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Alpha Protocol is espionage RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Sega. The game was published in Europe May 2010 and in America June 2010, and it was published to PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. This review was made basing the PC version.

While I try to avoid major spoilers some minor ones appear in this review, as it would be nearly impossible to explain all the necessary things affecting the rating of this game without doing so. So, if you want to avoid any spoiling, jump over the sections with SPOILERS text in the title.

Graphics

Alpha Protocol uses Unreal Engine 3, and I have to say that, while it's not the pretties game published during 2010, the graphics are very well done. Bullets leave marks on the walls, the faces of all characters appearing in the game are well rendered and the world is very detailed.

While the graphics are pretty and well done, sadly there are some minor gripes as well. Often the borders of different textures are visible, showing as strange black and colored lines appearing here and there. The game also has problems with loading detailed textures at times, and thus the engine displays the blurred versions before the detailed ones are drawn. Not a big issue, but especially the lines appearing among the textures tend to annoy a bit. Otherwise, the artist have done good job.

Sound and music (SPOILERS)

The background music is very well done, each situation having fitting music. For example, during the combat there game plays music with faster tempo, while in peaceful situation the tempo is also slower. Another fine detail is that the music is made to fit the surrounding, like when you fight against certain boss. During that fight the background music used is disco style, which is more that fitting for the surrounding.

The voice acting is well done, with correct accents and all. Each voice does fit the character it belongs, which is not even nearly the case of modern games. In Alpha Protocol this fact is especially crucial, as there are lots of dialogues during the game, and all of it has been voice acted. This makes the at times even lengthy discussion more enjoyable, as bad or even mediocre voice acting can ruin it easily. All characters appearing in the game has also distinct personalities, and the acting does represent those personalities very well.

Interesting note about voice acting is that all characters, even the normal soldiers who usually die during last seconds after being encountered, do have at least few lines of banter, again everything has been spoken. Of course the generic enemies do use same voice files, so there is no possibility to tell which one said what, but that's only understandable, as the player encounters hundreds of such enemies. But, unlike in many other games, the banters the enemies have between each other do have some logic behind, and is not just few lines chosen randomly.

Story (SPOILERS!)

The player controls a character called Michael Thorton, who has been recruited to secret government organization called Alpha Protocol. Thorton is sent out to investigate the terrorist attack against civilian airplane occurred in Middle East, and then to assassinate the man behind the incident. After Thorton captures his target he finds out there is corporation called Halbech behind the incident as well. Soon after the location is hit my one of the Halbech missiles, Thorton being one of the targets of the missile. Thorton survives and is contacted by one of his colleagues, explaining him that Halbech has infiltrated the Alpha Protocol and that the missile was launched to kill Thorton and destroy all the evidence he has about the corporation. As the attempt failed it's required from Thorton to turn rogue. And from there the actual game begins.

During the game the story takes Thorton across the world, from Saudi Arabia to Rome, Moscow, Taipei and even back to US. Each city has group of missions Thorton must do to find out the truth behind the whole incident, and most of the missions can be done in any order, though some mission require that certain missions has been completed to become available.

While the story progress it comes apparent that all the missions have in fact happened already, and that Thorton is only recalling his story in investigation. This fact also brings one of the biggest feature of the game, which is that each action Thorton takes affect the story. All the decisions made will alter the story, and even the civilian casualties Thorton has caused have impact in the story.

The story of Alpha Protocol, with all of the varieties caused by decisions, is the game biggest carrier. The story is just amazing, with numerous hooks and details, surprises and such. The writers have done excellent job, and it's wonderful to see a modern RPG putting such a weight on story alone. If nothing else, the story is very good reason to play this game. Be warned though, the game is pretty heavy in terms of dialogues and cinematic, as those are the things that carry the story forward. Still, there was no situation while I played the game when watching and listening the cinematics and dialogues were burden, which is a strong point of the game.

