‘Tomb Raider’ heading into “uncharted” territory.

Raider of tombs.

After almost a decade of solid output from Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider Anniversary is my favorite of the Crystal Dynamics era), we’re getting to meet Lara Croft all over again with the March 5 release of Tomb Raider. I was relatively curious about the new direction, with its themes of survival and development. We are supposedly going to see how Lara Croft became the Lara Croft we met in 1996 and idolized years on in much the way Daniel Craig re-introduced us to James Bond, Christian Bale to Batman, Bomberman to Bomberman: Act Zero, etc. I was never big on this franchise. I remember enjoying Tomb Raider 2 and 3 at most, but never actively bought into Lara Croft as the pop culture icon she is revered as. She is simply an avatar for me to explore mythical tombs, flip switches, and fight off ferocious beasts. Still, I grew heavily interested in this new Tomb Raider, and then I saw it in action. (Does anyone else notice a normal arrow causing a barrel to explode?)

You can probably tell from the title of the entry where I’m going with this. Everyone has compared it to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted games in both positive and negative connotations. I’ve enjoyed the series for two-and-a-half games. The series works less for its mechanics and more for its summer blockbuster-level writing and dialogue from its memorable characters in ridiculous situations performed under great voice direction from talented actors. They are ten-hour interactive adventures that are fun to experience, but as the years passed, I had grown tired of seeing certain designs transferring over to some games: the structural damage that forces the player to take a new path to the next objective, the camera cutting away to said structure breaking apart, the stale gunfights that drag out and appear so often that they feel almost intrusive when I’m more curious to see the next set-piece.

From the footage I’ve seen, Tomb Raider just appears to be going in the same, safe direction of padding small side activities out to keep the game “long,” and filled with “content,” the moments some would refer to as “suspense” of having the player quickly press a button in a timed event. I suppose from the developers’ perspective, the “cinematic gameplay” is a winning formula, since it worked for a blockbuster franchise that owes part of its success to this franchise. With all the hype of a mature narrative, Lara learning to survive and players experiencing what she is willing to do to survive hell, I was hoping for something… else. Uncharted can be Uncharted all it wants. I want Tomb Raider to do … something else.

Personally, I’d have loved actual tomb/ruins exploration designed as puzzles of a sort. Not necessarily matching symbols or a slide puzzle and a door opens, but figuring out how to get to the next area and objective. Portal is the closest game I can think of that is a realization of my wacky thought process. I at least didn’t think being a survivor of a shipwreck and overcoming that would include gunning down hundreds of enemies with a shotgun in the process.

I understand I’m being a bit unfair not having actually played Tomb Raider. That’s fair. However, I don’t believe that simply being positive about a product I haven’t experienced yet is any more valid than the reverse. Everyone reacts. I hope this game proves me wrong.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Episode 1 — Zombies take a backseat.

The first game I played from the people of Telltale Games was the first episode of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures on my Xbox 360. They helped popularize a genre that hadn’t seen much success since the late 1990s: the point-and-click adventure. After tugging at the heartstrings of geeks with interactive adventures based on beloved properties like LucasArts’ Monkey Island series and Steven Spielberg’s Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, they have taken on a darker route with the first episode of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead, available on Steam, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, is based on the popular comic series which was later adapted into a hit television series for AMC. Rather than adapt the story of Rick Grimes and his family again, the game goes farther back into its timeline around the beginnings of the outbreak. It is told through Lee, a professor convicted of murder, which plays a significant role in the core of the game. The game introduces its mechanics with a simple conversation between Lee and a sheriff’s deputy, and then suddenly there is a car accident and he is having his first zombie encounter.

We are now in a time where games featuring the undead feel one and the same, where studios try to capture the same influence Resident Evil carried with it in the late 1990s, and Left 4 Dead in the late 2000s. Even the hit Call of Duty series has a bonus mode that crossed tower defense with first-person shooting. The Walking Dead, thankfully, brings a newer perspective to games and zombies. In true Telltale fashion, it’s an interactive story, focusing more on characters, relationships, and overall decision-making than a direct conflict with the monsters.

