Alpha Protocol... 10 Years Later

when the masses are delving into the weapons of quantity yeah sorry about that [Music] by 2006 the general public's fascination with espionage became an obsession jack bauer jason bourne james bond and many many more were rolling in profits during this peak of popularity and it's easy to see why the mixture of action suspense and romance proved to appeal to just about anyone including one obsidian entertainment who had an idea turn this power fantasy of being somewhere you shouldn't be doing something you shouldn't be doing with someone you shouldn't know into a role-playing video game something nobody had done in the industry's 40-year history there'd been license shooters action and stealth games but few original properties with this theme the makers of knights of the old republic 2 and neverwinter nights 2 would go from retooling the works of others to venturing uncharted land that would capitalize off the espionage boom and it was a disaster show me who you are [Applause] [Applause] [Music] everybody wants what they don't have and microsoft had relentlessly pursued japan since releasing the original xbox with one of their biggest contributors being sega but after surviving a tumultuous transition from cartoon manufacturer to gaming publisher sega conducted a western invasion releasing condemned criminal origins and full auto before acquiring creative assembly and contacting obsidian entertainment this was before the 2008 financial crash and the multiplayer military shooter craze niche genres like rts's rpgs horror and arcade racers were taken more seriously in this era and it was sega's strategy to secure their place in all of them history would prove just two of those genre efforts survived as did one franchise but at the time sega wanted an rpg in their portfolio so badly they didn't even care what world it took place in seizing an opportunity obsidian's pitch for an espionage rpg was uncommonly brief mostly describing narrative concepts rather than our particular game mechanic but sega still liked it enough to hand them a two and a half year development contract and would go on to set up another deal with obsidian for an alien's rpg having rushed their last two projects and just cancelled a disney commission 7 dwarves rpg this was the most enticing and exciting opportunity in obsidian's history up to this point forging something completely original with the time and resources their ambitions demanded today unreal engine is one of the most iconic gaming tools out there powering many of the world's most successful beautiful and independent games it's used on the mandalorian set block pond's official racing simulation ninja theory's most ambitious title and so much more but in 2006 it was mostly known for this [Music] however being spring rather than fall it wasn't the release of gears of war but the pedigree of unreal tournament success of unreal engine 2 and ue3's console optimization that inspired obsidian to build their latest games with it being that whatever the rpg developers released it was going to contain third-person action elements so it seemed perfectly sensible to power alpha protocol with it now the majority of this development story pieced together is largely thanks to eurogamer's quality article released in 2017 detailing events that otherwise never would have been brought to the public eye i reached out to various people one of which matthew rory boss of bosses was kind enough to take time answering some questions but most of the information you're about to hear is credited to eurogamer's journalism not mine the two and a half year development contract obsidian signed was obviously extended unlike the studio's previous games which were famously rushed to market alpha protocol took its time making its unfinished state all the more puzzling especially when you dig up the oldest gameplay footage we have access to and find the majority of levels dialogue sequences and mechanics presented are in the final product virtually unchanged but ward has it prior to the game's announcement in 2008 next to nothing resembled the release while alpha protocol plasters the espionage rpg everywhere early builds more resembled the shooters that personified unreal engine 3. eurogamer describes a set piece not unlike these games where the player fights an opponent in hand-to-hand combat on an airliner eventually stealing said enemies parachute to escape sound director alexander brandon describes the scene too even retooling a demo song by red note audio to match the cinematic obsidians spent 500 000 dollars and a year and a half of development time on just this set piece and an rpg destined to have dozens over the course of dozens of hours this wasn't sustainable just like some previous games i've covered developments suffered from tunnel vision being so dedicated to an ideal for the game without stopping to consider what that vision actually entailed and if it was even possible that uncommonly brief pitch really came to bite obsidian's backside as it meant not even the people who pitched the project truly understood what it was and meandered in the words of the company's ceo with kotaku the most challenging part of developing alpha protocol has been figuring out exactly what we wanted to do with the game and how to focus it on a particular direction you know the the spy genre is a very wide open one the team prototyped environmental interactions parkour mechanics and on-rail chase sequences the russian yacht and agent's bike weren't originally props but repurposed assets intended for action sequences i've even seen posts on old obsidian form pages of a vimeo link describing a demo showcasing vehicles and skydiving in engine i'd show you the video to verify its authenticity but in one sentence obsidian's consistent trouble was spending lots of resources with little return this design approach itself isn't inherently a problem just the last game i analyzed did that to great effect spending months scripting stealth ai from the ground up for a single stage issues rather stem from when where and on what obsidian did this an rpg built for players to influence an espionage-ridden world not merely tour through one which in this current state it was the game didn't even have safe houses or hubs of any kind levels were structured one after the other like a linear shooter and the mini games that have stopped friends from playing this game used to be worse much worse taking up to 3 minutes for players to complete the developers hated it so strongly removing minigames entirely was seriously considered but there was a roadblock in the form of a hedgehog owner sega wanted mini-games and whether they debated or demanded their wish was granted regardless of how obsidian felt not to say that was entirely undeserved being that sega were extending obsidian's deadline and budget after the developer held an internal come to jesus type meeting here chris parker and chris avalon were designated as lead producer and lead writer and with the development team hacked off the game's success throwing out set pieces bloated mechanics and shooter aspirations to map a story that played to obsidian's talents in role-playing agency and writing according to alexander's article the story was rewritten almost entirely at this time both publisher and developer were far more confident in the game after this took place but the domino effect ensured things wouldn't be so easy initiated by the technology licensed bioware was widely mocked in 2007 for its pathetic load times and mass effect but with alpha protocol being a more ambitious game on the same technology texture pop-in was just the start of their problems for one thing there wasn't a stealth game on the market using unreal 3 at the time meaning the first studio to implement one of the most challenging gaming genres stealth action as an optional playstyle in a 20 hour game was by people with no experience in action or stealth they eventually did it but without proper leadership and wasting over a year on scrap prototypes those developments took longer than expected as obsidian had to build various components from scratch and efforts weren't always rewarded for instance the ai system said to be complex and cool was eating up performance across all platforms and with their new deadline of fall 2009 creeping up there wasn't time to rebuild meaning all that could be done to ensure the game's 30fps target was to sacrifice the ai's complexity they crafted the expanded budget was already stretched obsidian claimed 2 the option of a playable female character was sacrificed to save costs meanwhile their aliens rpg crucible had its own development troubles it's often said via leaked video the game was ready to ship but it's explained by various developers this build was only a second vertical