Gameplay

Alpha Protocol is third-person game, with the camera being behind the character. The only moments when the view turns in first-person are when Thorton uses sniper rifles and mounted machine guns, which can not be brought to the site by default but must be either found from the location or bought from black market and been deployed to the site. Neither types can be carried around, as those are mounted, so the locations are fixed.

The camera also contains the two most annoying things in Alpha Protocol, which cause feelings from frustration to even anger. First problem is that at times the camera jumps wildly while player is turning, which makes it difficult to control Thorton especially during heated fights, causing unnecessary deaths. When this is combined to the other problem, which is that the camera follows Thorton very close behind and cannot be zoomed, causing the field of vision being very narrow and only forward, it's really difficult to deal with the situations where the enemies are swarming from all directions. Many times my character died due these problems, and it can become very frustrating to redo some difficult fights just because I was not able to aim properly.

The controls of the game are pretty straightforward, with mouse used to turn the camera and aiming. Interesting thing is that the PC version also supports the XBox 360 controller, and the player can choose either the normal mouse and keyboard combination or the controller. It's even possible to change the controlling method during the game. Unfortunately it's impossible to remap the keys of controller, and while the keys are obvious and well placed, it's for example impossible to move Thorton in circle while running, as, at least for me, it was impossible to get my right hand fingers to find both the A button as well as right stick. Still, the using of controller is a solid option, as the jumping of the camera is not as bad with controller as well as one of the minigames is much easier with controller.

The game is pretty straightforward tunnel running, though almost every situation offers the player several ways of approach. For example, player can use land features like ledges and zip lines to move from point to point, and even reach certain locations unnoticed, which would be otherwise impossible. The landscape also offer numerous objects which player can use. Zip lines mentioned above are such, but the objects range from simple things which can be used as covers to trucks and gas tanks which can be made to explode, potentially killing any enemies lingering nearby.

Alpha Protocol forces the player to choose the method of how the mission is done. There is always one way to solve the situation stealthy or with force. The decision the player may affect Thorton's reputation in the eyes of key NPC, as some may shun Thorton for killing civilians, while some may prefer more aggressive method. And even though the player mainly goes with aggressive method, relying on the brute firepower, at times it's still recommended to wait a moment, study the patrol routes of NPCs and pick out lone enemies in silence. It's also possible to choose whether to use lethal force or non-lethal, like stunning martial strikes or non-lethal bullets.

Dialogue (SPOILERS)

As the game is quite heavy of dialogues, the system related to it can be cause of worry. Fortunately the system holds, even causing the moments of "Was it actually good idea to pick that option?", which I have last experienced in Planescape: Torment.

The featured system allows the player to choose the way Thorton reacts during the discussion, usually several times during one discussion. The types of reactions available varies basing on the situation, and are described by one word, like "Professional", "Casual", "Confused". Each time the player has up to four different options, though at times one or two of the options represent action instead of reaction, like executing the prisoner, leaving or releasing the prisoner. Each time the player is given an chance to choose the reaction time starts running, giving the player only short moment to decide how to react, forcing the player to choose quickly.

Each reaction has three different affection; no affection, the NPC likes player more or the NPC likes player less. The way of how the NPC thinks about Thorton affects at least in some extent to the discussion, like what information and how much the NPC reveals, the direction of discussion goes and even in case of certain NPCs the special perks Thorton acquires. The decisions the player makes may even affect if the NPC helps Thorton in future, or if it even stays alive. And all of this affects the story itself.

It's also noteworthy that having bad disposition may be even good thing, as it may affect, for example, how others think about you. So it may not be the best idea to try to be in good terms with anybody, as it in some extent it's even impossible, as certain characters disagree with the methods somebody else sees as preferable. It's up to player to pick the sides.

Minigames

Normally these would be placed under the gameplay category, but in case of Alpha Protocol I think those deserve a category of their own. The game features three different minigames: lockpicking, hacking and rerouting.

