Alpha Protocol: Difference between revisions

** EVERYONE in the active part of VCI.

*** One of the requirements for joining VCI is "dishonorable discharge from army"

* [[Badass]]: Thorton. So you say you've just started working with and been separated from your agency on a dangerous mission in some Third World country? Well, it seems you'll have to work on your own, and bring all those terrorists down.

** [[Badass Adorable]]: Sis, a small, slender, cute, purple-haired, mute young girl who apparently went to the [[Firefly|River Tam School Of]] [[Waif Fu]].

* [[Blackmail]]: When you get data on Halbech's misdeeds, the most profitable use of it is to politely ask a Halbech executive to pay up in exchange for not blowing the evidence wide open.

* [[Book Ends]]: {{spoiler|The first and final missions both begin with Michael escaping from Alpha Protocol's medical room.}} Also, {{spoiler|The boat that Mike leaves Alpha Protocol on in some endings is marked with a large Greek alphabet letter Omega. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, while Omega is the last.}}

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Under normal circumstances, you don't want to waste too many bullets, but the special attack power for the submachineguns is "Bullet Storm," which gives you infinite ammo for a short period of time. (And then you have to reload as normal afterwards.)

* [[Boss Banter]]: Pretty much all the bosses indulge in this to some extent.

* [[Hacking Minigame]] - A decoding minigame, a hotwiring minigame, plus a third one with lockpicks.

* [[The Handler]]: Yancy Westridge, several other characters as well. Your handlers actually give you certain bonuses, depending on whether they like or hate you.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: What happens to Michael {{spoiler|after Rome. It's worse if you didn't save Madison}}

* [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]]: Steven Heck hands down. Just imagine Max from Sam and Max but set in a non-cartoon universe. His introduction is a reference to [[24|Jack Bauer]] [http://www.jackbauerfacts.com/ Facts].

* [[I Minored in Tropology]]: In the catacombs of Carsulae, Mina jokingly credits her knowledge of bathhouses to her major in <s> Architecture</s> Ancient Roman Plumbing and a minor in <s> Ancient Roman Plumbing</s> Architecture.

* [[Ink Suit Actor]]: Hong Shi looks pretty much like his voice actor, [[James Hong]].

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Heck is your friend now, that means first name basis buddy pal! Just... don't call him Steve.

* [[Ironic Echo]] {{spoiler|if you let your ally to take a shot at Scarlet, who has just before shot you to the back}}

{{quote|{{spoiler|Scarlet: Now there's a picture}}

* [[Lost Forever]]: It is incredibly easy to unintentionally skip over computer terminals, dossiers, equipment, or money unless you search ''every'' area very thoroughly. Doors will sometimes close and lock behind you once you pass into a new area, cutting you off from whatever was behind you, so its a good idea to take a minute to search every location for items. This can be ''very'' important at times. For example, if you don't fill out all of Brayko's dossier, you won't be able to {{spoiler|question him about his connections to Surkhov and thus expose him as Halbech's original contact and then break that line/recruit Surkov into your own network.}}

* [[MacGuffin]]: The Halbech missiles.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Michael, if you pick up on people's behavior (which isn't hard) and how they prefer to be treated - read the dossiers! - can be one of these. Nothing quite like playing someone up so that they really like you, and then smashing their face into a table.

** This is actually one of the reasons Westridge thinks Mike would be a good agent. Basically, Mike questions if his people skills are really that good. Westridge says no, it's not that he's charismatic, it's that Mike can read people very well and thus manipulate his/their responses as needed.

* [[Master of None]]: Inexperienced players want to avoid this, especially if not playing with the bonus AP from the Veteran background. A generalist build is doable but [[Self-Imposed Challenge|very difficult]] if you don't know what you're doing.

* [[Memetic Badass]]: There's one or two theories on the official forum that the ''true'' architect of AP's plot is none other than... {{spoiler|the Gelato Man.}}

* [[The Men in Black]]: The CIA agents and Marburg's Deus Vult agents tend to rock this look, though the G22 agents tend to fill in the role as shadowy agents.

** Boss fights, doubly so if you're running a fragile build. Marburg will punch the hell out of you if you get close.

*** Also any boss fights encountered with a low supply of ammo, not enough points in certain skills, etc. This isn't unique to Alpha Protocol but it does seem to happen a fair amount.

* [[No Party Given]]: Averted, twice:

** U.S. Senator Patrick Darcy (Sean's father) is identified as a Virginia Republican (by the notation "R-VA") in a dossier Michael can receive from Mina.

** President of Taiwan Ronald Sung is given an explicit party affiliation.

* [[No Points for Neutrality]]: More like No Points for Inconsistency. Pick a playstyle and stick with it, you'll get perks. Vary it up too much and you get nothing. Similarly, you get bigger bonuses to your stats if your handler loves you or hates you and smaller bonuses if they feel ambivalent.

* [[Not Quite the Right Thing]]: After Marburg's [[Sadistic Choice]] in Rome, pretty much every character in the game treats {{spoiler|letting Madison die to defuse the bombs}} as the more moral choice, but the epilogue reveals that it actually did more to further Halbech's goal of passing tougher anti-terrorism laws. Similarly, {{spoiler|saving Sung from assassination}} leads to China and Taiwan moving closer to war.

* [[Not So Different]]: Marburg is a bitter, betrayed Thorton 30 years later. Thorton points this out to Marburg's annoyance - or pleasure, if Thorton has gained his approval.