slice not representative of the full game at that time so by 2009 sega funded two rpgs and a game engine obsidian's proprietary onyx engine for crucible announced in 2006 with no product from this three-year partnership originally contracted for two and a half stretched then the publisher saw no choice but to abandon one of its children and not even obsidian knew where the axe would fall hence why it came as a shock to those involved when sega canceled aliens crucible and laying off 20 of the team's staff it might seem surprising the license project was pulled rather than the untested ip until remembering sega already had an aliens game in the works and a much more popular genre [Music] those familiar with alpha protocol might shriek at the mere suggestion of removing an entire third of the game but when looking at the project's scope it's understandable all of this that's just the opening conversation in russia and there's a hundred and eighty of those the choices are here and the reactivity checks are here this was like two months of my [ __ ] life 12 hours of cinematics were made despite it only being possible for the player to see four hours on a single playthrough with 16 major characters not including various npcs its small wonder cutting off one city was considered but obsidian's top brass desperately pushed back against it asking for yet more time and i've saved the best of this story for last one of the most common sentiments about this game is if obsidian just had six more months to patch the bugs and iron out its systems the game could have been an instant classic but alpha protocol was delayed by six months how's that possible the game is buggy unpolished and obviously rushed to market how can that be if obsidian had six extra months to refine it it's because alpha protocol isn't a 2010 game it's a 2009 game that was shelved sega delayed the game by six months a mere week before its original release date in fall 2009 but didn't provide any funding for obsidian to use polishing the game just 10 people were attached to fix bugs until the early calendar year where it sat until release to this day obsidian is puzzled by the decision and sega has never spoken about it obviously the publisher didn't want to compete against uncharted 2 modern warfare 2 or mass effect 2 but was erasing the gold text really the only thing that could be accomplished in those 6 months if so then it's why alpha protocol released on may 27 2010 without the critical reception everyone obsidian had hoped for [Applause] difficulty modes they're a gaming staple yet ignite debate with each from software release because at its core the conversation is about whether a game's difficulty supports its design i'd argue that veteran in call of duty 2 where you're just one soldier of many on the field does while veteran in modern warfare 2 that often pits you as a one-man army does not but that's what difficulty modes are for they're a subtle adjustment to accommodate the unknown variable that is the player their preferences and experience though subtle is the key word when selecting hard and fallout 3 i don't feel like the very fabric of reality has shifted from normal but in alpha protocol i do so bear with me because it'll take a bit of time to explain why two playthroughs ended up providing such vastly different experiences now regardless of what's selected in difficulty class or loadouts it doesn't take long to see why this game was critically mixed four years of development multiple delays and millions of dollars spent for this [Music] come on whoever you are during rpg's evolution from janky niche to blockbuster sega might have shelved alpha protocol to avoid competition but all that really did is put competition into perspective most obviously in presentation polish inaccessibility where mass effect 2 defined its franchise's art style alpha protocol concerned journalists about its lack of one while final fantasy showcased console horsepower alpha protocol barely ran on them where human revolution's preview appealed to action and rpg fans alpha protocol's final form left both scratching their heads which is fascinating because alpha protocol was meant to be all of those built for 7 gen consoles from the ground up a shoeing top down cameras and dice rolls for instinctive combat in a cinematic world which it sort of does but breaks even without the player's touch sure you can laugh at thornton looking like he soiled himself spin him in circles or sprint into objects to break the camera it is telling that walking into the geometry is beyond this game's comprehension and it's only worse for enemies i don't know if this game's original ai was as cool as obsidians say but if so then programmers didn't remove a surgical precision they used a hacksaw i've seen enemies swap animations stop in their tracks see you through walls aim at walls glitch up walls face through walls face through me lose track of me after shooting me forget about dead allies they ran to investigate even shoot their own allies unprompted it's out of control there was a gameplay instance so perfect i dreamed up sentences for this video in the midst of it broken animations walking in place shooting teammates everything wrong with this game's core loop bundled up into a single encounter set to my hard drive without the storage space to hold it that was disheartening until realizing there's no need to worry because everything that happened in it would repeat so frequently there's too much footage to compile need a clip of takedown animations breaking the question isn't where is it but which one to use there absolutely have been bug ear games released before and since one of them by an obsidian employer but like joseph anderson described fallout 76 these bugs became the game it's thoroughly entertaining to watch the code crumble before your very eyes in every stage and it's not just the bugs but the design they're paired with jason bourne didn't freeze time to execute people james bond didn't t-pose in gunfights jack bauer didn't literally glow red when punching his victims reading the espionage rpg you don't think throat punching ghost but michael thornton does all of this so when enemies shoot their teammates beaten up by a blue tinted ninja it amplifies the gameplay from absurd to hysterical i've said before this game would be far less enjoyable without these inconsistencies and i still believe that especially upon realizing how familiar not just its third person design is but also its rpg blueprint michael thornton is an agent but to start is a commando spy or engineer not dissimilar to warrior rogue or mage the player is alone but they collect buy and sell various items on markets used to organize and customize the character the world isn't set in dungeons or space but you're still fighting various enemy types as a power based hero the espionage rpg is more rpg than espionage by genre conventions abilities don't stem from gritty spy thrillers but role-playing games that are ordinarily set in worlds far removed from our own tints effects and abilities are easier to believe in a fantasy where literal magic exists or a future where scientific hypotheticals are made real adam jensen resists damage because he has a neodymium skin underlay matrix built of nanomachine rare earth magnets and powered with hook ins to a biocell electrical system mr thornton resists damage because he's blue now here's the thing while that might have stood out in a polished and realistic looking world the blind environment's enemy ai and sheer number of inconsistencies make it all blend together on normal outside of dialogue sequences there's a lot to put up with in this game and what saves it is that all of this is funny really funny downright hilarious on normal but for this video's second playthrough fourth in my total history with this game i didn't just pick hard mode i selected recruit on hard with pistols and smgs we've established this game's entertainment in action stems from its woeful construction but i realize the real enjoyment of ai controls and levels breaking is that it never impacts the player's progress every stage is a laugh along riot regardless of the player's loadout skills and equipment due to the game's lack of any challenge authentic or [ __ ] but when all the things mentioned bipolar enemies busted camera cliched and questionable design are combined with high damage high health enemies and low health low damage thornton challenge only comes in forms of [ __ ] my intention was to do three play throughs first a purely instinctive experience making choices on the fly with no greater plan earning some friends and some enemies with proud and petty actions that naturally occurred second the leon kennedy playthrough a boy scout rookie that gives everyone a chance with no innocence killed and every woman