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The Alpha Protocol playthrough thread Revising an old favourite... and trying to break it!

#1 User is offline   Mentalist 

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Posted 28 May 2018 - 04:33 AM

As I'm eagerly looking forward to the release of Vampyr, an action/RPG that's supposed to offer a lot of replayability based on the choices the player makes regarding who lives and who dies, I thought there'd be no better way to prepare myself than by revising another action/RPG that offered a ton of replayability- "Alpha Protocol"
Now, I know that the reception towards this game is divisive. It's notoriously buggy, and many found the combat to be clunky and some of the bosses and minigames excessively difficult. For myself, when I first bought it in eh steam Summer sale of 2011, I played it through maybe 5 times in a row, and loved it. I have not revisited it since, although I've been thinking about it for a long time.
This thread will be my chronicle into the misadventures of Mike Thorton. The plan is simple- there are 3 difficulties (Easy, Normal, Hard), and 6 agent histories. I will attempts 6 playthroughs, focusing on role-playing each character's personality, as I imagine it would be shaped by their experience.
Basically, it'll go something like this:

1. Field Agent- being an employee of the Department of State, Field Agent is all about Stealth, and takedowns(close combat), and some combat skills (pistol only) He's open to manipulating and befriending anyone, and he wants to know everything. Given his prior experience, he's quite likely to look for a deal with Halbech. Difficulty: Normal

2. Soldier- given Mike's background as a GI, this character will be focused on combat (pistol, Rifle, close combat), and his preferred stance will be Aggressive (jack Bauer all the way!), whenever he's dealing with non-Americans. He is likely to want to save the Agency. Due to focus on aggression, this one will be done on Easy

3. Freelancer-the "unrestricted" character (meaning how I'd normally play the game probaby)- he's doing everything to gather influence, and make the most money for himself. He has no long-term goal, and will act in whatever appears to be in his immediate interest (basically, I have no clue where his story will end up) He'll have all the best skills- close combat, Sabotage and any weapons- but he'll be played on Hard to compensate

4. Tech Specialist- Obvious focus on Sabotage, and proficiency with gadgets (medic) and a weapon (to avoid the repetitive pistols, we'll give him SMGs). Dialogue is all-Professional (trying to be Jason Bourne), but he might try Suave with randoms, since his social skills aren't great. (difficulty- normal)


5. Recruit- with 3 months experience in the DoJ and completely unprepared for the clandestine world, this guy will try to break the game in any way possible. He will inevitably pick Suave dialogue options with anyone (unless his own "recruit" options are availaible), channeling poor-effort Bond. He will trust any offer, and he will put all his points into Shotgun, and whatever other skills I deem to be the least useful (probably SMGs). As with the Freelancer, there's no telling where he'll end up. In order to relieve his misery somewhat, I'll play him on Easy.

6. Veteran- Being the very best of the spy world, you are looking to get into Alpha Protocol, to bring it down. All skills are available, and just like the Freelancer, all options are open for him and his long-term plan is to take everyone down. Obviously, this one will be on Hard.

I'll be posting summaries of each character as I go along. Spoilers for an 8-year old game, obviously. Feedback and comments are welcome. I'll be starting the journey tomorrow.
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View PostJump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.
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#2 User is offline   Tapper 

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Posted 28 May 2018 - 09:02 AM

Best of luck! I quite liked AP, but a PC-switch midway through my first playthrough and the russian knife-wielding cocaine sniffing boss on the second stealthy play made sure I never finished the game.
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#3 User is offline   Mentalist 

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Posted 28 June 2018 - 01:12 PM

This took longer than anticipated, since I got side-tracked by finishing Brood War.

However, yesterday, Thorton woke up from his weeks-long stupor in the Saudi safehouse and went on to (stealthily) mess some shit up.

Re-learning the finicky stealth took a bit of practice. Then I reached level 3 and put more points into Stealth, granting me a passive Evasion skill (when first spotted, Mike goes invisible for a few seconds to be make himself scarce again), as well as master-level Awareness (meaning all enemies, their alert level and direction they're facing show up as arrows in the HUD), and most challenge went out of being sneaky again.

Having done the 3 "ground work" missions in Saudi Arabia, I'm just about ready to move the story along and have the game open up.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 05 July 2018 - 01:24 PM

The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard
THE CONTESTtm WINNER--чемпіон самоконтролю

View PostJump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.
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#4 User is offline   Mentalist 

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Posted 05 July 2018 - 01:44 PM

After enjoying himself during an extended long weekend, Agent Thorton finally got on with finding the stolen missiles and the head of the Al-Samad. After stealthing through some more drab desert canyons and warehouses (some of them having blatantly identical design to the airport mission), Thorton confronted the first boss- the Al-Samad Lieutenant. 15 reloads later, he was dispatched by stealth. In 2 tries Thorton survived the firefight with the assault vehicle carrier and was told ready to arrest Shaheed, when a more serious threat was revealed...

