Working Title 09.28.10: Working Backlog: Alpha Protocol and Backbreaker

Posted by Jordan Williams on 09.28.2010

Digging through my backlog I have finally hit up Alpha Protocol and Backbreaker. Two games the critics generally panned but...I think I actually like them a lot.

Welcome to the #1 Column to admit that Halo: Reach does look hella interesting if only for the Co-Op Stuff alone. I have never gotten into Halo and it's not for the super duper "OH I HATE HALO AND EVERYTHING HALO BLAAAAH" reasons. I just didn't own an Original Xbox thus wasn't present when the Halo Rush originally hit. I did play Halo 3 and it as fun, but I have never been a big fan of online competitive play so it didn't grab me as much. I tend to like Co-Op stuff or games with a solid team foundation (BC2) versus primarily Free For All stuff. Either way, Halo: Reach does look hella interesting to me. Especially seeing as they are supposedly taking some pages out of Battlefields book for Invasion Mode...and I am a whore for any game with a Horde mode.

But me gushing about how I might be interesting Halo: Reach isn't the point of this column. This short column this week is more about three games that have recently fallen into my lap from Dear Old Gamefly. These two games were ravaged or generally panned by the reviews but as I play them they don't seem to be nearly as bad as the critic made them out to be...in fact I quite like them. I admit they had faults in various places but I still quite enjoy them as the games they are. So this is me hitting my Working Backlog. Maybe after I defend/explain these games more people will play them.

So one of the disadvantages of having a GameFly account is that it is absolute SHITE for getting new games and sometimes they end up just sending you some older junk you put on the list just for filler. So without even trying to defend how sometimes the service sends me my 4th game instead of my first. Let's just get into the first game that I liked...but everyone else didn't.


Working Backlog: The Misplaced Hate Edition



Alpha Protocol

Metacritic Score: 63

Alpha Protocol, Sega's "Espionage RPG" was slated to be their answer to the insanely popular Mass Effect franchise. It was supposed to take the world by storm with its dialogue trees, 3rd person shooter combat, and above all else it's great story.

Well, it didn't do that.

Hanging around with a Metacritic score in the low 60s and getting generally panned by every outlet under the sun Alpha Protocol was a proposed trilogy but now all future projects for it have been cancelled. Was the game REALLY that bad though? Was there anything underneath this game to like or was it just something that didn't meet the mark that has already been set for this year?

I'll openly admit when I played Alpha Protocol I fucking hated it for about the first hour. For someone who is supposed to be a super spy badass who has been recruited into a major organization such as Alpha Protocol you would think he would be able to do a simple thing like...shoot a gun. But instead for some reason he couldn't even aim a Pistol without having to hover over the target for about 3 minutes. Couple that with the fact that despite wearing hospital scrubs and wearing no shoes he was horrible at sneaking. But once I get into the first real mission and a lot of the dialogue choices my perception of the game started to change.

So I'll get ahead and get this pout of the way now. While Alpha Protocol is in NO WAY close to what Sega wanted in terms of a Mass Effect killer. I will say that its dialogue choices and options beat the HOLY HELL out of Mass Effect in terms of importance. While I love Mass Effect to death, the thing that always sort of killed me were how the dialogue choices were always so obvious. You knew that the middle-right was neutral, upper right was Paragon and lower right was Renegade. If you wanted to play a 'good' Shepard you didn't even have to pay attention. Just keep the joystick locked on the upper right and spam A for the entire game and you are guaranteed to finish with max Paragon. Couple that with the fact that none of the choices you made seemed to have any direct urgency to them also sort of threw me out of the experience. The Normandy is blowing up around me yet for some reason I can pause in mid conversation and stand around as shit explodes and...nothing happens?

This is where I liked Alpha Protocol. Nearly every single line you said in dialogue and a direct effect on the person's direct standing with you. On top of all of that certain people react differently to certain things you say. One guy might love you being a suave charismatic spy while others might want you to be the no nonsense badass you are meant to be. Although that system has been around before (ironically in BioWare's other RPGs like Dragon Age and KOTOR) the one thing that AP does to set it apart which makes a WORLD of difference is the fact that all of your choices are timed. You have about 10 seconds to make up your mind one way or another. No pussyfooting around and weighing the options and all of that bullshit. Split-second decisions which usually either have a direct effect right then and there or change something very big down the road.