wanting to get in bed and the third a veteran that pisses everyone off but it just so happened to be my recruit run was on hard and forced into stealth by protocol of not killing people and it's here where i learn truthfully how broken this game is the tranq gun from agent under fire only appears in the tutorial so to do non-lethal runs you acquire tranquilizer ammo for pistols it's expensive it means for the first few hours you can't just mgs2 your way through which on paper i actually like even in practice while taking issue with the game's overall balance i genuinely enjoyed needing to be selective with michael's cash between missions from the opening in saudi arabia to main hubs you not only select what levels to partake in but also role play via email and both purchase manage and sell equipment what's really cool though is being able to buy intel granting bonuses such as weapon drops disabled security cameras or character dossiers sometimes opening extra dialogue options though this is somewhat neutered on normal where cash is so frequent in gameplay is so easy that upgrades equipment weapon drops aren't really necessary that changes on hard where every little bit helps but you've only got the cash to choose between ammo intel and upgrades an intriguing conundrum it gave fond memories of thief one and two's incorporation of limited resources that went so far as to reinforce the protagonist's life but that's one pearl in a sea of phlegm in stealth games is a brief window when enemies spot you and react accordingly it varies from game to game but almost always gives the player enough time to react themselves whether it's accomplished by animation voice or an exclamation point they all inform you've been spotted in must fight or flee in alpha protocol that reaction window doesn't exist by default you must unlock it in the skill tree as a passive ability but evasion as it's called isn't actually that mechanic it doesn't delay enemy reactions it makes you literally invisible to them okay that's silly but so what that means an equivalent of this established mechanic exists and it's easily unlockable in the skill tree what's the issue well it has a cool down period of five minutes for reference some levels in this game are shorter than that so once you've slipped by a single door with this passive that's it rest of the time is spent with instant detection to survive then you rely on track rounds typically with non-lethal weaponry in games tranquilized enemies react but are dazed and confused before collapsing and even if they don't fall instantly the most dangerous phase entered before outright detection is caution as no one has been killed yet in alpha protocol enemies hit by tranquilizers react the same as lethal rounds before ragdolling like they've been shot by lethal rounds and it doesn't come from being in front of them never mind if in their line of sight i would have been spotted before shooting the same applies to enemies with their backs turned sometimes the gap between an enemy being hit by a tranquilizer and shooting back on target is 13 frames 200 milliseconds one tenth slower than the average human eyeball blanks other times they don't respond at all effectively turning each encounter into a survival slot machine oh what are we gonna get what do we get let's see oh come on come on come on come on come on ah shucks one hyper aware enemy even the cover system the very thing this engine was known for during the year obsidian bought it is fundamentally broken in gears of war entering cover is determined by where your character's facing and intuitively this is attached to the camera so rarely does the character look in a direction separate from your own that rarity is the norm in alpha protocol michael thornton snaps in any direction instantaneously and independently of your camera now i'm hardly the biggest fan of weight in video games historically i prefer faster games to slower ones but there does need to be some weight in order for a character to feel present in the world then again michael is a ghost naturally this snapping creates issues because the game's very picky about how forward-facing you must be in order to enter cover combined with low magnetism and rapid inputs canceling each other out death by an inability to enter cover is common and remarkably the opposite's common too enemies spam grenades like there's no tomorrow likely stemming from only having one aggressive tactic to flush you out of cover a bull charge where they melee and then shotgun because apparently the thing to take from gears of war wasn't the industry defining cover system but the two piece from multiplayer like you slot among men now avoiding grenades is easy sprint from cover except because of how buggy this game is with its own inputs it can interpret your running as taking cover from the wall you just left reiterating the point this game's glitches and design work in tandem its own weapon handling discourages the use of cover weapons don't collide with the environment meaning enemies are more likely to hit you when you're using the mechanic as opposed to manually positioning yourself behind a wall the exception to this is an ability with the pistol skill tree that earns you critical shots the red crosshairs ensuring high damage and accuracy while blind firing so you take cover and blind fire to increase your chance of hitting targets even the button layout isn't exempt from criticism because despite the player being completely independent you can only select one ability at a time due to the clutter of gadgets and ammo types taking up separate menus as well as there being buttons for re-centering the camera and service records as if the former needed to exist in a game from 2010 sorry 2009 and the latter would be out of place on the start menu obviously the team hadn't taken note from rainbow six vegas's y menu the camera's too close when running aiming turrets feels like stadia enemies snap from ass to assassin and you must successfully mini-game every single door crate and lock in existence or the entire base is alerted to your presence what makes alpha protocol so unique in its inadequacies is their own inconsistencies cover implores you to face forward except when it doesn't enemies can't spot you from range except when they can takedowns don't work in combat except when they do grenades explode except when they don't you can't formulate a strategy to navigate past these issues because no matter what's done the opposite of your intentions will occur on normal it's funny on hard it's torture the cover system isn't the most basic thing that's busted that would be the aiming specifically when using chain shot if entered behind cover without holding the left trigger your sensitivity is locked to that of non-aiming mode while aiming making headshots the reason to use the ability akin to max dpi on counter strike or spec ops multiplayer i played through the entire game like this and i can't even say it was a waste because it is responsible for opening my eyes to how truly defective this stealth and shooting is and nowhere is that more obvious than darcy's boss fight firstly it's the area that showcased the cover system's faults earlier but it's also generally lacking in cover against the boss who wields a two-shot sniper rifle with respawning baddies and all the frustrations that entails even as a laser sight can't be trusted inflicting damage while it's off target but apparently that's not enough so obsidian decided to have darcy throw multiple grenades simultaneously twice the distance of your pistol's accuracy range with no cooldown period you can't even exploit the game with darcy's grenades landing on himself because he's also unvulnerable to all explosives now i do understand the parameters set for the second playthrough were just as responsible for the challenge as selecting hard mode with recruit stats and specializations in pistols and smgs while opening stages aren't the most difficult you certainly become appreciative of abilities that take the edge off of your mistakes later on but i don't get the sense they were truly intended for hard mode chain shot is meant to be this game's mark and execute but on hard your pistols don't one shot most enemies only the most basic thugs encountered in the three regions so then the ability isn't used to clear rooms but to hit targets that exceed your pistol's laughable range which itself has such a violent cut off your critical shots can be dependent on enemy animations a tilt of the body can be the difference between two shots or two magazines i even came to find that your sideways gangsta smgs were more effective at long range than the pistol that is if you triggerfinger outside of that even the bulletstorm ability briefly granting an endless magazine for smgs isn't enough to kill basic enemies at