, made it the size of the manual instead of some oversized, bit of pointless drivel, as it doesn't tell you anything more than you will know when you play the game........
The first hour or so I was ready to trhow in the towel, as it jus didnt feel right, as my character could not shoot straight even if the cross hair was aimed in the middle of an enemies chest (for a so called spy, this was not good). But it was after I started levelling up that my character started to 'behave' more cohearently.
The camera was something that initally bother me, as I felt symptoms of motion sickness, when moving around. So I turned the game off for a couple of hours.......
Upon returning to the game for one more hurrah before getting shut of the game, things just clicked, as I enjoyed sneaking around........ taking peeps out. Now this may be quite easy, as i slapped a load of points on the stealth characteristic, but its so satisfying, that i don't care The inability to pick up a dead enemies corpse is a bit lost on me, as they miraculously fade away, like nothing happened, and at times enemies walking by would walk through them like nothings there lol..........
The game reminds me of a mix between Splinters Cell, and Mission Impossible on the N64
Having said this, i am now in Rome, and look forward to gettign back to it later one today
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I've found this to be a really gem of a game, saw it has it problems if you play it like balls out shooter and the bosses are complete pain inthe arse, similar to the Hitman/Tenchu series, looks bit ass, controls ain't the greatest but under the hood its enjoyable. I liked the changing story, the talking system and Love/hate relationships where it pays to learn the info you collect on people.
Current on my 2nd play through as Shoot 1st/quick to anger kind of guy been excuting everyone that crossed me though for once i did feel genuinely bad for killing an unarmed Sis. After learning how tough bosses are first time round i put points on my major skills in to Assault(gold blinged
), Toughness and hacking, so i an breeze through most Attack minded mission but suffer on pure sneaking like the CIA outpost. about to start the final mission after starting in
moscow,
the rest of the world, i'll post if people wanted to hear about it.
First play through i went all Sneak/Melee/shotgun (which works great standard missions but bosses become super hard which meant i had to cheese my way out with a DOT tactics with flame grenades and bullets after sneaking up on them to melee down the defense), playing the good guy roll by killing the bad henchmen and knocking out police/goverment/guards people, mostly letting bosses live which got me
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I finished this last night and thought it was a really fun solid game, sure it does have a few short comings but overall it was very enjoyable.
I went for Stealth, Assault Rifle & Martial Arts and it was just a joy to play once you unlock your stealth skills it becomes wonderful because you see where the enemies are without activating the awareness skill, the Silent Running skill makes takedowns nice and easy also.
The gun skills all seem a bit lame i wish i went for the pistol really but the assault rifle did the trick, especially with the Sub-sonic rounds which really helped on bosses. Its skill which auto targeted enemies was pretty lame as really with the assault rifle you really need to wait for your reticle to focus so you get good head shots, but overall i thought the Combat was fine, a few little improvement were needed sure but the way the guns worked felt pretty "rpg-ish".
Martial arts was very fun, i just loved putting fury on and doing the running knee The only thing i would have liked is a block button and maybe some sort of counter move just to spice up the melee combat, but overall it did its purpose. More Takedown moves would have been better too, maybe an interrogation option just needed a bit more.
The story was fine if a little cliche but i did like the characters you met along the way ( Heck was highlight ) and the conversation options worked fine, i didn't think the time ran out to fast i had often made my decision on what to say before they had finished depending what sort of character they were. I pretty much stuck to the professional approach but i imagine if you went with the Aggressive option more you'd have an even more interesting game lol
The minigames i thought were fine you do struggle a little at first but once you get used to them they become 2nd nature, especially if you do the skill set or wear Armour pieces that improve you hacking skills etc at the end of the game i was hacking like a pro no problem!
The only problems i did have was all the guns in each category were the same pretty much, i would have liked to seen more mods, more weapon choices as using pretty much the same assault rifle all the way through was boring and once you have chosen that skill set there's no point in using the other weapons.