So no more having to wait around to see what to do. On one hand you can save a million or save one. You don't get a second chance, there is no special SUPER Renegade/Paragon option you can do to have your cake and eat it too like in Mass Effect. It's black and white and it's fucking awesome. A lot of reviewers mentioned that if the game had been more dialogue focused then it would've been a lot better and I am actually inclined to agree with them whole heartedly. The thing that kills this game is honestly the combat. It takes way too long to get going and once it really does over half the game is over. I spent two levels literally fumbling around like a hopped up monkey before I was able to focus into a certain skill then get them to work. Then I became a shotgun toting badass who ended up solving all of his problems with shining wizards and incendiary grenades.

But sadly, the critics shat on it hard. Garnering just middling reviews coupled with poor sales doomed what was going to be a three game franchise into a one shot that will probably never see the light of day again. It's a real shame, too. Because this was one of those games that could've easily gotten better if given another chance. All of the tools they wanted to use were there more time and commitment to do it.

Maybe Sega changes its mind and we get to see Alpha Protocol come back some day. At least they have a name built up for them at the get go versus having to carve out a niche like the next game has to.



Backbreaker

Metacritic: 54


Oh, Backbreaker. You had such promise. For AGES now the people who have not been deep into Madden have wanted a good alternative from the usual football games. But ever since EA wrapped up the NFL License it just seems that no other football game could even touch the sales or level of polish that Madden has.

This is where Backbreaker hit the scene. They hoped to out realism Madden by using the Euphoria engine to have truly great tackles and bring the rough and tumble action back to football games versus the almost RTS style gameplay it has now. For some the game was seen as a gift from heaven. It had the polish of a Madden game with the power hits of games like Blitz.

But the critics didn't see it that way. Now even I don't TRULY love Backbreaker as much as I liked Alpha Protocol but I do think Backbreaker did a lot more things better than it did badly. For instance a big problem I have with Madden is that year after year it seems like I am playing the same game. While I am not going to make the same old tried "Roster Update" joke, I am going to say that it really doesn't seem that too much changes from year to year when it comes to the series. And the really BIG changes usually end up getting stripped the next year because for the core fan base didn't like them too much.

Yeah, I know the music is bad.

But Backbreaker in its one outing fixed two things that always irked me about Madden. The running and the tackling. While the controls do take a bit of getting used to (which can be fixed by changing them to the alternate button scheme) it works GREAT when it does. Breaking tackles, spinning, jukes, it all can be tied together like a great little symphony of badassness when it's all working in motion. Then there is the defense side of things the tackling is just BRUTAL. The engine powers some of the most brutal (or unintentionally) hilarious hits I have ever seen in a football game. And they are a lot more convincing than the ones you'd see in the Madden series. But the game does have its short comings, it does suffer from the lack of any sort of name recognition and the offense as a whole (not counting the running) leaves a lot to be desired, but just like Alpha Protocol I think this was a GREAT first attempt for a game series. No one knows if this game is ever going to get a proper sequel or a new release, but I personally would love to see them license out the tech they used for this game to EA so they could incorporate it into the tackles and hits. The games shining moment is Tackle Alley.

You are one running back versus and endless onslaught of defenders and wave after wave as they get harder and harder. If this was a downloadable title and Tackle Alley was the only mode it would've sold fucking butt loads. But as it stands I guess Tackle Alley wasn't enough to keep the football fans happy, so all we can do is hope that Backbreaker gets a proper sequel and they fix the stuff holding it back.

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So that's the end of that amazingly short column this week. Sorry for the lack of big updates, it's just that the projects outside of the site are starting to bleed over and it's getting a tad hectic. I'll be back next week with more short column goodness. I think I might do a series of reviewing truly HORRIFIC games...you know...put my GameFly to use. So this ties directly into the question of the week....


Working Question

A two parter...

What truly bad Xbox 360 Game should I force my Gamefly to give me?

With TGS here and gone and more people like Infafune speaking out against the current Japanese Games Market, do you really think The West has taken over in the gaming world as far as creativity and profitability in games is concerned or is this just a short lull before The East rises again?


Next week I'll be back with two more good games with a bad rep, maybe. Or I will go on a rant about Reboots and why they are a good thing. Who knows?

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams and....get over it kids. Dante looked just was lame before his redesign than he does now.