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Alpha Protocol photo depository thread

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Ozymandias:

--- Quote from: KvP on 02 Apr 2009, 15:52 ---Honestly the further AP keeps from ME, the happier I'll be. At the very least I hope it will be less clumsily designed, and the combat will be more enjoyable, and on both counts it looks to be shaping up that way.

--- End quote ---

This is a bad opinion.

KvP:
Nah, there were definitely bad design choices in ME. Some glaring ones with level design in particular (The Citadel was poorly planned out and there are of course the sidequest planets) and the much-vaunted dialogue wheel was just a reskinned dialogue tree that actually introduced more problems than it fixed (for one, very few of the conversations actually seemed to branch). Bioware talked about all the mistakes they made during GDC, you can look up the text if you want.

And the combat was by and large boring, for a number of reasons. Tactical choices were extremely limited. Cover was spotty and poorly implemented, and the AI was not terribly good. Bioware is capable of making really incredible games (BG2 is probably my favorite game of all time, I've played it as least as much as I've played Fallout 2, which is saying something) but ME is indicative of a general decline in the quality of Bioware's design philosophy since NWN shipped (I'd say gradual but ME was far superior to Jade Empire) away from more free-form gameplay towards highly linear and controlled narratives. I liked it in KOTOR but I've liked it less every time I see it.

I've got high hopes for DA and ME2, though. I think I'll probably end up disappointed in one or both of them, but as Fallout 3 showed developers by and large aren't dumb about the inherent flaws of their design philosophies even if they are unwilling or unable to work out al the kinks.

Point is just because something is enjoyable (and ME was imminently replayable, for those first few runs) doesn't mean it's beyond criticism.

Johnny C:
I think you were on the mark on the nature of the narrative actually being fairly linear and the blandness of the sidequest level design is almost legendary but to complain that the combat was limited demonstrates borderline insanity. It was limited if you never used your abilities, never specified and targeted your partners' abilities, never worked to streamline your partners' strategies, never switched your weapons, never switched your ammo, never used grenades, and never utilized the environment. However, if you can even so much as read the preceding sentence you probably found it to be at the very least a competent combat system.

If you base your criticisms and opinions off of what the designers themselves say are the strengths and weaknesses of the game, please for your own benefit and mine never listen to me talk about my own music.

Storm Rider:
But at the same time, it's very clear from all the GDC discussion on Mass Effect 2 that they are very aware of the flaws of the first game and it sounds like their design process is much more streamlined now.

KvP:
Sorta-walkthrough video, focusing on faction choice and its implications for gameplay.

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