point blank range the only solution is to play conservatively a playstyle which doesn't align with most abilities in this game iron will fury brilliance bullet storm focus name room sweep and overclock encourage aggression to make the most of their attributes buffing the player's health ammo and cooldown timers that aren't taken advantage of when cowering behind a wall with oozies i'm not one to tell people how to play their video games but trust me on this hard mode and these parameters are not worth the effort the only thing they accomplish is robbing you of entertainment found on normal and spend more time in everything this game fails rather than succeeds [Music] a memory i have of alpha protocol was my second playthrough years ago where upon completing all missions in taipei i shelve the game coming back a month later to be completely lost in rome having lost track of g22 vci omar omen ronald conrad csp nsb shaheed albatross heck madison darcy scarlet which is odd because other rpgs have way more characters yet no amount of time away made me ask what does commander shepard need to do even the espionage works that inspired alpha protocol are relatively easy to follow there's twists and turns but generally you know who's bad and who's less bad as much as i love casino royale for bringing bond down to earth while retaining the franchise's cinematic qualities the chief mr white and quantum are still overtly villainous while alpha protocol lets you potentially side with the leader of a middle eastern terrorist cell claiming responsibility for attacks not unlike those that have devastated people in the real world this isn't just one of the most morally grey plotlines for an rpg or even a video game but one of the most morally murky stories period you can earn a respectful reputation by the very people you're supposed to stop characters can be boss fights one moment and allies the next only one love interest doesn't have blood on their hands and only because the player does on their behalf in that particular instance michael is even scorned by other characters ones who are otherwise opposites in ideology this is when you're in rome encountering one of the most important plot points involving madison saint james a young woman employed by the veteran combat initiative one of the game's many private military corporations the vci's most prominent figure is conrad marburg and after stumbling upon a file marking you for death she selflessly warns you of this through various interactions missions and nights spent the relationship between michael and madison can culminate into romance but unlike most games with implied doings this isn't where the relationship ends instead conrad captures madison forcing you to pick mary jane or the busload of school children but unlike hollywood saving both is impossible should you save the former this relationship doesn't continue madison leaves because michael put the lives of others below her forced to live with the guilt that over 20 people were killed in a terrorist attack because the man who could have saved them pursued her that's when handler z and mina woman with no respect for each other both deride your actions you let a museum full of people die in an explosion just to rescue one person there's no saving the day getting the girl without consequence and it's completely believable one of the many troubles with storytelling in games is attaching player actions to reward systems and plot progression can create conflicts of interest when the player is investing hours into something it's seen as a designer's job to reward their investment but in a story things aren't that simple madison is a love interest and requires commitment from the player to romance traditional game design dictates that this should pay off in something but narratively there's no reason for the player to be rewarded conrad has no incentive to keep her alive that he's aware of and madison being established as a selfless individual would be the first person to object michael's savior complex and the game is better for it it's these subversions of traditional game design that help make alpha protocol unique and its story every bit as immersive as the gameplay isn't and the immersion continues in places you'd least expect games have glossaries codexes and alpha protocol has dossiers heaps of text on the people corporation and factions met along the way ordinarily written to fixate on lore or answer a particular question in most games information is a collectible but alpha protocol goes one step further not only does the information gathered expand your knowledge of the game's world but also thorntons i've read your dossier purchasing and collecting information does open dialogue options is mentioned but it can open entire scenes like madison telling you her father's name is alan parker the man who happens to be alpha protocol's analyst and the man who orchestrated all the game's major terrorist attacks including rome having not known his daughter got dragged into the scenario he created telling parker this shakes him enough to confront conrad getting parker killed and initiating a boss fight that's only one of two ways to kill conrad this is uncanny to think years ago i criticized mass effect 2 for its inability to maintain consistent world logic in the suicide mission meanwhile the game completed just prior has an end game reacting to no less than three previous hubs unlocks various plot revelations by player action and varies boss fights accordingly all playable with three different handlers is astonishing there's so many ways to experience a conclusion of this game that keeping track of scenes perks bosses dialogue and variables based on reputation with other characters makes me feel like i took a bullet to the head which i wasn't alone in because even the game itself falls under this weight in the second playthrough i rescued both mina and scarlett two major characters that michael can team up with during the finale communicating and coordinating an escape off the mysterious island alpha protocol's main facility is located on only the game didn't account for that possibility and decided michael's going to romantically sail off into the sunset with mina i guess scarlett found a jet ski but frankly i don't hold much against obsidian for failing to account for 100 of the players actions in their finale because they do a remarkable job for 95 of them every player might visit thailand italy russia and the island but the amount of ways a player can travel through them is staggering and it's all accomplished by maximizing the resources obsidian had all rpgs feature an illusion of choice regardless if you're good or evil romantic or stoic a psycho or a pacifist most major plot points are set in stone what makes someone resonate with an rpg then is more often based on emotional context rather than plot deviations when landing on tuchanka and mass effect 2 interactions with er not reef are dry and uneventful like a business meeting whereas the same scene with erdnat rex becomes a brotherly reunion with more humor to boot alpha protocol follows this principle when landing on the yacht in russia you'll be meeting g22 a direct rival to the vci mentioned earlier using stealth and advanced gadgets compared to the vci's brutal tactics in this context the mission is one of complete mystery as is the boss fight against a new character simply named sis however if you've already interacted with g22 in taipei and its leader albatross then the mystery changes from who are these guys to what are they doing here and how does cis connect to albatross however what this game does that you don't normally see is sprinkle these variations so frequently and subtly you might not even know they're happening where games overtly signal a character's story quest plot security or conclusion obsidian put them in side missions handlers dialogue options even responses from other characters henry leyland ceo of weapons manufacturer halbeck and the game's antagonist embodies this spare me your lectures thornton you're a civil servant well i run a multinational company your evaluations of world events please those marines you killed in moscow no american agent gets away with that in the end you're not pretending to be a rogue agent anymore you are one they'll execute you me i have a different perspective on the situation the scenes with leyland may repeat but everything said relates to your actions which brings us to michael thornton himself i've said publicly that michael comes across as inconsistent primarily in delivery obsidian have a strong reputation for memorable dialogue and character interactions which is on display here to the point where you'll be laughing on the floor or stopping your jaw from landing on it at times it just seemed more inconsistent than what i