Customer Reviews

Alpha Protocol

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Playing through Alpha Protocol is frustrating. Not because of the issues the game has - of which there is plenty - but rather it's frustrating because you're playing something that you know should be better than this. Earlier this year, 2 games came out which also had some real lack of polish and iffy design decisions but they were games that I put in quite a bit of time into anyway: those being Nier and Deadly Premonition. Those 2 and including Alpha Protocol are games where half of your brain is completely criticizing nearly every facet of what it has from the graphics to the AI to the unrefined gameplay and yet the other half keeps playing regardless and you're left wondering how's that possible with a game this flawed. Of course the game did have its share of problems from the delays to Sega apparently saying it wasn't "RPG enough" yet the game, which was supposed to come out in October, was delayed till the very beginning of June so that's roughly 8 months or so for polishing so makes you wonder if the game needed more time or if Sega interfered too much. Let me say now that this is a very hard game to recommend since you'll either be like me and can see yourself doing a 2nd playthrough just for the hell of it and the others will be like "I can't even finish it, it's so bad".

Story: The story centers on Michael Thorton, an agent in Alpha Protocol, one of those secret spy organizations that gets the job done without the official acknowledgment or help from the US government. His latest mission is to go after the leader of a terrorist organization who shot a commercial airliner while in-flight but when evidence surfaces that a defense contractor, Halbech, supplied the missiles, Michael goes into investigating Halbech and what their motives are for the attack.

One thing I never liked about Bioware's approach to choice in Mass Effect was that they wanted you to feel like the game was all about choice and repercussions yet most of it was small lines of dialogue that were changed and only in a few instances were things outright different. Alpha Protocol on the other hand you really feel that your progression in the story can divert completely based on what you do and you might even find complete cinematics that you didn't receive your first time through based on what you did or said, choices that have nothing to do with whether you were a nice guy or an evil prick.

Graphics: There's 2 types of ugly graphics: game's like the aforementioned Deadly Premonition with bad textures, wonky framerate, technical glitches and a general presentation that does not scream "HD graphics". On the other hand we have what Alpha Protocol has which are "HD graphics done poorly". There's a whole host of issues with the game graphically such as slowdown (with me thinking my Xbox might be warping or it's too hot), textures that load in eventually and even load back out, an almost pervasive amount of motion blur at times and this game is really bogged down graphically by these issues. Strangely enough, Obsidian is no stranger to these kind of things from Neverwinter Nights 2 and KOTOR 2 both having graphic problems so not sure if that's just how they are or whether they're a better developer that can never get it right due to money or time. On a sidenote: the girls of the game look cute.

Sound/Music: One thing I will commend the game on is the voice acting which is like Bioware games in that they're really top notch. While the VA for Michael Thorton isn't the most emotive guy, he does a commendable job at being likable and especially tolerable considering how much we have to hear him talk. And practically everyone from your handler Mina to journalist Scarlet and the various villains you'll come across. Music also has that very Bond-esque tones with some bigger action scores to the intrigue and quiet moments. Sound effects though are...okay. Guns are quite loud but aren't satisfying loud a la Battlefield but everything works fine, it's just not wholly impressive.

Gameplay: Here's where the sleeves get rolled up, the part where you basically get ready and go "alright game, you're gonna get it". Let's start with what the game bills itself which is the "espionage RPG" so let's look at the RPG bits. The game does offer a range of skills that you can maximize yourself in from better gun handling and skills, stealth, gadgetry such as grenades or even a big fist fighter but the problem is is that unlike Mass Effect, you always feel like you can't rely entirely on one "build" since you never know when the other build will be needed. So for instance, let's say you make the ultimate Splinter Cell build and make him entirely stealth-based and silenced pistol but then there's moments where you're basically in a shoot out and a more offensive force is required such as shotguns or assault rifles well tough. It pays to be a more well-rounder then go for one total approach because half the time you might be lamenting not being able to do certain aspects. And unlike Mass Effect 2 where the RPG stuff was your character and skill build and the shooting was normal shooting, this has the Fallout 3-esque dice roll where your attacks can hit or not hit so even though you're 4 feet away from a guy with a shotgun with a good spread, this health bar's barely going down cause that's what the dice of Vegas say so...or something. The counter to this is the more precision aim where the longer you hold your gun aimed towards a specific spot, the smaller the reticule gets, making for a very precise shot but when everyone's running around or not standing still, it can get a bit annoying.

