Alpha Protocol Conference Coverage

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Written by BuckGB on July 3rd, 2008

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"We go way back with BioWare," he recalled. "The owners of Obsidian all come from Black Isle Studios. Feargus Urquhart, our CEO, was actually the producer on BioWare's first title, Shattered Steel."

"I personally produced the whole Baldur's Gate series for BioWare when I was at Black Isle Studios. Strangely enough, we left Black Isle Studios and then [BioWare was] able to help get us hooked up for our first titles, which turned the whole tables around - and then we ended up making the sequels for their games."

Parker then addressed the question more directly. "You know, it has to be out in the court of public opinion whether people can really separate us from them, but I think that at this point, we're starting to work on our own titles that are really our own," he answered.

"We made Neverwinter 2 and KOTOR 2 our own, and Alpha Protocol is us stepping away from that, and moving back to our roots of making a really cool, different RPG - and in this case a very actiony roleplaying game."

Obsidian executive producer Chris Parker opened the conference by revealing that Alpha Protocol has been in development right after Neverwinter Nights 2 was finished. He said that his team wanted to explore new ground and do "something a little more action-based, a little bit more accessible."

"We originally went for a more realistic version of gameplay and the way Thorton interacted with the world, but that wasn't as exciting as having some kind of magical abilities," Parker told members of the game media. "Michael Thorton (protagonist) is a super-agent, so we have added some abstraction, and something... like super-powers."

"We really liked the spy genre," he said. The team also thought it would be cool to give the player the experience of developing from a green rookie agent into a "modern-day superhero." Thorton will have many traditional weapons, but will level up on a skill-based curve.

One of the things the team said was that they hoped to welcome more traditional FPS players into the RPG fold by allowing the player to simply auto-level on a class-like track, while still allowing more experienced RPG players to develop whichever skills they wanted, and allocate their points on their own.
(...)
Interactions with different characters will influence which factions ally with you and which oppose you - in particular, the team said you can expect your endgame to be heavily influenced by your actions in the game. The conversation wheel, the team said, resembles Mass Effect's a bit, but with less looping back and more of a real-time feel; it's also possible to choose a single "stance" and carry it through all of your interactions.

(Alpha Protocol blends Obsidian's knack for intricate stories, engrossing characters and significant character advancement with fast-paced modern combat,) said Obsidian founder and CEO Feargus Urquhart, who believes the team has no fear of stepping out on its own once again. (Alpha Protocol embraces everything we enjoy about making RPGs from a fresh perspective. We are confident our talented staff at Obsidian will enable us to deliver this exciting RPG experience.)

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