Exciting but inherently flawed
Alpha Protocol is a game where you sneak through mansions unseen silently eliminating guards, hacking computers, and stealing information. You prevent political assassinations all from the shadows like a good spy would. There has been a void of stealth-action games and Alpha Protocol attempts to fill that void while throwing in several interesting mechanics of its own.
The story of the game focuses around a new recruit to the top secret Alpha Protocol organization named Michael Thorton. After receiving some training and going on a single mission Thorton is abandoned and forced to go rogue to clear his name. While the story is a little cliché where the plot really excels is the writing and the delivery of dialogue. Alpha Protocol uses a Mass Effect style dialogue wheel where you pick short phrases and then your character says a whole sentence. The key difference being that there is a timer so you have a little bit pressure to decide what to say. The game frequently forces you to make hard decisions with a split second's notice. The problem with the dialogue system is that when choosing “professional,” “aggressive,” and “suave” there is no way to know what Thorton is actually going to say.
Outside of the story and dialogue Alpha Protocol is a stealth oriented third person shooter. Before going on one of the game's missions you outfit Thorton with your choice of weapons, armor and various mod for both. Every weapon has its own mechanic for example pistols always perform a critical if you hover your crosshair over an enemy for long enough. One of the biggest problems with Alpha Protocol becomes very apparent when you actually have to start playing the game. The shooting never feels accurate and just doesn't behave the way you would expect it to. The action is alright but just alright until you get caught and that's where the sloppiness of the shooting really becomes apparent. This can be avoided with careful play most of the time except occasionally you're forced into boss fights in which you can't help but be noticed. These boss fights range from incredibly frustrating to incredibly tedious as you die countless times.
Alpha Protocol had a great concept which is surprisingly underutilized but it fails to deliver on the premise. A great story and dialogue definitely make the game worth playing but the mediocre shooting combined with some real crappy end game sequences make it a little harder to recommend as a game. I greatly enjoyed my time with the game but I definitely had several moments where I had to put the game down occasionally because of the way the game plays.
