The Digest: Despite an interesting genre and storyline, Alpha Protocol’s gameplay, glitches and poor controls destroy the game’s feeling and possible enjoyment. A long list of problems counteract the great idea of an ‘Espionage RPG,’ but if you can bypass and forget about the major mistakes, the game can still has the ability to please through its expansive storyline and dialogue features.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2010
PUBLISHER: Sega
DEVELOPER: Obsidian Entertainment
ESRB RATING: “M” for Mature
GENRE: Shooter, RPG

PRODUCT OVERVIEW: In the world of espionage, nothing is as it seems in Obsidian Entertainment’s blockbuster RPG thriller, Alpha Protocol™. Players will assume the role of Michael Thorton, a highly skilled government operative trained to eliminate threats to national security. When a mission goes horribly wrong, Thorton is the only one with the information, skills, and contacts required to stop an impending international catastrophe. To do so, he will utilize the very government directive that the enemy sought to use to against him – Alpha Protocol.

Featuring a vividly realistic modern-day setting, Alpha Protocol gives players complete control not only of Thorton’s actions but his personality and attitude as well, all of which will determine the future of the world as we know it. Blending fast-paced modern combat, significant character advancement and innovative RPG features, Alpha Protocol brings a fresh new perspective to the genre.

With a story rivaling the best spy-thriller novels and an immersive, ultra-realistic espionage world, Alpha Protocol will redefine the RPG genre for the next-gen gamer. Alpha Protocol is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment – creators of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II The Sith Lords™ and Neverwinter Nights 2™.

PRODUCT BENEFITS:

• A morally-complex branching story – The world is not black and white and the story will change based upon how you act in it. By replaying the game with different choices, you will have a very different narrative.
• Dialogue Stance System – The revolutionary new dialog systems allows full control of Thorton’s reactions through emotive controls. However, characters will not always react the same way. He will have to choose carefully in each dialog.
• A Modern Day Role Playing Experience with Action Gameplay – The new RPG system gives players the ability to mold Thorton into the secret agent they want him to become with lethal close-combat techniques, marksmanship abilities, proficiency with spy gadgets, and much more.
• Living, realistic international world that responds to Thorton - Thorton will travel across the globe, encountering mysterious contacts and deadly enemies multiple times over the course of Alpha Protocol’s plot. Depending on his previous interactions with a character or a location, the world’s reactions to him will change, opening new possibilities and gameplay avenues.

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The first impression Alpha Protocol gives isn’t a good one, or even a bad one – it’s terrible. You start the game, and the menu is the plainest thing you’ll see in a video game. It is simply the name, and 4 options: New Game, Load Game, Options, and Credits. The font looks antiquated and simply just looks bad. Once you start a new game, you can pick one of four different characters types, like most RPGs. But the skills list is too massive and there are too many levels for each. There are 9 different skills that have 15 different levels and you’ll never fill up any of the skills because most are simply overpriced. Once you fill up only 6 levels out of the possible 135, an off centered box asks you to confirm and a awkward cut seen begins.

Once the badly animated movie finishes, you wake up in a medical room – a high tech infirmary. After walking around the first room of the game, you notice that the camera angle is obtrusive and that the graphics are sub-par. The controls are a futile attempt to help hardcore gamers by making them generic and like Gears of War. Eventually, after walking around the room a few times, you’ll find a poorly lit PDA on the table right in front of where you woke up. There are no distinguishing features on it, other than a small arrow above it, so it is nearly impossible to see. But simply by picking the PDA up, you are immediately sent to a video call – despite waking up in secured facility after being drugged, hunchbacked and still delirious.
Yet the game is not all bad,  it truly shines in its dialogue. Obsidian clearly knew this, and made it an integral part of the game. They demo the dialogue feature nearly immediately – within the first minutes. You are to escape from your holding cell even though a guard is coming for you. You have 3 choices, like the rest of the game. You can pick a suave, aggressive, or professional action (and sometimes a special action, like a headslam)  and they all result in different gameplay. This makes a giant, all-including storyline that completely changes for every person. If you respond to the guard coming in an aggressive way, you can ambush him; but if you respond in a professional way, a distraction is made by using your karate skills and breaking a large hole in the glass (while still drugged). Eventually the guard will become aware of your actions and casually walk into the room, unarmed of course. You can kick him squarely in the face by mashing ‘B’ with the badly animated martial arts and then punch him 20 times before he falls down.

But breaking a window obviously makes no sound and there are obviously no cameras in this high-security place, so there is no need to worry about back-up coming to you. The magical audio in the sky (the person you were talking with on the phone is still connected, but there is no earpiece or phone present) tells you that there is a guard in the other room. After completing a Mass Effect-like hacking mini game, you walk into the next room with the completely unaware guard who is weaponless, despite the guns scattered around him.

He’ll eventually see you because the cover sequence is broken. Obsidian uses the Gears of War control scheme where you press one button and stay in cover, but most of the cover is useless in the game. Some is unusable for no obvious reason, and some doesn’t even shield you from cover. The simply compliments the completely stupid AI. When you shoot at an enemy, they run straight at you with SMGs (if they’re smart enough to pick up a gun) not risking their lives because they clearly outnumber you and will win. In any other game, you would easily destroy them but your gun is completely inaccurate (notice the size of the circle below,) and the pistol is just as accurate as nose scoping a sniper rifle in CoD (it’s actually probably worse.) They’ll win most of the time because you are unable to actually shoot them, and even if you do shoot them, some take 9 bullets while others take 2.

The first impression the game gives is not the greatest, but that doesn’t mean the game is terrible. Once you eventually get used to the choppy game play, you can truly fall in love with the story. There are lots of glitches in this game that make it hard to play, but there are still aspects that had the ability to make it a great game. Alpha Protocol is simply a choppy, modern, Mass Effect with espionage. Obsidian started with a great idea but simply did not execute to their ability.

Conclusion
Alpha Protocol is clearly a game that could be more polished. After initially being delayed for months in development, Obsidian either should have delayed it even longer or simply canceled it. The gameplay mechanics make it incredibly hard to navigate. One of the mini-games, hacking, is nearly impossible to do because you have to spot a line of code while everything is changing. The four different types of guns (Pistol, SMG, Assault Rifle, and Shotgun) all have their faults and benefits, but they plainly all suck. They all have terrible range except the assault rifle, which has a small clip making stealth warfare nearly impossible. If you have to be next to the enemy to kill them, stealth inherently won’t work.  The only positive part of the game is branching storyline. It provides a different gameplay experience for all that is engaging, because if you don’t select the dialogue option you want – everything can change. When Obsidian says that your only weapon is choice, they’re serious in more ways than they can imagine.

Single Player: 6/10 MultiPlayer: N/A