Alpha Protocol

[Sharp]

First review, so be gentle.

 

The Story

 

First, You play as Michael Thorton, who has been recruited for a secret organization in the U.S. Government called, 'Alpha Protocol'.

 

Your first real mission is in Saudi Arabia, where you discover way too much and you're pretty much abandoned by your country, with a friend helping you out, as the game presses on you meet people you can either become liked, trused, or even hated.

 

 

Gameplay

 

As you quickly realize as you play the game, it was modeled after the well known Mass Effect, almost every aspect is taken, and tried to enhance. You have control of player stats and a skill tree much like Mass Effect, and as you continue to play missions and such you gain a feel of Splinter Cell as well.

 

There are mini-games like in Mass Effect, and Splinter Cell, such as picking locks, hacking computers, and bypassing key-card locks. Although, PC player will be left with an awkward feeling when trying to do these some of these mini-games, as they were not well developed for PC gamers. since the game does not pause when you enter these mini-games, you have to be careful when trying to crack that safe and get a little bit of cash.

 

While you may control the story with the options you pick to respond with, the dialog is sorta Corny, and very predictable. you do not gain much time to chose your next response during a conversation, so you must listen, or the game will either chose a suitable option to reply with or you will be forced to lose reputation with someone you might want a little closer. you have many decisions you must make in the game that will drastically change the story.

 

When you start to walk around, and play more, you notice sorta how... awkward the stealth portion of the game is. and with the skill tree like Mass Effect, you don't gain many 'useful' skills, in fact the only skill i used through out the game was Awareness..

 

Mission wise, you are set in a Safe House for ever part of the game where you gain access to a computer where you can check email and browse the Clearinghouse(equivalent to the Black Market), there isn't a free roam, which really is a huge loss for a game like this.

 

Verdict

 

Story - 7.5 / 10

Gameplay - 6 / 10

Graphics - 6 / 10

 

There just was not enough time spent on this game to make it as good as it could have been, while the idea of a Modern Spy RPG game might sound appealing, this game is definitely passable, you will not miss out on much. if you decide not to get it.

 

It's probably worth a rent for console's but definitely not a buy, if the price drops significantly, then maybe.

 

i hope this helped all those that were cautious about getting it.

[Gibbs]

Ya, I'm pretty annoyed at myself for spending the money on it on steam. I've had to start over twice cause of some stupid bug where the missions don't show up on the map so I'm stuck wandering around the hub.

[Sharp]

Ya, I'm pretty annoyed at myself for spending the money on it on steam. I've had to start over twice cause of some stupid bug where the missions don't show up on the map so I'm stuck wandering around the hub.

 

yeah i got that bug a few times, but a simple reload would fix it.

[Sev]

First review, so be gentle.

 

The Story

 

First, You play as Michael Thorton, who has been recruited for a secret organization in the U.S. Government called, 'Alpha Protocol'.

 

Your first real mission is in Saudi Arabia, where you discover way too much and you're pretty much abandoned by your country, with a friend helping you out, as the game presses on you meet people you can either become liked, trused, or even hated.

 

 

Gameplay

 

As you quickly realize as you play the game, it was modeled after the well known Mass Effect, almost every aspect is taken, and tried to enhance. You have control of player stats and a skill tree much like Mass Effect, and as you continue to play missions and such you gain a feel of Splinter Cell as well.

 

There are mini-games like in Mass Effect, and Splinter Cell, such as picking locks, hacking computers, and bypassing key-card locks. Although, PC player will be left with an awkward feeling when trying to do these some of these mini-games, as they were not well developed for PC gamers. since the game does not pause when you enter these mini-games, you have to be careful when trying to crack that safe and get a little bit of cash.

 

While you may control the story with the options you pick to respond with, the dialog is sorta Corny, and very predictable. you do not gain much time to chose your next response during a conversation, so you must listen, or the game will either chose a suitable option to reply with or you will be forced to lose reputation with someone you might want a little closer. you have many decisions you must make in the game that will drastically change the story.

 

When you start to walk around, and play more, you notice sorta how... awkward the stealth portion of the game is. and with the skill tree like Mass Effect, you don't gain many 'useful' skills, in fact the only skill i used through out the game was Awareness..

 

Mission wise, you are set in a Safe House for ever part of the game where you gain access to a computer where you can check email and browse the Clearinghouse(equivalent to the Black Market), there isn't a free roam, which really is a huge loss for a game like this.

 

Verdict

 

Story - 7.5 / 10

Gameplay - 6 / 10

Graphics - 6 / 10

 

There just was not enough time spent on this game to make it as good as it could have been, while the idea of a Modern Spy RPG game might sound appealing, this game is definitely passable, you will not miss out on much. if you decide not to get it.

 

It's probably worth a rent for console's but definitely not a buy, if the price drops significantly, then maybe.

 

i hope this helped all those that were cautious about getting it.

 

Good Review Sharp :D

they fucked this one up pretty bad

[Vaan]

I finally got around to this game recently. The stealth is a little iffy for sure, but to compare to mass effect is.....strange? I enjoyed many parts of this game. The dialogue could have been better but it's a far improvement on some other games I've seen in recent years. The forced convo's are supposed to make you feel like you're having a conversation with the person I assume. You're more or less supposed to manipulate people in ways you want them to react. An enemy here, but an ally there creates a situation later on. Many of the things you choose to do, or not do will effect missions later on. The stealth really needed to be worked on in my opinion. It's like the retarded cousin you see sometimes, but never actually want to. At least it's not forced stealth though, that would've been terrible. I did enjoy the customization for the guns though, plenty of load outs you can do. The character customization was limited but a tleast they had some decent choices for it. I don't regret buying it, but it would ease the pain if it wasn't the generic over priced 50$ that has somehow remained the norm for games, good or terrible.