remember of kotor 2. granted that came at a silent protagonist whereas thornton's voice actor needs to juggle between the three agent archetypes generally aggression and professional while dry sometimes are consistent it's rare to select these and be surprised by what leaves thorton's mouth suave on the other hand here's my contact info call me sometime hey i might even pick up as for the women i've already met you i can strike that one off the list charming let me know if you do anything scandalous will do it's supposedly modeled after james bond but it's often a tween who thinks they're james bond there's plenty of great lines in this tone as you'll soon see but unlike aggression and professional suave is like a tumble dryer you don't know if you're going to get something witty charming or just weird and the inconsistency extends to emails between missions thornton can receive messages from various characters met along the way but can also respond with the same dialogue system as conversations it's oddly one of the most compelling aspects of the game as not only do they create a further connection with thornton himself and other characters it can give you experience credit and reputation with said characters this easily could have been something to fall on the chopping block during crunch but i'm glad it didn't and rather wish more rpgs had little interactions like this especially as it specifically requires time to create rather than resources due to the lack of visuals and voice actors it's something theoretically anybody could do some of the most memorable lines aren't spoken but read in these emails though some of these emails are just weird though michael's not a definitively likable character by design why are you wasting my time the player actually has the option to beat the dick or be the hero be completely in the gray um he can be a chauvinist he can be a misogynist he can be a ladies man i think my gun is working just fine not according to the test we ran while you were under he can murder innocence treat everyone and i mean everyone like garbage and dialogue options border on the psychotic you can't bait me thorden good because i enjoyed putting a bullet through that bitch's skull while she was lying helpless on the deck of that yacht hell i'd do it again i still have a memento her little necklace i kept it as a trophy of the kill still has some of her blood on it i will find you thought the more i selected options that didn't align with my original runs the more this character fascinated me because not only is michael properly threatening the game allows him to be the villain without a meter determining so i always used to question why the game doesn't give more credibility to the claim that leyland is going to cause world war 3 in pursuit of a cold war for profits it's not an impossible premise the game just doesn't establish it as much as you'd think this isn't black ops where the big baddies describe their plan in detail characters just say world war 3 is going to happen but there might be a reason for that it explained why thornton could feel compelled to take over hal beck for himself most protagonists in games have one or two destinations typically one of two extremes but thornton he's a character with many motivations whether patriotic vengeful or a cowboy thornton's journey challenges and changes him as much as the player allows when he asks you why you volunteered for alpha protocol do you remember what you told him i think i said it was my duty to volunteer it sure feels that way now i want to be out with the actions well that didn't turn out like you thought michael isn't set to destroy save or conquer the world he's defined by you separating it from even some of the most critically acclaimed games in this genre what alpha protocol shares with them is great characters in fact i'd go so far to say alpha protocol has one of the most underrated casts in gaming there's no bald rulers petting white cats or henchmen with bladed top hats but there is a coked up russian rocking leopard skin suits to autographs turn off the radio during a boss fight let's see how funny you are when i cut out your tongue buddy big talk for someone dressed like a seat cover he's exactly the one note baddie you'd expect in a game like this someone so over the top their clothing weapon choice living quarters and language there's no possible way there's more to this constantine breco and there isn't if you shut him up keep talking and he reveals that a rival xkgb agent serkov wasn't honest about why braco stole from him and just as with the revelation of madison's family leading to unique scenes and spawns an gameplay level one where keeping him alive to talk to surkhov circumvents another boss fight with an olympian turned bodyguard and braco is hardly the only character capable of turning enemy to ally very useful looks like your game prepared for anything agent thornton not sure what to expect from me trying to blend in with the locals agent thornton good field craft points for considering camouflage agent thorton but try something that blends in with the civilians more than the surroundings how do you know who i am it's characters like these omen dang boogie man of the intelligence community that are my personal highlight and are far more suited to the spy genre one who's cold and calculated in movement expression and voice one of the chinese secret police's highest ranking members one with all the characteristics of the hitman you're searching for is in fact a loyal devoted and committed agent for taiwan the actual assassin is instead love interest in photojournalist scarlett lake another who intrigues on the surface of being a professional yet tags along for adventure and despite murdering for money can care for people like thornton seemingly depending on the player's actions she can ride off into the sunset or shoot you in the back by creating this world where everyone is withholding secrets ones that relate to other characters countries and coalitions obsidian have made story segments mechanically enjoyable not just fascinating to hear that's actually why i didn't label these sections gameplay and story like i normally do obsidian's own testers were as if not more invested in these conversations than combat and so was i it's fun to aggressively contest a mercenary cougar like z gain respect for initiating a boss fight and have her become one of your mission handlers what's better is that you can do all of that and the game still isn't rigid about your working relationship regardless of how much you two have done or what your reputation is killing her is an option during braco's mansion invasion and though unlikely to select if you're working with her by giving players the choice it reaffirms their actions like a role-playing game should fighting alongside a character means more when you're aware that other options were on the table even the conversations themselves have a flow of not seen replicated in this genre and some linear greats outside of it rpgs have always had an unavoidable awkwardness with pause breaks silent leads blank expressions or all three that's just something we accept as players in the same way we accept the significance of cutscene bullets compared to gameplay as exquisite as the witcher 3's presentation is it often still feels like what designers label an interrogation wiping the color off every option until they're grayed out here there are no loops exhausted npcs restrictions or repeated introductions the dialogue is not just well written and engaging so is the manner in which it's selected working in tandem to hook the player each conversation left me wanting more enhanced by everyone having secrets you want to get to the bottom of supported by excellent voice acting across the board did you know at 400 miles an hour soccer balls can decapitate people i don't want to discuss the details over the phone this line may be tapped she is a sharp one sounds like someone with a code of ethics do you even know what a code of ethics is it's all relative if you want me to be quiet then i'm afraid you will have to chalk me after you tie me up ever hear of anger management no because i killed all my therapists in less than a day's time you have already managed to cause me considerable inconvenience now tell me what you're doing here look old man you can talk big all you want but at the end of the day you're a corporate drone collecting a paycheck you answer to a cardboard cutout half your age with the fashion sense of a screaming child he spends thousands on his [ __ ] hair conrad marburg here one of my favorites is like agent 47 grew old with insecurities and though he's often trying to kill me regardless if i'm respected or not in each conversation i want to get to the bottom of his poor judgment of character or hatred