Speaking of "everyone's running around", the AI is a bit of a mess and that's putting it lightly. Some will stand there and not fire while I'm shooting at his 3 other companions and THEN starts firing, some will run up to you like they want to shoot you, stop, get down on one knee and start firing completely out in the open, start running in circles like a dog chasing their tail and goes on and on. Even the game says it's best not to do anything while in sight of cameras so no killing dudes on camera or anything of the sort yet if you takedown a guy near a camera and it looks over the knocked out or dead body, no alarms trip. That however is not taken into account when you take on boss fights which are some of the more infuriating to get through and I guarantee you most of your deaths will come from these guys. They tend to be more accurate, take a lot more punishment and have unblockable attacks that do a fair bit of hurt and you can't do bugger all. Let's just say that if Obsidian were to name this the "espionage shooter RPG" well the shooting part would be kind of laughable.

Then there is the mini-games. There's 3 types: a word search type where you have to find 2 codes buried in a mix of rapidly changing codes to find the 2 that aren't moving but when you're scanning over the entire grid and literally seeing nothing standing still, it gets a bummer, not to mention the controls are incredibly sluggish and more than once you'll be like "hurry up!" The 2nd type is akin to those "follow the line to the end" mazes where you have to turn on circuits in order as you follow their number back to whichever circuit it ends on. When there's like 4 or 5, it's fine but when there's 8? And you don't have much time to do it in and the slow cursor doesn't help makes it a bother yet there's points in the game where you literally can't progress unless you hack it so be a good spy and buy the upgrade that slows down the hacking mini-game timer. The 3rd is less of a bother: the left trigger controls the pressure of a lock and by based on how hard or light you're pressing, it raises the lock while the right trigger locks it so you're aiming for that small space in between the 2 segments. It's decent and not as bothersome but can potentially be a hassle.

The last bit of gameplay isn't so much gameplay but it's part of the experience anyway which is the dialogue trees. Occasionally in conversation, you'll have the option to give a certain tone or response to an NPC so against the females you might have dismissive, flirty or professional whereas against a character you're not completely trusting of, you might get flippant, curious and understanding and it's based on these responses that will dictate where the game will go. For instance in one scenario you meet a German commando/milf type woman named SIE who you can befriend and potentially even bed later on. When you're on a mission, you can either bring the leader of a military group you've fallen in good graces with or you can bring SIE, which results in not only useful information and even help in-mission but dialogue between her, you and your normal handler Mina with some jealously going on between Mina but bringing the G22 guys as they're called, you might get a completely different cinematic or dialogue. This helps the game's replayability since you really feel like there's so much of the story you didn't see and unlike Mass Effect where you can make 2 or 3 big choices and the rest is really just how thorough you are, Alpha Protocol's narrative and story feels a lot bigger than just that first playthrough. Whether you can stomach additional playthroughs though is another thing.

You know that old saying which can be something like "this is really bad but I can't stop watching?", like you know you should be liking this less than you are but you keep doing it anyway? Alpha Protocol is similar in that in a year which has had so many polished and worthwhile games, this one comes out and it's unpolished in nearly every aspect except its story and characters (which seem to be an Obsidian trademark: iffy to decent gameplay but excellent storytelling) yet you keep going. Like Nier and Deadly Premonition, these are games that I'm enjoying and could easily see myself playing it again yet the more I want to see more of the game, the more I'll be seeing the glitches, bugs, unrefined...well everything yet I tolerate it because I want to see more of what else it has. It's like a sick gaming circle of life thing or something.

First of all im doing this by phone so please bear with me. Also note that this is a review of the xbox 360 version of the game.

