14 DAY TRIAL // 
It's hard not to notice that your main character has combat-boot clad feet that do not seem to touch the sand textured ground on which they walk. But this is Alpha Protocol and a specific amount of problems with the graphics and lack of controller response needs to be filled away in some mental drawer in order to be able to engage with the videogame and get the most out of the experience. There will be a certain subsegment of gamers not able to do that and who will likely abandon Alpha Protocol after a few hours. The rest are in for quite a ride with a title that tries out quite a lot of new things and manages to deliver a very nice mix of role playing game and action adventure. It might not hit all of its bases but it certainly manages to create a great impression when the credits roll, especially through the narrative and the quality of writing. If Obsidian had had a little more time and more resources, we might have received a game to give Mass Effect 2 and the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas a run for their money when the awards season rolls by.
One word of warning before we get to the details: before starting it, take a minute to think what kind of spy you would like to be. There are pretty much three archetypes to choose from: Bond, who is suave talking, focuses on long range weapons and tries gadgets; Bourne, who is more stealth focused, able to do close quarter kills and wield a long range weapon when the situation requires it; Bauer, who is all about getting the biggest weapons and doing the most damage. It's more enjoyable to chose one, tweak it to your standards and then role play it all through Alpha Protocol, both in terms of dialog and in terms of skill choice, then worry about min-maxing a character.
Gameplay and narrative
Alpha Protocol is a mix of traditional role playing mechanics and third person shooter sections. The player must explore locations, meet objectives and kill or incapacitate enemies but they also need to extract information from other spies, decide the faith of enemies and friends alike, and talk their way out of more than one complicated situation. The mix does not always work and there are some issues with the action sections of Alpha Protocol but the narrative, the dialog and the customization more than make up for them.
The story is one of intrigue and mystery. There are terrorists that threaten the United States, an agency devoted to taking them out and conspiracies that spin around each other from the beginning to the end of the game. Obsidian manages to treat the story with respect, even if some of the characters are so over the top that they might feel right at home in a comic book featuring superheroes. There's a lot of background the player can access and read through, the universe is well built and there's never the feeling that the gamer is being railroaded forward, forced to make choices although they lack all the pieces of the puzzle.
Obsidian really succeeded in hitting on something big with the timed dialogue system. In other recent similar role playing experiences, like Mass Effect, the player can evaluate their choices as long as they want before picking the one that manages to move the story forward or bring them the biggest reward. In Alpha Protocol, the player finds the constant pressure of time and the vagueness of the descriptions that the developers have attached to the various answers, creating conversations more important both for the player and for the mechanics of the videogame itself.
There are consequences to all that Thorton says and clear encouragements to stick with one kind of attitude to actually build a persona for the main character that is internally coherent. This persona should dictate one's moves, with cause and effect directly affecting how the game shapes up and what ending is offered when the narrative is over. It will actually be hard to go back to the impact-free dialogues of other RPGs after experiencing Alpha Protocol.
Players should not be afraid to experiment with the more extreme options that appear in the game. Most of the top characters one meets can, at one point or another, get a bullet in the head, which actually takes them out of the narrative and moves things on an entirely new track. Obsidian made sure there's an incredible amount of freedom offered to the main character, that a player who goes through the experience once will then be eager to take another ride on the Alpha Protocol rollercoaster so that they can see all the content they missed out the first time around. One word of warning: not everyone who reaches for something concealed actually wants to kill you.
The dialogue and narrative are very good, but the action side of Alpha Protocol drags it down a bit. Sneaking is difficult and often fails without apparent reason. Thorton rarely manages to take cover when he actually needs it and can only jump in spaces where the level layout allows the move. The close quarters combat element is repetitive and enemies seem in love with walking right up to the main character, punching them and then running away to shoot them in the face. There are also moments when the enemies fail to move around, get stuck on the scenery and fire blindly but with impressive accuracy. It's worse on some levels but never so bad that it will make you quit the game in frustration. Those who suffer should hang on to the idea that on the other side of an annoying shooting section is another conversation with well developed characters.
Another issue is the shooting. Especially early in the game, when the character lacks experience and levels up points, shooting someone with pinpoint accuracy can be hard. When using weapons and skills that are not sufficiently developed, Alpha Protocol tends to produce firefights where even though you have the enemy clearly lined up, your shot misses because the match of the underlying dice rolls does not line up. It can be frustrating and could probably be patched to make shots more dependent on players input with actual damage linked with statistics. Mainly those coming from Gears of War 2 or similar games will face quite a bit of disappointment.
The entire package seems to be linking up better after Saudi Arabia, an area that appears to have been tackled on late in the development process in order to add some sort of easy to follow link to the current situation of the world. By the time the gamer gets to Taiwan, they are either in love with Alpha Protocol or have long abandoned it. The good thing is that even the annoying elements of the experience are less so after a few days of being immersed in the universe and its good features.
Graphics and audio
Alpha Protocol won't win any end of the year awards for its looks. The game is not ugly but at times it appears to be stitched together from ill fitting parts. The movement of the main character seems robotic, especially when trying to perform an action only to see him actually slipping without movement towards the object he aims to interact with. The crouching animation is poor, which is unfortunate considering that a player who focuses on stealth will see it most of the time. There are moments when not one of his feet are actually touching the ground. It's pretty clear that it does not aspire to look as good as Uncharted 2 or God of War 3 but a little more time spent polishing up the movement engine would have probably drawn in more of a crowd and made the overall experience a bit more enjoyable on a superficial level.
The team managed to make good use of the Unreal Engine 3 in the cutscenes, combining great character detail with excellent voice work from the actors (watch out for the apparently ubiquitous Nolan North taking on a very different role from the Uncharted series). The lines are sharp and the acting is solid all across the board, succeeding in conveying the intentions of the people one interacts with and the attitude they have towards Thorton. It would have been nice to have a bit more chatter during missions, but with the overall feel of Alpha Protocol being of a rushed game, there was probably no time for something like that.
Conclusion
A word about bugs: the game has some visual issues, nothing that actually makes it unplayable. But the PC version seems to be in worse shape, with bugs that stop play and problems with saves becoming corrupted en masse. Obsidian will probably fix them but for now, it seems safer to stick with the console versions of Alpha Protocol.
Alpha Protocol is not a videogame for everyone. A player who wants to enjoy it should be prepared to hear good dialog while devoting a portion of their attention to choosing a stance for the next line out of the main character's mouth. They need to be prepared to deal with statistics while also handling a cover based shooting system. In a gaming world where segregation between most genres and little fraternization between the brawn crowd and the brainy crowd is the norm, it's unlikely there's a huge crowd of players willing to see how Obsidian mixes and matches concepts and gameplay mechanics taken from both action and role playing traditions.
But the result is something that other developers should learn from. The creators of Alpha Protocol are not afraid to actually focus on the strength of their branching narrative and of their characters while raiding other genres for mechanics suited for the espionage world. It does not work as well as it should but there are definitely more features Alpha Protocol gets right than it gets wrong. It's an engaging experience ready for several replays and can keep a gamer occupied until the next Obsidian title, Fallout: New Vegas, a more mainstream offering, comes along. Until then Alpha Protocol remains one of the most ambitious role playing efforts of the last few years.
NOTE: As promised, here are the iPod Contest Winners for Alpha Protocol.
