Alpha Protocol reviews go live – we round ‘em up

PSLS – http://playstationlifestyle.net/2010/05/28/ps3-review-alpha-protocol/
7/10

http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/alpha-protocol-test

8/10

It’s doing rather better than I was expecting considering the comments I was reading from the people who received it yesterday.

Well whatever some of those reviewers were smoking must have been strong stuff. There’s no way it deserves more than a 6/10 max, and that’s being extremely generous. It’s a disappointing game imho. Graphics are very dated too.

Joystiq’s non-scored review can be summarized “two thumbs way down”.

I’ve been playing some of AP today after Steam unlocked it. It’s OK, it’s no Mass Effect 2 but it’s not totally crap.

The stealth aspect is a bit shit, the camera and controls don’t really empower you to be stealthy, I usually set the alarms off after blundering into view of some guards because there was no easy way to peek and see what’s up ahead, especially on ladders.

The controls feel a bit unresponsive too, sometimes you just can’t get into cover and the aiming seems to move really unpredictably.

It’s probably worth a try if you’ve got nothing better to do.

I’ve just read that destructoid review. I want to change my previous post and give it 2/10 as I agree with them. The AI really is shocking. The game looks nasty on a good 32″ full hd screen. Jagged edges and artifacts all over the place. And after installing the game to the xbox hard drive it still takes a while to render the screen occasionally. It seriously wasn’t made well.

What the hell? Diverse scores if ever there were some.

7 seems the average, with Dtoid being exceptionally low, and CVG being higher than usual

CheapyD was right the game seems like it was hyped too much. I knew it from the dev diaries.

Hyped to much? I havent seen much hype for this game at all.

Gamer365.hu (Hungary) – 7.5/10

http://www.gamer365.hu/show-article.php?id=516&article

Oh look, it’s Jim Sterling being a pretentious twat again.

Now i’m really skeptical about Fallout: New Vegas

Obsidan fails again not very surprised.

as i said before the more i see it, the less i want it

I’m by no means Jim Sterling’s biggest fan, but Joystiq are pretty much saying the same thing as him. Besides, Sterling wrote a fairly decent article on how PSN could be improved to better compete with PSN, so I’m going to have to start giving him more leeway.

The difference between Jim Sterling and Justin McElroy is that Justin McElroy can actually write at a competent level.

Mr. Sterling is a basement blogger who thinks he’s a writer. The quality of his writing is utter garbage on every level. His gigantic ego doesn’t win him many favours either, mind you.

You won’t get much disagreement from me, Mr Fett.

The game is an absolute disaster, one of the worst games I’ve ever played.

@ 20 – Wow. Just wow really O_O

I’m inclined to agree with the 2/10.

The stealth is broken, the lead character is written and acted like a moron yet we are to believe he is a genius. The graphics are PS2 level but in HD, bland, empty levels. Pre HL2 physics and ragdolls (think Hitman 1 for comedy value) animation so bad that baddies slide across the floor. The worst AI in recent gaming history and if you have the PC version, utterly broken controls.

Do yourself a favour and just buy Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction, both do RPG and Spy about 40,000 times better than the garbage I just spend 2 hours with.

I’m glad i waited for reviews. To be fair though this game always looked poor, in videos and screenshots.

gamespot review 6/10

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/alphaprotocol/index.html?tag=result%3Btitle%3B0

Gotta say watching the video review it sounds like it could have been LOWER than a 6, like 4 or 5 out of 10. This is what happens though when 7 has become the new average score instead of 5

Damn,Hunam ,you used to look forward to playing it

Sterling’s a mouthy dick, but it’s the Joystiq review saying largely the same thing that makes me think there’s some merit to it. ‘Stiq rarely rocks the boat, they don’t even assign scores.

It seems there’s a consensus that it’s definitely broken, but not unplayably so. The gameplay complaints are a bit more curious; it’s hard to tell whether it’s just flat-out bad or the reviewers are just crying because they hate RPG combat mechanics.

Thanks for shedding a little light, Hunam.

So it’s a game that looks about 4-5 years old, which has completely medicore gameplay.

Score, Obsidian!

anyone else suddenly really worried bout new vegas? O_o

As long as they stick to FO3′s gameplay mold and engine it should be ok.

Way to go Obsidian. What the fuck were you doing with the extra time?

But at least Obsidian continues its tradition of releasing broken games.

@25

You’re telling me! I’ve been waiting for this since it was announced like 2-3 years ago. It has really given my faith in gaming a shake.

wow , it did look like shit from the start, but I never thought it apparently also has that much gameplay problems.

although, that fat ugly cunt from Destructoid is the last person on the internet whose opinions matter to me.

I see Jim Sterling couldn’t muster the mental capacity not to play this like Gears of War.

@30: they were doing nothing. The delay was purely for commercial reasons (not releasing alongside ME2) and the entire team had allegedly already been moved to work on Obsidian’s other projects a month before the delay was announced (so about six-eight weeks before the release was supposed to happen). Obsidian’s quite small, and apparently needed everyone on Fallout: New Vegas.

@Hunam
Maybe you should have been abit less subjective. I mean the concept always sounded really good, but honnestly, you just needed to watch one trailer to see that it had terrible production value.

Why are people so whiny about Destructoid’s review/reviewer? I’m playing the game right now and it IS that shitty. I like how some of the reviews rant on with negativity for 3 pages then give a score of 8 or something. When did 7-8 begin to mean “average” or worse?

“When did 7-8 begin to mean “average” or worse?”

It never did… But the 3 pages of negativity before the score sort of voids it.

Rarely game reviewers use the entire rating scale. This game is below average, I can’t fathom how it receives ratings closer to perfection than average. Game reviews are ridiculously inflated with high scores. There’s a reason rottentomatoes(.com) dropped their game section.

i’m starting to get curious to see for myself just how bad it is, it won’t take top spot though.

It depends on how you use the scale and what kind of games you review. Most websites use the entire scale (except for gametrailers, but as they said it themselves, when a game is too bad and nobody is expecting it, they don’t produce a video review as it’s too expansive).

It’s just that you guys mostly pay attention to AAA games, and not to all video games. Even with all its problems, Alpha Protocol is probably way better than 50% of the games that come out. It’s just that you hear about less than half the games that are coming out each year. And that half nobody talks about consists mostly of niche PC games and of crappy games.

“There’s a reason rottentomatoes(.com) dropped their game section.”

Hmmm I never knew that

kinda proves what everyone has said since…well ever

Was looking forward to it, am deeply saddened by the outcome.

gametrailers 6.4/10

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/alpha-protocol/9237

I’m still deeply amused by that fact that one of the characters is a German woman named ‘Sie’.

I know that naming conventions are a bit wonky in the games industry (esp. European names in Japanese games) but seriously…calling a woman ‘She’?

“Bond, the female head of MI6 has a new assignment for you – you know her, her name’s She”

Yeah! No Bond girl would ever have a name as ridiculous as that, just ask Kitty Stroker, Kissy Suzuki, or Pussy Galore.

I seen this about various places this morning.

I actually almost picked it up this morning, just to see how bad it is.

@45 My problem isn’t with Sterling’s opinion of the game. It’s the fact that’s his review is of a standard that any genuine journalism would be embarrassed to churn out.

The prose is bad. There’s absolutely no structure to it. It’s a long, aimless rant pawned off as a review, which is the case with every review he write.

I’ve written better reviews in my sleep.

that and he’s a retard as well.