For a long time I was excited for this game bit almost didnt get it because of the reviews, dont pass this game up. Im going to try and keep this short/blunt. Alpha Protocol is a good game! However it isnt for everybody. Don't go in expecting splinters level of stealh game play ie hang from stuff. Don't expect a third person shooter like gears of war, and dont expect mass effect! I can not stress that last one enough.

While it has issues with textures poping, I am on my second play and have not had any AI issues. This game as said before doesnt have the best graphics but what it does have are more then good enough. Now this game is a bit....rough. It does not pamper you like most games today. I read a person saying it should have gears of war cover bit I never had an issue pressing A as soon as I hit cover. I also read people say its hard to shoot.....its an rpg not a shooter lvl up your skill and any gun can be awesome (although it isnt hard to do so even before hand).

I guess what im trying to say is if you are actually any good at gaming then sneaking and shooting are not as hard as people say. If you want a fun interesting game then dont skip this, just be sure you can handle playing something that doesnt hold your hand all the time.

FOR PARENTS:
If you want to know how child safe this is, it does have (suggested) sex that you need to go out of your way for. However from the three parts i have seen of this none had any nude or side boob stuff. One did have panties but thats it.

Anyway this was way longer then i thought it would be but i hope it helps!

This game had tickled my love for RPGs as well as my love for spy/stealth games. I pretty much had to buy it. It has it's positives, as well as it's obvious negatives, but overall it's a damn fun game I can't put down. And I will be doing a 2nd playthough.

Graphics - 3.5/5 Nothing special here, just your average looking game. The environments look bland, the character models are actually pretty damn good looking up close. But the voices don't always match up with what they are saying.

Sound - 5/5 The voice acting is top notch, one of the key features that helps make a great story better in any game. The background music isn't too spectacular, but it does the job. The sounds of guns, as well as some of the other sound effects are pretty generic, but don't distract from the game.

Gameplay - 2/5 This is where most people have a problem with this game. The AI is terrible, with enemies getting stuck on corners, and all the things that would normally make this a bad game. The shooting is flawed until you level up, which in theory sounds good, but is poorly excecuted.. There is a bright light at the end of this tunnel however, when you beat the game on recruit you unlock veteran, which grants you a lot more skills right off the bat, thus making the game more enjoyable to a HUGE degree.

Story - 5/5 This is where the game shines. Every choice you make results in a differnt game. I don't want to spoil anything, but sometimes when you make friends with the right people, they will assist you during a mission. (resulting in friendly AI, which is also quite stupid, but nice as a distraction). The story and in-game cutscenes along with the top notch voice acting make it feel very much like an interactive movie at points.

Overall - 4/5 I would say if you are an action RPG fan, or a fan of the spy/espionage genre (Tom Clancy novel type stories) I would say this is a must play. Just be patient, because if you can look past the obvious flaws, this is a really enjoyable game.

*Achievement/Trophy note: How can you not love a game that gives you an achievement/trophy for scoring with all the ladies in one playthrough?

This game caught my interest about a month or so before it's release and based on the generic descriptions in the previews, I was already on board. A modern day, spy centered RPG by the same designers of Knights of the Old Republic 2? (One of my favorite RPGs ever in terms of character and story depth.) Sign me up.

Then about a week before release, the reviews started rolling in. Horrible graphics they said, glitches that render the game almost unplayable they said, frustrating control scheme. Almost everything that could be wrong with a game was listed as being wrong with this game, and obviously I was disheartened.

I eventually passed on this game during launch day and started looking for the next great RPG, which had me waiting for Fallout New Vegas basically, but after a week or so of waiting, I came across an Alpha Protocol review here.

The reviewer, another RPG fan like myself, pointed out that reviews from "mainstream" game sites like IGN and Gamespot, are often not only biased, but different features weigh more heavily to them then to the average gamer. For example, games with "amazing graphics", like God of War III tend to end up with high scores no matter how dull, short and repetitive the rest of the game happens to be. Yet on the other hand, things like depth and plot don't seem to count for anything in the mainstream game critic world.

