Alpha Protocol fell victim to Mass Effect 2 – and partly SEGA – review addiction

Portal TheGamer released material on the creation Alpha protocol, in which former Obsidian designer Patrick Mills shared some production details.

For the most part, they relate specifically to details – for example, the level in Rome was collected from scraps of canceled locations. However, the material also reports that SEGA insisted on the global introduction of role-playing elements.

This is partly why the shooting turned out to be so awkward – initially the developers wanted to make it look like classic action movies, but the publisher insisted on more traditional RPG battles, when the enemy cannot be killed with a couple of accurate shots.

SEGA commissioned Obsidian to make an RPG. And in RPGs, people don’t die from a couple of hits – at least not in the 2000s.“.

The publisher worried that Alpha Protocol might be mistaken for action, while SEGA wanted the role-playing game – it paid Obsidian to create the role-playing game.

As Mills recalls, in the middle of Alpha Protocol’s development, the first Mass effect – Her combat system was similar, which encouraged the Obsidian team. However, the game had enough problems, because of which its release had to be postponed several times, and much had to be redone and canceled.

As a result, the development took so long that in 2009 SEGA decided to withdraw the team from the project. Nobody worked on the game for almost a year before the project went on sale – but the release came too late. 5 months after Mass effect 2that changed the landscape of the genre.

Alpha Protocol never stood a chance“.

The failure of Alpha Protocol was due to many reasons – the inexperience of the team, the lack of a clear vision, the constant reworking or cancellation of existing content. Mills notes that the studio was trying to “do something that no one knew exactly how to do.”

An extra year of development that the game just sat on the shelf could help. There could be a completely different game coming out and maybe Alpha Protocol could be a series.

BioWare was a pioneer in the early days of role-playing games. Alpha Protocol finds itself right in the middle of a transition period

“.

SEGA now has the rights to Alpha Protocol, so you shouldn’t expect a sequel or restart, because Obsidian is now owned by Microsoft. However, fans still hope for a spiritual heir, which is The Outer Worlds for Fallout fans.

Alpha Protocol was once loved for its history and dialogues – Obsidian managed to create a non-linear story in which decisions really affect a lot.

The initial plans were much more ambitious – for example, depending on the player’s actions, certain characters could become the main villains by the end, but this had to be abandoned in the end.

Now the game cannot be officially bought – unless you look for a disc for consoles. Sales on Steam stopped two years ago – due to the expiration of the license for one (!) Music track. SEGA decided not to renew the contract.

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