What I enjoyed about Episode 1 of this five-episode series is how we learn a lot about Lee without knowing too much about him. His first interaction is with a young girl named Clementine, whose parents were away and it is presumed did not survive the outbreak. Lee offers his help, and the player can guide their relationship as they travel for help. There are a number of environmental objects to interact with, and while some objects come into immediate use, others are stored away for potential use later in the story. While I didn’t get to play much of Back to the Future or any of Jurassic Park, it would seem that the focus of the game is the player’s snap decision-making as opposed to the puzzle solving and logical implementation seen in other point-and-click games. Every response to an action, a question, or statement has a time limit on it. Any non-player character interacting with Lee will take account the player’s decision, which will either benefit them or hurt them later. I hastily had one character punch another and towards the end of the episode, I paid for it.

As slow as they are, zombies sure are a pain.

There are actual confrontations with the zombies in timed presses of a button and highlighting the cursor in the right area for interaction. Sometimes you’ll mash a button until a meter fills up, and hopefully you’ll push the right button after that or become a zombie’s next meal. Nothing too difficult, but it is definitely a secondary mechanic compared to the interaction with other characters. The zombie scenes add a lot of tension and a sense of urgency and fear when it’s time to accomplish an objective.

There is a new cast of survivors, each with a different attribute in mind. They don’t behave in very distinctive ways, but they are not empty in personality either. They simply survive “until the whole thing blows over.” There are familiar faces who play important roles as opposed to a simple cameo. I think the one surprise is that these particular characters have, so far, seen the most sympathy from me compared to most of the comic and TV series’ leads. It is that sympathy that makes the decision-making even more integral, since it can be assumed relationships will change and roles will come into question.

I had little interest in the game since I’m not great at these kinds of games, and I am a casual fan of The Walking Dead comics, not so much the TV series, but if my input and direction help drive the story as I would live it, I’ll gladly stick around for longer. I suppose if I took issue with the game, it’s that sometimes the timer for the decision-making is a little too fast for my liking, and the lack of the wonderful and intense TV theme. Regardless, I hope the rest holds up.

‘Rayman Origins’ tests skills you haven’t used in years

In my run of Rayman Origins I discovered you don’t necessarily need a relationship with Ubisoft’s platform franchise in order to enjoy the newest entry. Although the plot involves Rayman and his friends stopping an army of creatures sent to take over their land, I almost forgot the story partway through and still had a great time. By the way, why are they stopping these creatures? Because Rayman and his friends SNORE IN THEIR SLEEP and it annoyed the granny of the Land of the Livid Dead.

Rayman Origins embodies the spirit of the platform games of yesteryear, like Adventure Island or Donkey Kong Country (and even R-Type). Its bright, colorful, and sharp high-resolution 2D visuals lure you in, welcoming you to what initially seems like a happy romp through some levels, until the difficulty kicks in. Rayman Origins then becomes sixty something levels of pushing your ‘old school’ limits.

Why not commemorate the occasion?

You will jump, punch, kick, swim, climb your way to victory, and along the way you can collect a number of Lums (glowing golden bee-like… things), which help to free the Electoons (magenta-like… Wonka candy creatures…) that help open up new paths to new worlds and treasure. Each new path has a wondrous design with its own elemental theme: sky, earth, water, ice, fire, along with some fun, almost random choices thrown into the mix: there is one level comprised of cooked foods, another with pieces of fruit as the backdrop. A lot of the game’s challenge comes from its requirement of timing and planning. In the beginning, the timing and planning is typically for catching a hidden group of Lums or grabbing a gold medal. The later stages practically require practice, possible memorization, which in turn requires trial and error. Luckily the game gives you an infinite amount of chances to get it right, and even takes pity on you if you have failed repeatedly.

On top of the challenge, Rayman Origins offers a lot to keep coming back: cooperative modes, secret treasures to collect, characters to unlock, and even a time attack mode. It is an amazing package of classic platforming, gorgeous graphics, and also boasting a soundtrack comprised of bluegrass medleys and Afrobeat pieces that set the friendly atmosphere, which would be almost relaxing if not for the whole ‘trying to not die’ thing.

It’s ‘Resident Evil’ Day! (Update: Now with trailer!)

Well, sort of.