I also get the feeling that certain games are given artificially good scores based on how much hype is surrounding that particular game. Perfect 10 for Grand Theft Auto IV? REALLY? I mean, the game was good, but aside from the improved graphics, it was a step BACKWARDS from GTA San Andreas in every way.

Anyways, enough of my rambling about the game review industry and on to the actual game. Basically let me put it this way, if you like a good RPG story and the freedom to make choices that dramatically effect how the story plays out, then this is your game. Period. Anything you may have heard regarding glitches, bugs, bad controls, AI, whatever, it's not enough to take the wind out of this one feature. Every choice I've made in the game so far, (I'm probably a good 6 hours in), and I'm already dying to know how it would've turned out if I made one of the other multiple decisions. (And yes, I even reset the game a couple times just to check.)

As far as gameplay goes, just remember this one little fact about the game and you won't be disappointed at all. THIS IS NOT A SHOOTER. Don't play this game like Gears of War, this is more a realtime RPG combat system than anything else. Train your weapon of choice up to a respectable level and you should have no problems taking out 80% of the guys in the game. I will admit that boss fights are rather tough if you don't have a little bit of assault rifle, but they're nowhere near impossible. Just might take you a couple tries to do it with a different weapon.

However, if you're one of those graphics perfection who flips out and returns a game just because they saw one tiny bit of clipping or texture popping, this game clearly is not for you. The graphics are probably, at best 3 years old in terms of quality and texture popping is somewhat normal. Even so, it's hardly enough to take away from your enjoyment of the game or make it unplayable.

I guess in closing I just wanted to say I felt this game got a bad wrap. This game delivers on exactly what it promises and has exceeded my expectations. This is what Mass Effect 2 SHOULD have been, but instead, the boys at Bioware seemed to bow to the trends and make their game into more of a shooter than an RPG. Good for them I guess, but props to Obsidian and Sega of America for keeping this one much closer to the RPG genre than the shooter genre.

This is the best game I have played in a long time. There are so many options for weapons, armor, gadgets, and how to upgrade your character. It takes thought to do this because you can't upgrade everything all the way in one playthrough. The music and the whole feel of the game reminds me of the bourne movies which is great.

In the beginning, you don't have many skills so it is hard to shoot so I understand why people can get frustrated and hate the game. You are supposed to upgrade your skills. That solves that problem. I don't know why they think it should be a shooter when the front of the case clearly says "The Espionage RPG".

The graphics can vary; they are not great but definitely not terrible. The worst graphics are usually in the cutscenes. The cover system is not the best but it works when you get used to it which doesn't take long. I have not experienced any glitches so I cannot comment on that.

I don't know what is wrong with the critics. I see no reason why this scored so low with them other than they expect beautiful graphics and easy shooting from the get go. Maybe I just like being a spy more than a spaceship commander, but Alpha Protocol was more fun than Mass Effect 2 for me. How do graphics even matter if you are having fun? It is a game. It's a shame the critics killed the sequel because this deserves a much higher score than most of them gave. I hope someone else decides to make the second one and don't dumb it down. Just polish it more. Give them their pretty graphics so they have no excuse not to love it.

A lot of people have given Alpha Protocol a bad rap. True, it has some issues, but the game is endlessly fascinating. I have played it through 5 times, and each time, I have gotten a different outcome. Many games advertise that the ending depends on your choices as you play the character. Alpha Protocol does this better than any other game I have played, better than KOTOR, better than Mass Effect 2. Events are sensitive to every nuance... not only to who likes you, and who doesn't, who has died and who has not, but also to each verbal choice. Sometimes, you don't see the effect of a single sentence. uttered early on in the game, until the endgame. The key to replaying this game is to play each run-through differently, because if you do, you will get different information, different options, and different outcomes as the game progresses. I am working on my sixth run-through right now, and I am looking forward to finding out what will happen this time. Be sure to listen the the newscast that plays while the credits roll at the end of the game; it describes the political effects of all your efforts during that game.

