I mean ... REALLY hero. Impossible not to think with a little emotion in the books of my childhood, those "you were a hero," where history was broken down into numbered blocks of text, where each end of pavement ended with an election or a fight to do.
Why? After mature reflection, I see two things that bring this game and these books:
- the extraordinary freedom in your choices and the extraordinary result of each of your actions (actually, Alpha Protocol is infinitely better in this area),
- some boring (fighting, gameplay), offset by the adventure stories that make you dream, the very concept of the RPG.
Game without necessarily too many pretensions, Alpha Protocol is one of those titles who can not speak as an insider of gaming, eager to experience a little underground, people willing to do with defects not negligible. The concept is pretty simple: you are an agent of the cell "Alpha Protocol" and you will save the world, or at least try. Take third James Bond, one third of Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne third, and you get the spirit of Alpha Protocol, not always very serious, fascinating dialogues, the screenplay does not give any substance to that who do not deserve a hero whose responses are broadly similar to those that can give these 3 representatives of the action / infiltration / espionage.
Suave, aggressive or pragmatic. Even if the answers can change optical here and there, Alpha Protocol allows you to truly live your interactions with other characters. First because you are putting pressure: no the right to reflection, discussion linked together and you have only a few seconds to decide your response. A guy talks to you. His face does not please you too, then you swing it a threat. He does not necessarily and you feel you might get a carrot important information. The sentences are linked together, it is to find a way to get what you want. Relax the joke on? Or the honesty and sharing of information by way of good faith? Unless you opt for just pie in the face, taking the risk of losing everything, but getting finally "attention required". The dialogues are numerous and require you to be alert, very alert, because a poorly chosen response can have serious consequence. I do not mean a simple frown. No, there lies the power of Alpha Protocol: based on a single answer is a mission that goes away or offered to you is that you gain an ally, or a type that you plant a knife in the back. She is a woman who will save your setting, or who will give you. It's a mafia that you intubated, or who knows you a favor when the time comes. Even if some characters seem totally opposed in your case, there are very few situations decided in advance. It is possible to sympathize with a terrorist. It is allowed to mess with his head. It is possible to crack your support, as it is allowed to be very clumsy with your neighbor in the airplane cabin brings you to the destination of your choice. You have the right to fire a bullet into the head of an anonymous attacker, or you can give him a second chance.
Honestly, the range of possibilities in this game is quite fascinating, despite a framework actually not that large. When you take a step back, we ... Go, an introduction, a conclusion and 3 chapters in the middle. A great city by chapter. The game loop in 16 hours if I think my stats Steam. For an RPG, it's far from huge. For an A-RPG, it's already standard. But we must admit that Alpha offers replayability very important. Most importantly, it is really possible to discover a whole different story, depending on your choice. You are the director of your subconscious adventure. You arrange your own rhythm as you hear it, and I must admit that now that I finished Alpha Protocol, I'm curious to know how much a 2nd party could give me a different vision of the scenario.
Because of course, in those games where you decide largely on the scenario, when the end credits arrive, you realize your mistakes you regret. Even quite frustrating finally, after 16 hours of play, falling on one end that does not satisfy you fully. So yes, you want to restart a new game, knowing that so and so is doubtful, that thingy is nice in the end, to better manage our own decisions. Yet I would not even be surprised that this kind of information might be totally useless on a new game: I think making different choices, the traitors are no longer the allies become swollen. And if this is not the case, we must admit Obsidian assured with his game and let us think that has such an influence on his narrative.
Alas, there are also things that worry in Alpha Protocol. It eats at me the spirit to admit it, but for example, the gameplay ... nase is enough. Even playing a minimum "the game" hard not to see the huge gap phases of shares. Gunfights painful, sometimes sweaty cameras, few thrills and you find yourself chained situations silly. For example, make a spy relying on discretion, but capable of beating a division of mercenaries Loved slats, once discovered. You find yourself running from enemies as enemies, handing the punches and hope that the armor will shock. While customizing the hero is remarkable, via the increase of talent and ability, I think there is sometimes a lot of puffery in the system of play Why then give 10 points out of 15 in the rifle when a soldier running and walking club better? The mini games (hacking, forcing a boot ...) are nice but are repeated too much and become bored. Intelligence Artificial hurts to see, with enemies idiots, sometimes totally blind, sometimes you can detect 100 km away. Bosses are often unattractive, sometimes unfair and harsh.
In fact, the books which one is a hero, I loved the story but the fighting swelled me. I only threw even more when in fact, I was not trying to beat a particular enemy, I just decided that I won, to continue the story. It's the same in Alpha Protocol: what interests me is to advance in history. Multiply the discussions. Act on the conduct of the scenario. And between these phases exciting, I hurry to bend the fighting infiltration. To achieve the faster a new discussion or a new choice. I'm tempted to start a new game, but I sigh a little ahead with the idea of me retyping all these steps a little difficult and not very funny coming dilute the pleasure of the player. I even tried to go easy for me to rid the faster phases of shares without the risk of dying, losing time.
Technically, the game is decent. All background, he leaves watch, even if we are facing a product sometimes a little sickly. Some ugly textures, some models moldy (wheels motorcycle, ooh lalala), some through the Unreal Engine 3, which persisted again and again (the textures that appear late, so classic!). But the characters are expressive and are pleasant to see, while the art work, without breaking a 3-legged duck, is quality. I thought Deus Ex sometimes browsing Alpha Protocol: a technique sometimes dirty (the first level of Deus Ex, Oh My! I was shocked), but ends up having an old-fashioned charm: we really feel like playing a video game, which does not pretend to want to deny it. Yes there are doors that never open, places strangely artificial passages a bit empty, but nothing serious, because they saw his story quietly with curiosity.
A small price, Alpha Protocol deserves to be played, if only to satisfy the curiosity of discovering a title that truly takes into account your choice without having the nerve to try to mystify us with a false freedom of dialogue . Alpha Protocol 2, with a real improvement on the gameplay, this could be interesting!
0 comments:
Post a Comment