between him and z that's so strong meeting her in russia gives a positive point before you've selected anything if you fought conrad in rome i think we will be fast friends darling conrad and i well we have our professional differences i smiled so much upon catching circo for omen's line about meeting in combat gear reloading the stage in casual and being complimented or submitting this to mina after she asked about something on site to which she sends you a swiss bank account of 25 000 as a bribe to stop emailing jokes this is the heart of alpha protocol the real gameplay this is why the longer you spend in combat ie hard mode the less engaging the game is you're kept away from the game's real superpower for as many choices as this game has and it does at the end of the day it's still an illusion you're going through the same five locations that culminate to the same island truthfully there's less content here in quantity than most rpgs which considering there were still talks of cutting a whole hub is a definite consequence of its development you visit many more locations and people in other games you probably make more decisions in total the reason alpha protocol feels so unique then isn't because of your choices it's how the game acknowledges them the dialogue mission order relationships clothing are in service to this and that's what these notifications are for though a dialogue choice may not always result in a notably shifted narrative you receive immediate feedback in every conversation with just this mechanic and it works alongside everything else mentioned including one final design certain repetitions actions choices and relationships net you perks literally you gain 15 plus endurance if albatross hates you texting five times gives you bonus xp turning all potential enemies into allies gives you 25 skill points fueling a friend's conspiracy theories improves cooldowns it's endless however i'd be dishonest to say alpha protocol wasn't loaded purely because of poor gameplay while more popular and polished rpgs might lack a protagonist that blurs the line between avatar and character they do a far better job of presenting despite the sheer volume of content in rpgs the best managed to feature powerful imagery in music which serve to amplify any emotion you don't just talk to the elusive man you feel his presence the dark lighting baron quarters an exploding star bathes this leader in mystery the camera's frequently angled upward even when he's seated suggesting power and jack wall is telling you his [Music] story [Music] the themes calm collected and yet desperate everything the elusive man is what story does this music tell that wasn't a rhetorical question and the scene itself doesn't draw the eye lighting's as flat as the textures camera angles rarely deviate from shot reverse shot tvs are purely an expositional tool transitions exclusively fade to white there's neither style nor substance once again likely spawned from four years of searching for alpha protocol's core appeal rather than building upon it from day one some may pin lacking cinematics on the notably lackluster visuals but i disagree saints row 2 looked abysmal in 2008 yet its stylized cutscenes hold up today whether comedic or profound though they didn't share alpha protocol's technical issues that arise in cutscenes more ambitious than dialogue sequences which could explain the game's restrained cable tv feel if this storyboard is anything to judge the game intended to feature far more creative angles transitions and framing now obsidian did wisely invest in higher quality models and facial animations which deserves credit there's tons of subtlety that's impressive for a game with the amount of cinematic content this one has it's the bright spot in an otherwise dated looking game that sadly no amount of texture mods could save for music deus ex composer alexander brandon came to obsidian repeating his work from ironstorm austin building an audio department from the ground up to direct himself when it came time to work on alpha protocol one of the top influences and discussions was famed electronica producer bt that as luck would have it wrote the game's main theme for lead composer alexander spoke with jeff zinelli from radar group who'd done queues for pirates of the caribbean but through contractual issues couldn't come onto the project leaving the reins to those who supplied the demo for that costly airplane scene red note audio's jason graves and rob ebernethy both being people that alexander worked with previously and the former known today mostly for dead space and tomb raider that's quite the talent roster and digging through files certain tracks match their potential [Music] [Music] however these are songs from the game's official soundtrack release which is not what most games actually use in reality raw game soundtracks look like this isolated pieces that are put together by programmers it's why talking about a soundtrack's composition and implementation is so important because while alpha protocol in truth has some expertly crafted music you don't hear it most of the time as a [Music] player [Music] so it's said by legends like john williams that melody is the greatest challenge of composing and as a result takes time so i suspect alpha protocol's frequent background noise is yet another victim to its troubled development it wasn't surprising to read that the audio team shifted with alexander brandon moving to austin a year and a half before release and speaking of trouble there's the story you know that extremely brief summary i gave about five paragraphs ago that's literally the extent of the plot i understood the rest was an incomprehensible miasma of factions motivations and betrayals through which i was just dumbly acting with zero understanding this is a problem and one i relate to having mentioned being completely lost when i had the sheer audacity to not binge the game in a weekend if there's anything for rpgs to standardize it's chapter summaries a feature alpha protocol desperately needs though if it did might have revealed what i came to understand that being the story isn't nearly as complicated as the number of events people organizations and nations are involved would suggest this game's story is merely about a pmc using a top secret military branch of the us government to construct terrorist attacks that escalate the world's weapon supply and company profits the setup is michael thornton's the agent chosen by halbeck for one of their schemes in the middle east only the agent survives and starts infringing upon other operations and this is actually another reason why cutting one location was considered the story's culmination comes independently of the number of locations the story's funnel point is that no matter what you've done halbeck believes they're in a good position no longer needing alpha protocol and as the government branch is established to be under their own nation's radar and rebooted under different aliases multiple times this is routine despite themes of global espionage the game's not nearly as political as one would expect there's a plethora of political scenarios presidential assassinations mass weapons sales rogue agencies terrorist cells riots etc but because no matter their conclusion the final missions plot parameters remain the same there's not really any statement or points raised this isn't a criticism it's just surprising that the game taking place in a world much like our own has less to say about it than the fantasy sci-fi and post-apocalyptic games populating the genre and it's also fair to note that while i love the cast of characters and the game does an excellent job giving context choice and consequence to them not everybody's fleshed out meena tang has one of the most intriguing conclusions regardless of whether she fell from michael or she views him as the devil's work similar to how parker was actually the mind behind each terrorist attack mina only saved you for her own assigned mission infiltrating alpha protocol from the inside this is powerful because mina has stuck by you through everything whether it was done with jokes and loyalty or snark and sneers at your other allies she may know something that could help us unless you need advice on implants i wouldn't bother like obsidian's previous work the explanation behind a character's role isn't just because that's their role and this is a video game mina has real motivations for sticking beside you that are completely of her own accord and unknown to us westridge on the other hand you exchange words in the middle east never see each other for the whole run time and never will unless you kept the game's initial villain shaheed alive and get information from him triggering westridge to be the final boss the final conversation makes some sense in