More environment interactivity would have been better too, so being able to leap over the small walls, jump through windows, drop off anywhere instead of certain points etc would have improved it further. The cover system was ok mostly but i did have problems grenades sticking to walls and not being able to aim ( more buggy than anything ) which became a little frustrating at times.
Also at first it seems like your weapon and armour options are limitless but when you get to the 3rd/4th country's everything starts to grate because the weapons and armour options aren't that limitless at all. It needed more skills, more weapons, more branches on the skill tree in the 2nd half of the game to make it that more interesting, any of the skills you got at the start of the game like Fury or Silent Running all the upgraded versions did was last longer, not offering any more bonuses or new features to keep it fresh.
Saying all that its definitely worth a play through if you like your 3rd person stealth games, or even if you like 3rd person games in general. ( you can play the game pretty much how you want, so if you wanna play it with just guns blazing you could and would probably get a different game entirely to what i played. )
I think if i had dropped £40 on it i would have been slightly disappointed but for £17 new, i am more than happy.
8/10Comment
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Well I've just given it a punt seeing as its £14 @ play.com.Comment
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I finished this last weekend, and I really enjoyed it......... its not THAT difficult, although some of teh boss type battles with the shoot out was frustrating as I died a number of times, but a little bit of thought and and some strategic level placement of your character sees you through it. In particular
I must admit I did use the cloaking skill for the most part as I like tacking enemies down in stealth......... The unlocking of doors/safes and disabling alarms was annoying......... hacking computers was fine. I guess its because you have to do it like a hundred times.........
I never maxed out the weapon levels, in fact I only put a few points on the pistol and rifle ones. Im assuming that if i maxed them out the game would have played out differently.
As I was a silent assassin relying on my hands, well it didn't bother me as much until the boss battles......... So instead i maed out stealth, toughness and hand to hand combat..........
I loved the story line archs and chose the right choices for teh most art, when you figure out which way you should be reacting to the characters...........
I really disliked the moscow level as it was boring and the environments were unimaginative.
The game is bugged in parts, but I enjoyed it a lot lol.......... glad I got it at a good price, and it didnt dissapoint me, as I was anticipating this game for a while now.
Id give the game 7/10 overall lol.......... I guess im easily pleased!
Im contemplating on whether I should play it through a second time to be an utter bastard and max out other skills for a different approach. Gotta say though, I MADE SURE I HIT ALL THE LADIES ASS'S........... My spy is a major stud lol.......... only 50% of trophys were dones in my flrst playthrough, so plenty more to see and do i reckon......... More people should play this..........
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I recently played through this, and while rough in places I appreciated what it was trying to do.
Putting all SP into pistols and stealth pretty much breaks the game as you can chainshot bosses, and walk around the levels completely invisible. For instance you can stand next to a guard, take down his buddy who is beside him,and walk away without them seeing you.
SIE is an awesome character, and the email responses you can send are amazing in places, one about polar bear rape sticks in my mind.
It's extremely cheap at the moment, and worth a punt if you like silly plots, the original Mass Effect, and a slightly obscure shooting mechanic.Comment
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I'm genuinely quite baffled at the critical, and consumer mauling this game has got. Even in this thread the best comments it seems to attract are along the lines of "she was lovely, she didn't have a nose and exhaled chlorine gas, but she was lovely" or "I enjoyed the windsurfing, even though I broke my knee and killed a dolphin".
I plucked up the courage to buy this after I saw it cheap in a French supermarket - which was in itself quite worrying as no videogames are ever cheap in French supermarkets unless they're 25 years old or look like they've been mauled by a tiger.
It's fair to say I've been amazed at what a good game this is.
Amazed.
In many ways I'm enjoying it more than Mass Effect 2. It's chock full of STUFF. Choices seem to feel like real choices not inFamous style binary YES OR NO chokepoints. It even controls well, and looks rather pretty. There are ladies to flirt with using the tactic of mentioning polar bear rape, and bullets that set people on fire - what is there not to like? You can execute terrorists while dressed in a fishing hat and fire a surface to air missile inside a Saudia Arabian palace.
