I was going in totally blind, having no idea what to expect from a game created by developer Obsidian Entertainment. Most titles developed by the studio have been good, but each has come short in being an outstanding title. Alpha Protocol unfortunately falls into this bracket. While having some great merits within, it struggles to be a standout title. You follow Micheal Thorton, a new member of the nonexistent branch of the government known as Alpha Protocol. Micheal is thrust into the world of espionage after waking up on an operating table inside the heart of the AP headquarters. Mike dives into a conspiracy that spans the globe after catching wind of some shady on goings. However, the real star of the story is you, the player as you must make dialogue choices and choose specific actions that will directly impact the 15 hour adventure. You’ll make and break alliances, fall in and out of love, and search for the connections that tie the conspiracy together. Luckily, Alpha Protocol maintains an interesting spy story that will have you making split-second decisions on how you should react to each new situation. Since the trip spans the globe, you’ll visit plenty of varied locales and meet even more people whose true intentions are never clear. Gathering intel and fleshing out characters via dialogue will help you make the tough decisions on who is out to stop you and who is really there to help. In the end, each character can become an ally or an enemy, all based off conversations and actions taken on the field.
These elements tie together to give the game an exhilarating and robust set of possible outcomes. You’ll have to figure out what makes each person tick, usually going into each encounter blind. More often than not, the branching story was great, however there were a few times where I was so unsure of how to react that it bordered on frustrating. For the most part, Alpha Protocol’s main strengths come from these interactions, as you decide to converse with the enemy, or put them down before they can utter a word. Gameplay on the other hand, is where AP displays some of its greatest flaws. Since the game is an action RPG, you have the ability to make Mike into a super spy, or a Rambo of sorts. You can outfit yourself with plenty of different upgradeable weapons, armor and gadgets. Although there are plenty of different guns available to purchase over the course of the game, there are only a few options as far as weapon type goes. You’ll have the obvious pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, and SMG with a few other weapons available as a onetime use that can be discovered in the field. Each weapon can be fitted with different scopes, barrels and such to make Mike more capable of actually hitting a target when firing. The gunplay is often annoying until you upgrade some of Mike’s attributes via the level up system and upgrading weapons parts.
I found myself choosing my fists over my gun often times since Mike is a pretty poor shot at the beginning of the game. Once you get the hang of the different type of reticules associated with each weapon, Mike becomes a decent killing machine but for most of the game the difficulty stems from not being able to hit someone. Then comes the stealth element, if you choose to take the route that leads to the least bloodshed, you’ll again have some trouble until the latter parts of the game when Mike stealth attributes have been upgraded. I tried the stealth approach for the beginning of the game, but for the most part it quickly becomes monotonous and you’ll more than likely only use stealth when facing one enemy as opposed to a room with 3 or 4. As you progress Mike’s abilities, you’ll unlock perks that allow you to have a heightened awareness, the ability to select specific spots for a shot to land, along with many others. You can also unlock basic perks that will act on their own without requiring you to activate them, which tend to be the most useful to unlock. Missions are only semi-varied, some consisting of strictly conversation while others ask you to infiltrate and assassinate, acquire or destroy something or someone. The game doesn’t really ever stray from that formula which leads to some repetition in objectives in the latter portions of the game.
You’ll also encounter 3 minigames that once again, becoming intensely monotonous after having attempted each more than a handful of times. The minigames are associated with deactivating alarms, cracking locks and hacking electronics. Each is fairly generic and only become difficult as the timer to complete each is lowered throughout the game. Overall, there is fun to be had outside of the intense dialogue, but it’s not much. Mike’s ability to fire a gun remains sloppy for the most part save what upgrades you decide to instill within him and the missions only really vary in location lacking a broad set of mission objectives. Leaving the worst for last, Alpha Protocol struggles from a wide number of visual and technical snafus typically involving long and random load times, constant pop-in ala Mass Effect 1, and AI fueled by complete confusion. The game doesn’t ever really look solid visually, constantly having a dated look. Character animations border on hilarious, most notably when Mike is dropped by enemy fire which results in an apparent loss of all gravity. Finally, the AI often runs around like a chicken with its head cutoff which often makes picking off a target all the more difficult. The game does however earn some points with some great voice acting, and a few licensed songs that made my sides hurt in a good way especially during one specific boss encounter.
Despite some glaring flaws in Alpha Protocol, I had some good times with the game, unfortunately getting to these pieces of the required suffering through some of the poorly developed aspects. The story and dialogue options are excellent and often lead towards compelling as you often feel as though the world is in the balance and your words will influence the survival of those around you. The gameplay however will try your patience now and again, but never becomes annoying enough to be called unplayable. For those of you willing to take the leap and play Alpha Protocol, you’ll certainly find reward in the games branching plot, but it’s hard to say that it will leave you wanting to go through a second play through to explore different outcomes.
