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64 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Professional Reviews are Right, but Alpha Protocol is Still a Hit for RPG Lovers, June 4, 2010

M. MacMahon (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

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This review is from: Alpha Protocol (DVD-ROM)

The thing with professional reviews is that they are written for everyone, for the "mainstream" if you like. The score at the end reflects what the average Joe might think of the game, but the text is meant to key you in on what your particular brand of video game enjoyment might get out of it, though they rarely accomplish this.

So let me tell you about Alpha Protocol from a pure RPG standpoint, from a fan of other real-time stat-based PC RPG games like Deus Ex or Morrowind.

Alpha Protocol rocks!

I know what you're thinking, "that can't be true, look at the reviews!" Well, we talked about who those reviews are aimed at, didn't we? Alpha Protocol is not aimed at those people. AP (as I will now call it) is surprisingly aimed at classic RPG gamers who are now a niche and do not control the industry... unlike Bethesda, who changed The Elder Scrolls into real-time hack and slashing based on player skill, Obsidian has made a shooter-RPG that is completely stat-based. This throws off a lot of reviewers, as they all complain about "clunky" aiming, "bad" stealth and cover and other such things. The thing is: aiming is stat-based. If you have no points in assault rifles but you keep using them, you are going to miss every time. If you put a ton of points into pistols then in no time you are a one-shot death machine. For instance, not only does putting points into pistols enhance basic accuracy, meaning where you put the target is where the bullet goes, but it also gives you the ability to aim from cover, which when playing stealth is essential. Speaking of stealth, people say it does not work but it does. When you put points into it you get enemy arrows, telling you where they are and which way they are looking, along with cloaking. You can also buy stealth suits and camouflage from the store, which makes you even harder to spot. With a maxed-out pistol and stealth character you can easily go through every mission never being spotted and one-shot killing all the guards safely from cover. It's awesome.

Which is not to say the game feels perfectly polished, it does not, it has that old Obsidian rough feel to it. It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be though, and through my entire play-through I never had any significant bugs or anything. The main reason it feels rough is because the graphics are about 3 years old and the animations are poor. Also, the AI can behave buggy at time, but as a stealth character I honestly never saw them do anything really crazy... maybe because they were dead before they left their patrol route. PC controls seem fine too, not sure what the complaints are there... standard WASD shooter controls. There is some annoying mouse smoothing, but you can disable it and the game feels smooth and responsive. I think most of the "clunky" and "buggy" complaints come from people who expect a head-shot to be a head-shot no matter their stats, which is just ignoring the kind of game they are playing. If you watch professional reviews of the game on Gamespot, IGN or Gametrailers you can see this repeatedly come up as a negative, even though it's true to the RPG genre and classics like Deus Ex and Fallout 3 did the same thing.

The main thing I disliked about the gameplay was the mini-games littered throughout. Gone are the days when you could just pass a computer skill-check and access the files, now you need to play a stupid mini-game no one likes in every RPG. AP's are no better or worse than any other game's in my experience, though they may be more frequent. The only one that is a bit rough is hacking, but I don't think that has anything to do with consoles as some reviews suggest, it's just an annoying mini-game period. The good news is you can get special gloves which give you more time on all the mini-games, so it's not so bad after the first mission or two. The only other real issue I have with the game is lack of quick-save, but honestly I believe this was done to encourage you to live with the consequences of your actions. Similar to AP's dialogue system, which forces you to make a quick response, the game often forces you to make a quick mission decision... the auto-save is always quick to record your actions, making your decisions weighty and without being able to be scrubbed. Flubbed that line with that girl? Well, you have to deal with the fact she likes you less.

In addition to the gameplay there is also, of course, a story. As an RPG AP focuses on choice and consequence and does a good job of it, plus the game auto-saves after decisions meaning it's tough to just load the game up from before and make a different choice. You'll still likely pick one kind of character and stick with it, a joker, a serious man, a violent crazy... the results of these choices are more impacting than in most similar RPGs though. In Mass Effect for instance your decisions seems to effect cutscenes later in the game, but not actual gameplay. In AP, this is changed, and it reminds me of the classic Morrowind Thieve's and Fighter's guild quest-lines where you had to side with one or the other and that was that... in AP, you often take sides, and your missions later in the game are severely effected by it.

So... choice and consequence, stat-based action that doesn't dumb it down and amazing Splinter Cell style stealth. That is what you get with Alpha Protocol. If you want the next extremely polished AAA console shooter that cost 100 million dollars to make then look elsewhere, but if you fondly remember games like Deus Ex, which made you think about your character build and rely on more than your shooter skills, and gave you endless choice and consequence in the story, and you can live with some lack of polish... well, Alpha Protocol is for you, as it was for me, and I suggest a purchase.

