Alpha Protocol. The first “real” individual outing from Obsidian and not a sequel in an already established franchise, so this was in essence a chance to show their prowess as a developer and proof they can make totally originally games without products already out there to lean on.
With all the RPG’s on the market these days your choice seems to fall within the settings of either fantasy or sci-fi, granted there’s Fallout and others that don’t adhere to this but in the main that’s what we have. Alpha Protocol breaks this and offers players the chance to step into the real world modern day setting of spy espionage action, and as a fan of works ranging from James Bond to the television series Chuck this has got to have any spy fan’s attention piqued. Players step into the role of Michael Thorton, a covert agent recently recruited into the United States secret government sect “Alpha Protocol”. Things start fairly simple what with training and a simple “induction” mission however the game then veers off down a path of conspiracy and deceit which makes for interesting situations.
Story
From a narrative perspective the game is shown to the player through various “interrogations” and the gameplay segments are Thorton’s retelling of events. This is a simple but effective way of conveying the story while keeping the players interest in the overall arcing plot as you wonder why Thorton is there and having to explain these actions. It also shows what Obsidian was aiming for in terms of player choice, they wanted the story to unfold exactly how you wanted it to.
You move through the bulk of the plot changing aspects of the game using a dynamic dialogue system, it’s hard not to mention the likeness to Mass Effect’s dialogue wheel so I’ll try to keep comparisons to a minimum and show you how this does indeed differ. In Alpha Protocol your responses have to be rather quick, each dialogue decision has a small timer bar above and once it runs out whatever you have selected will be said. This could be seen as a bad thing by many as you may get situations where you give the answer you didn’t want however it does have advantages as it forces you to make a quick instant reaction on what is being said and what is unfolding. There are 4 response types in the game and these are generally “Suave”, “Professional” and “Aggressive”, there are instances where the wording is different but the three choices basically come down to choosing to act like James Bond, Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne. The fourth action is generally reserved for a physical response or special response, such as blackmail or other secrets.
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It’s not all good though as towards the latter stages of the game the story sort of falls into a trap of bad movie like storytelling as events unfold it feels almost rushed and more like just a means to an end rather than a gripping narrative experience.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Alpha Protocol is a really mixed bag and your enjoyment of it will come down to how forgiving you are of its RPG steeped roots. You see, the gameplay here when shooting up the enemies isn’t your standard third person action seen in the likes of Gears of War or Mass Effect, it’s all down to the invisible dice rolls going on in the background and the stats you have. This means that you can indeed shoot a man 2 feet in front of you right between the eyes and you’ll “miss” if the dice say so. For a lot of people this could be a deal breaker and to be honest I don’t really blame those people, it’s rather ridiculous to make essentially a third person shooter and then riddle it with really outdated gameplay mechanics when it comes to the action segments. In addition to this is some incredibly stupid AI, enemies don’t feel dynamic or clever and I often find them just standing out waiting to be shot or running back and forth on the spot. However for those of you out there willing to forgive this and roll with it, you’ll find enjoyment from the other aspects of the game.
Levelling up is incredibly straight forward, you have a standard “tree” of moves to purchase with “AP” and these range from stealth to help with sneaking around or sabotage to help with lock picking and hacking and then conventional weapons like assault rifle to help with accuracy and damage. You will also gain special moves for each talent like “Chain shot” for the pistol skill that allows you to stop time and line up 2 or more shots to be fired instantaneously ala Splinter Cell Conviction style. It’s a basic system yes, but an effective one and nothing to complain about.
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While venturing through the levels you’ll also come across countless, and I really mean what feels like countless locked safes/computers that need hacking and alarms that need quieting so that brings us neatly onto the minigames of Alpha Protocol. These are designed fairly well but in all honesty just become tedious after hours of seeing them again and again but with scaling difficulty. The lock picking aspect is quite clever, you have to feather the left trigger in order to lift the pins up and hit the right trigger when they are in the sweet spot, while a neat idea it’s not so great when you’re being timed and one error can cause an alarm to go off and screw with your perfectly stealthy mission. Hacking is fairly simple in that it’s like a word search, you have two strings of letters/numbers to find inside of lots of changing script, this can be quite difficult at times when you have to be a lot quicker but not an awful minigame. Last but not least there are the alarm systems, this is the worst of the bunch to me as its uninspired and dull, add to that what felt like ridiculous difficulty later on due to time restraints and it’s just no fun. In principle the task is simple, you just have to find what the number that corresponds to the correct wire and click it, but when you have 11 to find and decipher with only 30 seconds on the clock as I say it’s just no fun.
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Graphics
There’s not a whole lot to say about the look of Alpha Protocol. The visuals do what they need to do but nothing more, they are not great graphics by any means and the game does often struggle with “pop in” textures. When in conversations the character models look decent enough and facial animation is pretty good but when it comes to areas and visual fidelity on the whole the game suffers from a lack of polish.
The different cities you visit in Alpha Protocol range from Rome, Taipei, Moscow and even Saudi Arabia at one point and the game succeeds in making you feel like you’ve been to each one and they are designed distinctly different but aside from that the actual levels you visit look dull and dreary. There’s never a moment in the game where you get that “wow” factor due to looks alone and it’s a shame as some of the locations in the game could of provided some fantastic vistas. The bottom line is that there’s simply no “flare” here.
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Audio
For the most part the voice work in the game is solid, but not great and some performances in particular don’t feel very well acted but it’s nowhere near the level of putting you off. The voice actor for Thorton does a good job and portrays each type of dialogue choice well enough and when the quality dips you will at the very least get a laugh from the delivery of some of the more, shall we say shakily written lines. The soundtrack in the game fits well although you won’t come away wanting the OST or humming any tunes from the score. It simply does the job.
Lasting Appeal
This is a huge selling point for a lot of people these days that are either on a budget or simply want a game that has a lot to offer in terms of variety, and well Alpha Protocol does well in this regard. Sure I’ve said how frustrating the gameplay can be at times but if you enjoy the actual “role playing” aspects of this spy fuelled adventure then there are many different paths to go down and several large decisions that would lead to different outcomes here. So it does warrant more than a single playthrough if you want to see the various sides of Mr. Thorton and the results of his actions.
To Wrap Up
Alpha Protocol does a whole lot right with its dialogue system and making choice have such a large impact on literally every mission you do and every character you meet however for all its good points there are more bad points that bring it down. Time wise for a single playthrough you’re looking at about 12 to 15 hours of gameplay if you don’t rush your way through and take your time. This game is certainly not meant for everyone and it’s even harder to recommend when game like Mass Effect sit out there, however if you are an open minded gamer and willing to forgive all the shortcomings you may find an incredibly flawed gem here. I genuinely enjoyed all my time with Alpha Protocol and would have loved a sequel, sadly this isn’t likely but it may inspire others to take the good from this effort and make what could be a truly fantastic hit.
The game shipped with the slogan of “Your weapon is choice”. And it certainly is.
Final Score - 7/10
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