Alpha Protocol

that is very good game i like it very mutch

Ok, so while playing through Alpha Protocol the first playthrough for me was on Hard. Now I didn't find this insanely challenging but it was fun. NOW, the only big problem that I had was when I got to the bosses. With a Chainshot of only three the bosses kicked my ass and were very much impossible to me. Now of course you might not have gone through this. Now in order to beat these bosses and their insane craziness I tried covering in the back or camping but it didn't work ever. In order to beat them I took advantage of the non-sensical aspect of them. They don't learn, if you notice in alot of other games if a helicopter is shooting at you and your camping behind something it just refused to put any effort into finding me. The gllitchiness of the game was one of the reasons I could beat it. You take advantage of it, the boss battle with Brayko was insane in order to beat him I ran around so much faster then him he tried to jump up on the top of the platform and was just standing there leaving me free to shoot the cocaine out of his nose. Then Conrad had the same problem, I camped up around the top of the stairs to the left and he just waited there in "cover" or whatever you want to try to call it. I just unloaded on him with the Assault Rifle. So it was fun to find a tactical way to trick the computer. (I don't count Omen Dang as a boss for the reason of he is the only asian to ever wear a cape) that puts him in a more superhero range especially with invisibility. But I love the Heck he was my favorite WTF charecter of all time. "Oh ya know what would be awesome a bomb filled with bombs, STRAPPED TO A NUKE." Oh Heck yea LOL

i want this game

will be so much better once the visual issues are sorted!

I don't have a review as of yet, since I have yet to play it, but now that I read this I am more interested, it may have flaws but I think I would still enjoy it for the most part.

I didn't play the game but I'm interested in it; because I heard that the 1st level events takes place in Saudi Arabia, and I currently live in Saudi Arabia :D.
It was nice that Obsidian decided to include an Arabic country in their game.

Looking forward to it.

I quite enjoyed my playthrough except for the aforementioned crouching animation in your review. Then again, I'm someone who plays the game for its story, so that found me interested in the game. Overall, it was a bit cliched (not like the "spy agency screws own spy, who later comes back to set things right" hasn't ever been done you know?), but a good way to weave in several different locations into the setting. I really thought that there should have been a way to prevent tensions rising between the US and China but I think there isn't any way no matter what you do early on in the game.

I found the AI a bit stupid though. Like an earlier commenter said, I could take advantage of the AI's laziness and a few glitches to beat the game more easily than I should have been able to.

I have it on PC (Yeah, I tried the endurance glitch and it worked :D ), but I first tried it on the 360 first at my friend's place and there the playable character would move of his own free will when I tried doing something else. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a problem with his controller.

In Soviet Russia, Character controls YOU!! Lol.

Such things should have been corrected but they didn't really affect my enjoyment of the game much.

And SIE, oh my... Next playthrough I'm gonna try to get to *know her better* ^_^ Here's hoping I don't get shot.

Thanks for the detailed and balanced review. The one thing that seems to be missing is that section on Graphics and Audio doesn't actually say much about the audio in the game, though you end up giving a rating of 9.0 for audio. With luck, Obsidian will continue making games with Alpha Protocol's strengths, but without its technical shortcomings. Of course, that will likely depend on how well Alpha Protocol sells, given its technical faults.

I am a Mom of a son that play's games on his xbox 360 I know he would truly enjoy playing this game. From reading the reviews Alpha Protocol looks like it is challenging enough and yet still fun for him to play! I might consider buying it for him only if he ends up with some decent marks at the end of the school year!

It's a great game and a great idea! I think it works because it's a mix between two Phenominal games. Firstly the obvious James Bond MI6 type game where you go around getting rid of the bad guy. and Secondly the idea from Heavy Rain where any of the characters can die and alter the story line in their own special way.

This is a good mix of stuff and a great outcome, both visually and gaming-wise as it keeps the replay value high. But couldnt they have come up with a more inspiring name than 'Michael Thorton'...

try it, sit there, put your hands over your mouth and in the gruffest voice say "The name's Thorton... Michael Thorton, and today's where this stops"... nope, that doesnt work...

Now do your best sean connery accent... "The name's Thorton... Michael Thorton..." Firstly you cant make the right sounds with a suave scottish accent to pronounce it right... and secondly... just no...

And finally try it in an arnie kinda voice... real aflicted... "I am Michael Thorton and im going to kill you..." (NB) it's pronounce "tor-ton" in the 'arnie' dialect...)

