Sunday, July 21, 2013
Letters On: Alpha Protocol - Conclusion
*
Games: At last, here's the fifth and final installment of the letters between myself and @SparkyClarkson on Obsidian's underappreciated espionage RPG, Alpha Protocol.
Miss the previous installments? You can read the first here. The second is right here, and here are the third and the fourth.
And now, our closing statements on the cross-continental misadventures of Mike Thorton...
*
So, at last, we come to the end of Alpha Protocol, and it is
terrible.
It doesn’t seem that bad at first. The level begins with a
number of “conversation” missions, and even at this late point the
conversations keep Mike’s relationships growing. My Mike kept things
professional with Mina and Scarlet, knowing he was a target. Then he walked
into the airport and gave himself up to Darcy.
This leads into the conversation with Leland we’ve been
having interspersed between missions the whole game. Leland offers Mike a job,
apparently unaware that Mike’s whole purpose in visiting is to put a bullet
between his eyes. One sharp refusal later, Mike is in the queue for
termination, chatting a bit with Marburg on the way. Timely intervention by
Steven Heck saves the day, and Mike is off to get his revenge.
Alas, Mike’s final romp through the Graybox and surrounding
areas is an abyss of crappy level design and terrible boss encounters, infested
with bugs.
The big reveal of Scarlet’s role turns into a loose end for
me because the game mistakes curiosity for a positive choice. The building blew
up behind me as I was just trying to figure out the lay of the land, sealing
off Scarlet’s cell (although I didn’t realize that’s what I had missed until
much later). This is why making a compelling game is so difficult - bad level
design can make your story worse.
I rescued Mina, a relatively easy task since the soldiers
were nonchalantly patrolling the interior of a building that was in the process
of exploding, then moved on to fight Parker. This is a highly variable fight. I
remember that the first time I played it, Parker shot Marburg in the back and I
finished the job. This time Marburg was absent, and I had to take down a bunch
of turrets (I hacked them, but this did nothing) and soldiers. Then I had to do
it again, because the game bugged out the first time and didn’t let me into the
little room where Parker was hiding.
Should I feel something in response to killing Parker? The
plain fact is that I haven’t seen this guy since forever and I didn’t really
care about him then. This is part of the problem with this whole part of the
game. We have a relationship with Leland, because we’ve been talking to him
regularly throughout the game, but Parker? Darcy? Westridge? I can barely
remember those guys. The boss fights feel rather weightless as a consequence.
Speaking of Darcy, the fight against him is awful, and the
subsequent fight against a helicopter is even worse. By this point the game has
started to feel like the worst Gears of War clone ever created, an impression
it does nothing to dispel in a final fight where I had to dodge rockets being
launched by Leland.
Again, this is bad design hurting the story. The whole point
of Leland’s character is that he never gets his hands dirty personally, that he
doesn’t understand the realities of the conflicts he’s starting. No matter how
much danger he was in, Leland wouldn’t want to pick up a rocket launcher, and
wouldn’t know how to use one if he did. Leland should be hiding in that little
office and sending out waves of troops. That fight would still suck, but at
least it would be true to the character.
In the end, Leland tried to make a deal again, but Mike just
beat the crap out of him and then shot him in the face, because that’s what
Mike does. Then the game had to go ruin things by including a strange coda with
Marburg (it didn’t let me shoot him!) before Mike sailed off into the sunset
with Mina.
You’ll notice I didn’t say anything about G22 in all of
that. Another weakness of this mission is that it doesn’t share the “grand
alliance” feeling of the Taipei missions. Albatross and SIE turned up as options
for my handler, but rather than taking all the help he can get, Mike apparently
brushes them off.
That’s a huge mistake, because the story of Alpha Protocol
is not “Mike Thorton went around the world semi-defeating Halbech and then went
back to the Graybox to Kill All The Dudes.” The story is “Mike Thorton went
around the world making allies who helped strengthen him, and enemies who would
oppose him, in the final push against the real danger.” Alpha Protocol is a
game about relationships, and it really needed to honor and incorporate them in
the final mission in order to make that feel like a culmination of the story.