Starting today, if you head over to the eShop on your Nintendo 3DS, you’re bound to find the demo for Capcom’s upcoming Resident Evil: Revelations, due for North American release on February 7th. Fan favorite Jill Valentine will be the main (playable) character, and it is set in 2005, taking place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. The game will also release bundled with the controversial Circle Pad Pro accessory, which is exclusive at GameStop. In a rather strange decision, 3DS users are limited to 30 uses of the demo. The demo itself uses 1,146 blocks of memory.

Perhaps the bigger news today is this image that sprang up like a wild Pokémon:

Resident Evil 6 will see a release date of November 20 of this year, available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Perhaps we’ll see Resident Evil 6: Wii U Edition some time in the future. The game will feature Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy, debuting in the first two games respectively, together for the first time in a series entry. Ada Wong supposedly plays a role also and will be a playable character.

Credit to IGN for the image. They have more details here:

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3 

Update! The first trailer for Resident Evil 6 has been released via Capcom Unity!

In the midst of Microsoft’s customer “service,” we find a heroine.

Happy new year, everyone. This is not the first post I intended to open 2012 with, but this a very interesting development:

Back in late September, I had written a piece about my friend whose Xbox Live account saw unauthorized access and unauthorized charges to her credit card. What followed was an aggravating attempt to communicate with Microsoft, who claimed to have suspended her account in order to investigate the matter even though she was still able to access her account. They came up short. Furthermore, they flat out refused service on the basis that she used an alternate, shortened form of her name which violated their terms of service.

Yet according to Xbox Live Director of Policy Stephen Toulouse, no such policy exists. So, what’s up?

No solid answer has yet to surface. Some are claiming it is a Windows Live ID issue, according to at least one testimony in this article from Joystiq. Microsoft has denied otherwise. Their response is akin to running around like headless chickens or perhaps like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

I mean, Christ, there’s yet another NeoGAF thread about it made on January 6 of this year. In this entire mess, though, someone has gone the extra mile.

Her name is Susan, who was victimized and had her Xbox Live account stolen and sold overseas. She went above and beyond and tracked down where her account ended up and eventually made contact with the person who bought the account. She got all the information Microsoft failed to do.

You can read her story and the plight of other frustrated customers on her page: Hacked on Xbox

So thank you, Susan, for all of your efforts. I wish I could have helped out my friend more on the matter but hopefully Microsoft sees that this is not a problem to be swept under the rug.

To a productive year!

Xbox Live users hacked, victims in the name of EA’s FIFA DLC.

Late this past August, my friend noticed she had a large number of unauthorized charges on her credit card. Someone, somewhere, had gained access to her Xbox Live account and charged an enormous amount of Microsoft Points. Immediately, she phoned Microsoft’s customer support service, who claimed to have put the account on hold and will take up to 21 days for the investigation to find results. Despite this claim of account suspension, the unauthorized user was still able to purchase additional points and she was able to watch these points diminish slowly but surely on the official Xbox site, seeing them spent on downloadable content for EA Sports’ FIFA 2011 soccer game. We took to Google immediately and found a related post on the site Giant Bomb. It wasn’t much help, but we at least saw a degree of comfort that she was not the first.

My friend naturally disputed these charges with her bank, barely. They needed information from Microsoft, which Microsoft does not give out but that an investigation was underway. Microsoft also claimed several times they would actually give her a call and update her the investigation. They did not. Ever. Unfortunately, because of some strange technicalities in their terms of service, Microsoft customer support claimed they saw no problem, that they could not help her in any way and that communications between the customer representatives and the agents of the fraud department are limited to the point where the reps don’t know some of the things the customer is even talking about. After successfully contesting the issues with the bank, Microsoft actually tried to dispute the claim filed and say that these charges are legitimate. My friend is no fan of soccer, so naturally she would never touch a FIFA game in her life, but now FIFA 2011 sits in her game history like a stain on a nice carpet. Not only that, but regardless of how many Microsoft Points you may have had prior to this breach, Microsoft is inclined to perform a points adjustment and you may be left with less than the amount you originally had, if any at all.

