Fallen: A2P Protocol

Dead Game.

Bland. Bad voice acting, very basic missions, so-so tactics. On top of that, there are some glaring bugs that just make playing this annoying. Chief among them is the games propensity to hang if an enemy kills itself during its action. Since you can't save during missions, any hang of the program forces you to redo the entire level. I could ignore some of the issues I have with this game, but 12 hours into it I have had the program hang on 5 separate missions. I don't have the patience to cope with that. Also, I absolutely hate how it will close random encounters when the last enemy dies. Looting that critical sniper ammo becomes a chore and a half because the sniper has to die and be looted before the last enemy falls. All in all, very disappointing.

Game was basically abandoned after coming out of EA far too soon. Straight up dev cash grab.

Heard this story before? Well, it is all too common these days. Save your money.

Duration - 19 hours

First time played

Not sure why I can't find this one in our database. So I'll summarize it with a few bullet points an give a few thoughts:

Genre: Turn-based tactical combat, mild RPG element similar to Silent Storm skill tree. Although there are no classes.

Setting: Post apocalyptic, similar to Fallout.

Graphics/Voice Acting: Although this was released in 2015, it really feels like it was made 15 years ago. Every dialog seems to have an F-bomb. Needless really.

Combat: Fairly basic. Each character has 10 action points to use. Most weapons cost 4-6 APs to fire. Move 1 square = Spend 1 AP. Reloading generally costs 4 APs. Swords/axes are very overpowered and you can get a "stun" skill early (costs 3 APs). Ammo is also scarce to start, so my main character was a shotgun/butcher knife expert.

Skill Progression: No classes, so as you gain a level (max 20) you get a skill point to spend. Some skills have pre-requisite skills. Skills also require you to be a certain level before you can get them.

Overall, this game seems very dated an not like a new release. The screen shots made me think of the new X-Com games but in reality it is nothing like that. Many of the aspects of this game seem unfinished. Such as rumors, the nutcracker and even the story-line finishes with a "cliff-hanger". Some of these elements feel tacked on, but not utilized. For instance, you can upgrade lots of aspects of your caravan, but in reality, aside from a couple extra sleeping spots, the rest seem just like a way to spend your amassed fortune. You will get your final equipment half-way through the game, so the second half becomes increasingly simple. The game is definitely playable, and provides some fun, but I have a hard time actually recommending it when I would have more fun booting up my old copies of Jagged Alliance, Fallout or Silent Storm.

5/10

I got this game in early access and have been waiting patiently for it to be playable. It has been ten months since the last update; I assume the developers are finished with the title. Unfortunately, there are still many game breaking bugs. Beyond that, the unpleasantness of the UI is matched only by the 'nails on a chalkboard' voice acting. This game had potential, but did not live up to any of it. Do not purchase this title.

I was really enjoying this game until I realized that the bugs are impassable. I reset the game, got past the bug only for it to happen again a few missions later. Hopefully they continue to make improvements but as of this writing it is frustratingly unplayable.

I'm a big fan of turn-based games like A2P, so buying this game was just a natural thing for me to do. In spite of my greatest efforts to enjoy the game, too much of it is poorly implemented. For example, while travelling on the world map you may likely come across encounters. After you beat an encounter, you'll be looking at your spoils from the combat while on the main map. This would be a non-issue if other enemies weren't speeding to you to attack you, giving you little time to look at your rewards. The cover system is almost non-functional, as well. Characters will regularly miss shots that have a 94% hit chance, but always seem to be struck by return fire... the list goes on.

All of this could be overlooked for the sake of enjoying the game, being a fan of the genre. That is, except for the tragic and uninspired voice acting. There seems to be one actor who cared about the game - the others sound like they've been sedated and have no interest in their job. What would be meant as a heated argument with vitriol and resentment instead comes out sounding like a group of school children performing The Iliad while reading from cue cards just barely beyond their sight. Unless you really have disposable income: Stay away from "Fallen: A2P Protocol".

