While any combination of these faults might ordinarily be regarded as a deal breaker, Alpha Protocol is far more than the sum of its parts. The gameplay and visuals would certainly have benefited from further fine-tuning, and yet the experience holds together with almost inexplicable cohesion. This is most likely due to the game’s exceedingly involved narrative, which exhibits far more polish; if only Obsidian had been as conscientious in all areas of its design, the game would have been truly engrossing. As it is, Alpha Protocol isn’t quite the paragon of self-determination that it had hoped to be – instead, it’s an intriguing hybrid whose divergent plot is the primary incentive for subsequent playthroughs. It’s a new franchise with room for refinement and growth; hew away the jagged edges and there’s definite potential for a sequel.
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Recommending Alpha Protocol is difficult because I definitely had some fun playing it as a stealth game, sneaking behind dudes and getting those one-hit kills. If I were to play as any other class, I probably would have hated it because of the probability-based shooting. It’s disappointing because as an espionage RPG that guarantees so many different possibilities and so many different choices, there’s really no choice in the way you want to play if you want to enjoy yourself. If you don’t enjoy stealth games, I’d stay away. It comes down to playing it as a stealth game or not playing it as a stealth game; it’s about having fun versus not having fun. And when it comes to gaming and how you spend your free time, that’s not really much of a choice at all.
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The plot is confusing and convoluted: something to do with Middle Eastern terrorists, Chinese Triads, the Russian mob, secret American agencies and the Italian mafia, and I’m not sure the role-playing aspect – which is mainly limited to conversation choices, not whether to take the left door or the right door, for example, would affect the outcome.
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