I took the search to perhaps the largest game forum on the internet, NeoGAF. I discovered that this was bigger than I had anticipated. Several of the forum’s users have been attacked by these thieves in the same fashion: charge points, purchase FIFA content, get away scot-free. Success with disputing these charges has been rather up and down, it would seem:

Thread 1 – Started May 24
Thread 2 – June 13
Thread 3 – August 30

One issue seems to stem from Xbox Live’s recent Family Account option, that allows a user to create additional accounts for family members and “gift” them Microsoft Points and edit their user options. Unauthorized users may access your email associated with the account, or the account itself, purchase this family pack and a points pack for resale across a number of sites like eBay.

Taken from my friend’s letter to Microsoft reps:

From what I can tell, hackers can gain access to the victim’s accounts in a couple of different ways.  One way is by calling Xbox Support and pretending to be the victim.  They speak to a representative long enough to get a bit of information on the account, and then hang up and call back and use that new little tidbit to get a little further with the next rep.  They do this until they have enough information about the victim’s account to gain complete access.

Another way that I have read about seemed specific to FIFA ’11, where a hacker can e-mail EA support with some jargon that confuses the EA server into sending the hacker the victim’s Xbox and EA account information.  I’m not sure of the legitimacy of this claim but during my search I found videos about it on YouTube, as well as websites explaining how to do it. 

I’ve also seen reports of phishing sites offering free points for the victim to click and stupidly enter their account information.  

Once the hacker has access to the victim’s account and purchases the points, they can create a family account and restore your gamer tag to their console to make it part of the family account.  This way they are able to use your points even when your account is locked.  

They also seem to be selling accounts with the stolen points on sites like tradetang to customers who unwittingly buy them, thinking they are getting a great deal.  The auctions for these accounts make claims such as “Dear friends: Since the points might expire, please use up the points within the warranty time” and “The accounts are not gold.  And it is better not to buy gold membership for the account because it won’t last too long.”  How that doesn’t send red flags is beyond me.

Besides the unauthorized charges themselves, the unfortunate thing is how unreliable Microsoft’s Xbox site as well as their Windows Live site can be. Many users experience error pages that prevent them from successfully editing their account passwords and other details in order to increase security. Microsoft has also notoriously made removing credit card information and disabling auto-renewal payments for Xbox Live a hassle. Customers can either phone customer support and ask for the options to be removed, or remove it from the Xbox Live Dashboard but needing to add another credit card, which possibly negates the entire reason for removing your information in the first place. I recommend at least purchasing a prepaid Xbox Live card from a local retailer, as well as Microsoft Points cards. It’s unfortunate that we cannot depend on security like this from a major corporation, let alone two, right, Sony? We have to do our part as well, and although this sounds like common sense, this could happen to even the most experienced users: make sure to have a strong password, never give out credit information if you can help it, and don’t click on shady, suspicious links that claim to have amazing prizes and what have you.

I think sites need to make this issue aware, and Microsoft and all corporations that ask us for credit information for utilization of a service, to please work on updating your security measures and not just casually pat the customer on the shoulder and say “We’ll see.”

Microsoft Xbox Support
@XboxSupport 

 

 

 

Catherine, Part II — Dialogue, dilemmas, and dreams.

When we stopped at the sixth floor of the giant tower Vincent finds himself climbing in his nightmares, my friend and I were pleased with our progress and decided we didn’t have much more to go before the conclusion of Catherine. I don’t remember the last time I was so wrong. It goes on for far longer after the “final” floor.

The disembodied voice that haunts Vincent’s nightmares exclaims that there are eight floors to ascend until the path to true freedom is opened. The puzzles get harder as new obstacles are introduced. Once you progress through the new puzzles you are back in the real world, in Stray Sheep, looking at provocative images on Vincent’s mobile phone in a bathroom stall. It wasn’t until the story slightly picked up the pace that we had started to become kind of annoyed with these characters. This is mostly because of the way the dialogue was translated and interpreted into English. Nearly every line skirts around the point it’s trying to make. You know when you know someone has something to say, but they stammer, mutter, stutter, and they just don’t spit out what they want to say, so they just choose about ten different words and mix them into a so-called sentence? That is the majority of the dialogue in Catherine. Maybe it’s because we were rather pressed for time, but watching Vincent and Katherine struggle to make their points and move the plot forward was painful.