The two companies Bioware and Obsidian have been responsible for most of my favorite RPG games. Add Alpha Protocol to that list.
The overall main storyline to the game, is actually not that great. (Spoilers) The real threat isn't the plethora of middle eastern terrorists who hate us and everyone not like them, it's a rich white guy and his evil cooperation who want to sow chaos and war so they can sell weapons and make money. Liberal Hollywood has beaten that one to death, see Ironman and a ton of other movies. I would have had more respect for the storyline had they stuck to destroying a worldwide terrorist network. I enjoy plot twists, but an evil cooperation again? Getting really old.

The smaller storylines and characters however are mostly quite good and make the game enjoyable. Unlike in Mass Effect or Dragon Age, you don't build a party of characters. You do however meet quite a few people during the game, some of whom will show up to help you in certain missions. That help however is usually pretty limited.

The dialogue, voice acting and music are all are quite good. Graphics and gameplay are good as well, but could be improved upon some.

Shooting wise the game is somewhat similar to Mass Effect 2. You can take cover and shoot over or around things, and you can target enemies or shoot blindly. Stealth is similar to Splinter Cell or Batman. You can sneak around taking enemies down silently in either lethal or nonlethal fashion. In fact you can try to get through some of the shooting missions with hardly firing at all. Shooting missions can range from short to long and some missions simply involve meeting contacts and having a conversation.

The games RPG elements are well done. There isn't too much character customization regarding looks, though it should be enough for most people. The leveling up of abilities is an important part of the game and not choosing and building up the right skills can make finishing parts of the game a real challenge. Likewise choosing the right weapons and armor is essential. Both individual missions and your skill set help determine what equipment you should be using.

You won't have to wonder weather a character likes you. The games tells you immediately whether you have lost or gained likeability points with someone You can view their attitude towards you at any time in the Intel menu. One thing unique to this rpg, is that you have about five seconds to picks conversation choices, so there is little time to sit and scrutinize your response. Also similar to Mass effect, you pick a response along the jist of what you want, such as "aggressive", not quite knowing what your character is going to say or do. I like this approach alot better, rather then simply just picking dialogue and hearing your character repeat it. It keeps you guessing.

Also another really unique feature to this game is that your conversation choices really do matter. Not just with likeability points, but with how the game builds on itself. Your missions may be somewhat different or not take place at all, depending on choices you've made. Conversations and attitudes towards you will vary depending on your previous actions and choices. Some people may live or die, Some girls, may get with you or hate you. Your reputation really does matter in this game.

There are of course things that could be improved. The minigames like lockpicking get a bit tedious, but are not too bad I suppose. The ending varies abit depending on your choices, but should have been longer. The game itself feels a little short, but then again every game does after playing Dragon Age.

Almost all mission maps are unique and well designed, which is a big plus.

The game has a good amount of replayability Try using different weapons and armor and building up different skill sets. Also try making different choices in missions and conversations to experience all the variations in the game.

Alpha Protocol follows Agent Thorton has he pursues Al-Shaheed and a terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for shooting down an airliner with bleeding edge military hardware. As a member of a black-on-black organization, you are tasked with finding the leader and retrieving the weaponry.

Alpha Protocol manages to come up with a good and well thought out balance between the action and the RPG halves that it tries to juggle. From word one, you begin to customize your character by what you say and how you act. While most people I'm certain will fall into the ruthless or professional categories, you can pick and choose with a little more degree than that, and nearly every action could have a perk waiting behind it, awarded for playing a certain part. Perks play like in Fallout, though they have far less impact and there are many more of them.

Graphics are hit and miss. While the backgrounds and character models are great in some instances, at other times there are glaring clipping errors, and I've seen a few moments where my hair is struggling to keep up with the rest of me.

Dialogue flows beautifully, and while some of the lines stretch the boundaries, everything manages to snap neatly together. You are borderline forced to follow every conversation line of line, as the dialogue options can't really be skipped to, and while there are only three options, there are very rare moments when what you mean and what the game decided you meant are completely different, and the terms can be vague at times.