I dont need to say anything about the arnie dialect but this... it makes his surname sound like a small seaside town in britain... taunton... not a nice place, not a nice name for a heroine... sorry team, great game, poor naming...

I really enjoyed the story, and there were some decisions that made me think what would happen with a different choice, although sometimes the options aren't very clear about what will happen anyway, so it's like picking door 1, 2 or 3 without knowing what's on the other side.
The sound and voice acting was good overall but sometimes there would be tentative jokes that I personally thought ruined the serious mood they were trying to give, other times I found myself laughting because of the "Oooooooookay." that Thorton would give. It gave me the impression he would say that to everyone in every situation.
-"I have a bomb and I'm ready to trigger it."
-"Oooooooookay."
Or:
-"Let's have sex."
-"Oooooooookay."
The graphics are not that great, the scope for the assault rifle is pretty funny being that is a reflex sight and a scope glued together. The characters models are ok, but the scenery varies between good and horrible.
And the there's the gameplay, by far the most flawed piece of the entire game. The enemy AI is terrible, a fact that I noticed the most on my second play. You see, in my first play, because the shooting is terrible, I chose to go stealth and invest my points on that, pistols and melee for when things went south and it worked great. Sometimes the enemies would spot me as expected and sound the alarm and all that.
On my second play, however, I decided to go with the submachine guns and the assault rifle and just rush my way through and then I realized that the enemy AI didn't react to that very well. At one point I was shooting 3 or 4 guys in a room with the submachine guns and no alarm was ever activated.
Then, there's the problem about the mission objectives. Sometimes, there are police and other enemies that killing gives you a bad reputation, but the warnings about that are very small and so I ended up more than one time losing points with Mina, only realizing that I shouldn't done that when she said I shouldn't.

To sum it up:
The Alpha Protocol is not a bad game. It's a good game lacking A LOT of polish and work. And that's what makes it a bad game.

Alpha Protocol, huh?
I heard a lot about this game last year. New pictures here, new details there and many release delays. At first i thought it would be a crusader game or something with a religious part. I was wrong and i'm happy about it. Alpha Protocal evolved to a game which i compare with big franchises like 24. The idea behind AP is very cool. Last year on the GamesCom (Cologne, Germany) i was a press member and saw a demonstration at Sega backstage. The was overwhelming how many features and details are in it. The RPG elements looked very good, but i was a little sceptic. Would this game hold the promises the developer gave us? I think yes. I played AP only for a short time, but nevertheless i think that this is going to be big title like Fahrenheit (Indigo Prohecy in USA). It will influence the whole genre for the future and i like those games.
The graphic is good, but not the best. The story seems to be very good and the the social links and RPG elements make this a very interesting game.
But who the hell had the idea for the names? I mean who did choose the name Michael Throton? Who can spell it out? Throton! Thorton oder Thrott or something like that would be ok, but this one? No! I don't know the exactly name of this russian lady with the machine gun, but i know that this was a very funny (or disgusting) name too. AP is a game which concludes a few funny elements and i have no idea this was intended or not.
I want to see if my opinion of AP is correct and want to play it. Maybe i'm wrong, but i like the game so far.

(Somebody surely noticed that i'm not from USA or UK xP And you're right! I'm from Germany^_^)

The concept of a spy RPG definately has my attention and put this game on my playlist. The only thing that concerns me is the obvious ties to current events, which could take away the games ability to become a timeless, serial franchise. With ties to the middle east, as well as ties to the 'Tony Stark/Defense Contractor' type storyline, it almost feels like a rehashing of stories we are all too familiar with. That said, psycho blonde girls with machine guns are a definate plus, so it will get some playtime on my PS3. The question is, will it drum up enough interest for me to become a new purchase, or a used purchase for my collection.

The graphics are pretty, and draw you into this world.

Wow, who's that old guy in the "Options and consequences" screen capture? He's hot! ;)

The game's world and how it's not just a third person shooter are great. Dialogue trees and story is good. Shooting in this game isn't so great, even while aiming you may not hit the target, the enemy AI is laughable as well. There are a lot of great things about this game but the things wrong with the game do stick out.

I've gotten stumped at the major boss fight in Moscow so I'm taking a breather, but what I've played of the game (played three cities before it, including Saudi Arabia) I've enjoyed it. Story feels realistic yet over the top at the same time, as it uses conventions from great spy films and shows, and I almost felt like I was someone like Jack Bauer in 24, doing spy stuff, or even Jason Bourne with the awesome gunfights and martial arts.

