Various Thoughts

Alpha Protocol is not bad, not bad at all. It has some combat-related issues that prevent it from becoming great mind you, but its general non-linearity and the way your choices directly effect later events are well done. Not only can you choose which order to do missions in, that order can effect what happens in those missions; choosing the ‘right’ order tends to open up options that wouldn’t have been there otherwise or make certain situations easier to navigate.

The dialog system is similar in appearance to a timed version of Mass Effect‘s, but plays out more like a game of rock-paper-scissor; each person you talk to tends to have a preferable tone, a neutral tone, and a disliked tone. Interestingly, it’s remarked in the opening interrogation (for a Recruit anyway) that you were partly chosen due to your ability to manipulate people… so power-gaming the dialog system is actually in-character role-playing. Most of the espionage minigames start out easy and end up insanely difficult if you don’t max out the Sabotage skill. Lockpicking is similar to Oblivion‘s, the bypass one is similar to Mass Effect 2‘s, and the Hacking one is unique and scales in an opposite manner; it starts out obscenely difficult and gets far easier as time goes on.

The leveling system is basically a set of active abilities and passive bonuses that bears a strong resemblance to Mass Effect‘s. Pistols are insanely powerful for two reasons; the Chain Shot ability and the way you can aim/fire them from behind cover. SMGs and Shotguns I have not tried yet, but they appear to be the weakest of the combat skills, while Assault Rifles are very versatile. Their active ability is crap, but they have a silenced ammo option and can be used as sniper rifles to pick-off targets that are out of pistol range while easily having the power to mow down targets at medium range. For short-range, Martial Arts pretty much decimate anything. If you come out of stealth, a single hit will take down an enemy, and there are a few hidden ‘non-lethal takedown’ perks that will permanently increase your Endurance by a nice amount.

Stealth is definitely powerful, but honestly you shouldn’t need to go past Master Awareness rank. However, an argument can be made for grabbing Shadow Operative to make certain missions (such as when you infiltrate the CIA) a complete cakewalk. Sabotage is basically essential unless you plan to pass up most of the later locked-up items and hidden data and don’t happen to be carrying a ton of EMP Grenades. Technical Aptitude and Toughness I did not use at all in my first playthrough as a Recruit on Normal difficulty. Perhaps they are useful on Hard difficulty?

Now, we come to Alpha Protocol‘s problems. It has two main ones:

• Firearms are horrifically inaccurate. Similar to playing Mass Effect with no weapon skills.
• The AI, while not completely retarded, only has two moves in its playbook; "Charge!" and "Take Cover!".

These issues combine to form a real problem. Most enemies cannot hit you reliably from any distance greater than 10ft (due to the accuracy issue, which affects both you and them), and if they charge into close-combat range so they can hit you… you can mow them down with an automatic weapon or just martial-arts them to death fairly easily. So combat is not exactly all that challenging and it’s quite possible to run through a hail of Assault Rifle fire to jumping-knee-strike someone in the face and beat them unconscious. Although doing so is made a touch more difficult by the at turns over-sensitive and sticky controls and sometimes erratic camera movement.

So, while Alpha Protocol is not a great combat game, it is a great role-playing game. Although… I may end up revising that statement after I play through the game again. It’s quite possible that events play out exactly the same regardless of your choices, and a single playthrough may be specifically designed to trick you into seeing depth that isn’t there.

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