Alpha Protocol’s last mission fails in so many ways. It’s a
big, shooty level full of bosses that leans on the game’s worst mechanics
without sufficiently engaging its conversation system. The finale doesn’t
really have much story of its own, and it too easily gives up the strands of
alliance that could connect it back to Mike’s previous missions. It centers on
NPCs who are far in the past, and doesn’t pay enough attention to Mike’s
ongoing relationships. The level design blocks off elements of story rather
than drawing the player towards them. In all, I found it a bitter
disappointment.
Alpha Protocol is one of the most ambitious attempts to
reach the Western RPG ideal of mutability - a game as a virtual DM that
presents a partially fixed story that flexes to fit the player’s choices.
Unfortunately, that ambition was not matched by Obsidian’s ability to execute
on gameplay. The game’s shooty finale is abysmal, but it’s part and parcel of a
stodgy insistence on RPG tropes that simply weren’t a good fit. The Graybox
showdown is to the rest of the game as the boss fights against Omen, Marburg,
and Brayko are to the mission cities that precede them.
Wishful thinking, I know. Sega would never have supported
such a game, and Obsidian seem to see themselves as RPG guys first and
foremost. Yet what Alpha Protocol is striving for is so great, and its flaws
are so significant, one can’t help but wonder what might have been.
***
Hey Sparky,
You know, before I get into the meat of this letter, I
really want to thank you for inviting me to participate in this
correspondence. Although my original review of Alpha Protocol wasn’t exactly going with praise, there was an
admiration there.
As time has gone on, that admiration has only grown, and now
that we’ve completed this recent playthrough and talked about it, I like the
title now more than I ever did.
Strangely, a large part of this increase in affection has to do with the
final mission – the very same mission which you found so miserable, I found to
be quite satisfying.
To start things off by keeping it real, the level design and
combat is at the same low level it always is, but the saving grace is that by
this point in the game, my Mike Thorton had maxed out his Pistol skills, had Brilliance
at his disposal, and was packing the best gear that was available.
Most of the encounters were complete pushovers thanks to the
godlike slow-mo-firing-six-shots-at-once ability and enough health packs to resuscitate
an entire battalion’s worth of injury.
Even the bosses went down in seconds (except the helicopter you
mentioned, which inexplicably manages to take six or seven missile strikes before going
down) so I didn’t have too much difficulty in getting past the generally poor
quality of the fights.
While there was little satisfaction to be gained from the
gunplay, it’s the rest of the mission that really solidified things for
me. While you and I are on
the same page about the missed opportunity of Mike not being able to assemble
his entire team when mounting his assault on the Graybox, I actually did have something
that echoed it in a scaled-back way.
Although it seems like our missions began with Leland trying
to recruit our characters for Halbech (and really, I need to go and YouTube
what happens if you decide to accept his offer) that’s where we diverge, for
the most part.
From there, I was quite pleased to finally get the romance
scene with SIE that I had been after.
This sequence of events and the way it played out was far more
graphic than I was expecting, although I suppose I should mention that I was
actively pursuing this option, so it was not unwelcome. I’ve heard from people who weren’t SIE fans
that the scene can also come off in a very different light, but really, who’s not a
SIE fan?
In any event, in my previous time through the game, I was
confused about which way to go at several points, and as a result, I missed
rescuing Mina and failed to make contact with Scarlet. Since I was consulting a FAQ this time
around, I made sure not to accidentally miss them, and this extra effort paid
off.
Since White Hat Mike had been playing nice with the ladies
along the way, they were both happy to see him.
After Scarlet revealed her secret, she and I teamed up for the rest of
the level, and having an on-the-ground backup with her skills was greatly
appreciated. Things with Mina went just
as swimmingly, and not only did she provide me with a brief scene’s worth of
assistance, she was around at the end before credits rolled. I always felt guilty as hell for unintentionally leaving her behind, so finally correcting this was great.
However, those weren’t the only places where this mission
changed for me. Like you, when I
encountered Marburg he respected me enough (and I had enough information on
him from his dossiers) that I was able to convince him that his continued
support of Halbech wasn’t in his best interests, so he acted on the wisdom of my
words by leaving Leland high and dry.
