Valiant, Yet Failed, Effort
Obsidian takes their crack at a game genre that has been amazingly underrepresented: spy-based RPG. After a somewhat elongated development cycle, Alpha Protocol has been launched.
In this title, you are Michael Thornton, a blank slate you can develop into almost any type of character you desire. You can be a debonair ladies man...or an arrogant prick. You can be as sneaky as a ninja...or run into rooms, guns ablazing. You can rely on sheer firepower...or you can use other gadgets to get you out of situations. You can spend money on intel to make your missions easier...or not spend the money and do them without the help. You can kill targets...or let them live. The amount of control you have over your experience is impressive. You also must try and understand the motivations of other characters as they can give you benefits if they like you or cause huge problems if they don't.
You also have a wide array of options to customize yourself. You can focus on stealth can eventually become an invisible assassin. You can focus on guns and almost treat the game like a third person shooter. Focus on martial arts and you can become a CQ machine. You gain experience with each kill to boost your stats, but you also get perks for doing certain acts that further boost your abilities.
Your mission takes you globe trotting from Arabia to Taipei. You are pursuing a shipment of arms to some unsavory folks while your own government, the unsavory folks, and weapons companies seek to eliminate you. The dialogue tree system takes some ideas from Bioware and, rather than provide you verbatim transcripts of statements, instead, gives you descriptions of the type of response you give (suave, aggressive, etc).
So, the story, customization, and dialogue system are great (OK, dialogue system is OK, but serviceable). Tragically, the controls and combat are not. The game LOOKS like a third person shooter, except it uses the tired formula of dice rolls to determine success. Therefore, a perfectly lined up head shot won't always hit. It is bad early on as your accuracy is terrible initially. The phrase "Can't hit the wall of a ban from the inside" comes to mind when discussing your early game ineptitude. It does improve, but you are struggling for a while. The problem, though, is that you can go from woefully underpowered to borderline omnipotent. Max out stealth and you can easily kill several enemies while being invisible to them. While amusing, it does knock down the challenge a bit.
The animation is also janky. Your sneak movement just looks...odd. Clipping occurs. People appear through doors. The game just seems to lack a layer of polish that it should have had given its development cycle. I am willing to overlook such things in excellent games, but this game isn't good enough to excuse these flaws.
Alpha Protocol, in spite of its faults, is a really enjoyable title. If you aren't expecting a perfect experience, you will have a great time. Expect polish the level of what Bioware or Bethesda does, though, and you will be disappointed. And enjoy it now because sequels will not be forthcoming.