In my last post I mentioned that I was enjoying the game up until the point I stopped and decided to write my impressions. By the end of it, I still enjoyed myself. The plot itself progresses rather clumsily. It tries to teach us of the complexities of relationships, but it uses characters who seem to believe in absolutes and black-and-white life choices. It pulls back too often. In fact, it would seem a lot of the conflicts that occur in Catherine could easily have been averted with a few lines of dialogue, but it would subvert the journey this man makes in his mind for personal growth. Catherine wants us to decide Vincent’s fate, as evidenced by its multiple endings. It asks us how much we’d be willing to pay for temptation. An oft-repeated line in the game is “There is no right choice.” So it would seem.

I wish more games like Catherine would find their way to this continent. Any game that at least attempts to strike a conversation about how we function as people is worth a look.

Catherine, Part I — A tale of infidelity, morality, discovery, and sheep men.

Catherine is rather extraordinary. If you were to simply pick up the box and see the artwork, you might put it back and dismiss it as a quirky Japanese dating sim that somehow washed ashore here to indulge the very, very lonely. I’m maybe an eighth accurate on that. Who or what is Catherine, you ask? Where to begin?

We’re introduced to Vincent and Katherine, a couple struggling to keep their relationship afloat. Katherine is ready to commit, while Vincent is, well, not so sure. He’s breaking in a new job, and he seems to be an overall nervous wreck about entertaining the notion of marriage. After a rather curt discussion, Katherine leaves, leaving Vincent to drown his sorrows in pizza and glass after glass of rum and Coke at The Stray Sheep, where he (and, consequently, the player) spends a lot of time at. A woman who I can only describe as anime’s take on Cindy Brady (commence cringing!) sits down at Vincent’s table and heavily flirts with him. She is Catherine, and she is temptation and sin personified. Later in the night, Vincent retires, heads to sleep, and has a nightmare. This is where the journey begins.

Perhaps the main course of Catherine, we guide Vincent through a puzzle of climbing, pushing, and pulling block after block in some deranged setting that may very well be a swinging bachelor’s version of Hell. All I’m thinking about moving through this introductory puzzle is the game Q*Bert — a version of Q*Bert that delves into the psyche of the neurotic male.

Survive the nightmare, and Vincent wakes up in terror, unaware he has spent the night with the mysterious Catherine, and from there we’re to determine how Vincent will handle this.

When we’re not guiding Vincent through the nightmares, we’re answering his text messages. Much like the dialogue wheels and choices seen in games like the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, we can choose the tone of Vincent’s replies to Katherine and Catherine, whether apologetic, condescending, angry, or pathetic responses. There is, of course, some “morality” bar represented by an angel and a demon that determines whether Vincent is heading down a path of sainthood or debauchery. I couldn’t tell you the outcome of this, since I’m not completely done with the game yet. These choices possibly determine the future of his relationship with Katherine and whether or not Vincent achieves a certain kind of nirvana.

The game follows a particular pattern, but doesn’t feel repetitive or formulaic. Every new nightmare Vincent has is a different set of puzzles where he has to arrange blocks in a certain order and climb and race to the very top while the area is either collapsing and disappearing, or a manifested demon appears to try and kill Vincent. There is almost always a new obstacle, my least favorite being ice blocks that can send Vincent skidding along and falling to his doom. The puzzles definitely become more difficult, and I’m on EASY mode! If Vincent makes it through, however, he is given a challenge of morals at the end and then proceeds to go about the next day in the real world, trying to relate his nightmares to his relationship problems.

The entire game has an interesting style. Because of its more grounded, psychological tale of relationship woes and wants compared to the more direct, physical conflicts we get in most games, it takes advantage of traditional animation and tells the story as if we were watching an entire anime series. Sometimes the pacing becomes rather slow, especially as every visit to The Stray Sheep involves hearing whiny, expository comments from its patrons. Sometimes you’re bombarded with messages from Katherine and Catherine.