What more do you want NTSC-UK? Hmm?
Beards? There are avatar beards.
And it's creative too. At some points an entire mission can play out just in the conversation system with no direct control, or use entirely different mechanics. Gadgets are imaginative, the story is better than 99.9% of most videogame stories and at some points I actually laughed out loud. Like it was actually funny, not "snort-through-the-nose" funny.
Yes, the facial animation is a little shonky, and being Obsidian it has a few bugs and strange gameplay decisions, but this is a bloody good game and shame on you all for not buying it, or writing that it's only worth 7/10.
I'd give it 7.5/10. LOL.Last edited by cavalcade; 05-11-2010, 13:44.Comment
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Got this earlier in the week seeing as it was £9.99 in the Play sale, managed to complete it tonight and must say I really enjoyed it, only wish I'd bought it sooner but was put off with the negative reviews it was getting.
Didn't know what to think to begin with as the first mission in Saudi Arabia was the weakest part, thankfully the game really opened up after that, was particularly impressed with the amount of freedom the game gives you with the story and weapons, some of the moral choices are really tough to make at certain points, the one in the museum particularly stands out.
Going to give it another playthrough at some point and go more stealthy as I just decided to tear my shirt off and shoot anything that moves Rambo style on my first go, also wasn't happy with my ending either as I managed to take a wrong turn and couldn't go back to save
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It's a shame we probably won't see another game with Mike Thorton in again as he's a pretty likeable main character and with a bit of polish and a couple of issues ironed out a sequel could be amazing.
@112, I was having a bit of trouble fighting Brayko as well to begin with, ended up
was really impressed with how you could affect that part of the game depending on the order you did the missions and your relationship with certain characters.Last edited by Phar; 16-01-2011, 00:50.Comment
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I'll echo some of the qualified appreciation of this game. I've just finished my first run through and it's been a good experience, for the most part.
Beyond the obvious criticism concerning graphics, I have to say I have a different slant on the other 'failings' listed. My online posse will confirm that if I come across a part in a game I feel is grossly unfair, or the controls broken, I'll curse like a trooper's mofo. Yet, the controls were fine for me, all the way through. The cover mechanic was a bit hit and miss about which surface it wanted to stick to, but I didn't particularly care. The aiming reticule made sense to me - line up for a steadier shot. Plough AP points into the relevant categories and it's easier. No problem.
Furthermore, the opening hour is what drew me in - I didn't mind the flaws. I got the game for about 8 quid, and expected a decent action/stealth adventure. It's what I got from the get-go. I loved the slight bluff in the training mission, it really grabbed my attention.
As far as the conversation system went, I found it vastly superior to Mass Effect. For me, it worked on several levels. Firstly, the timer. The person's last sentence is accompanied by my three options, and they stop talking about a second before the timer runs out. With subtitles on, I spent the last few seconds of chat, and that vital extra second, considering my response. I liked the immediacy of it - the need to give an answer quickly. No infinite blank staring until I chose an answer. Secondly, I liked the vague nature of the responses. The options on offer meant that I had to play close attention to the context and content of the discussion, and make a decision based on a feeling. How did I feel at this point? ---> choose emotional response. The lack of precise verbatim sentences to choose from as a response meant that I was always fascinated by what I actually said when I picked one of these responses - it drew me in. I chose 'concerned' ---> how does that pan out? Thirdly, the script was just damn entertaining, and well acted (for a game). The story itself was full of the twists and turns I always enjoy.
Likewise, the minigames were a doddle once I got used to them. A little bit of patience and application saw past the weird nature of, for example, the hacking controls. I loved the keypad game - the only one that troubled was the lockpick one, and that was because the time limit was so strict at the end of the game (5 locks in about 15 seconds - no way!). Even then, the game provided an angst-nullifying get-out clause. I just used emps on the later lockpicks.
I barely touched the special skills thing, and didn't use a single grenade/charge/etc. So in my second run through, it's party time with those babies.
7 out of 10 BLETCHES from me.Comment
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