So, the latest gaming installments of the Transformers franchise have been poor, due to the fact that they have been tied into the Michael Bay destructothons that are the movies, and a true fan can only expect that a movie license free version of the game has to be better. Is this the case, or have High Moon Studios dropped the ball on one of the biggest franchises of all time. Has a company nailed it at last?
Let’s get the first issue cleared up and out of the way. Alpha Protocol is not a 3rd person shooter. It is Obsidians newest entry in the RPG world, with previous titles including the majorly popular Knights of the Old Republic and the Neverwinter games. The best way to describe the shooter elements of the game would be to compare it to the original Deus Ex, in that the player has to wait for crosshairs to align in order to take a perfect shot. With that out of the way, let’s delve into the world of super suave agent Mike Thornton and Alpha Protocol.
A bead of sweat rolls down my forehead as my character lurches and swings a roving left hook. Like me, he too is sweating, only in a much more manly way as he blocks a vicious head kick. I hammer the pad, holding LB in the hope that I can land a knockout punch.
My over enthusiastic punch gets blocked and he throws a cruel uppercut catching me on the chin and sending my character reeling as the screen darkens and time slows, this could be the end.
He sees the opportunity and steps in to land a series of punches. I hammer the RB button down hard to block the shower of fists. Somehow my character pulls through and regains his composure. That was close. Too close. I have to finish this.
I step forward, gently urging the left stick, hoping that his confidence will give me an opening. He eats it up and comes forward with a series of jabs that don’t connect. This is my chance. Holding LT I press X, Y and X, landing a chorus of satisfying thumps to his ribcage. He understandably drops his guard down low, leaving his face, and particularly that cut left eye open.
This is what I’ve been waiting for. I press RB and X and with liquid precision my ugly created-character steps forward, drops low, and swings a huge over hand right that connects with the cut eye. Blood and sweat spray from the impact as he drops with a sickening thud to the blood-stained floor. I jump in the air and shout some idiotic phrases of the self congratulatory fashion as my character does the same.
It’s been over 15 years since Doom II hit the PC market, well shown by the fact that the minimum specifications required a 486 processor and 8MB of RAM on your personal computer. Back in those days this was cutting edge stuff and allowed the sequel, to what some call the greatest FPS ever, to cement its reputation as a classic in the genre.
Time has moved on though, and looking at today’s market we can see just how far this gun toting area in the gaming industry has become. With games like MAG allowing 256 players, albeit in a cheating kind of way, to battle at any one time. The question we have to be asking for this is not of it’s quality and reputation, as that was done back in the 90’s, but more a case of whether or not it can still be a lot of fun when you consider that most of the world who have a 360 are usually getting their kicks from Halo and/or CoD.
It seems like only yesterday that I was shelling out for 1200 Microsoft points for the under par Stimulus pack, when all of a sudden the Resurgence map pack is upon me. Is it worth another 1200 points?