Although I can commend the game for exploring the more complicated facets of relationships compared to the more narrow approach taken by other games that include a romance arc, Catherine suffers from the typical Japanese style of dialogue where many lines can be rather misinterpreted and sometimes makes what is supposed to be an exploration of social functioning appear rather black and white. Of course, that is one person’s take on it, as there are people out there who may completely relate to these characters. This is certainly one of the few “mature” games that actually does feel like a game for adults.

Catherine is brought to you by Tokyo-based studio Atlus and as of this post I am hearing that this is, in fact, their most successful game in North America to date, which is great. The game itself is well-done (seemingly, as of the 6th floor level) in many respects and as the icing on the cake, the English dubbing is not half-bad.

Alpha Protocol — Endgame.

I managed to finish Alpha Protocol last night, putting duty (mostly) before my own personal needs, although I did romance two women in the game. A lot of what I said about the game in my last post about it still seems to stand till the very end.

The game has a number of bugs that needed sorting out desperately. I couldn’t even progress past an area in the game because the script glitched out and would never load and I was stuck in one area until I completely reloaded the game and manually loaded the save file, redoing the whole mission. Thorton is incapable a lot of the time of throwing a grenade while crouched in cover no matter how far out you try to stick. Sometimes his grenade throws land in the wrong spots, like when they magically stick right next to your cover and deplete a significant amount of your health. Meanwhile, enemies will always know where you will go and throw their own grenades accordingly. This is kind of frustrating, except watching Thorton’s ragdoll body fly all over the map which his incredibly deadpan face in slow motion is one of more hilarious things in the game. Thorton is also incapable of taking cover on a moderate number of flat surfaces. You will find a perfectly flat wall next to an opening, an entrance or a door, and tap A as rapidly as you want but he’s not leaning on it.

I abused this game to no end. You can get by the entire game on mastering the art of stealth and the pistol as I have. Once you unlock the Clean Shot skill in the Pistols rank, you can eliminate pretty much every boss in just two sessions (like Bioware games, skills need “cooldown” time to recharge for another use). Of course, maybe you’re the type to go in guns blazing. Any game that delivers an opportunity to take a quiet approach, I’m going to take it, habitually at this point.

If it weren’t for the dialogue options, and the fact that the order that you play the missions actually affects how events unfold in the game, there would be absolutely no reason to ever go back to Alpha Protocol. It’s interesting at least to see how characters react to Thorton as a character whether you’re deliberately going out of your way to get them to like you or dislike you. The strange thing about these responses is that Thorton still delivers any kind of line in such a deadpan manner it’s like hearing the male version of Daria. Pick an angry, threatening response, and he’ll tell you he’ll put a bullet through your head in the same tone as he’d probably tell someone he’s got a stomach virus or his favorite sports team lost a game.

In the end, I admire that this game tried to bring a sort of different approach to all the spy games we’ve played in the past, and the whole plot is serviceable on the same level as it would be for a major motion picture starring Sam Worthington. I actually discussed in great detail months back that a game like Alpha Protocol, sans glitches and mediocre voice acting, is how James Bond games should play. It would be great. I honestly would play a sequel, but please give it to another team. Obsidian and I are very close to being arch nemeses.

3/5

Alpha Protocol — Just hand me a pistol.

I am a little late to the party on this one. Thursday I celebrated my 26th birthday and, along with getting Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I got some extra cash and paid Toys R Us a quick visit. Inevitably heading over to the games area, I started browsing until I happened to notice all the way on the top shelf hidden in a corner was a game I had always been curious to experience: Alpha Protocol. The Sega game was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, who brought us the sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and recently Fallout: New Vegas. This is an action RPG game that borrows a lot of its design from Bioware’s Mass Effect titles. One of the more intriguing features in its premise is that this is pretty much a spy RPG, which you don’t see much.

I’ve played through the tutorial and the first two countries and at this point I think I have the mechanics of Alpha Protocol down pretty well. The beginning has you run through an institution that ends up as a test to see how well the protagonist, Michael “I Swear I’m Not Boring Ass Sam Worthington” Thorton, handles himself in the field. One of the more hilarious moments in the tutorial is the agency chief’s way of explaining CONVERSATIONS WITH PEOPLE, and Michael acts as if he’s never had different chats with different people in his life. I don’t know if real spies just have dialogue that’s only relevant to their assignment, or they stop to chat about the latest episode of Dexter in between neck-snapping, but hearing that acting like a douche bag might not always be the best approach to people or that you even have a choice to be nice, sarcastic, or professional/stoic. Although one of the finer points made is that people react to different approaches. One character might actually prefer that you’re a jerk, and flirt too much and you’re just a creepy stalker who needs to keep his libido in check.

