Your screen is upside down? That's a 9!

 

You actually made me look it up again 

 

Sorry. Here, for the trouble:

What annoys me greatly is the fact that they don't even bother to make seperate PC and Console reviews, when there are clearly things that are better(?) or worse on either system. Playing the game on a console can't possibly be the same experience as playing it on a PC.

That said, I think a 6 would be a fair score.

Edit: I herp't a derp.

Playing the game on a console can't possibly be the same experience as playing it on a console? um....I think you meant to put "PC" in place of one of those "console"'s .

Grammar Police

What works for me is to use stealth to get get the drop on people but use assault rifiles and the highest armour stealth suit you can buy and combat your way out of every situation. That makes the action sections at least playable so I can extract the good bits (dialoge, email, story and insulting people) from the game.

Pistols, SMGs and Shotguns are so terrible I have trouble believing they have played the game themselves (or at least any other game with such items).

Having played the game through a few times, I can say that I find it quite glorious.

But this is mostly because I'm very rarely affected by poor graphics, interface or such "pointless" things. What affect my enjoyment of the game are the story and how it mechanically works.

Now, Alpha Protocol is average at best, mechanics wise. The stealth and combat aren't anything superb. The minigames aren't too exicting. But what makes the game so good to me, is precisely it's main selling point: Cause&Consequence. What you choose to do in the game has a rather nice affect to the story(both superficially and gameplay wise). By comparing the few playthroughs I've done, it's very nice to notice how differently things unfold as it goes on. Different bosses, different conversations, somewhat altered mission structures.

If such things aren't your cup of tea, I can understand why someone might not like the game and regard it as poor. But if you love good things and hate bad things(like I do ), then you might want to give the game a chance. Definitely not recommended for everyone. But then again, few games are.

I finished my first play through, and would echo Tiavals statement, the game has a really awesome character thread through the game. If they just removed all the pointless action missions or took 90% of the guards out and added more cameras and stuff the game would be da shiz.

Although I ended up with most of he females in the game dead and nearly all the males alive. I don't know what that says about me...

Herpa derpa. Wow, I really couldn't disagree more. I've played mostly with pistols and so far I've been wondering wheter it's a bit overpowered or something. The special ability is simply amazing, getting me out of some hairy situations and allowing me to do stealthed kills in situations where I'm already discovered by 1-2 guards (presumably more, at higher levels).

I'm going for high Stealth, Sabotage and Pistol, roughly in that order, followed by Technical Aptitude as a "second tier" skill, followed by toughness. Needless to say, most everything else is ignored.

I think it's hilarious to go through entire missions, killing or incapacitating every single enemy (on principle), while remaining undetected.

I'm the goddamn Batman.

Yes I was talking about just the basic gun, I tend to stay away from activated skills I only used them ... err once? during my playthrough.

Pistol chain shot is very good.

 

There seems to be a trend with thier abilities though, its as if they know the combat is crap/broken so they just give stuff hat essentially invalidates the mechanics - like the "Im da predator!" stealth ability or "blind fire criticals"...

Well I can't really talk about the real combat mechanics, because I try to stay out of it. And for that purpose, I've found the pistol great. Silent kills all-around. :p

seems quite interesting.

I enjoy using the assault rifle with subsonic rounds. You can just sit in one spot and get stealth kills from across the map! Don't even need to friggin use melee take downs.

I started again, this time with a focus on pistols with a few in sabotage/stealth (last time I went all the way).

Instal kills on bosses with chain shot (after killing all thier guards from cover) is... hilarious! and relieving since I don't have to put any effort in anymore to get to the fun dialoge bits.

Did I mention the dialoge/plot events system is awesome? Also the whole plot of the game gets told to you at the very start by someone if you ask him enough questions, which is also funny since you only comprehend this the second time around.

 

Obsidian should NEVER make thier own combat mechanics or engine, ever. Just do the story/characters.

Just finished the game. I maintain that a score of 6 out of 10 is fair for the game. There are several points in the game I'd like to criticize, where it seems that no matter what you do, the story continues due to deus ex machina, rather than as a natural progression of what you've been doing. The story itself is great and the missions themselves are great, but the storytelling of the overreaching plot is rather horrible.

Especially towards the end where it's suddenly "Let's end this" and you "go end it" (avoiding spoilers like the plague here). Compared to Obsidian's previous games, the game itself seems finished, but the plot right towards the end just feels rushed or unpolished. Most annoying (to me) was the fact that several things right at the end remained unresolved for me, despite being relatively big plot points (again, avoiding spoilers) to my character.

All-in-all, pretty good. I'd compare it to KotOR2, if there wasn't a KotOR1 - that is, alright in it's own right, but "could've been just a little bit better".

I'm joining you.  At the finale playing Spy with just about maxed out kung fu and pistol and maxed stealth.

re: DRM - I read somewhere on Obisidian's site that they planned on removing the activiations some time in the future.  Holding my breath.  I bought the game on impulse (not Impulse) the other day, and didn't mention anything on the box.  Live and learn I guess.  At least they return the activation back to you at uninstall like Mass Effect.

Frankly the story is absolutely awesome.  The boss battle with Brusko (sp?) has to get the Oscar for who thought that one up!  With that particular music blasting away it was in some ways more intense than getting as far as I have in the finale.

Only problems in my opinion - the wonky camera that disorients you from time to time and the computer hacking.  Keep a 360 controller plugged in at all times for that.  Mouse and Keyboard rocks the rest of the time.  Update: and the Unreal Engine is starting to show it's age.

 

Aractain, I am almost at the finale and have about a 85 - 90% maxed pistol skill and until the "endgame" level I was one - shotting everyone going for crits.  I consider it my main back up to stealth takedowns.  Using regular ammo.  So it's possible - just need to specialize in it.