In lockpicking minigame the player put pressure to pins, either by moving mouse or by by the left trigger of the controller, trying to set the pressure inside the specific threshold, and then locking the pin with and moving to next one. If the pressure is right the game indicates it by turning the lock icon next to the game field brighter. The are of optimal pressure is also represented by a area between two lines, hinting the player whether he must increase or decrease the pressure. If the player is able to lock all the pins in given time the lock opens. Each time the player tries to lock a pin with wrong pressure the time is decreased. This is actually the easiest minigame in Alpha Protocol, perhaps even a bit too easy, as if the player is not under fire it's almost certain that the picking the lock succeeds.

Hacking is the hardest minigame. The game features field of characters, which are constantly changing. From the field the player must find two groups of characters which are not changing, highlight them by moving the cursors over them and locking. Again this must be done in certain time, but this time there is a small twist in it: after short period of time the group of fixed characters change the place in the field, forcing the player to relocate them again. This does not happen if the player has already locked the group. The problem with hacking, making it even frustrating, is that the two groups of characters are controlled separately, one group by keyboard and one by mouse, and both can and must be move at the same time to make it possible to complete the hacking in time. With controller it's the left stick and trigger controlling the other group while right stick and tricker controlling the other. Now, the problem with this system is that the mouse controlling is very inaccurate. Even if the player moves the mouse directly to left the highlight may move to left and up, left and down, left, down or up. This is the situations when the controller really shines, as the sticks are very accurate in movement.

The rerouting, which is used to mostly to open electronic locks and shut down alarms, is pretty simple. The player must connect the right the point represented by circle with number inside to the bottom of the field, just like in those simple maze puzzles. The connections must be done in correct order, first circle with number one in it, then number two, three and so on. The trick in the game is that when the systems get more and more complicated, the number of points required to connect increases as well as the field becoming more confusing. Still, it's not too difficult, even with ten connections to be made.

Now, the interesting things in the minigames are that those can be totally avoided as long as the player has some EMP explosives in inventory. While hacking and rerouting is pretty obvious, I don't see it logical that normal locks can be disabled by EMP. Another thing in minigames is that the player can abort the game any time, and the retry. And even if the time runs out, causing the failure, the player can just try again as many times as needed.

Character

What is a RPG without character customization? Nothing. Fortunately, Alpha Protocol offers player several ways to customize Thorton, ranging from visual appearance to skills and equipment.

The visual appearance is mostly focused on the head area, with possibility to change the color of skin, hair, eyes as well as changing the type of beard, hair and even the possibility to make him use glasses and hat.

There are ten skills to be developed, ranging from different gun types (pistols, shotguns, submachine guns and rifles) to martial arts, stealth, gadget usage and toughness. There is also one skill that covers the lockpicking, hacking and rerouting. Raising the skills require APs, which can be acquired either by doing certain things or by leveling. Depending on the class the player choose at the beginning of the game the amount of APs required to raise specific skill varies, and the amount even changes when the skill has reached certain level. Developing the skills gives Thorton the access to certain special abilities, which can be used triggered during the game. At certain stage of the game three skills can be chosen to be specialized, giving more ranks to be learned.

The problem with skill system is that it's unbalanced. Certain abilities are way too overpowered, while some skills have hardly any use, like martial arts. Also the specialization is forced too early in the game, at which point the player may not have clear picture how he wants to play the game. For example I was relying to brute force at the beginning, and only after I had specialized I learned how to use pistols efficiently and the potential of silent killing behind them. At that point it was too late though.

The item customization gives the player the possibility to equip items suitable to playing style. Player can have two different weapons with him during the mission, and each weapon can have up to four addition enhancements to improve the weapon. The decision must be made when comparing the enhancements between different stats of the weapon, like stability, clip size, accuraty, damage and so on. While each enhancement raises one or more stats they usually tends to lower another, which makes the decision a bit hard at times. The same system applies to armor, though armor also affects to things like how many different equipment groups Thorton can carry with him in the missions. Such items range from grenades and first aid kits to gadgets allowing the distraction of enemies.