the context of thornton being a greedy bastard teaming up with leyland but even then it's just unsatisfying for the game's final fight to so heavily rely on a character that you barely know the plot is not this game's strength while michael's journey is far more reactive engaging and intense than your average rpg its conclusion ultimately brings all paths to the same road well ocean and it's not very interesting just a sunset played to forgettable indie rock with a glitched background to remind you this is still alpha protocol but there is intrigue for the story beyond this game g22 knows an awful lot about your ostensibly secret government program and it's known that a previous iteration of alpha protocol was called g19 remember how telling alan parker that marburg killed his daughter results in the death of both well parker is the only person who's been with every version of alpha protocol including deus vote where alan set up conrad in pakistan just like he set up you in saudi arabia it's why marburg placed bombs in the museum's crusades exhibit the attack was both to terrify the eu and send a message to the american government branch that abandoned him telling conrad that parker was his handler results in him taking revenge even meena tang is infiltrating alpha protocol on behalf of another american agency all fingers point to alpha protocol not the agency but the idea a secret arm of the us government that's never held accountable being something that's existed for decades and no doubt obsidian were going somewhere with all of these pieces what it means then for alpha protocol itself is that it's a story of potential and instinct but once the dust has settled has less to ponder over than you'd assume ideologically or politically but that doesn't mean the game's story doesn't have something special because via its characters dialogue and reactivity to your biggest and smallest actions it gives much to ponder over in its world if there's anybody who knows how much of a shambles alpha protocol is it's obsidian themselves upon the game's release there was little in the way of defending from developer or publisher a form post even gained traction when someone claiming to have worked on the game wished it was canned which while having nothing to verify its accuracy speaks volumes to the game's trouble that people could believe it but rare is it that a project results in a total loss the canceled aliens rpg did result in obsidian's own game engine funded by sega and would go on to be used in both dungeon siege 3 and south park the stick of truth and with alpha protocol's development the team had a firm grasp on unreal action stealth and pre-production where alpha protocol 1 was pitched to sega with an uncommonly briefed document of narrative themes alpha protocol 2 had a complete 40 page pitch detailing the methods of polishing while doubling down on the game's biggest strength reactivity chris parker describes a choice and consequence web interface presumably building on the summary screens from the original that show to players what their actions spider web from start to finish there were even concepts for asynchronous multiplayer involving intelligent sharing where players could send pieces of intel and even falsify them i'm picturing fibbage with firearms it also aimed to ratchet up the crazy make it more kill bill even the original game didn't include every character obsidian dreamed up the offices to this day have a full illustration of one of the cut characters ulibouli despite all the challenges faced during alpha protocol's development or perhaps because of them obsidian were enthusiastic about a potential sequel filled with ideas and plans to learn from their mistakes while not backing down from the company's known ambitions however even by july 2010 just two months after launch the jig was up the real tragedy is were a few things to change obsidian would have retained rights to the alpha protocol ip and at least be able to pitch it elsewhere it all goes back to the dwarves rpg mentioned early on sega actually contacted obsidian in 2005 when the developer was wrapping up neverwinter nights 2. ceo fergus urquhart explained their hands were currently tied to which sega surprisingly offered to wait them out and discuss ideas for an rpg franchise until the company could make it this setup for negotiating a perfect deal however was interrupted by the sudden cancellation of seven dwarfs by disney leaving dozens of people out of work in an effectively completed contract on obsidian's desk that immediately keep those people's jobs secure alpha protocol's creators would have owned the intellectual property rights but having to get things signed right away came with a price despite publicly claiming no interest in continuing the brand sega has held on to it since that contract this moment is the reason why there's been no hope for a sequel and hope sank even further last year when alpha protocol was removed from steam due to expired music rights with no effort to renew them it's such a shame because i've held the belief for years that games which need sequels the most are the flawed gems the ones who might have lacked in presentation gameplay or polish but had something special alpha protocol epitomizes this 10 years after playing hundreds of games with better action fidelity presentation polish style and construction i still think about alpha protocol and now that i've spent so much time pondering over it i think it'll only stick with me more everybody wants what they can't have and i want everything just mentioned with the reactivity of alpha protocol and while the chance of a sequel is thin even in a world with hitman 2 raged to in bloodlines too that obsidian are still thinking about it themselves lets me hope one day even spiritually i'll get my wish [Music] so where the hell have i been mentally nowhere and that was the problem the month of june was spent with an utter vacancy a mixture of emotions that couldn't decide between horror pride happiness or sadness much like the world itself at the time which is no coincidence it's why i paused the patreon for that month not only was i not doing any work i wasn't doing anything to change it but in the months to follow i did the primary one being my mistress to adobe premiere davinci resolve for those who didn't know i switched editing software at the beginning of this year and came to realize the change in software and reduction in uploads was not a coincidence the software was great during production but when it came time to render you'd get this young blood doesn't have these happy stages in different places every time delaying videos by days and leaving me utterly drained on the moment that's most pleasing when uploading seeing your responses and reactions this marks the first project upon my return to adobe premiere which wasn't easy involving much troubleshooting technical minefields and testing but unlike the last couple of projects i genuinely enjoyed making this one which i hope came through a large part of that enjoyment is thanks to jack or stuffer who stepped up to the plate producing all of the graphics for this video special thanks to him and be sure to check out his website in the description and to all of you who kept donating watching and commenting these past couple of months thank you not only for pushing this channel to its biggest milestone yet one i never would have believed reaching but more importantly keeping a roof over my head it really means a lot but that's enough of the serious stuff it's time to get stupid do you even i'm literally can't evening is editing hell yes who is your favorite video game character and why is it frank hayden because he's voiced by steven bloom and i bet he doesn't even remember doing it most copies you bought of a single game halo 3 probably i had the collector's edition but then the disc got banged up and i bought a new one which was then followed by halo 3 odst that has the same competitive multiplayer though i've got so many games i've bought extra copies of them upon forgetting i already have them this has resulted in two copies of two human and from my understanding one copy is already too many when will rey ask a question do you put milk in your scrambled eggs it depends why do you use us for content during the credits instead of being entertaining enough to carry it yourself because i'm not if you did it years later on a strategy game would you make it a collaboration or avoid them entirely my channel's output indicates i've gone with a ladder but if it were to happen a collaboration would be likely if only to be fair to the game as being ignorant on the genre as a whole it at least needs someone else who can call me out why does red bull suck monster's worse why are you stealing our [ __ ] you already asked this [Music] you

