Protocol Reviews

This game is gonna play you, not the other way around, just deal with it or don't buy it. There is no easy mode here, if you are not ready to fail again, again and again, don't bother. It will teach you to fold your underwear and put it in place, put toilet seat up, reason with crazy digital ex-wives and many other essential survival skills. Obviously, there is a way for visual improvement, but since it is VR compatible game, average graphics are not surprising. It's not what makes this game fun anyway. Overall, it looks pretty solid for an indie game. Recommended for masochists and old-school gamers :)

I am here to update my review. For the most part, it's been pretty solid besides a couple of key gameplay elements getting stuck, or when you're trying to enter the ships computer and use the wrong combination it's possible to get stuck in a loop, where the only way out is to force quit the game and reopen it. I really enjoyed this game for the most part, but having to figure out if certain issues are with myself missing something or if it's a game bug can be annoying.

Although there is a lot to like in this game, it doesn't even begin to make up for the arcade games. These are WHOLLY unenjoyable. Making the player start each round by clicking a screen that says "Click to suffer" doesn't make them any more amusing. Quite the opposite, in fact. Seriously, what were you (the designers) thinking of? Don't buy this game at any price.

This game is built to be frustrating to such a point that it is not user friendly. In addition, the amount of times you reset the game because of the non-user-friendlyness is insane.

frustrating minigames,no informations at all,so you end in try and error in combination with bad checkpoints.very bad control. hands off,no fun at all!

This can be a great game if the protocol was fix the shifty controls picking up things and dropping are allover the place. It makes the game harder than it should be.

I've been waiting for a long time to play this game. For except of the DMC5, Jump Force and Resident Evil 2, the Protocol was most anticipated game for me. From the beggining this was VR capable game. There are some small bugs, but in most the Protocol is quite playable in VR. For two hours I've played already I was not dissappointed. 1. Graphics looks ok for me, not toonish like quite bunch of other VR games. Some textures are not as sharp as it could be. 2. Gameplay is interesting, but hard, casual gamers won't like it. Some times you have to do some boring stuff, for example you have to go back for the card, because you forgot it in another terminal. Quite like in real life don't you think? 3. Music and Sound. There are glitches with some environment sound but for most of the time it is ok. Music do not disturb from gameplay and it is big plus for me. 3.1. Voices. Actually I like voice actors performance. The game does support for Russian language, but I prefer English voices. Hope I won't miss any refernces or subbplot because of translation. 4. Story. I've played only for two hours and have not yet reached event third chapter so I can not tell much. But for now it seems interesting. So, do I like the game? - Sure thing Do I recommend it? - Sure thing Do I voilate the Protocol? - Sure thing Have a nice day!

What even is this? Controls are terrible, so many bugs, no clear purpose of the game besides don't violate the protocol (???), oh and aliens.

I persisted with this for 7 hours thinking it will get better, it must get better but it doesn't. The same rubbish in the beginning goes all way through. Do this in a certain order if not you die, do something else in a certain order or you die. Do not forget to lift the toilet seat or you die. In the middle of this are the stupid mini games which developers would have been embarrassed to put out in the eighties. Guess what get them wrong and you die. Further to that is the fact your can't even change the controls. The beginning is annoying when the whole screen moves when your only trying to select options I only assume this is VR. Stuck with the game as brought as part of a bundle because if I hadn't would have asked for a refund in the first 1 minute.

In this game you are a soldier sent to a research site where you have to follow the titular protocol to make first contact with an alien. What the protocol entails is told to you by an A.I. overseeing the complex. If you fail to follow those orders the complex is nuked. When that happens you get a unskippable cutscene of the explosion and are loaded back to the last checkpoint, usually at the start of the current scene. You are then required to repeat every step according to protocol, and again, and again, until you get the whole sequence right and reach the next scene. The scenes and 'puzzles' are littered by unskippable animations and "funny" (unskippable) dialogs whose comedy value is debatable the first time and nonexistent the tenth time. Also the puzzles are set up (and randomized) to make you fail unless you take note (and ideally notes) of your surroundings. Didn't check the PIN number on your access pass before inserting it? Wrong PIN, nuke, reload, restart, replay every step. The pill you just took made you colorblind, inject the yellow liquid to counter effects. Wrong liquid? Nuke, reload, restart, replay every step. It's basically like interacting with a bureaucracy, only you have to leave the building and start anew every time you fill one of the forms out slightly wrong. This is made worse (at least outside of VR) by the dual (VR/PC) nature of the game, as it seems to lead to problems in UI and controls. E and left mouse button are used interchangably as use and pickup/drop down buttons, causing you to drop items when trying to use them. The problem is confounded when VR controls are haphazardly tranferred into the PC realm. Working a crank might have some novelty value in VR, but pressing W and S in turn for ten seconds just feels like busy work. It doesn't help that the whole setup of the game makes no sense from the start. So you're in the arctic to enter a research station and make contact with an alien from an UFO shot down there. Why is there a research station with a protocol for first contact right there when the UFO was just shot down in the general region? Why are the controls for the stations exterior lights right in front of the gates, exposed to the elements (aside from convenience in level design)? Why is the soldier sent to this vital mission some smart-ass (and I'm using the term very generously here) idiot who has no training for the situation, no idea what the protocol entails and is thus bound to fail (and get nuked)? As you can see from my hours played, I'm not too far into the game, but so far the main 'challenge' seems to arise from denying the player the agency of saving the game. Failure is punished by repetition, a fact the game almost proudly announces at the start. It however fails to inform the player why to bother despite that. Edit: After thinking about it some time I guess the motivation is supposed to be 'for the lulz', as in finding ways to defy the protocol. So I guess if defying authority for giggles is your thing then this is a game for you. With a less time-and-nerve-consuming punishment for doing so (or maybe even a funny one, depending on the individual wrong-doing) this might even have been an enjoyable game.