You are correct, there are no other spy RPG's for the PC that I can think of either. But there have been other spy games in the past, such as Thief, Splinter Cell and not forgetting the 007 franchise.
Thief may have contained RPG elements, but I wouldn't really classify it as an RPG. It also wasn't a "modern-day" spy game, and I didn't find it to be heavily story-based in the same sense that Bioware and Obsidian Entertainment games are. Neither Splinter Cell nor the 007 stuff interested me at all (and I've played both series).
when it comes to a game if the GAMEPLAY is rubbish the game will be rubbish, gameplay from a psychological perspective is the most important factor in a game.
Yeah, I have to say I don't really care as long as the story engrosses me. I can almost always forgive crappy gameplay as long as the story is good. This is one reason why Infocom text adventure games were so successful back in the 80s. People forget how effective a story could be.
I have not personally played Neverwinter nights 2 but have seen Neverwinter 1 and by all accounts Neverwinter 2 was a total dissapointment according to a close friend who has played the Neverwinter games extensivly.
Actually most people would disagree with that assessment (not that popular opinion matters); I've read most of the reviews. The original Neverwinter Nights was fairly lambasted for having a weak main campaign story (when the game was criticized). The second Neverwinter Nights is generally perceived as having a better main story, but it still was rough around the edges. Anyway, my argument is not in favour of Neverwinter Nights 2--but rather, its expansion, Mask of the Betrayer (which is, in many people's opinions, one of the best RPG stories to have been presented in the last 3 years). The original Neverwinter Nights had a better or more user-friendly gaming engine. Also the third party tools for the original Neverwinter Nights were a lot easier to understand. That said, no freeware third party module for the original Neverwinter Nights can really stand up to what was produced for Neverwinter Nights 2, namely Rogue Dao Studio's
Purgatorio.
Never played or even heard of Planescape: Torment.
It's generally considered to contain one of, if not the best, story in a PC rpg. Some people feel it's the best RPG ever. In terms of roleplaying and pure gameplay flexibility, I don't agree with that assessment. But in my opinion,
Planescape: Torment represents excellence in terms of RPG storytelling.
Alpha Protocol does look like Mass Effect
Yeah, I think the influence is obvious. But again, that doesn't bother me. Obsidian Entertainment contains a lot of former members from Black Isles Studios. Those are the guys responsible for Fallout, Fallout 2, and Planescape: Torment. They do know how to write good stories.
What would really bother me is, if like Mass Effect, all of the side quests in various areas look the same. That did start to annoy me in Mass Effect. You'd visit all these planets, but once you got inside buildings they all seemed to follow a certain pattern. And all those stupid crates all over the place . . . I guess everyone including aliens and criminals always have plenty of crates all over the buildings on their planets. With the exception of the downloadable content, the side quests in Mass Effect were a bit repetitive.
I can see the time limited dialogue choices really irritating some people
Yeah, but it also increases replayability. In real life, you don't get the luxury to hum and haw over dialogue choices. And I suspect for those that are really annoyed, they can just reload save points (hopefully).
I guess only time will tell whether it is a good idea to add this to the game or not.
You make a good point. I'm not sure if I will like being forced to make quick dialogue choices either.
Bioware is a very good developer not my personal favourite but they are good none the less. I find it interesting that you say you like things heavily story based but yet you say you don't care much for games like Halflife 2, episode 1 and 2.
I don't consider the stories in those games to be as well developed as stuff like Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic . . . I think as FPSes the Half-life series is definitely innovative, but the stories for them just didn't suck me in. I actually kinda preferred F.E.A.R. (the first one). The story that's unfolded through the answering machines, etc., I found kind of compelling, and at least, the game did make me jump a couple of times. The atmosphere in the first F.E.A.R game was kind of compelling to me. I've never been a huge FPS fan, so when I do play them, I kind of prefer the game trying to scare me or present some sort of mystery (I do enjoy supernatural horror stuff). I know that almost the entire gaming world disagrees with my opinion of Half-Life, and that's fine.