Despite the bad reviews i bought this game on special and for the most part enjoyed playing it. That is not to say it doesnt have huge flaws, the biggest being that the story doesnt end with the last mission as if the game was cut short or they expected to make a part two.
This makes the player who has devoted many hours feel cheated and completely detached from the character.
That said there are also things to enjoy as the combat is quite well managed and x-com ish
There are still some bugs and the voice acting is still terrible (imagine elementary school xmas play) but if yuo can get it very cheap and you have a few hours to spare and enjoy turn based battles then its still worth a try
Breakdown is as follows:-
Graphics 5/10
Battles 7/10
AI 4/10
Story 5/10
Voice acting 1/10
Stability 5/10
replayability 2/10

Overall 4/10 - only suitable if on budget special price

I watched the trailers, and the thought that went through my mind was "Awwww Yeaahhhh, post-Apocalyptic X-Com!!". I waited for a while until it was on sale, because I'm a miser like that, and I got at at 75% off. Whoooo boy, that was probably the best decision I made. Quickie run down, Do I reccomend it? No. Also Yes, but then more No.

Here is the thing. The mechanics work simlar to X-Com, maybe even slightly better because instead of 2 actions each round you may be able to run, shoot, and then run, or stab someone three times, or other options. Its actually a superior action point system in my mind. The graphics while not stunning are surpisingly good too.

Then come the problems. The most notable, glaring issues are all related to the characters. Whoever wrote the dialogue for this game should be imprisoned. It's seriously that bad. Most games where people complain about the quality of the story, or the quality of voice acting and writing, I look at them and go "Well, it's really not THAT bad". The only way I managed to finish this game was to stick my fingers in my ears, cover up the text on the bottom of the screen and go "LA LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU". The dialogue doesn't match the subtext, and both of them are not only gramatically awful, but uninteresting at best and confusing at worst. The voice actors might as well have been reading the back of a cereal box. Hell, they were probably hired on Craig's List, because their 'performance' (If i can even be allowed to refer to it as such) was flat and emotionless, not to mention the voices definitely not matching faces. And the overall story was... well 'lacking' doesn't even begin to sum it up. Possibly the worst excuse for a game in these categories that I have ever seen.

Gameplay you say? Well there were a bunch of different kinds of maps I guess.... but the game started out being atrociously hard, and ended up being laughably easy, and all because of the same weapon. Grenades. The single most important weapon in the game is grenades. If you do buy this game just remember that grenades are god. Your low HP characters will be blasted apart by them early game, but then late game when they barely scratch you, don't worry; the enemies will continue throwing them at you even when you are standing right next to them and they set themselves on fire. Oh, and they take up like no space and are the most valuable things in the game. Good news, pretty much every enemy carries two of them. Grab a sniper and just pick off your enemies and grab them for easy cash.

Probably don't buy this game. It was just okay enough that I finished it, but I almost always complete campaigns. You have been warned, I cannot express accurately how horrible the writing and voice acting are.

In this game you command a squad of up to 6 team members in a tactical missions as well as lead a caravan in this post-apocalyptic world on a story mission.
Tactical combat is organized like Fallout: Tactics, every team member have 10 Action Points, they can move, use items, pick up look and fight using this Action Points. Your fighters have some basic stats to start as well as the same leveling path for all of them, there are no classes of fighters as you might expect. Your troopers get familiar with certain weapons as they keep using them and over time this specialty increases to hit chance of that weapon class, therefor you can craft your troopers as you see fit, you can give one a shotgun, good protection clothes and +HP skills and make him an assault while another one will just keep distance with sniper rifle.
This game is not such well made as XCOM, but all above looks like a solid foundation for a turn base combat game.

Problems start with gameplay.
-I had about one crash every 2-3 hours.
- Enemy AI is blunt stupid and enemies spawn on very small groups like 1-2 of them, so your 6 will kill them before their turn.
Enemies will keep standing in the open and just overwatch with a weapon with very small range and you can pick them off with something with bigger range easly.
The hardest fight is when for the first time you meet a well a armed group with best rifles, after that you take possession of their rifles and game becomes even more easy.
- There are no saves during tactical combat, so you game crashes or otherwise bugs out at the very end its your loss, start again.
- Using cover is kind of hard master when it will actually work and provide cover.

