At a glance...

Alpha Protocol review

There has been a resurgence of action role playing games recently, from the superb space adventure sequel Mass Effect 2, to the brand new world of Ferelden with Dragon Ages: Origins. And here comes a new contender, Alpha Protocol from Obsidian Entertainment, which attempts to break the mould of RPG games of the present by going for a genre that has often been overlooked; the spy world. Do the concepts of the typical fantasy RPG fit well with this world? Lets find out.

The basic story of Alpha Protocol is that you play as Michael Thorton, a spy who has been brought in as a fresh recruit for a mysterious government black ops organisation, the titular Alpha Protocol. After your character gets a pretty unusual welcome, you're sent off on a mission in Saudi Arabia. In order to try and maintain a spoiler-free review, let's just say things don't go exactly as planned and for the rest of the game you're left to figure out what happened and identify the players behind the scenes, pulling at the strings. Interestingly, the storyline takes place in the past, with the main character being interrogated in the present and reliving the missions as a series of flashbacks. This adds an interesting dynamic as the events in the past can often affect the conversation that occurs in the present timeline. What's also worth noting is that your reactions in the present day integration can affect how the game ends, particularly as the game builds up to its conclusion. Whilst the game does draw on a few overplayed themes, such as a private military company (PMC) gone wild, and terrorists in Saudi Arabia, the storyline is unique enough to keep you interested for the duration of the game.

There are two main parts to the gameplay; the action-packed levels and the conversation systems that serve to wrap them up. Tackling the latter first, you'll meet a variety of different characters in the game, from Russian mobsters to jet-setting journalists and most of your interactions will be in the form of interactive conversations. Much like the Mass Effect series, the game presents you with a ring-like series of conversation options at key points in the dialogue, but rather than simply providing you with a choice of dialogue, Alpha Protocol instead lets you set the tone of Michael Thorton's response. This is a slightly refreshing take on the system, as characters react differently depending on how you talk to them. Do you talk professionally to your contact or do you choose to threaten them? These can have far reaching effects over the course of the game, potentially deciding whether some characters live or die, and as I hinted at earlier, as the game reaches its climax, a lot of these choices will make a real impact. The biggest problem is that it can often be difficult to tell what exactly your character will say next, leading to situations where you assume that your character will say something to defuse a situation but instead causes it to escalate. The game allows you to buy and find intel on the characters you meet and this will often highlight which tone a particular person prefers, but even then, some characters may not always react how you'd expect.

The weakest links in the chain that is Alpha Protocol are the missions themselves. For most of the missions I was sent on, I attempted to stick to the shadows in order to avoid the guards. This is the preferred choice of action because when the combat starts, the real frustration begins. Alpha Protocol employs a points system to upgrade your abilities in an attempt to encourage you to perform additional objectives in order to level up. The problem being, is that even the weapon-related abilities are part of the system, which doesn't translate well over to the actual gameplay. Aiming at an enemy and pulling the trigger doesn’t necessary guarantee you a successful hit. It's almost like the game is deliberately setup for you to notice the dice rolls going on behind the scenes. This will frustrate you no end as the difficulty ramps up. Head shots that appear to hit seemingly miss, and distant shots are almost an impossibility. These troubles could stem from the fact that I decided to build my character up based on a stealth approach but sadly I did not explore the options available from a 'charge in, guns blazing' approach. Whilst this leaves you with some frustrating gameplay at times, when you improve your stealth abilities, you get into 'sync' with the flow of the game and sort of understand the direction that Obsidian Entertainment was trying to aim for. Additionally, scattered throughout the levels, are weapon upgrades to obtain and intel to steal. These are presented to you as a series of mini-games from the easy device disable challenge to the often tricky hacking game. These are great little distractions to the combat heavy sections of the game and can provide a good challenge as the difficulty increases.

Once you complete a mission, you head back to your safe-house for the region (there are a total of four regions to visit) and these act as the main mission hubs for the game. From here, you can purchase weapon upgrades and intel from the black market, start new missions or check out your email. The email system acts as another point of interaction with the characters in the game as you can reply to specific emails and again the tone of your response affects how certain people see you. Do you sell some intel on the black market for a quick buck or forward it to a reporter to increase your reputation? One of the greatest strengths of the game is that it's always looking for interesting ways in which you can react with your environment and the other characters.

Taking a step back from gameplay, graphically Alpha Protocol isn't that bad to look at and it could comfortably sit shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the other games in the genre such as Dragon Age. It's not exactly going to win any awards but the texture quality is decent and the UI is well presented. A few problems arise such as scenery pop-in when transitioning between areas and some very dodgy-looking animations, particularly when sneaking, but these certainly aren't show-stoppers and the game is able to set the tone well over the various locales that you'll be visiting. Many of the cutscenes employ the use of a blur to focus your attention; at times it feels a little overused, but like many of the graphical effects in the game, once you're used to the style, it doesn't distract you too often.

As I mentioned before, there is more than one way to end the game. The inquisitive side of me wanted to find out how much these endings change from one response to the next and like the rest of the game, it's the character intel and dialogue that has the most work put into it. The most interesting thing that I discovered is that many of the characters have a secret piece of information relating to them. Some of the agendas that many of the characters had really surprised me, and what's more curious is that on many of playthroughs, you may not even discover them. This is a great mechanic allowing for several versions of the same tale to be told and a few of the characters motivations came as shocking twists to an already intriguing plot.

In summary, the real gem of Alpha Protocol lies in its story telling and with branching dialogues, multiple endings and hidden agenda means that each persons playthrough is unique. Its just a shame that some of the gameplay that should be acting as a solid support for the story is a little weak in places, often causing a great deal of frustration, particularly when fighting some of the bosses. It was announced relatively recently that there wouldn't be a sequel, which is a real disappointment, because given enough time to fix the rough edges, Alpha Protocol could have been a great series to look forward too that would have felt at home alongside the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Ratings

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