Alpha Protocol E3 Previews

If you’re looking for some more information about Obsidian’s Alpha Protocol, there are four more E3-based previews to pore through.

The first is at GameSpot:

Luckily, our demo consisted of plenty of action, namely, a combat mission where you have to infiltrate a Russian gang. The mission opened with a dialogue between Thornton and a female operative, which showed off the dialogue tree that will work in the game. You have only a limited amount of time to choose your responses to certain questions and statements, and you press one of the four face buttons to choose responses ranging from aggressive to passive. The woman we saw responded much better to an aggressive stance; she was a straight-talking Russian who just wanted to get down to business.

The second is at GamingShogun:

The developers also stated that the player will gain numerous perks as he gains experience and levels. These perks are automatically selected based on the skills the players in-game decisions/actions. We asked how far player can expect to level in the game and were told that if a player does all missions and maximizes experience, he would reach level 20 or so. As players level, they gain points to put in any of the 9 different skill attributes (small guns, martial arts, etc…). To maximize every skill would require approximately 200 levels of points, which, with a soft-cap of 20, will never happen. Therefore the player has to be very particular where skill points are placed. This also makes it fun for players to go back through and play the game, multiple times, from different character types and actions.

The third is at Strategy Informer:

Alpha Protocol also gives players the chance to perform missions without the need to find the information themselves, but to purchase it from informants or off the black market. Guns and upgrades can also be purchased from gun runners, but players should feel free to use whatever assets they have to accomplish their mission or objective. By this, I mean it isn’t required to fulfill the mission assigned, because after all, you have to look after number one.

And the fourth is at That Videogame Blog:

The storytelling is the part that was most hazy, but also has the most potential to make this title shine. We were promised a dialogue tree as intricate as one in Mass Effect, but also more tense. Not only do you have a limited amount of time to choose your response, but you will never be able to repeat a conversation. Once things are said, like in real life, they are said. This then leads to how characters respond to you, and these relationships are quantified in replacement of a morality alignment like in many RPG’s. This seems to be a potentially new trend, as Dragon Age touts a very similar system.