The action element could've used some polish, but nothing that crops up manages to be more than a major annoyance. Enemies can snap around, but not in a glitchy way, but almost more realistic than following the gentle, predictable routes that were programmed into them. What counts as cover that hides you and cover that you can be spotted behind is up to the first test to decide, as the enemy can apparently see you're aura at times, while missing your gun barrel in the middle of the door at others. The sneaking tends to be a bit choppy, and having been fed a steady diet of Splinter Cell, my bar for that is very high. The gadgetry minigames are great except for the hacking, and I weep for those poor souls without a good and large enough TV to be able to spot the lines you need.

While hand to hand is fairly well done, it doesn't serve as a bulldozer but still manages to be useful, gunplay is severly hampered by a somewhat dodgy setup. You can't do select fire, and the limitations on modification to weapons is a tad annoying. Critical hits and aiming reticules work well though are very bland, but its nice to see enemies and you lose aim and stagger when getting hit rather than shrugging it off like a bee sting. Merchants work well, and you can bribe maps, info, and even bonus objectives by greasing some palms, and email manages to be just frequent enough but not be annoying.

While this would have required more polish to make it better than a Mass Effect, with the dialogue, the character interactions and wide variety of personalities and outlooks, this manages to be almost more of an RPG than it. Only in the action portions does this start to lose some shine, but not nearly enough to matter. Well placed save points and a few dry runs are all that's required to make up for it. Part movie and part Bond/Bourne/Bauer action game, this has actually managed to be what it promised. Its not as sneaky as Splinter Cell, not as gunslinging or exploratory as Fallout or Borderlands, or even as filled with dialogue and backstory as Mass Effect. Its almost exactly like playing an action movie. Periods of dialogue and story development punctuated by shootouts on boats and in desert warehouses. The effects from the gunfights aren't exactly what you were hoping for, but you hopefully came more for the story than to see the highest body count possible.

Considering several people apparently don't care for my writing, could you please comment why if you don't find this review useful.

The game has its flaws. Personally, I found the stealth element far more engaging than any stealth action game I've played before, and I've played a couple of the Splinter Cell games, and Assassin's Creed. You have to think quickly, respond to your surroundings, and use your skills strategically. The character sheet has a great deal of depth, and I think this game system would translate very nicely to PnP or a sequel.


The loot and the gear you can buy seem balanced pretty well.

While the plot has its problems from a strictly critical viewpoint, there are plenty of surprising twists, and a fair share of intrigue, not to mention the remarkable range of choices you have in many parts of the game. You cannot skip any dialogue or movie sequences, however I find myself rarely wanting to, even after playing through for the second or third time on a mission. The real time dialogue works really well. The system of influence on characters is fun and intuitive, although I wish it came into play more often and had a little more development. The dialogue is well done in performance and writing, at least insofar as it keeps my attention pretty well. Overall it holds my attention quite well, even when I'm being irked.

The save system uses checkpoints. This doesn't combine very well with a combat system that, while generally pretty unique and fun, has definite irritating qualities. I frequently needed to reload on normal after making some major or minor error, forcing me to go back to the last checkpoint. This is both good and bad, good in that it shows how dynamic the game environment is and how much your tactical choices make a difference, bad in that is the most repetitive and frustrating aspect of the gameplay.

Bosses zoom around the level supernaturally and hit you for ridiculous damage on normal difficulty. In many boss fights there is a weakness of some sort, but typically I'm driven to exploiting a certain bug to avoid the frustration of dying and reloading repeatedly for the same boss fight. You can die *very* quickly fighting a boss. It makes me loathe boss fights.

In general the combat is very rewarding, and requires you to think on your feet and act fast. Something I didn't notice about Splinter Cell or Assassin's Creed, at least not for me. Also, cover is important but cover isn't arranged in obvious ways, and you need to improvise as best you can. The AI also tries to get you out of your cover, which would be a good thing. The problem being, the enemy has an infinite supply of grenades and is generally trying to push you out of cover, which is pretty easy to do - and it takes a very long time for your armor to regenerate, which might be a result of how the RPG stats work.