So what is good in this game.
+Post-apocalyptic climat is good, locations look deserted, ruined, repurposed.
+You feel lack of supplies from the beggining to like mid-game.
+Management is nice, you can improve your caravan, sell and buy more stuff for your troops.
+Weapons feel nice, distance is a factor for most guns while sniper rifles use revers distance calculation (the closer to the target the worse is your aim)

Overall game looks unfinished, but developers are still suppoting it and developing. In some time when they erase the problems I might return to it.
I can recommend it for players who like simple tactical combat and don't mind crashes.

SHORT VERSION

Short, unfinished, unbalanced, not well optimized, bugged and last but not least - abandoned (there are no more signs of life from devs at all since 2016-01-27) turn based tactic with very weak AI and a lot of weird stuff. Get it on sale for 5 bucks if you are really interested in such kind of games and don't mind to support a developer/publisher, who basically has thrown a "half baked" product out on market and disappeared after that.

LONG VERSION

Discovered this title while in early access and went for it in October 2015 after it was officially released and got a couple of patches/updates. Now after 70 hours spent I am pretty sure that I have seen and done everything possible within this game, so for all those of you who ask yourself "should I get it or not?" I got an answer. The answer is - no, unless there is a discount like -80% or better. Now some of you may ask "hmm, but what's wrong with it? Trailer looks promising, screens are looking good... okay-okay there were some bugs, but devs are fixing it, right?" and this question is legitimate for sure.

So let’s go deeper in detail:

1. The game itself is ridiculously short. It consists of ca. 12 main story missions, that’s all. Plus there are so called random encounter events, which are cycled through 4 or 5 predefined maps. Main story maps are predefined as well. The task is always the same - kill them all. In a couple of story missions you need to get to point X and pick up a data, but in order to get there you still need to kill them all. The complete walkthrough will take about 10 hours if you won't waste much time with random encounters.

2. The tactical phase is actually fun to play for a while. It plays pretty the same way like the new XCOM EU/EW. There is also a cover system, but the funny thing is that AI doesn't care about it at all - enemies are just rushing to you (no matter what weapons they have) or going in overwatch. It doesn't depend on difficulty you play - I've tested all possible difficulty settings - always the same behavior, no one takes cover. Furthermore enemies never retreat, never flank, never use medkits, never switch weapons (melee/ranged) and so on. Okay, they manage to use nades at least. But basically they are just dashing to you ignoring everything ready to die in the next turn.

3. The progressing is unbalanced. It is possible to get best available weaponry (gencorp rifles) right in the very beginning via random encounter. Once obtained you will literally r.a.p.e everyone.

4. Weapon setup is unbalanced. There are pretty many weapons and I've tried them all. Some (SMGs, flamethrowers, miniguns) are completely useless. Pistols, rifles and sniper rifles are OK. Shotguns and rocket launchers are too much overpowered.

5. The optimization is not good. The game runs not really smooth on my laptop (i7-4710HQ, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX860M, Win7-64 Prof.) although it is far beyond the minimal requirements (2GHz Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Intel HD 4000, Win7)

6. As for today (2015-12-05, v1.1.6) there are still minor bugs, glitches and other annoying things like steam achievements which are impossible to get. Check my reports - some of them are already solved, but latest were not even answered. I guess this game will be abandoned soon or maybe it is already.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478014134/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478010454/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478008483/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/1/490125737478011420/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/1/485622866441482029/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/1/485622866441520810/

7. I can just keep on going this way and mention tons of other stuff like:
a) Mercenaries, which you can hire but not fire - the only dismiss option is to vanish them in combat.
b) If you hire a merc his attributes will be spread in his skilltree randomly. However you can't see his skilltree before you hire him. If you got him and didn't like his perks selection for any reason - see 7a.
c) Nothing to explore on the game map at all.
d) Really confusing correlation between main and secondary stats.
e) A hit/miss algorithm which is most likely broken. I experienced just too many misses with high-percentage shots like 3-4-5 misses in a row!!! with 80% to hit. On the other hand grenades will never miss, no matter what % is displayed.
f) Caravan upgrades are pointless. There is no use for the most of those upgrades.
g) Sometimes in random encounter missions enemies wont move at all, they will just stand there doing permanent overwatch turn after turn.