 

"No, I was NOT Jake Sully in Avatar!"

 

 

Actually, the conversational system is one of the bigger, more impressive draws of Alpha Protocol. Typically, RPGs that give players the choices to respond to NPC phrases almost always have a black and white approach to them. One response is typically the polite, stoic, harmless response. The other is either incredibly polite, nice, on a knight-in-shining-armor level, or the incredibly evil, mean, plain douche-y response, and of course how you respond affects your relationships with other characters whether in a romantic sense or as allies or whatever. Alpha Protocol follows a milder approach to it, where Thorton’s replies can be aggressive, modeled after Jack Bauer from the series 24. Then there’s a suave response, which takes some phrases after famous spy James Bond, typically used as sarcasm and especially flirting if Thorton speaks to a woman. Jason Bourne of the Bourne books and films inspires the ‘professional’ responses, that tend to get to the point. This apparently genuinely affects the story and how mission circumstances play out, for once. I spoke to a gentleman who appreciated my professional, stern approach, and offered to assist me in my next mission. Apparently had I been an ass to him, I would be fighting his troops at the end. All of this happened because I spared someone close to him rather than shoot her face. I can even buy more weapons from the black market as a result.

When the fun chats aren’t going down, you’re on a mission that will require you to steal information, or kill someone important. After outfitting yourself with your preferred choices or weapons and armor, you can either go on your mission and just shoot up the place or take a quieter approach, sneak up on the bad guys and you have a choice of lethal and non-lethal takedowns. The gameplay is modeled after Mass Effect in that how you distribute skill points across the board affects how effective your weapons and your abilities are throughout Alpha Protocol. I’ve decided I like silence, and a challenge, so I’m honestly putting my points into stealth and pistol rankings. You can also upgrade health/resilience, and melee combat, another field I’m tinkering with. I actually kind of enjoy beating up bad guys when I can, but sometimes the bad guys will take a step back with their guns and Michael apparently has the reach of a nine-year-old.

The shooting can get frustrating if you come in expecting Gears of War style of combat. Your stats and weapon modifications can affect how powerful your gun is and how fast you can take them down. This is primarily why I like to sneak and take down guards. Sneaking is actually pretty easy although sometimes you’ll be forced into firefights.

Sneaking is honestly easy because all of the enemies in Alpha Protocol are, well, DUMB. They have zero peripheral vision, and take a while to recognize you as a threat. Plus if you upgrade your stealth ranking, you can unlock an ability that renders you invisible for a few seconds to get away before it all goes sour. However, in firefights they can get grenade-happy and chug frags your way. This is frustrating sometimes because if you’re crouched against a wall for cover, leaving cover will keep Thorton moving slowly and you have to stand up quickly enough to get far away from the explosion, which can do a LOT of damage. On top of that, the camera gets really stupid and closes up on random things, the wrong locations, and tricks you into thinking you have a shot that will just hit a piece of the concrete or whatever it is you’re using for cover. Bad guys also like to charge, and I HATE when enemies charge at you. Most people wouldn’t mind because enemies in shooting games tend to just stand there and fire away reducing their entire existence to cannon fodder. Luckily you can easily take them down if they charge down your way with a simple tap of a button.

One thing I can’t stop thinking about is that the game is kind of ugly. The cutscenes tend to have a washed out look with strange filters on the screen that’s supposed to emphasize the drama and down-to-earth attitudes of the narrative, but games don’t do this well at all. There’s also the frequent screen-tearing and ugly modeling.

The other thing I can’t get off my mind is that Alpha Protocol has one of the worst title screen tunes ever. It’s not even music. It’s like what evil scientists would blast in your ears to ‘experiment’ on you: just a bunch of random screeching noises with no rhythm whatsoever and I’m always desperate to hit the Start button.

I don’t know how far into Alpha Protocol I’ve reached, but this will be part one of a two-parter.