Alpha Protocol/YMMV

""So the other day I was putting Nasri into a human pyramid and one thing lead to another and he let slip some really juicy details about...""
 * Complete Monster:
 * Hell, Mike can be a Complete Monster if you want...
 * Crazy Awesome: Steven Heck defines this trope. He has invented his own form of insanity-based martial arts, he's an incoherent conspiracy theorist, and if you quote Timecube lore to him he thinks you're serious.
 * Three words - subway minigun driveby. That is all.
 * It even says in his complete dossier that either he is the greatest CIA spook of all time, or he's so deluded in thinking that he is that he became exactly that anyway.
 * It's rather strongly implied that he is actually just a random guy who has turned into one of the best spies in the world through sheer power of crazy.
 * Actually, if you bug the CIA outpost, you see a mail about a 'rogue' seen in Taipei, and it's clear it's not about you. That leaves only one guy...
 * One of the funniest moments was the disappointed look on his face when you tell him not to kill anyone.
 * Brayko too to a lesser, ax crazier degree.
 * Add SIE to the mix, as she's a Xenia Onatopp Expy.
 * Crosses the Line Twice: Just about everything the Steven Heck does. Including torturing his employee to find out where he left his keys.
 * Intel e-mails you get from "investigators" assigned to Nasri, if you chose to arrest him:


 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Turn Up the Radio.
 * And the original planned music for that boss fight was The Final Countdown. Oh boy What Could Have Been ...
 * Cult Classic: Seems to be on a way towards becoming one.
 * Ear Worm: The Official Music Video.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Sis, SIE, Heck, Brayko... hell, half the cast. Credit where it's due, Alpha Protocol's writers really know how to make memorable characters.
 * Fan-Preferred Couple: Mike/Sis is a very popular pairing. Of course, she's not even an option in the game itself.
 * Fashion Victim Villain: Really, Leland? A yellow tie and yellow shirt with your business suit? Mike can even lampshade it (although not to his face, unfortunately).
 * Brayko and his 'gay cheetah' shirt.
 * You can say that you reached this place without his knowledge because his shirt was so loud it distracted his guards, he doesn't even mind.
 * Fridge Brilliance:
 * While Brayko's line referring to Thorton as the "(expletive) offspring of Ronald Reagan and the (expletive) American Ninja" is always funny, it makes more sense that he'd say something like that when you remember that he is after all, a fan of American 80's pop-culture.
 * Scarlet Lake, intrepid photojournalist. Willing to run as many stories exposing major Halbech scandals as you can email to her. But given that you are personally acquainted with just how extreme Halbech's overkill can get when trying to hush up one scandal, how on Earth is she living long enough to publish all of them?.
 * In Taipei, who's the one who sent you the faulty information
 * Heck even says that
 * Game Breaker: Upgraded flashbangs, especially against bosses. Its possible to take down Brayko in one long barrage of fire if you catch him with a flashbang before he snorts another round of his hyper-knife-killy cocaine. Also maxed out Chain Shot can bring down a boss' HP bar from max to almost zero.
 * Chain Shot is practically an "I Win" button; the basic version will just take out a couple of guys, letting you make kills easily and without being seen or thinning the crowd in a tense firefight. At higher levels, where you get up to six shots and plenty of time to mark them, Chain Shot will clear the room more efficiently and accurately than a rifle or shotgun. Combine with Brilliance, which resets your cooldown timers, and it goes from "bring a boss' HP to almost zero" to "the boss is dead before he fires his first shot."
 * Incendiary grenades are boss breakers. Watch as their auto-regen health tricks DON'T WORK! See them cower as all their life is taken away while you stand behind cover twiddling your thumbs! Observe their now total lack of armour!
 * Just about any of the skills can be this if they get maxed out. Maximum Toughness Mike loaded with the heaviest armor can take hits that would literally destroy tanks and not even slow down - and that's before triggering Iron Will. Maxed-out Martial Arts lets Mike take apart bosses in hand-to-hand without any sweat, up to and including cocaine-boosted Brayko. Maxed-out Stealth allows Mike to trigger Shadow Operative and sprint around for twenty seconds while invisible and allows him to one-shot guards. Even the Sabotage and Technical Aptitude sets offer some rather impressive benefits, ranging from boosting the effectiveness of gadgets to allowing Mike to dramatically improve his weapons, armor, and medkits.
 * Not necessary maxed out, even. Level 13 Martial Arts Skill, the Point Blank Shot, while moderately useful in combating Mooks, can be used to end bossfight within seconds, provided that you can get in range for HTH. Against Omen Deng and Marburg it's certified perfect. The trick is, the shot is treated like end of the combo, so it lets you chain several combos together.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: AP predicts Deus Ex Human Revolution in letting you build your character however you like and then kicking your arse with compulsory bosses that you might lack the combat skills to handle.
 * Made of Iron: Thorton in cutscenes may as well be invulnerable regardless of what's thrown at him. Most (if not all) of the bosses fall into this category too, able to survive close to a good half dozen headshots. In a row.
 * Magnificent Bastard:, arguably. In one ending he
 * Combine with Manipulative Bastard when you consider that Mike allowed Madison to die because he'd just found out that she is Alan Parker's daughter - note in the dossier that it specifically tells the player just how Parker would react if something bad happened to her. It's specifically urging the player to make sure Madison dies just so Mike has ammunition against Parker.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Michael never really crosses it but a lot of NPC's do. Most of his less White actions seem to be in the I Did What I Had to Do territory.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Hong Shi, the leader of the White Oak Mountain triad.
 * Paranoia Fuel: Mike can purchase mapping information from an online company called SecuritySift that provides complete layouts of mission areas. It starts to get worrying when it becomes apparent that these guys have maps of everything - they even know where automated machinegun turrets, security locks, and guard patrols are. And their prices are surprisingly cheap, implying that they're not sending agents out to actually scout, but simply have this information on hand. Just how much data does SecuritySift actually have?
 * Player Punch:
 * Scrappy Level: The helicopter at the endgame. Big time.
 * That One Boss: Many of them, but Marburg is one of the nastiest. For an sixty-five year-old man, he can royally kick your ass if you're not properly equipped for him.
 * That helicopter near the end with the one-hit-kill missles.
 * One-hit-kills? If you're playing on hard without any ranks in Toughness, maybe but otherwise, you should be able to take up to five-six of them if you start at full health.
 * Konstantine Brayko. If you don't, getting doped up will make him start to run around like a maniac, and stab you with his knife, all the while being Nigh Invulnerable.
 * Too Good to Last: Sega will not be publishing a sequel. While not everyone likes the game, this is the reaction for those who do.
 * What Could Have Been: The implied G22 subplot. Judging from what little can be gleaned, it would've been really really great.
 * The Scrapped first version of the game.
 * Woobie: Surprisingly, Deng. His Backstory is touching.
 * And of course, poor Wen... so much abuse laden upon the poor guy by Heck.
 * Then again, Wen might deserve it. Heck did mention that Wen was NOT a stand up guy. Which may translate into: Tried to kill/sell me out.
 * Woobie: Surprisingly, Deng. His Backstory is touching.
 * And of course, poor Wen... so much abuse laden upon the poor guy by Heck.
 * Then again, Wen might deserve it. Heck did mention that Wen was NOT a stand up guy. Which may translate into: Tried to kill/sell me out.