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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Game for RPG Fans, Shooter Fans Not so Much, June 10, 2010

D. Blizzard (New York City, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Alpha Protocol (DVD-ROM)

Alpha Protocol is the new espionage RPG from Obsidian Entertainment. This game has had an interesting development cycle that started almost four years ago and has been sitting on a shelf, finished, for over six months. Obsidian should sound familiar to RPG (Role Playing Game) fans in particular. Prior to becoming Obsidian, many of the key people worked for Black Isle Studios. That company created some of the highest regarded RPG's such as Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Fallout. They also worked with BioWare on Baldur's Gate. Now, Obsidian has finished a new game in an area of the RPG genre none have yet tried.

Story: This is the meat of Alpha Protocol, and you can send the story down varying paths based on what you choose during the game. The game allows you to drastically alter how the story progresses, however, the backbone of it remains the same. The game is set in recent times, a terrorist as acquired cutting-edge missile technology and brought down a commercial aircraft. You, Mike Thorton, have been selected to join Alpha Protocol to put a stop to them. Alpha Protocol is a super-secret government organization where missions are handed out and the agents have free reign on how best to complete them. The program is not on any balance sheet and few people in the United States government are even aware of its existence. If it is discovered, the program is shut down and restarted as something else, somewhere else. As a spy, you can approach the story in a myriad of ways such as the professional route, the hot headed "shoot first" route, the suave James Bond route, or any combination thereof. In every key mission, you can take actions which alter how the story continues. For instance, you can keep a terrorist alive by faking his death, then calling in a favor for sparing his life later on, or you can terminate him. You can also select who you want to send your intelligence to, such as using it to blackmail a company, post it in the news, or sell it to the black market. Your choices affect which missions you get to go on, who your handlers are, item availability, who your enemies and allies are, and major key story events. The story evolves based on what you want, there are over 30 different endings and they can be very different. Dialogue sequences flow differently. Instead of other games, like Mass Effect, which this game gets compared to frequently, where you have unlimited time to make a dialogue choice with a very specific answer, this game merely allows you to take a stance from aggressive, suave, or professional and you only have a few seconds to make a choice. You also have the option to take action such as execute, spare, or bring up specific points with the person you are talking to. This allows the sequences to flow more naturally and remain suspenseful and not every character will respond to a particular stance the same way as others.

Though the story is largely generic, the cast of characters is memorable and bring the game to life. You have Mina, who acts as your primary handler for most of the game and is a by-the-books sort of character, Scarlet Lake, who is a journalist with a deadly secret, SIE, who loves aggressive men and is a domineering one woman army, Albatross, who is elusive and favors stealth approaches, you also have Steven Heck who is a sociopath that likes to blow stuff up and cause chaos, and Madison Saint James, who is just a bystander that got roped into everything thanks to you. There is also a large supporting cast that alters the story is a more peripheral way. Because the game allows for so many different choices, you may not be allies with all of the main characters and you may find yourself having to make difficult, split second decisions as to their fate. This game rewards you based on choice, good or bad. You gain perks during the game based on those choices, so, for instance, if you romance characters, you gain permanent bonuses. There are over one hundred perks you can unlock that provide a number of special bonuses from increased health, increased damage, to better evasion abilities, and more. The game takes itself seriously, but also has a sense of humor with the occasional cliche or funny mission debriefings. I like the "Veteran Attitude" perk which gives an experience bonus and additional dialogue choices, but upon closer inspection it reads "You've saved the world once, you'll do it again, and anyone who questions you can go ... themselves." There's also the Star Wars inspired "These Aren't the Agents You're Looking for" perk you get for talking your way past guards. You can also view television news stories which show your various missions and other stories. The developers made the news broadcasts similar to a popular cable news channel famous for its sensationalistic stories and politically motivated news actors, err, anchors.

Gameplay: Alpha Protocol is an RPG, not a shooter. It says so on the box and the game should be approached as such. With all good RPG's, you can customize yourself to a large extent. As with the guns and armor, everything about Mike's appearance can be modified with the exception of gender and bone structure. You can level up your character in a manner similar to that found in the first Mass Effect. You have a wide selection of skills you can level up, with four gun-based weapons, stealth, sabotage, toughness, martial arts, and tech as choices. At every level up, you are given advancement points to spend on the skills. Obviously, the more points in a given skill, the better you are at it and the more you can do with it. There is a level 20 cap and you cannot advance every single skill to the max, in fact, at a key moment in the game, you can select three skills to specialize in which will allow you to advance beyond the standard, non specialized, skills. Those three skills should be ones you use most often, if you use martial arts, for instance, you want to specialize in it to do greater damage and unlock high-level abilities. All skills require more than one point and the game gently pushes you towards the more spy-centric skills by having a lower point cost on those. Thankfully, the game gives you a sort of trial period. During the first set of missions in Saudi Arabia, which act like a tutorial, you play with the skills you chose when you started. But, if they aren't working out for you, when you're able to select your specialization, you can also redo all of the skills again to better suit your play style. As a spy, you have access to all sorts of gadgets from standard grenades and flashbangs, to more exotic items like radio mimics and EMP charges. Your tech rating will determine how good you are with the tech-based items and it will also determine how many you can bring on a mission. Spies also have various abilities they unlock during level up. These can be passive such as allowing you to evade detection for a few seconds, should you be detected, or active like remotely hacking terminals or fury which slows down time during martial arts attacks. When you are sent on a mission from one of your handlers, you can approach it any way you choose from a stealthy approach all the way to the more loud and violent one. Depending on the mission, you have to select your loadout before you leave, do you go with heavy but loud armor or quiet and weaker armor, do you go in with shotguns or pistols? Guns and armor can be heavily customized with a variety of add-ons and all of which will be needed. You have a number of guns to choose from such as pistols (Low damage unless fully aimed, close range and can be silenced), sub machine guns (Inaccurate spray and pray weapons with low damage on each individual bullet, medium to short range), shotgun (High damage and it can allow you to move without losing much aim, but the shots go everywhere, short range), and assault rifles (Can be highly accurate and very damaging if appropriately equipped and aimed, long to medium range).

