When i first got the game i hated the damn thing, wish i never bought it the shooting was terrible and turned me off playing.
Then i gave the game another chance and played it patiently.  
I started a new game and Im pretty far in now and enjoying the game alot,  each mission is actualy fun to play now and i'm intrigued by the story.
 
Things i did to  make the gameplay more fun and enjoyable
 

• Play patinetly, usualy there are more then 1 way to approach a area, explore for alternate route's and get more cash, intel and ammo.
  

• put points in Stealth, Assault Riffles, Martial Arts and 3 points in pistol
• Stay crouched sneak around, cqc stealth kill gaurds that are walking around, sneak up behind them, use silent running if you need to be fast.
• when there are gaurds standing near each other get close as u can and use chain shot to take them out.
• Use Assualt riffle with Subsonic rounds to take out gaurds on towers and others that you cant get close to.
• Its not the end of the world if u get spotted, go back to assault riffle switch to normal rounds, take them all out then go find  a alarm and deactivate. Then you can go back to being a ninja.
  
  A few tips to make the game more enjoyable. really liking this game now !!
  
  
  

I suggest investing heavily into Sabotage to make the minigames bareable. They'll be impossible otherwise later on. 
 
Also - remote hacking is for the win.

See?  I knew this game would still be fun.
 
After giving it more thought, I think Obsidian must have licensed the
engine for this game from someone else.  Then later on they were
probably given assurances that the controls would be fixed by the
engine designers & it never was. So they could either keep going
& publish the game as-is, or have to start over from scratch, along
with all the money they already sunk into the license.  I draw my
conclusion from the fact that most games they have developed, 
somebody else always built the engine & they licensed it, like they
are doing with Fallout 3 Vegas.
 
If they one day produce a sequel to Alpha Protocol, they'll probably
use a different engine & start from the ground up.  It would be 
interesting to find out if they designed the engine or not.  Maybe
they're trying to move away from having to license engines from
other developers (which means there will be rough patches until
they are straightened out).
 
Man I wish my game would hurry up & get here. Guess I won't
get a chance to play it til this coming weekend.  I'm bummed.
Been playing Alone in the Dark on my 360. Talk about a shitty
controller system.  I'm sure I'll be raving about AP's controllers
once I switch from AITD to AP.

" I suggest investing heavily into Sabotage to make the minigames bareable. They'll be impossible otherwise later on."

dont get this the wrong way, i actually want to play the game, but ive seen the same comments in reviews and whatnot, pump points into stealth and assault rifles... I find it funny that you have to play the game like that to enjoy it, pretty much eliminating the whole "choose how to play" thing they were going for all these years marketing it :P

Yeah, stealth seems to be the way to go in order to get the most enjoyment out of the game.  I don't understand all the complaints about the shooting, though.  Ever since I got the ability to line up crits with my pistol from behind cover I've been rolling over everything. And the few times I've had to pull out my assault rifle it kicks some serious ass.  That's not to say the shooting is excellent or anything, just that I've not been missing my shots nearly as much as other people claim to.  As long as you remember to pull out your assault rifle for med-long range and stop trying to snipe with a pistol it shouldn't pose too many problems.
 
Anyway, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, though it has numerous problems.  It reminds me of a really janky version of Deus Ex.

" dont get this the wrong way, i actually want to play the game, but ive seen the same comments in reviews and whatnot, pump points into stealth and assault rifles... I find it funny that you have to play the game like that to enjoy it, pretty much eliminating the whole "choose how to play" thing they were going for all these years marketing it :P "

" It reminds me of a really janky version of Deus Ex. "

I hope people play the character they envision and not what the reviews recommend.  There were always character options and items in the old Black Isle and Troika games that let you bulldoze through enemies, but using them for that purpose defeats the immersion of western RPGS.  It's important for the developer to keep these options balanced, but even when they don't that one approach where it comes in handy contributes to selling you on your character's uniqueness, in the same way that Heavy Rain adds layers by letting you choose between orange juice and beer without transparent consequence.  For a nameless, faceless machine gunner, there's FPS, 3PS, and Action/Action/Action/RPGs.
 
Now did non-US states get this early to squeeze it in before the World Cup?  Everyone seems to have their opinion and I'm still waiting for June 1st.

" @Seppli said:

" I suggest investing heavily into Sabotage to make the minigames bareable. They'll be impossible otherwise later on."

