Alpha Protocol Reviews

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Written by Brother None on June 17th, 2010

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The torrent of Alpha Protocol reviews seems to be mostly over, but sporadic entries are still coming in. First up is Zero Punctuation, where Yahtzee seems fairly positive of the game, especially choice and consequence, though somewhat down on its execution and story.

What really grates during the story are the mini-games encountered throughout the levels, first introduced in the tutorial part of the game. These makes for some very frustrating sufferance and you will learn to hate them. Hacking computers involves matching two random alpha-numeric sequences in a massive grid of ever changing symbols, sequences that continue to change position making spotting them all the harder. Next is the door bypass, where the correct sequence of circuit traces must be selected in the ordered sequence; up to ten paths need to be identified and short-circuited in order to succeed. Perhaps the most irritating of all is the lock-picking. Up to five barrels have to be set in place by using the PS3 pad triggers unfortunately the accuracy needed precludes doing this with any ease.

This choice is Alpha Protocol's core strength. Several missions offer you two black and white options and make you live with the consequences. Dialogue choices, too, kick you down different paths, invisible game voodoo closing off and opening further options as you either tell a counter-agent how you're going to kill him, or join his side. Conversational options sometimes feel unexplained, oneword descriptions like '˜suave' are not enough to plot what your Thornton will say. But at least tense dialogue standoffs give you blunter descriptions: the consequence of selecting the (fuck off) option is not hard to discern.

What really makes Alpha Protocol stand out though, is that it's a game which actually delivers as much choice as it promises. Most games that claim that promote choice will merely send you down a linear path while allowing you to make different choices along the way. Alpha Protocol however takes this philosophy a step further; the storyline changes and reconfigures itself dynamically as you go along with characters and plot points dropping in and out depending on your decisions.

But this is where Alpha Protocol comes apart at the seams. Without interesting level design or solid-feeling action, any third-person shooter is going to be a disappointment, no matter how many RPG elements are at work underneath the surface. All the hallmarks are here: poor AI, slightly iffy frame rate, wonky cover system, and some very frustrating mini-games that will challenge your patience the very first time you encounter them. Even the environments you traverse seem to subscribe to all of the rules of 1999 level design, showing that way too much effort was put into systems buried too far under the surface and not enough put into the game's fundamentals to make it shine.

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