Miscellaneous

While the game very good, it's not perfect. Some of the gripes I have already mentioned here, like the graphical and control problems, though there are few more. First of all, the inventory management is a bit buggy. The game doesn't seem to be always able to keep up with the player, causing the game stop reacting on the clicking of different items while equipping the character. Usually exiting and entering the system again solves the problem, though it get a bit irritating at times.

Last complain I have is related to the saving system. Loading the game usually causes the player to appear standing, which usually leads to immediate detection by enemies. It appears that the game doesn't actually keep track of how the player approached the checkpoint, was Thorton behind cover or anything like that. In missions requiring stealth this can be very frustrating.

Rating

While the game has it's problems, I must confess that I was quite surprised of how solid Alpha Protocol is, especially since I heard that the game contained some serious problems. No game breaking bugs appeared, and the controls worked fine most of the time.

Alpha Protocol is also quite replayable, as the completion of the game unlocks new features such as items and even new class, called Veteran, which gives some new responses in dialogues. Also, as the story is formed basing the actions and decision the player took, there are more than one endings, not to mention of all the details in the story changing with different decisions.

So, as the game had some minor problems, I'm unable to give it full points. But for the sake of the story itself I really recommend this game to anyone with an eye for good story and espionage type of games.

My score system: 8/10
GameBanshee score system: 4/5

Glad to see AP gets the praise it deserves.

I thought AP is pretty good, though not one I'd call a great game. Somewhere between a 7 - 7.5 grade (out of 10) if you ask me. The plot is interesting for the most part, though the characters in the AP team at the beginning does come across as trying hard to make the game look cool, as in cool to be playing as an agent of a top secret government organisation. Still, the writing is good and the characters are believable, except for Shaheed which sounds like a black man trying to sound like an Arab and SIE who sounds like somebody trying to mimic a Russian. Don't forget Mike Thornton, which is one of the blandest main characters I ever come across in a video game. Well, let's just say that he ranks the same as Shephard of Mass Effect and the Gothic 3 hero.

As for gameplay, I can say that it is decent, especially when you're going for a stealthy approach, though not good for run-and-gun gameplay. For reference, I specialised Mike Thornton to be good in stealth, assault rifles and pistols, with a little bit of dabbling in electronics and martial arts. There are times where the levels are designed in a way which favours direct combat and believe me, fighting enemies up front with an assault rifle which fires a 3-round burst isn't what I call satisfying. Stealth on the other hand, seems more rewarding, especially when there are levels which take advantage of it. Silenced pistols work best there, together with an assault rifle loaded with subsonic rounds plus some stealth takedowns if you want to conserve ammo. Pity that the sniper rifle is considered a 'turret' and not a weapon that you can equip.

But I have issues with it as well. Not in terms of bugs, but more like some of the dated techniques that were used in the game. One of them is the use of vision cones on security cameras, which makes it kind of cheap to just sneak around it's 'vision' even though it looks like it is facing you. Kind of reminded me of Metal Gear Solid, except that they are used on enemy soldiers and cameras alike. Since the latter's camera position is top-down, I understand it's use, but for a 3rd person game to still use this technique? How dumb do you expect players to be?

The second is the use of mini-bosses and bosses in game. Very popular among platformers and old-school shooters, but irritating either way and a pretty cheap way of making a game difficult. Never did like fighting them. Either you pump them full of lead until they die, or rely on a select few techniques to bring him down and rinse and repeat until he, she or it dies. Lame.

Minigames are just okay, though it gets irritating eventually. I agree that the hacking minigame is difficult, especially in trying to match static characters in a sea of changing characters but the rest are pretty easy, especially when you add some points into your hacking ability. Other than that, it is pretty easy to cheat where you can simply abort and try again before the timer runs out.

Then we have the conversation option which have a timer in it. It sure reminds me of Fahrenheit (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy) which I find quite irritating as sometimes you don't have enough time to decide on the appropriate response. Same can be said here.

That's all I have to say for the game.