I would agree that the Storyline in Fallout 3 was the weakest part of the game but the storyline wasn't "weak" by any means.
I don't want to ruin it for people that haven't finished it, but I found the payoff wasn't that rewarding. I found the Fallout 3 universe pretty compelling, and I enjoyed playing Fallout 3, but I still didn't feel that the characters were as fleshed out as they would be in Bioware or Obsidian Entertainment game. Some of the people that I saved I wasn't really emotionally invested in saving them. I saved some boy. I got him back together with his aunt (or some relative) on that boat. But as a player, I couldn't have cared less if I hadn't saved him. His character wasn't really developed or anything. The sidekicks that you can bring along also don't really have a developed personality; they are fairly one-dimensional. On the other hand, I suppose it's hard to write a lot of dialogue for a character you may never even meet or tag along with in a 40 hour+ campaign.
The DLC 'Broken Steel' extends the end of the main storyline as alot of people disliked the way the game ended.
Yeah, I've heard that too. I want to play it, but right now I'm just bogged down in a lot of personal work.
I want to make it clear that I do like Fallout 3. I was pleasantly surprised because I just hated Oblivion. I found the story sooooo boring.
If you are simply playing the main storyline rigidly and then calling the game "finished" after that then I believe you aren't playing RPG games properly
No . . . It's just that usually the main storyline is the one that's the best developed. And if the main storyline is boring me to tears, then why would I even want to try the sidequests?
If you thought the story was boring in Oblivion I am very surprised you liked Fallout 3 at all considering the storyline in Oblivion overall was better than Fallout 3
And on that point, we'll have to agree to disagree. The voice acting, the writing, the dialogue . . . everything in the main quest for Oblivion was horribly boring. I sort of got interested in the vampires, but even that, in the end, was pretty boring. Brother Martin's lines made me want to fall asleep. The dialogue was boring, and practically everything Sean Bean said made me want to fall asleep. Whether that was the fault of the dialogue or the voice acting, I'm not sure (I think it was the actual dialogue lines).
but I do not believe any of the characters were annoying
I would have loved to have met an annoying character. Something . . . just give me something that wasn't boring . . .
I would also like to say that if Oblivion was a poor as you seem to think it was then it is rather strange that Oblivion got countless awards
Not really . . .
There are lots of people like me that come from text adventure games, Bioware games, Black Isle games, etc. that absolutely hated Oblivion. They can be found on Bioware and Obsidian Entertainment's forums. Morrowind was another game that I felt sucked horribly, much for the same reasons I felt Oblivion sucked.
More importantly were popular opinion an indication of quality, then Michael Jackson was, at one time, the best musician ever. He also won lots of awards.
I am well aware that Oblivion won a lot of awards. I just don't agree with any of them.
All in all Alpha Protocol doesn't look like anything perticularly groundbreaking or anything perticularly special to me at the moment
In terms of genre, it's new for a PC game. Otherwise, yeah, that's fine . . .
Taste is, you know, in the eye of the beholder . . .
the reason I called it generic is because it looks VERY similar to other games I have seen and played before. Don't get me wrong I am not saying the game is rubbish by any means.
A lot of reviews are probably going to echo what you (and I, to some extent) have mentioned: "Mass Effect" but in a spy setting; old, outdated graphics; etc. But for me, as long as the story entertains me, as long as the story sucks me in, that's really all I care about . . .
I also enjoyed Vampire: The Masquerade--Bloodlines more than I enjoyed Oblivion, which kinda says a lot.
I come from a much older generation of PC gamers that find running around shooting everything from a first person perspective grows old quickly. I do like some FPSes. I really enjoyed the original Tribes (until the cheats made their way onto servers), but a good interactive story where I can build and develop my character (or even just a good simple adventure game) is what I'm most interested in. For me, both Obsidian Entertainment (with the exception of
Storm of Zehir . . . the thing with open-ended sandboxes is that story becomes watered down and weak as a result: that's why I don't like Oblivion and most MMORPGs) and Bioware deliver what I'm interested in.