Alpha Protocol Blog Launched

Obsidian Entertainment has kicked off a new Alpha Protocol blog on IGN with an entry that highlights the importance of player choice and their long-term effects in the espionage-themed RPG.

On top of the skills system, though, we also have a deep dialogue system that lets you interact with our cast of dozens of supporting characters. With each character you encounter, you’ll be asked to make choices in how you interact with them, and each character that you interact with will have different responses to the differing attitudes that you take, which are generally grouped into suave, aggressive, or professional stances. Your boss Yancy, for instance, might get pissed off if you try to sweet-talk him; he prefers agents who don’t try to brownnose and simply cut to the chase. The Russian informant Grigori, however, might react kindly to a suave approach; he’s been around the block enough to know that many undercover operatives are not above beating information out of their contacts, and appreciates it if you use a little tact with him. (Of course, if you want to beat info out of him, that option is readily available – don’t expect Grigori to like you much, however.)

Every character has a reputation meter with you, allowing you to track how much they like or dislike you. Sometimes being disliked can be as advantageous as being liked, however, as many characters will react to you based on how well you are liked or disliked by another character. (And sometime’s it’s just plain fun to piss off a character if you don’t sympathize with their motivations.) So, if you decide to anger one character, you might get some negative consequences from that, but chances are another character will wind up liking you more. Our goal has been to give players choices without clearly delineated “This is the Good Choice” vs. “This is the Bad Choice” reactions; instead, most of the choices you make, especially in your interactions with characters, will have some positive and negative consequences, some of which won’t become clear until hours later in the game.