by Allegionary

©2010 Alex Hilton

Alpha Protocol is a Role-Playing Game (RPG) that has veered away from the normal fantasy and science fiction genres. It is an espionage RPG and was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Sega. But is Michael Thorton as good as James Bond?

Michael Thorton is the protagonist in the game. He is a new recruit into a mysterious agency called Alpha Protocol.

Alpha Protocol is a secret organization that doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the United States government. That means that they can do covert missions all around the world without the United States being blamed (in theory anyway).

After he goes through a test, Michael Thorton has to investigate an attack on a passenger airliner. It was destroyed by a missile and your job is to find out who sent the missile.

You go through Saudi Arabia, Rome, Moscow and Taipei searching for the culprit. At these locations you complete many different types of missions from only having to talk to a person, to a mission where you have to assassinate a group of people.

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You can buy intel for your mission which can reduce the amount of guards at the location or can lead you to a secret place where you can get special items or weapon modifications. It is recommended to buy intel because without it the missions will be harder.

After you have completed the four locations you go back to Alpha Protocol’s headquarters to finish the game. Then you may feel satisfied in knowing that you have finally closed the case and made the people responsible pay.  But you’ll ask yourself if you really had that much fun along the way.

Even though this game is an RPG, the storyline is very straightforward without any real side quests. Each of the safehouses at the four locations serve as your mission hub.

When you activate the door you get to choose the mission you go on. That is about how much choice you get in your missions, besides the conversation tone responses you make which is where the paths can diverge.

The game is not open-world which is pretty disappointing because almost all RPGs are open world now and Alpha Protocol’s open world would have been a good break from the fantasy or science fiction surroundings that you usually get in other RPG games.

The game has its moments where your adrenaline starts rushing but I think that it had some really boring spots as well. I don’t mind games that have a few of them, but it does get annoying after a few too many.

What was also really annoying were the amount of glitches in this game. Literally around each corner I could find a glitch. Whether it was a leg going through a wall or a machine gun turret firing after its death, the glitches were noticeable.

The aiming reticle for the guns was hard to see against the background in Alpha Protocol which got really irritating because I wasn’t sure where I was shooting. Also the movement was jerky and stiff and both your movement and that of the AI looked wonky as well.  Thorton sneaking looked like he was holding it in looking for a toilet.

Another thing that was different about this game is the way that it used checkpoints. I can understand their checkpoint method in a shooter but in an RPG?

Having to go back to the checkpoint before your save is a function that I don’t think works well. RPGs need to give the player a choice when they want to save.

Some parts of Alpha Protocol were difficult and frustrating, especially when you die right before reaching a checkpoint. This is where normal saving would be much better.

Maybe saving before an important choice is bad for the game but getting the player frustrated is not much better. The player can’t take challenges step by step but have to finish it in one big go which just isn’t the kind of repetition you are looking for in an RPG.

One really great RPG element is that gaining reputation with different people by taking the right ‘tone’ in your convertations with them creates different pathways that you can take to get to different outcomes. Also the conversations are timed so you have to make your decision fast which makes the conversations seem more realistic than other RPGs.

There are many different endings so you could play this game a lot but I think that Alpha Protocol can only be played once (or twice if you are really keen) before you don’t feel like it any more.  The shooting sections just aren’t fun enough.

Another element is the customization in the game. You choose what skills to level up, for example pistol skill or stealth skill. Also you can edit your guns by adding modifications to them.

It was disappointing that only some of the modifications actually edited the appearance of your gun though. I wanted all of them to change the way your gun looked so you could have a unique gun.

As you go along in the game you can unlock perks for your character. Every time you unlock a perk you get an achievement.

The perks add to your character’s skill so if you fight a certain way a lot then you can be rewarded with a perk to increase your effectiveness with that style.

The environments are pretty diverse. From the desert sands of Saudi Arabia to the snowy city of Moscow, the environments are very different but not very immersive. The environments look realistic enough but the clarity of the draw distance isn’t great.

You can see a bit of the blurred background of your location which adds some depth but we have been spoiled by the likes of Uncharted 2.

While some of the graphics suit, there are some pretty flat almost last-gen-looking areas.

One thing about this game is that the environment is not destructible enough. Almost all shooters have some sort of destructibility now but this game does not have much at all which is strange since shooting does make up a  lot of this game.

There are environmental glitches in this game as well. For example when I was in cover I could shoot through the wall that was right next to me. When this happened I was shocked and wondered why such an obvious glitch wasn’t fixed up.  Don’t get me started on the clipping…

The control scheme is much like the normal shooters, right trigger is shoot and so forth. This is good for the game because it doesn’t take too long to learn the controls so you can concentrate on the game.

The game’s dialogue is good enough, and the music suits as well. Music responds to the situation: for example when you are fighting the tempo goes up to make your heart beat faster, making the fight seem more dramatic (than it tends to actually be).

Alpha Protocol is primarily a third person shooter with some RPG elements. The game needed to respond more to your choices because if you are a stealth character, for example, and have to fight a big boss then you are punished for not upgrading your gun skills. That just defeats the purpose.

Alpha Protocol tries to make Michael Thorton like James Bond but I don’t think he lives up to the spy legend.  The idea of a spy RPG is a great one, but the execution just lets this title down.

Imaging a spy RPG with the world of an Oblivion or Fallout 3 and the depth and action of a Mass Effect 2?

Instead you get a half-generic shooter that isn’t very good with some great RPG elements .  Then the game just gets lost in mediocre linear poorly visualised worlds full of glitches.

If you are happy with an average third person shooter and a bit of RPG then Alpha Protocol might be for you but if you are looking for a game which relies on stealth or RPG depth then this game is not it.  A shame really, given the time in production and the developer making it.

“6.5/10

©2010 Alex Hilton

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