Alpha Protocol Interview with MTV’s Multiplayer About Sex in Alpha Protocol

MTV’s Multiplayer blog is featuring an interview with senior producer Ryan Rucinski about sex in Alpha Protocol. Apparently the game will have an achievement for being a ladies’ man, as well as for being a lonely bachelor.

‘Alpha Protocol’ Will Have Plenty Of Sex Scenes, ‘Ladies’ Man’ Achievement

Tracey John – 7/24/08

“Alpha Protocol“’s dialogue system doesn’t just offer a variety of ways for player-character Michael Thorton to get missions.

It can also help him pick up women. That is, if you select your responses wisely.

When I saw “Alpha Protocol” at E3 last week, senior producer Ryan Rucinski told me that there are “a lot of love interests” for Thorton to choose from. There are several factions in the game that you can ally with or fight against, so the women Thorton meets can become collaborators or enemies. As a government operative, the player can acquire missions and assistance from the ladies Thorton’s wooed. But piss them off — by dating other girls, for instance — and there’s hell to pay.

 

“It all depends on how you treat them,” Rucinski said. If you have a strong relationship with female characters, they may help with missions. However, he told me that some of them are “bats–t insane” and can get you into trouble. “One may ask you to assassinate a high-level person,” he added. “Maybe that’s not something you want to do, but she’s really hot. But there are obvious repercussions.”

Rucinski also hinted at the game having at least one date mission. “It’s the funniest [voice-over] we’ve ever recorded,” he said. The game has “tons of dialogue,” though he said much of the banter between Thorton his ladies was cut from the game. “A lot of the extra female dialogue took away from story,” he explained. Between 400 to 500 lines were cut, and some of the lines that didn’t make it involved the women detailing their day of shopping, for example.

“Chris Avellone doesn’t do ‘goo goo’ stuff,” Rucinski said, referring to the chief creative officer at the development studio. “Sometimes he’d be like, ‘No guy would say that!’” That included a scene of Thornton crying. Rucinski said that people around the office were like, “That sucks, he’s crying, I don’t like this guy anymore.”

So no tears for Thornton; he’s all about machismo. In fact, he can “get” all of the game’s women if he wanted to. Rucinski told me it was possible to have sex with all the females, and that the sex scenes were similar to how “Mass Effect” treated its intimate moments. But he was quick to assure me that, “It’s a mature game, it’s not [adults only].”

And although the women are integral to the story, there’s no need to interact with them beyond missions. Rucinski revealed that the game will have Achievements for being a ladies’ man as well as for being a lone bachelor.

You can try your luck with the ladies when “Alpha Protocol” hits the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in February 2009.