I don't have a single point in sabotage and don't find it that difficult. If you're too long with one hack, you can always hit B and restart, it won't start the alarm. "

" See?  I knew this game would still be fun.  After giving it more thought, I think Obsidian must have licensed the engine for this game from someone else.  Then later on they were probably given assurances that the controls would be fixed by the engine designers & it never was. So they could either keep going & publish the game as-is, or have to start over from scratch, along with all the money they already sunk into the license.  I draw my conclusion from the fact that most games they have developed,  somebody else always built the engine & they licensed it, like they are doing with Fallout 3 Vegas.  If they one day produce a sequel to Alpha Protocol, they'll probably use a different engine & start from the ground up.  It would be  interesting to find out if they designed the engine or not.  Maybe they're trying to move away from having to license engines from other developers (which means there will be rough patches until they are straightened out).  Man I wish my game would hurry up & get here. Guess I won't get a chance to play it til this coming weekend.  I'm bummed. Been playing Alone in the Dark on my 360. Talk about a shitty controller system.  I'm sure I'll be raving about AP's controllers once I switch from AITD to AP. "

Despite it's less average reviews, I still plan to give it a try sometime. The amount of versatility the plot offers looks well worth to put up with all the faults that get in your way. 
 
This and deadly premonition a match made in...purgatory.

" @Rhaknar said:

" dont get this the wrong way, i actually want to play the game, but ive seen the same comments in reviews and whatnot, pump points into stealth and assault rifles... I find it funny that you have to play the game like that to enjoy it, pretty much eliminating the whole "choose how to play" thing they were going for all these years marketing it :P "

I agree. You shouldn't have to play a game that purports to be "customizable" a certain set way in order to make it bearable. Still probably going to pick up, because I'll deal with a lot of garbage for a good plot. "

I doubt this is true. To me, that sounds like the way to turn the RPG into a stealth shooter, which might be the reason people used to those kind of games find it more playable that way. I don't know Obsidian to fail on their spec balancing. Am I wrong?

Either way, I'll pick this up sometime soon if only to ease my conscience for pirating KotOR2 a couple of weeks ago, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially that game's morality appealed to me way more than the digital black and white approach Bioware took in the original. If the story holds up, which I hear it does, I'll gladly take any "jank" (people use that word too much on this site) they throw at me. Surely it can't be less streamlined than KotOR2...

" @Undeadpool said:

" @Rhaknar said:

" dont get this the wrong way, i actually want to play the game, but ive seen the same comments in reviews and whatnot, pump points into stealth and assault rifles... I find it funny that you have to play the game like that to enjoy it, pretty much eliminating the whole "choose how to play" thing they were going for all these years marketing it :P "

I agree. You shouldn't have to play a game that purports to be "customizable" a certain set way in order to make it bearable. Still probably going to pick up, because I'll deal with a lot of garbage for a good plot. "

I doubt this is true. To me, that sounds like the way to turn the RPG into a stealth shooter, which might be the reason people used to those kind of games find it more playable that way. I don't know Obsidian to fail on their spec balancing. Am I wrong?

Either way, I'll pick this up sometime soon if only to ease my conscience for pirating KotOR2 a couple of weeks ago, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially that game's morality appealed to me way more than the digital black and white approach Bioware took in the original. If the story holds up, which I hear it does, I'll gladly take any "jank" (people use that word too much on this site) they throw at me. Surely it can't be less streamlined than KotOR2...

"

" @Seppli: I just beat the game a couple of minutes ago. I had two points in sabotage (anything beyond that would be a waste for most characters TBH) and the armor upgrade (Printed Circuitry) that helps with the minigames.  If there's still a minigame that you keep failing at, there's an upgrade you can buy to the EMP grenades to let you use them to bypass those types.  I personally couldn't stand the computer hacking, but that was because the mouse control was so bad on that.  You follow all these steps, you should be alright on the sabotage front.  So, 6 skill points and some healthy investments get you a long way in compensating for the weakness of your speciality.  I don't think it's so much the game forcing you to play one way than it is the game beating you over the head since the beginning saying, "hey, these minigames are pretty common, and when you fuck up, bad shit happens! " If you haven't invested enough in your character so that they can get past those obstacles, you have to deal with the consequences.  You can still get the EMP upgrade and carry as many of those as you feel are necessary to beat the mission. "

I feel like this game is going to be like the first Mass Effect. I know there have been lots of comparisons drawn between Alpha Protocol and Mass Effect 2, but this game has more in common with ME2's predecessor insofar as the technical issues, etc. As with the first Mass Effect game, there were plenty of grievances to be filed with the game concerning a wide variety of aspects, but many of those were corrected and the core game was improved upon in ME2. Hopefully, such will be the case with Alpha Protocol. Here we have a good premise for a solid game that will undoubtedly improve with a sequel. It happened with Mass Effect (and Uncharted, come to think of it), and I hope it happens here.

I play the game by shooting people in the face with a shotgun. it never misses.