It was a similar situation with Parker. After supplying him with some facts that he
wasn’t aware of, the man’s cold, calculating nature led him to switch
sides. Rather than being someone to take
down, he ignored me, swiped data from the Graybox servers and left town.
From there, it was just a hop, skip, and a quick reload to
taking Leland down. I have to admit that
I was somewhat surprised to see him as the final boss – I had to fight a completely
different character last time, so this final scene with him wheedling and
pleading felt more appropriate. Although
I did not put a bullet in his head, I did smack him around a bit before
deciding to take him into custody, so things wrapped up as I think they should
have.
In general I totally agree with your criticisms – the story
stumbles in several places, the combat is never anywhere as good as it
should be, and there are times when the focus seems placed on the absolute
wrong thing. However, more elements
clicked into place for me during this second time through the Graybox, and I
did feel as though the work I had done throughout the game really paid off at
the end, especially in regard to Parker.
That particular scene largely recapped my “good” deeds and non-combat intelligence work in each country, so being
able to connect the dots into the result I got was gratifying. I was also happy to see that three of my
teammates did manage to help out, and that due diligence paid off with
Marburg. When all was said and done it
was far from optimal, but there was definitely a value to managing the relationships and spending time preparing for conversations. Unlike so many other titles, Alpha Protocol's key moments happen thanks to the time spent with the main character's finger off the trigger.
If nothing else, it just (again) highlights what a shame it
was that Alpha Protocol came out in a shaky state to begin with, and rubs
salt in the wound of knowing that it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in
hell of getting a sequel. Despite
all of the problems, I found it to be interesting and appealing on many, many
levels, and with a little bit of design rework and a few more dollars pumped into
QA, I have no doubt that a sequel following the same lines would really have been something else.
Unfortunately we both know that it was not to be, but I’m
hoping that an increased awareness of this title will inspire a young developer with
stars in their eyes to someday carry on the torch that Obsidian and Alpha
Protocol lit. There are definitely valuable lessons to be learned here, and to
this day, I still haven’t played anything that scratches the espionage itch the
way this game does.
*
Posts
I'll wanted to say a few things about my ending. I might write up some fuller thoughts on Alpha Protocol at some point but I've just this minute finished it for the second time; inspired to play again by your letter series.
My experience with the final level was somewhere between the two of you. I was at Level 18 going it with fully upgraded Stealth, and a lot of points in both Pistols and Assault Rifles; the latter was originally picked because I could use Subsonic ammunition to perform long range stealth kills.
I'll explain a few bits of the context first. I visited Rome first then Russia and finally Taipei. I never met SIE, I've yet to try a playthrough where I do. I just found the marketing around her character irritating so knowing from my first time I didn't need to meet her I didn't bother this time either. Also my natural playstyle is stealth focused and the VCI don't fit that, so I sided with G-22 all the way.
I initially took Albatros for my handler, through a combination of luck and foreknowledge I was able to locate Scarlet and she became my handler. That was a marked change from my first time where I only found out about her real identity at the very end, during the final boss fight.
Sis rescued me from the detention cell and even threw me a gun, not sure why since my equipment was stored in the same room but it was a nice indication of her attitude toward me.
I had gathered a lot of friends to support me, I'd kept Shaheed alive and had Heck on my side along with G-22 and Deng, but once the mission started they all seemed to disappear; maybe it's because I took Scarlet as my handler? I
I managed to talk Parker out of fighting me, which I think I did last time as well. The two boss fights after that played out very similarly, though I discovered that with my upgraded Assault Rifle I could simply shoot the helicopter out of the air which made that fight go from agonising to trivial.
What was very different this time, despite my belief that I'd ended up playing similarly to my first time, was that I had to fight Leland at the end. Originally I had faced Yancy Westridge. That confrontation with Westridge made much more sense than the fight with Leland, it was a disappointment to see Leland wielding a rocket launcher.
I still really love the high level character and faction manipulation in Alpha Protocol but the missions are frequently frustrating. It does a really bad job of explaining your objectives and in this final mission where you can have multiple conflicting objectives it's an utter mess.