Sometime later, Mike found himself on the run, with Shaheed still on the loose and gathering evidence. Having a choice on which leads to pursue, he decided to first of all check out Taipei. There, he contacted one Steven Heck, and earned his respect and cooperation by joking around with him when needed.

He then proceeded to check out the situation in Rome, where he secured additional Intel sources from hacking the NSA and CIA listening posts. The CIA post proved a challenge, due (once again) to finicky stealth mechanics and annoying patrol routes (as well as my impatience, since it was already past 1 AM). Despite triggering enemy state to "yellow" Mike made it past the front door before anything bad could happen and the mission was still considered a success.

Lastly in his prelim Intel gathering, Mike went to Moscow and made contact with Gregory, the local CIA informant and information broker. By being friendly rather than official, Mike was able to secure his cooperation and at least some discretion.

The story will continue..

*at this point I picked my own specializations for the skill tree- looking into Stealth, hand-to-hand and sabotage. I've also met Scarlet and sold her the first bit of Halbech data. My Dossier files for both factions and individuals are just over 40% complete. Next steps will be to meet the G22, the Triads, then probably Sie, and then push the Rome op along.*

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 06 July 2018 - 04:38 PM

The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard
THE CONTESTtm WINNER--чемпіон самоконтролю

View PostJump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.
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#5 User is offline   Garak 

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Posted 06 July 2018 - 03:06 PM

Steven Heck is the best character in that game. Utter madness.
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#6 User is offline   Mentalist 

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Posted 06 July 2018 - 04:41 PM

Having made friends with G22 in Moscow, Thorton hopped back to Tai Pei, talked to the Triad boss, and then tried to investigate a signal coming from the warehouse district.

This attempt at a stealth mission is bloody difficult. Quite frankly, I don't feel I'm leveled up enough to ghost it.

I might try to do another knockout run, but surely that'd also "reveal the location as compromised" ? Gah.

EDIT: yeah, this one needed to be total-stealthed. Which means Thorton had to level up a ton and put ton of points into Stealth to get the "become invisible for 22 seconds" skill. Bugging the G22 servers reveals juicy dossiers on Albatross and somebody else (whose name I no longer remember)

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 08 July 2018 - 07:13 AM

The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard
THE CONTESTtm WINNER--чемпіон самоконтролю

View PostJump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.
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#7 User is offline   Mentalist 

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Posted 08 July 2018 - 07:36 AM

Thinking better of the idea of messing with the G22 in Tai Pei, Throton instead went off to cap some crime: in Moscow, he got involved in a turf war between the Mafia and the VCI, meeting the German merc SIE in the process; then he wreaked some havok in Tai Pei slums, putting down rebel triad leaders. The whole killing and exploring enterprise turned out pretty lucrative, and Throton was ready for the next big phase: raid on the National Security Bureau (NSB) conference. The convoluted plan involved both Steven Heck and Scarlet Lake, and Steven Heck provided tons of humour and mayhem.

Having wrapped up the mission, Thorton went off to Rome again. After a quick stake-out at a socialite's mansion, he was introduced to Conrad Marburg, and managed to impress him with his professionalism and devotion to duty. He then met with Marburg's former assistant, Madison, and took her under his wing, using her as handler in raiding Marburg's villa.

Having gathered additional leads on Marburg's operation, Thorton went back to Tai Pei, completing his raid on the G22 ShadowNet hub (high stealth skill and the Remote Hacking skill allowed him to remain undetected the whole time), and this was followed by an intense firefight and chase sequence in the subway against the Chinese Secret Police. Having finally gotten some data on teh assassination, Thorton presented his findings to president Sung, and his concerns were partially acknowledged.

Rather then conclude the Tai Pei op, Thorton went back to Rome and investigated a deal between Al-Samad and Marburg's men. This involved a dumb sequence where throton had to "defend a relay" while surviving waves of enemies; It was dumb because the enemies made no actual attempt to sabotage the data leak, but new info was triggered only after dispatching a certain number of enemies.

Having done that, Mike was off to Moscow again, where he took SIE's help over G22 in locating the businessman Surkov. This resulted in him fighting against the G22 inside the partially blown up American Embassy. Surkov DID provide a valuable lead to teh mobster and Scarface wannabe Konstantin Brayko. A huge fight was on the cards....

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 08 July 2018 - 03:59 PM

The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard
THE CONTESTtm WINNER--чемпіон самоконтролю

View PostJump Around, on 23 October 2011 - 11:04 AM, said:

And I want to state that Ment has out-weaseled me by far in this game.
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