The choices you make are time-limited meaning you have to make literally life-or-death decisions in little time, like real life! After all, it's not like you can decide what to say after thinking over the options for two minutes. And those choices come back to either benefit you or harm you, meaning you have to not just shoot like a spy, but think like one. Good replayability, I already feel like a second playthrough or even a third would be in order to really see what I could have done differently.

The problem was the cover mechanics, which didn't really work, which really annoyed me. In games like Mass Effect the cover system is fluid, but here it seems hit/miss and really broken most of the time. Not a good thing since your health matters and you can't regenerate health, which isn't a bad thing in itself.

I liked the name of the protagonist. Usually I prefer creating my own character, my own name, like in Fallout 3 but here, in a story about a spy, "pre-creating" a character and allowing the player to only be able to change cosmetic things like appearance, or being able to only upgrade skills and whatnot rather than being able to massively overhaul my character was a good idea, because it means the story is more concrete and my character matters, because he has a predetermined backstory which affects the game.

I'm playing it on the PC, after preordering it on Steam, and I had no major issues or bugs, except for this one place in Taipei, where I descended down to a sewer of some sort (or something like that) and suddenly the whole place went black, and I don't mean the sewer! I was a little scared my game was corrupted or something, and my save would be corrupted but a reload of the latest checkpoint (which was just before I went down the sewer ladder!) fixed it and I could continue enjoying the game. I've heard others are having issues, either on PC or the consoles, so I guess I'm pretty lucky!

Graphics as most people say are pretty dated, but that's what happens when you delay a game by a year. I still enjoyed it and I must say, when a game is this compelling and enjoyable, the visuals are probably the last thing to look at. Most of the game takes place in your mind, when you live out your epic espionage fantasies anyway. And to be honest, that's all I wanted. And I am impressed, it exceeded my own expectations.

For me this was like Mass Effect 1 but I enjoyed it more than ME1. The upgrade system is a lot like ME2 though, despite the lack of planetary hubs etc.

Some of the reviews I've read about this game are a bit too harsh. But Michael Thornton.... well maybe that could have been different, name doesn't sound badass enough for a spy! Scarlet Lake however was awesome ;)

The game isn't that bad. The dialog system, story and character progression/customization are actually quite polished. Though the graphics could have been worked on a bit more. And in the first few boss fights, as far as I was concerned, the bosses were like "Hit Me, I'm a Pinata!!" the way they let themselves get shot and it was just a question of time before they were beaten.

The beauty of AP is in its amazing storyline, one that draws you in and does not let go. I absolutely love the fact that the cause/effect of your choices is shown after the mission is complete. When making the choices during the mission I liked how its done. Giving me the choice of how to answer the question instead of giving me answers to spout out. The addition of a time limit to answer the questions adds to the intensity .

I can see my self playing this game over and over again. Something I cant say about Mass Effect 2. Ive played Mass Effect several times over, but for some reason Mass Effect 2 did not deliver that same feeling of replayability. Alpha Protocol puts me back into the old days of playing Mass Effect.

Gameplay for Alpha Protocol is great once you realize that its a RPG before its a Shooter. With that being said don't look at the shootouts from a Shooter Perspective. What that means is the game doesn't care how dead on your aim is when shooting, it takes into account several different aspects, accuracy of your gun, recoil stability etc...Once these aspects become higher it will start to "appear" to be more of a shooter, but only because of stats and such.

Bashing the game has become a trend, that's the problem. All I can say to the developers is that this was a wonderful effort on your part and you've done justice to what matters most in any RPG - choices. Hopefully, your next game will be truly astounding.

very good

My opinion about the game. Alpha Protocol is an interesting concept. I like how the mix of Mass Effect and James Bond in the game, but has more in common with Mass Effect then any James Bond game. I also like the way you can you shape the main character Micheal.

I don't like how clunky the game is at every turn, along with the frustrating way to get headshot only to do ZERO damage because that is what your stats say you should do.

I must say the voice acting really over the top. The actors really bring a sense of realism to the game.

As for the graphics, it looks bad. It appears that it was made as a launch game. Textures are low and pop in very slowly which is annoying to me, and the character models are bland

I like how replay is about the decisions can leading to very different scenarios.

I'd say rent it if you are really interested in it. but it is defiantly not worth the full price.

So far from what I've seen it looks like I would have to rent first before I buy. As for the character name. I'm not so sure. Might as well named him Billy Bob Thornton =p I don't see why his feet don't touch the ground, maybe the developers did that intentionally so that he doesn't feel inferior to the likes of Jonathan Drake or solid snake.