Alpha Protocol - What do you want to know?

[Nick]

Hey guys, we've been in touch with Sega and Obsidian Entertainment, and we're gonna have a brief question and answer session with them. Now of course, we've already got a few questions penned out for them(I'm a huge fan of Obsidian). But we were interested in hearing what you, the reader, want to know about the game? Feel free to post your questions, and we'll include some of them with ours. Just post them below.

For those that don't know what Alpha Protocol is, its a new action RPG from Obsidian(Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Star Wars: KOTOR2, Neverwinter Nights 2, etc). You take the role of Mike Thorton, a secret agent working for a government agency, and do all sorts of awesome secret agent stuff across the world. Check out the trailer here (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41798.html).

[Nick]

Also, just wanted to say to get your questions in quick - we're sending them in before the end of the week.

[KvP]

Right, well, I've lurked for awhile and this title really interests me, so I figured I'd go ahead and register, and throw out some questions that maybe the Obsidian boys (and girls) can answer.

1. What is the overall tone of the game? From the screenshots and concept art we've seen there look to be some over the top, campy elements to it. How prominent will these be? Can we expect dashing, lighthearted adventure interspersed with seriousness, like in your D&D games, or serious, straight-faced storytelling interspersed with wit, as in KOTORII?

2. What have you learned from past games that you've used to make AP a better game?

3. What of character creation? Beyond skill sets, are there pre-rendered faces that Thorton can have, ala Deus Ex, or does he just have the one we've seen in previews? I believe I've read that you're shying away from slider-based appearance.

4. Can you clarify the matter of a release date for us? Some sources say summer ’09, Sega says Q1 (April-June), what are you all expecting?

5. Have you played the latest build of the game? If so, how smooth does it feel?

6. Has there been anything you’ve had to cut from the game for whatever reason that you really wanted to keep in?

Hope that's good enough for you guys.

[barom]

After playing Fallout 3 I've been really interested shooter rpgs and the decision making feature and have been specifically hoping that Alpha Protocol will satisfy both of these elements. However, also one of the biggest draws for me regarding Fallout 3 was the mature storyline and the fact that there was this sense of "anything can happen". You could help the bad guys or you could help the good guys or you could trick them both and run away with something. The fact that the stories had a mature tone to it was very pleasing as well. Like having a somewhat deep and disturbing but at the same time interesting story. One of them being about this guy who merged himself with a tree through some special condition and then some group of people decided to worship him/it as a god.

So basically what I'm wondering is, how does the decision making play it's part of the game? Will it affect the overall world at all and can you play as a bad guy or is it more like inFamous where it's about being a good guy or a better guy?

And the second question would be, will the story has a mature tone to it? Will we see some disturbing elements (like maybe rape, torture, betrayal etc)? Or will it play out more like a James Bond movie where it's more about "how to get from A to B" rather than "why should I do this mission at all"?

[ikiru3385]

1. I am wondering if there will be other members you can control, just like in other rpgs (a la party system) or if you just control the single main character.

2. The facial animations and graphics in general need some polishing.

[SaintAvi]

1- How are you optimizing the game to utilize the the feature set of the PS3?

2-What is the lead console used for development?

3-The development team is certainly ambitious in its goal to merge many aspects of play mechanics
together to create this game, what aspects will be featured more heavily and is there any worry
that it'll be a jack of all trades but a master of none?