Alpha Protocol

I recently purchased this game because of the development team behind it, (OBSIDIAN entertainment : STAR WARS KOTOR II, Neverwinter Nights 2). I was truly let down. Dont get me wrong, no one's ever tried an espionage spy RPG and this game shows probably why.

You play a spy caught up in the typical spy premise of "being thrown out by the government" to work in a spec ops program called ALPHA PROTOCOL. Shit hits the fan a touch because it turns out you cant even trust people in ALPHA PROTOCOL.

^------ now that doesn't sound all that bad of a setting but it was more the excecution of the game where OBSIDIAN failed to deliver.

I would regard an RPG to have an extent of free choice and although OBSIDIAN claimed that this was the case the only 'free choice' was picking the order in which you played the linear missions. Between each mission you would have a "Safe House" which is cool because thats what spies have. Each country you worked in had a different safehouse. But I truly think a menu screen between missions would have been as effective because it was just a fancy looking area that had no real effectiveness other than a computer terminal to access e-mail and a blackmarket for weapons. There was a mirror in each bathroom aswell which gave you the ability to customize your player a little. This limited customization gave you the ability to change how ur character was shaved or what hat he was wearing.... yeah awkward.

Another big feature of the game was the conversation mechanic of choosing what to say in a conversation. Your choice was timed therefore giving you less time to think about it and potentially give more of an accurate response. Keeps you on your toes during the converation for sure, but the actual dialogue and character development is not great enough to actually care about developing these relationships, which is a pitty.

The actual platforming of the game was sticky and movements over obstacles and suchlike were always activated through pressing 'A' when you were next to an icon, at that point a pre animated action would take place. This often left you in the open and vulnerable while the action was carried out. 4 categories made up the weapons, PISTOLS, SUB-MACHINE GUNS, ASSAULT RIFLES and SHOTGUNS. They started off so inaccurate and only slowly got better as i progressed. You could purchase better versions from that aforementioned blackmarket store but better ones didn't look different, they were different colours. Gadgets weren't as integrated into the game as much as they should, being an espionage game and all. They didn't offer enough encouragement to use them and I often found myself going in 'loud' and shooting at everyone using my really inaccurate weapons....SPY game? no. The only saving grace for the inaccurate weaponry was the 'ABILITIES' feature. One of these for example was slowed down the game and let you target 2 opponents with your pistol, the bullets would hit home the exact marker you selected. Each ability could be upgraded, so an upgrade for the CHAINING SHOTS was having more shots to chain.

Often a game with good graphics can get you past how crappy it plays and vise-versa and yeah, again another let down. ALPHA PROTOCOL wasn't very pretty looking in the graphics department.

I really tried to give ALPHA PROTOCOL a chance. I played KOTOR II back in '05 and i really loved it. I dont know how you can go from developing that..... to this, but it happened. I didn't finish it however so if your up for a long linear story that doesn't play very well, go nuts. Personally? I returned mine 4days after purchasing it. We can only hope that with the coming up October realese of Fallout NEW VEGAS Bethesda's direction set them straight.

2 Stars,

Lachy
Gamertag ---- Caspa9141

Feel free to message me on XBLive re: this or any other review.