Now in the conclusion I have to say that the primary idea/concept of the game isn't that bad at all. The visual art is ok, level design is ok, the story is ok, skill-tree is ok, weapon upgrade system is ok. But the whole rest construct around... it needs at least a massive polishing. It lacks some kind of deepness in this game as well. Something simple like a couple of side quests and explorable map would help a lot. I have a feeling that it was rushed in the very final stage of development. There was so much more potential inside this project, really sad to see what it became in the end.

As I already said in the beginning - I can not recommend this game in its actual shape. The full price of 20$/€ is honestly a joke for this kind of content. Hovewer if you are looking for a short and unbalanced "XCOM-wannabe-clone" with incredibly dumb AI, glitches and a lot of weird things - this game is for you.



PS:
Dislikes are supposed to be invalid unless there is a proof about any single point in this review which is incorrect. Be aware - there are indeed fanboys denying any criticism and instantly disliking every negative review, simply because they get so much b.u.t.t.hurt by facing obvious facts.

Read this thread for more information:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/325790/discussions/0/485624149158912987/

Such a let down, this game needs an extreme polish and bug fix.

Why release something shoddy that could be great with another month or two of work?

I wouldn't buy this game yet, I'd recommend waiting to see what updates / fixes are posted for it.

has potential but currently has too many problems and weak areas. also i listened to a rumor and the coordinates were not accessible...last everyone has identical skill trees but there are achievements for filling out each skill tree based on an associated attribute. not sure if this means each leg of the tree is considered one but seems pretty weak that way

A game heavily inspired by xcom and fallout but falls lacking in every aspect. With still a few bugs and glitches and no in game saving, a bad story and even worse voice acting I would advise steer clear until discounted.

As a big fan of XCOM and Shadowrun, I bought this in a hearbeat. It took almost as long as a heartbeat to find out this is pretty much a poor mashup of XCOM, Shadowrun, and Wasteland 2. In fact, it can be summed up as such: Navigating your team is a poor rip off of the XCOM gameplay, combat (melee and ranged) is a poor and odd rip off of Shadowrun mechanics, and the setting itself is a poor rip off of Wasteland 2.

+

Something sub par to play while you wait for XCOM 2 and Shadowrun: Hong Kong to be released?

-

Everything mentioned in the first paragraph

LOTS of bugs such as pausing can cause your mission to fail for no reason when you resume and only parts of a button are clickable

Graphics are... meh. No, no one plays these types of games for Crysis graphics, but the textures are still very bad for a 2015 game. Very low level of detail overall.

No saving during combat. Once you start a mission, it's finish it or fail if you quit.

Characters ripped off from other games? Your mutant companion Lee seems like super mutant Neil from Fallout 3?

REALLY bad dialogue... Laughable conversations with random curse words thrown in... Sounds like middle schoolers talking

Basic, confusing at first story *SPOILER************************* The first 30 seconds of the game is a conversation between you and another guy who you figure out is your brother and brought you to this raider camp to get you a present! Next 30 seconds is surprise! Your brother tricked you and is selling you into slavery to people you just met... Next 30 seconds is someone you don't know rescues you.... Yes, you literally are thrust into meeting your brother, your brother sells you to some dude you don't know, and some other dude you don't know rescues you... All in the span of 90 seconds... Zero back story or development of any part of those immediate plot twists...

If you buy this game, don't be surprised if you use Steam's refund process!

So close! What went wrong?

Game-breaking bugs, UI design flaws and annoyances. If it were still in Early Access, I'd definitely recommend it, with bells on, as it's clearly got *so* much potential. But apparently they're calling it finished now. I just spent a few frustrating hours confirming that it really, really isn't.

If the serious bugs are fixed, the UI is given a little touch-up, the flow of gameplay is better managed and some minor attention is paid to balance, then it's definitely worth purchasing particularly for fans of XCOM et al.

But if there's no significant post "release" attention then the developers have sadly left this potential classic to whither on the vine.

I'm sure they have their reasons.

