Well, finally beat Alpha Protocol tonight (or this morning, at this point).  I'd played a lot of it when it first came out, then lost interest, but I bought it when Steam put it up on sale, so I finally completed it.  Here are a few thoughts:
 
1.  I cheated (used a trainer) pretty much all during the game.  Ironically, not for infinite health, but just to fully max out the skill points, give infinite cash, and infinite time for the hacking mini-game.  The RPG elements felt very weird in this game, and not super intuitive like other action rpg's (Mass Effect being a comparison)
2.  The store felt kinda busted.  I was playing on PC, and it amused me to whenever I select a new weapon to wait 4-7 seconds for the texture to pop in.  Way to go Unreal Engine 3!
3.  On that front  also, on the last mission, when you kill Darcy, chase the baddie around, etc (at least I did), the ground texture's weren't popping in right.  It took about 20 seconds of me standing there waiting for the ground to load in from a pixelated surface, to an actual ground texture.  And it's not like my computer's a huge slouch.  It's a 2.5ghz dual core, with 6gb of ram, and a Nvidia GTX 260M card.  So it's not the best, but it can certainly play most games fine.
4.  I liked some of the characters a lot, especially Heck, and Scarlet.  Wouldn't mind seeing Heck pop up in more games, just at random times.
5.  For as much as people bitch about the shooting, I didn't mind it at all.  This might've been because my character had all  the skills maxed, but I found the combat to be kind of fun.  Especially just running up on a guy and beating the shit out of him.
6.  Contrary to most other people, I really didn't enjoy the dialog stuff.  Well, I did and didn't.  I liked that it forced you to choose an option (the timer), that was fine.  I didn't like that it took FOREVER to get to an option.   Most times, I would skip the conversation so much, and then get to an option, and have no idea what they person just said.  In other games like this, written dialog shows up much quicker, and I can read fast.  Not with this game, and I was continuously out of the loop when it came to the story, because I skipped a lot of the voice acting.
7.  Nice to see Matthew Rorie's name in a game credits.
8.  I liked the radar power, that put triangles over guy's heads telling you their status.  Nice throw-back to MGS, and it's why I don't like Splinter Cell, or most other stealth games.
9.  I mainly used Pistols/Assault Rifles for my guy.  The Pistol power-up "Chain Shot" felt very over-powered.  It was a lot of fun actually.
 
It's kind of funny, because I would've given Alpha Protocol probably a 3 out of 5, like Jeff did, but for completely different reasons.  I enjoyed the combat a lot, and dug the charaacters, but I really wasn't super into the conversation trees, or the story.  I'm gonna go play it again probably, just to explore some of the other character paths, and see where it goes.

Well, finally beat Alpha Protocol tonight (or this morning, at this point).  I'd played a lot of it when it first came out, then lost interest, but I bought it when Steam put it up on sale, so I finally completed it.  Here are a few thoughts:
 
1.  I cheated (used a trainer) pretty much all during the game.  Ironically, not for infinite health, but just to fully max out the skill points, give infinite cash, and infinite time for the hacking mini-game.  The RPG elements felt very weird in this game, and not super intuitive like other action rpg's (Mass Effect being a comparison)
2.  The store felt kinda busted.  I was playing on PC, and it amused me to whenever I select a new weapon to wait 4-7 seconds for the texture to pop in.  Way to go Unreal Engine 3!
3.  On that front  also, on the last mission, when you kill Darcy, chase the baddie around, etc (at least I did), the ground texture's weren't popping in right.  It took about 20 seconds of me standing there waiting for the ground to load in from a pixelated surface, to an actual ground texture.  And it's not like my computer's a huge slouch.  It's a 2.5ghz dual core, with 6gb of ram, and a Nvidia GTX 260M card.  So it's not the best, but it can certainly play most games fine.
4.  I liked some of the characters a lot, especially Heck, and Scarlet.  Wouldn't mind seeing Heck pop up in more games, just at random times.
5.  For as much as people bitch about the shooting, I didn't mind it at all.  This might've been because my character had all  the skills maxed, but I found the combat to be kind of fun.  Especially just running up on a guy and beating the shit out of him.
6.  Contrary to most other people, I really didn't enjoy the dialog stuff.  Well, I did and didn't.  I liked that it forced you to choose an option (the timer), that was fine.  I didn't like that it took FOREVER to get to an option.   Most times, I would skip the conversation so much, and then get to an option, and have no idea what they person just said.  In other games like this, written dialog shows up much quicker, and I can read fast.  Not with this game, and I was continuously out of the loop when it came to the story, because I skipped a lot of the voice acting.
7.  Nice to see Matthew Rorie's name in a game credits.
8.  I liked the radar power, that put triangles over guy's heads telling you their status.  Nice throw-back to MGS, and it's why I don't like Splinter Cell, or most other stealth games.
9.  I mainly used Pistols/Assault Rifles for my guy.  The Pistol power-up "Chain Shot" felt very over-powered.  It was a lot of fun actually.
 
