Obsidian Entertainment’s action game Alpha Protocol released over 7 years ago to middling reviews but if given the opportunity, the studio wouldn’t mind working on a sequel. In a new interview with Eurogamer, the game’s developers offered an interesting insight into its production and revealed that the team had to abandon some of its ideas for a more focused approach towards development.
Features that were cut or significantly changed included longer mini-games, parkour, environmental interaction, and on-rails motorbike and yacht chase sequences. At one point, Alpha Protocol also had a female protagonist named Uli Booi.
“The direction we were going wasn’t something everyone was completely happy with so changing that around…it really revitalized a lot of the team,” said Lead Level Designer Tyson Christensen.
The end product still didn’t woo the masses over, however, which Game Director Chris Parker said was “disheartening.”
We always talk about how we think a game is going to rate before it launches. We all expected to land around 80. We knew it had some issues, we understood all of that, but we thought if people could just get over those things the content would pull through.
When it launched and it did significantly worse… it was pretty disheartening.
Parker also revealed that Obsidian has already completed a detailed 35-page pitch for a sequel that “fundamentally” revisits gameplay and works with things players loved. Unfortunately, Obsidian cannot work on Alpha Protocol 2 without SEGA’s blessing as that’s who the ownership rests with.
[Source: Eurogamer]
