My review, written partly while being drunk last night:
ALPHA PROTOCOL
Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian has a varied reputation among RPG fans. Some people appreciate their sequels to Bioware’s Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic and some people think everything they make is shit. Alpha Protocol is their first game based on self-developed intellectual property, so that’s all interesting I guess.
Setting and story
The setting reminded me quite a bit of Deus Ex. Actually most of the good bits of Alpha Protocol did. Shady government programs, rivaling factions, crooked agendas, corrupted politicians, etc. You can’t really trust anyone, and while that sometimes makes some of the much-talked about choices in the game feel a little random, it keeps the story interesting with its twists and turns.
The game isn’t very long, and the actual plot isn’t really clear until a bit into the game. But I’ll try and recap the background:
An airplane gets shot down over Eastern Europe, supposedly by American missiles. You are Michael Thorton and you wake up in a lab or some shit, all drugged up. Things happen and eventually you find out you are going to work for an organization called Alpha Protocol. They’re a secret organization and- fuck it, just imagine you’re Jason Bourne or something. The first mission they send you on is related to the airplane thing and I think there was something about more missiles being circulated or something and of course arabs are involved so off you go to Saudi Arabia. I didn’t really care for the story in the beginning.
The game had a pretty weak start and it left a bitter taste that lasted for a while. It gets better later on though, when they introduce a few characters that are at least a little interesting, and you get to visit places that aren’t all sand and clay pots. By the time I had visited a couple of hubs and done a few missions I actually felt quite comfortable with the game.
Michael Shepard. I mean Thorton.
Michael Thorton is the same type of character as Shepard from Mass Effect. I even thought he had the same voice actor but I looked it up and it wasn’t the same one. Oh well. Michael can only be caucasian and male, which I personally haven’t got a problem with but there are of course people who will be disappointed that they can’t play female agents. Don’t worry though; there are lots of women in the game (a few which you can sex up!) and basically the first guy you meet is the token african-american.
Character creation
There are four basic backgrounds to choose from: Soldier, Field Agent, Tech Specialist and Freelancer. The Freelancer gets to choose all of his skills himself. The others have a couple of pre-selected skills. The different backgrounds don’t change the dialogue other than Michael saying “I’m a Field Agent” a couple times throughout the game, so they have no real impact on the choices you are able to make.
There is also a Recruit background which according to its description adds some additional challenge by removing all of your starting skills and also some new dialogue during the beginning of the game. Completing the game with the Recruit background unlocks the Veteran background which supposedly unlocks even more dialog options for the beginning of the game. I guess this is a good waste of time if you want to see some extra lines of dialogue or if you’re a 100%-completion type of player.
I chose to play as a Field Agent focusing on Hand-to-hand and Toughness. When choosing skills for my Field Agent I could sell/remove all but one of the pre-inserted skills that were in Stealth and put them into Hand-to-hand. I didn’t choose Recruit because I haven’t really got any interest in unlocking Veteran, and I didn’t realize Freelancer gave you a clean slate to start on until it was too late OH WELL.
Apart from choosing background and skills there’s nothing more to the character creation. You get to play around with your appearance later – shortly after the introduction and training session. You also get to unlock more skills later on into the game by specializing your character, but it’s barely worth mentioning because there’s a “Freelancer” type of cheat-option there as well.
Game structure
The game starts off in Saudi Arabia. This is your first hub and after you’re done with it, a few more will open up. You can jump between hubs and complete missions in any order you like. Most missions follow the same structure: Get in, do something, eventual story twist, get out. Basically like Mass Effect. A mission usually introduces a new bad guy or potential ally. Depending on what missions you have already completed (and not necessarily just within the hub you’re currently in), characters might react differently to you. Usually they just give you a comment like “Oh good job blowing that shit up mate, you know, in that other mission you just did, that was pretty cool.”
It’s obvious from the start that Obsidian put an effort into making choices and consequences. Between every mission when you get back to your hub, there’s usually some sort of recap that explains the consequences of your actions (unless they’re hidden). Most of them are stuff like people selling you new types of guns and armor, but there are also some more emotionally involving (fucking hell did I just write that?) choices to be made, with rather dire consequences. I was pretty satisfied with my ending but I could see how it could have been different if I had played my cards different and chosen other allies/enemies, which I guess could tempt some people into playing the game more than once.