To bring another game into the mix, Mass Effect 2 combat was a lot more polished, a lot less interesting, unique, and dynamic. That goes for Mass Effect 1 combat as well, and to some degree for Splinter Cell and Assassin's creed combat, although AC has a very nice dueling mechanic.

Somewhere between Bioware and Obsidian is the perfect RPG developer. I would say this game isn't real high on replayability, especially that you can't skip dialogue, but it's awesome for a first time playthrough and a shame they won't get a chance to refine this gameplay and story developing technique, which rival earlier RPG's.

I rate this game five stars because I love the game. From a critical standpoint, I would give it three or four.

Many industry reviews of this game came down to it being a fairly fun game with more ambition than achievement. One can easily see the goals they were reaching for, but for some reason they fell short in the final product. Perhaps the victim of another title rushed out before it was ready.

Alpha Protocol has an interesting concept. Mixing Mass Effect style RPG elements with the spy and espionage genre is compelling. The problem is that for a game seated heavily in both of those categories, it is awfully light in each. For a spy and espionage game, you spend far too much time running around shooting things and blowing them up in what seems like repeated variations on the same activity level after level. Worse, the end of the game is a frustrating ratcheting up of difficulty not built at all around the spy and espionage aspect, but flat out hard-core first-person-shooter rampaging. When your each the final level, you'll wonder why you wasted your action-points pumping them into things like "stealth" and other spy traits, when you can't even hide. Half of the final level is the painfully over-used videogame cliche of shooting down a chopper with missiles. It's ridiculous.

If you go into the game scoping out a more action oriented character, you will find yourself disappointed. For the first 90% of the game, you'll want as much stealth ability as possible. Not because a spy doesn't use guns that often, but because the gun-play is fairly awful. There are far worse examples in games, but focusing on a more military character will short-change you without your stealth skills. It's easier to just use the fairly ludicrous mechanic of walking up to people with your uber-stealth skills that somehow make you invisible even when you're face to face with them and break their necks, instead of having a gun-fight across the room.

The dialogue isn't horrendous, but the faux Mass Effect dialogue interaction seems poorly thought out. You can almost see the depth they were shooting for to begin with, but at some point they decided "every character likes one type of interaction and hates the other". So, you always want to press "B" for certain characters to make them like you. Always press "Y" for others. Alwyas press "X" for some others. Don't mix it up or you'll regret it.

Worse, the dialogue options are timed and vague. Take too long to choose and it'll choose for you. But what should you choose? You don't see examples of what you'll say. you just get "Suave" or "Blunt" or "Aggressive". Often, it almost seems like what you choose won't even matter and will result in the same dialogue, anyway.

The quality of the story has come under attack, too. Admittedly, it's a little weak. However, it's nothing worse than you might find in your typical spy thriller movie or even a Bond film. There are no shocking twists or epic tales, here. Just an average spy story. It doesn't add anything to the game, but I don't see that it detracts from it, either.

In the end, it's a decent looking, decent playing, decent storied, decent experience. That's about all I can say for it -- decent. It isn't bad. Play it wrong and it can be damn frustrating. It just isn't superb, either. Unfortunately, they've already indicated that there will be no Alpha Protocol sequel. That is unfortunate, because this game has something going for it and a refined iteration could be a hit.

If this had a sequel, I'd buy it on launch day. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it at the release price right now, but if you can get it when the price has come down, it shouldn't be missed. At half price, you'll definitely get your money's worth. And if you like the story, you might find it worth replaying (there are multiple possible endings as well as different possible relationship outcomes within the game).

I think this will be a game on a number of people's "remember fondly" lists in a decade. As well as their "games which deserve a sequel" list. I wouldn't be surprised if this one is dragged out again after a few years and we hear rumors of "re-entering the Alpha Protocol franchise".