Channel: Raycevick

Views: 685,155

Keywords: Raycevick, COG, connected, COGconnected, review, analysis, years, later, Alpha, Protocol, alpha protocol, alpha protocol review, obsidian, obsidian entertainment, alpha protocol game, romance, alpha protocol romance, alpha protocol sie, 10 years later, bioware, dragon age, mass effect andromeda, mass, effect, fixt, worst game i enjoy, worst, game, enjoy, gameplay, the outer worlds, obsidian new game, obsidian entertainment new game, microsoft, xbox game pass, interview, documentary, cuhnadian, sega, sonic

Id: 8dyPBkJuFdU

Length: 68min 33sec (4113 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/UndeadOne]

This game, as broken as it is, is still one of my all time favorites.

Replayability value is insane, with different conversation options, different outcomes to various situations, differences based on the order of missions you take, even different final fucking boss.

And conversations...everything is probably said about them at this point. Gold fucking mine.

I love AP.

Such a shame it was unholy mess at release (still kinda is, but eh, don't care).

[u/iredditwhileshitting]

I fucking love Alpha Protocol. It's a mess but I finished it like 5 times. Easily the best use of the Mass Effect dialog wheel.

I wish there were more contemporary real world rpg's like Alpha Protocol. I'm a little bored of every rpg being some fantasy thing. I'd like to see Obsidian or somebody else try to create a spiritual successor to Alpha Protocol.

[u/Manusho]

This is a prime example of a game that needs a remake. Remaking games that were already perfect just so they can look a litte prettier is nice, but not really necessary. But a game like Alpha Protocol that did so much right. That had all the pieces for an amazing games, but just need like six month more polish. This is a game that I wish Obsidian would take another swing at.

[u/Goldenboy451]

This game is broken as hell and yet I'll always go to bat for it. When it comes down to it, it's essentially The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: The Game.

That characters would even comment on the clothing you choose to wear on certain missions is absolute madness.

[u/DrunkSovietBear]

I knew about Parker and Marburg thing. But i never knew it could happen in reverse, it's insane. The game did choices so right it hurts we never got a sequel.

[u/TacoFacePeople]

Alpha Protocol was one of my favorite RPGs not just for the degree that it forked elements based on player choice (e.g. what world locations you went to first, your approach to conversations, your approach to clearing levels, etc.), but also the nature of the setting (modern day spy RPG).

I played it on consoles originally, which was a less-buggy experience than many reviews seemed to make it out to be (not to diminish the complaints of others, but most of them just didn't seem to be present... issues with the PC port in particular? I don't know).

It felt like a large portion of the criticism was probably contained in how it played compared to games released at the same time. A common complaint seemed to be along the lines of "the bullets aren't going where I'm firing", which was also a complaint about Mass Effect 1 combat mechanics (which required you to rank up guns to hit anything).

By the time Alpha Protocol released though (2010) it was competing with Mass Effect 2 (also 2010). ME2 dropped the RPG-skill dimension for gun-use as part of the mainstreaming (reducing a huge skill list to a handful per class), and so it played more like a normal shooter. It wasn't handling the mechanic much differently than Deus Ex or ME1 had, but it seemed to suffer a lot from the comparison.

It did feel like certain weapon types (shotguns in particular, but also SMGs) were almost never appropriate to the situation in most missions.

The NG+ additions for the Veteran playthrough were a nice touch for replays as well (as were the "Rookie" conversation options you had to go through with on the first playthrough if you went that route).

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/Nashkt]

Alpha Protocol was THE game that let me relive that bioware experience from before their transformation into a AAA developer team, and in many ways surpassed Bioware as a game that legitimately allowed the player to experience extremely varied narrative paths's based on their choices (how you play, which missions you tackle, the "class" you choose, all can change the narrative pretty drastically. )

The sheer dedication to the branching narrative allowed me to completely ignore the janky gameplay and just lose myself into the spy thriller unfolding before me. I've never again experienced what Alpha Protocol has done since, and it saddens me. I really feel that with just a little more polish this game would have been remembered as an absolute classic.

[u/[deleted]]

Ah, Alpha Protocol; a game so buggy that when I died during the prologue and loaded a save, all the event triggers were gone, so I couldn't even open any doors.