The game utilizes autosaves and checkpoints. You can’t make a save based on your exact current position; you must save from your last saved checkpoint. So if you’re like me and want to reload just to see different kind of reactions from dialogue and stuff like that, you’ll probably have to go through a cutscene or two before you can try something again.
Characterization
Thorton can be a nice guy, a bad guy, a sarcastic guy, an xtreme guy and basically any type of guy you’ve ever met. He lacks consistency though. You can flip-flop however you want. Michael was sitting and chatting with this nice fella I thought would make a nice friend so I chose all the nice options but suddenly my phone rang (my actual real-life phone, derp) and the conversation timer expired and OOPS! I had suddenly told this nice fella to fuck his own face as I was talking to my brother about my newly purchased musical instrument. That’s mainly a problem with the timer and me being too stupid to pause the game, though.
Conversation options are sometimes vague, which also adds to the inconsistency problem because you never really know how much of a dick Thorton will be if you chose a “Sarcastic” response or how you will actually interrogate someone when you choose “Interrogate”.
Your character’s relationships with other characters are mostly shaped by dialogue options, but there are of course some who comment on your actions and how you solve missions. You can get either +1, +2, -1 or -2 by saying stuff or having people react to your actions. I’m not sure if I ever had people do something bad or avoid doing something good to me because I had a bad relationship with them. If I had, the game hid it pretty well.
Combat
Combat is definitely one of the weakest aspects of the game.
Playing as a heavily armored Hand-to-Hand death-machine, combat for me was mostly about sprinting up to enemies and then repeatedly tapping the E button. This combination would cause my character to jump-kick enemies so they would fall over, and then stomp them in the face. There were situations where I was pinned down and had to shoot down enemies from afar, but unless they were wielding shotguns and my camera decided to dance a jig I had no problem getting up and personal with them. My biggest problem was that enemies sometimes could shoot through walls. When you thought you were in cover you were in fact not in cover at all. I mean if you’re gonna use a cover system at least make it work properly, otherwise it’s just fail on failure.
Combat in the game feels a bit like a third-person Deus Ex mixed with a bit of Mass Effect. There’s a cover system much like in Mass Effect (which is complete shit as stated above), and the enemy combat A.I. is stupid as hell (very much like in Deus Ex). You have a health bar and an armor bar. The armor is regenerative, which makes the combat feel very popamole. Especially during the few challenging encounters you might run into – just get into cover, wait for skills and shield to regenerate, and then run out again.
There are boss battles and they feel like something from Metal Gear Solid and are stupid.
Graphics and Design
Alpha Protocol isn’t as ugly as some people claim. However it hides behind some god-awful bloom and motion blur effects. The first thing you’ll want to do is turn those effects off. Other than that it looks just fine, I think. Animation is a bit stiff but dialogue sequences are not worse than in any of Bioware’s latest titles. In combat, things can look quite fishy when enemies are running around looking into the ground or up into the ceiling for no apparent reason. I’ve noticed a few graphical glitches in the environment as well but there’s nothing that really makes you look twice.
Some characters are stereotypes and dress and act accordingly, others are a little different. You’ll meet arabs, hot red-heads, Asian politicians, disgusting eastern Europeans and all sorts of people. Environments are quite nice, but secluded. An area/mission usually starts just inside the doors or gate to the place. Since you are, when not on a mission, bound to your hub’s HQ apartment, you don’t really get to see much of the world.
Conclusion
Alpha Protocol is pretty shitty until 2-3 hours in, and then you might like it if enjoyed Mass Effect. I don’t think a lot of codexers will like it, and the people who had very high anticipation will be severely disappointed. A couple of missions stand out, but most of them follow the same formula which you’ll get tired of quite fast. I also think it’s a little bit too cinematic.
It has a very high replay value, probably at the expense of other things. The problem is you probably won’t play it more than once.
6 out of 10