It's kind of funny, because I would've given Alpha Protocol probably a 3 out of 5, like Jeff did, but for completely different reasons.  I enjoyed the combat a lot, and dug the charaacters, but I really wasn't super into the conversation trees, or the story.  I'm gonna go play it again probably, just to explore some of the other character paths, and see where it goes.

I would like to try the game, but the problem normally is that I have too many great and amazing games to play that I can't be bothered with the "You really have to work to find the good stuff" or the "Not really good, but you'll find a few things you will enjoy" games.  Especially this time of year...but who knows maybe I will have a chance to hit it up during the summer.

I'd say play the game on easy, without using any trainers(least of all to max out your skills, since that nullifies many of the points of it being an RPG).  Also, the higher you set your combat skills, the more fluid and easy the combat gets, obviously. Kind of a bad way to marry shooter and RPG elements, to be sure, and it's not the first game to do it, but this skill progression is there for a reason, so you'll need to think about what skills to put emphasis on.  
 
 If you're into skipping dialogue you shouldn't really be playing an Obsidian game to begin with, but if you insist, enable subs and read that shit before skipping the VO. A lot of what happens in the conversations ends up being sort of important to the story.

You spoiled the part about 
 
 

" I would like to try the game, but the problem normally is that I have too many great and amazing games to play that I can't be bothered with the "You really have to work to find the good stuff" or the "Not really good, but you'll find a few things you will enjoy" games.  Especially this time of year...but who knows maybe I will have a chance to hit it up during the summer. "

" @sammo21 said:

" I would like to try the game, but the problem normally is that I have too many great and amazing games to play that I can't be bothered with the "You really have to work to find the good stuff" or the "Not really good, but you'll find a few things you will enjoy" games.  Especially this time of year...but who knows maybe I will have a chance to hit it up during the summer. "

I totally wouldn't agree with this. While the flaws are glaring, if you are going to enjoy it, you certainly won't have to hunt for it. As I played through it, I definitely had moments of agitation, and there are points when you really wish they'd just developed a more cohesive product, but I loved the experience.  Honestly, as someone who only picked it up because it was 5 bucks, I'd have probably paid full-price for it, knowing what I do now.   If only they had been given another shot at it.... "

Alpha Protocol was a complete mixed bag. My problem with it lies in the combat, especially during the boss fights. The game forces you to play aggressively during those sequences, especially when fighting the coke mobster in Russia.

@loopy_101: Oh, I just cheated for all that stuff. Actually, I think I cheated the entire game.

@loopy_101: Oh, I just cheated for all that stuff. Actually, I think I cheated the entire game.

It was definitely a game with its flaws but I really enjoyed it. I think the whole "choices have consequences" thing was done very well, and I can see that different decisions turn out very differently in some situations. Perks was also a neat feature for getting along or not getting along with your handlers and being able to befriend pretty much everyone or just kill them was great.

I stopped reading when it said you cheated and used a trainer :\

I'm of the opinion that you can't judge the quality of a game if you've cheated at it. Especially the degree that you have.