The gun mechanic in the game is unusual for people accustomed to shooters. You can fire your weapon without aiming, but the bullet can go anywhere in the rather large reticule if you do. You must aim your weapon by holding a button down, the longer you hold it, the smaller the reticule becomes and if you let it shrink all the way, you get a critical hit which, on most enemies, will take them out. If you move or stop aiming, the reticule expands. The speed at which the reticule shrinks is determined by your skill in that weapon. Even if you don't have any skill points invested in a given weapon type, you can still use it but you will not have access to abilities or special bonuses until you spend points. Because of this slower take on gunplay, you cannot run-and-gun effectively, nor can you go into a situation with your guns blazing like Rambo and expect to survive for very long, thus forcing you to strategize. I found that guns can be a more supportive element and I favored using martial arts whenever possible. In battle, you have endurance and hit points. The endurance is determined by perks, skills, and largely by armor. Endurance regenerates after several seconds of not taking damage, however, hit points are permanent until you heal. There is also a cover mechanic, but, if you aren't covered completely, or choose to hide behind something an enemy can see through, like a chain link fence, guards will be able to spot you if they get close. In this situation, it is best to stay out of sight completely and then jumping an enemy with a martial art skill when they get near, or setting a trap. My preferred method of clearing a room was to isolate a guard, and make some noise for it to come and investigate. I would then jump out and K.O. the guard then hide again. Another guard would hear what happened, but not see me, and when he got close, I repeated the tactic. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. There are also a number of... Read more ›

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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but needs polish, June 2, 2010

Jacob P. Reynoso "gotthammer" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Alpha Protocol (DVD-ROM)

I'm on my second playthrough, and it's still quite fun as the choices tend to be more evident than in other games that offer choices.
While I've encountered bugs and the oft-mentioned control issues, there's nothing 'game-breaking' or something I can't get around.

The dialogue, for the most part, is well written (some bits are kinda corny and cliche, but I guess that's part of the genre).
The characters are quite interesting, but not as 'engaging' as, say, those from Dragon Age or this other game that I'm reminded of at times by AP, TLJ:Dreamfall (another good game, IMHO, that just needed more polish). Perhaps more time (in-game) to develop each character would have made them more 'effective'.

Gameplay is ok.
It's not a straight out shooter (tho' I kinda played it as such in my first playthrough: wearing lots of armor + assault rifle + endurance skills/bonuses = lots of leeway in terms of combat).
How quickly you 'aim' (i.e., critical, I think), for example, is dependent on how high your skill for a certain weapon. Plus there are special abilities that allow your character to pull off stuff like multiple aimed shots w/ a pistol within a short span of 'slowed time'.
I was actually hoping to steer clear of the stealth aspects, but found that rather amusing, too...and ended up playing a stealth-oriented character in my second run.
There are times when it can get, annoying tho': the mouse 'skipping' when looking around, moving into and out of cover feels clunky at times (esp. if you're in a hurry to get into melee). I've read somewhere that there are .ini fixes for some issues, such as the one for the mouse, I think, but I haven't tried them yet.

Complaints: other than control and interface polishing (e.g., the mouse scroll when viewing the PDA and E-mail/Shop could have been better), the game felt a bit short (I'm almost done w/ my second playthrough, and I think I was pretty thorough), when compared to another recent RPG, Dragon Age (my first playthrough for Alpha Protocol must have taken around 20 hours, while my first run of DA:O took more than 100 hours)...I guess I was kinda enjoying it so I wanted it to be just wee bit more longer (like, say, another 10-30 hours? :P )
Oh, and the AI can be a bit wonky at times.

IMHO, it's a good game and I'm glad I got it. Those who are unsure, tho', may want to wait a bit until the first patch comes out.

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