The Current release is really deceiving.
I was kinda exiting about this game, expeting a new Xcom/Jagged alliance.
But during the second mission i was done.
Controls/interface are bad, like you can't cancel action with right clicks, you can't read your skills because you have the useless portrait of your character.
Some Graphics during the second mission are just too horrible.
I wont complain on shitty voicing and the story it's not that important.
Skills that your characters get are too basic and seems like they were just threw to say "hey we have a skill tree in our game"
It would have been really better with a skill tree specialized for each character like in Xcom.

This game have a potentional but at this point, it's not being used correctly.

This is a great game and if you enjoyed the modern Xcom and fancies post apocalyptic scenarios this is the game for you.
It is like a hybrid between Xcom - Enemy Unknown and Shadowrun Returns with Fallout settings but without the depth of those games.
But if you seek a new Fallout Tactics you can stop right here, this is not a Fallout Tactics clone.

Some concerns from my point of view is that the game feels unfinished. It needs some major tweaking, polishing and more complexity to the gameplay.

They rushed the game in the end and the quality suffered from it in my opinion.
I really hope they will work more on this game since it got some potential that i like about it.

If your an X-COM fan or any kind of Post- Apocalyptic style game fan (I.E Any PC Fallout before 3). Then you will enjoy this game. With a bit of vulgarity between characters they set the tone of the world very well. Lots of Action and an even more entertaining slaughter fest once you get explosives!

Because it's still early access there are some bugs but if your like me and enjoy the game play for what it is you can get deeply tied to all of the members of your Caravan regardless of their rolls in the story.

Gotta say, lots of fun.

Extremebunny
Dungeons and Distractions

As this is an early acess game i will divide this review into two sections, the first for the players and the second for the developers.
Section 1
The game shows promise. There are not many games in this genre that stand out but those that do 'Fallout Tactics', 'XCOM - Enemy Within' and 'Shadowrun - Dragonfall' are easily some of the best games ever made. So interest in developing any games in this genre are always to be welcomed, even if the bar for greatness is very high. The combat is fun although rather basic at the moment, revolving around taking actions which use up a limited number of action points each turn. The game features weather effects which are a neat addition even if the ones I have encountered dont seem to have that much of an effect on gameplay. Storyline isn't great at the moment. Enjoyable if small level design.

Section 2
The storyline needs work. Perhaps have West sold to his companions at the beginning rather than have him sold into slavery, thrown down a pit and then rescued by people who just turn him into their slave. The current story makes him look too gullible.
I can't find how to swap weapons, even through using the inventory. Perhaps a guide could help with that or instructions.
Most of the language used when characters swap taunts makes it sound as though it was written by an eight year old Samuel L Jackson who was really into BDSM at thetime. 'It's a be a good boy collar' etc.
The translation into english and grammar needs some work. Not sure why when two characters meet they start talking about 'fighting windmills'.
I can use the mouse to scroll up and scroll down the map but not from side to side. ?
The game needs more information about its setting. A lot of world concepts get talked about at the beginning which go over my head because they are either not covered in the conversations or there is no backstory article available in the game.

My first review so apologies if im repeating what others are saying or im just plain dull. I found Fallen:A2P Protocol by accident while browsing for a turn based strategy squad game and lets face it its a really short list of those.
The game reminds me of 'abomination' ( hp lovecraft meets saving private ryan if you cant remember it ) rather than xcom although its wearing the influences proudly and i hope the graphics reflect that when the devs get to it for instance bad guys have the same health bar as xcom aliens ( with a weirdly distracting at least for me red highlight around their bodies which i hope they take out ) and the options for combat are very xcom but pretty minor stuff which im assuming devs will fix / modify / ignore depending on what buyers want.
Visually it was about what i expected for a early access game and fans of the first two fallout games will feel right at home with the oversive guns and figures that look like mad max movie extras.
The devs are making no secret of the influences and i hope they dont try and put every mechanic they thought was cool and mess up as i think the game has a lot of potential if they can get the balance right especially with combat which is the only part i didnt enjoy ( environment seemed to make no difference, bad guys dont take cover ,fiddly, frustrating controls and no logic - players can loot and swap stuff with each other in the middle of combat not very realistic i kept wondering how long the turns were supposed to represent ) but definitly a game worth keeping a eye on if you cant afford it and if you can afford it i would recommend getting it if only to support a underdevelpoed games genre