Review: Alpha Protocol

As good as it's bad.

___________________________________________________________________

7.0

The Good

No restriction on which mission you're allowed to undertake first * Mass Effect styled dialogue trees provide you with conversation options which affect just about every other event in the game * Highly customizable weapons give you full ownership of your guns and provide each weapon with a high level of personalization * Leveling up opens up access to interesting skills * Creative mini-games

The Bad

Lack of numbered missions make logical sense of story progression difficult to identify * Plot is too complicated for its own good * Shotgun is underpowered * Problematic cover system makes it hard to escape from grenades * Stealth mechanics aren't properly implemented * Inconsistent A.I. direction * Cheap bosses * Unimpressive visuals and animations

___________________________________________________________________

Trading swords for guns, spells for firepower and potions for first aid kits, Alpha Protocol is developer Obsidian’s ambitious RPG take on the enigmatic world of espionage. As a RPG, Alpha Protocol delivers, offering a sensible system of leveling up which periodically rewards you with exciting skills as you progress through the game and a stunning amount of weapon customization options. Dialogue trees support an incredibly flexible plot which hands you the freedom to explore the story in whichever fashion you see fit. As a Gears of War styled third-person shooter, however, Alpha Protocol yields a result less desirable, sporting a handful of substantial flaws which dilute the core experience. This leaves you with a game which has all the makings of a gem but comes off as a marred, though ultimately manageable and occasionally fun RPG-shooter when the thriller is all said and done.

Secret agent Michael Thorton is the star of the show. A commercial airliner has been downed by a missile and as Thorton, you must uncover the culprits. Of course things almost always never go well and Thorton is soon embroiled in an unfortunate twist of fate that sees him being betrayed by his employer and forced to go rogue. What ensues is an intricate tale that sees you embark to Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Italy and Russia in a response to save the world from future acts of terrorism and yourself.

While there aren’t going to be many surprises when you’re directed right onto the dusty paths of Saudi Arabia to track down an alleged source of the missile which connected with the plane for your first mission, it isn’t long before Alpha Protocol starts handing over the reins of plot progression to you. It’s most certain that the game isn’t designed to be a sandbox shooter but being able to choose which nation you want to operate in first and which mission you would like to undertake first hints at some mild open world treatment. Additionally, you could hop between nations to tackle their respective missions without having to complete all the missions available in a country. For some, the unfettered freedom to jump right into any mission they like is a nice touch, but personally, I’d prefer a more static way of progression as the convoluted story can be difficult to keep track of if you’re jump-happy. Without an organized record of numbered missions, it could be confusing to know which mission I could best undertake first so that there’s a more logical sense of progression in the story. By the end of it all, Alpha Protocol’s plot has already lost me and it’s unfortunate because the way Alpha Protocol allows you to explore the story is so impressive.

At the core of this game are Mass Effect styled dialogue trees which are ingrained in every conversation you find. Unlike Mass Effect where you need to read full sentences before selecting the desired reply, dialogue options in Alpha Protocol usually boil down to 3 varying degrees of attitudes which determine the type of response that Thorton will provide. A 4th option on the dialogue trees appears occasionally, usually representing a drastic course of action that Thorton could possibly execute immediately to end the conversation or an opportunity to pursue more subtle details of the exchange. Choosing a different type of reply may not necessarily prevent some events, say boss fights, from happening but there’s much effort invested into making sure that you would be able to arrange the pages to form your own script for the game. You could choose to add pages to the script by choosing a certain kind of reply to trigger an event, or you could choose to remove pages entirely by ending the life of a particular person. Adding or removing pages from the script can achieve interesting results. For instance, a wise Thorton could possibly make himself likable to a gang, hence forming an alliance with the gang, resulting in the gang lending him extra firepower in future firefights. Likewise, killing an antagonist could mean that you no longer have access to important information that could aid you in uncovering other nefarious plans. The preferences for different attitudes from varying characters serve to add another dimension of thought when deciding which reply you would want to select. There’s such a high level of decision making and results so diverse that just listening attentively to the conversation is as interactive as engaging in a firefight. Depending on the choices you make, one playthrough may be different from another so while Alpha Protocol lacks any form of multiplayer, there’s much to be discovered in the single player.

Given how much attention Obsidian has given to story exploration, there’s little doubt that the said is by far the most prized asset of Alpha Protocol. Now, let’s say you don’t care about the story, or stop caring about the story after realizing that Alpha Protocol’s plot is too complicated for its own good and just want to get in on the action. Behind the facade of dialogue trees is a decent Gears of War cover-and-shoot third-person shooter. Its RPG elements make Alpha Protocol a little more varied, even more unique, than other standard third-person shooters but there’s a number of subpar gameplay executions which you need to get past before you can get to enjoy the experience.

Like any other RPG, you could customize your appearance, equip yourself with the necessary armor and weapons and fill out your limited number of slots with the right gadgets before you start any mission. Standard RPG protocols like improved armor and increased damage output from weapons as you level up apply but I like how Alpha Protocol delves deeper into the RPG experience by allowing you to work on the even smaller details. At the forefront of this idea is the wealth of weapon customization options which works very much the same way as tweaking a car in Grand Turismo or Forza Motorsports does. You could swop different makes of barrels to increase stability, install various models of laser sights to improve accuracy or use a different magazine for a larger ammo capacity. These adjustments factor into the gunplay for a more realistic experience so this means that you won’t necessarily score a headshot just because your reticule is pointed at the head of the enemy. In a way, Alpha Protocol hands you more ownership of your weapons than you could possibly imagine such that a weapon becomes a very personalized piece of equipment which you actually care about rather than just a disposable piece of metal which spits out lead at your command. Like the weapons, your armor is also highly customizable. Varying materials can be equipped onto your armor, each offering differing strength and tactical properties.

Then you take your weapons into combat. You quickly realize that leveling up administers a host of bonus effects your weapons can wield. For instance, choosing to allocate your points into leveling up the assault rifle opens up opportunities for you to execute focused shots – something very much similar to what Sam Fisher does with his weapons when Mark and Execute is activated in Splinter Cell Conviction. Likewise, giving the points to your shotgun provides it with the room sweep ability which allows you to increase the blast radius and power of the weapon temporarily, knocking enemies back in slow-mo. These bonus effects give each of the weapons a very unique identity. One gripe I have with the weapons is how the shotgun is so underpowered. A typical enemy takes 3 shotgun shells at close range to take down. Really?

But it really starts to go downhill from now on. While the gunplay is indeed very satisfying, the cover system in Alpha Protocol doesn’t really try to complement the experience. Getting into or under cover feels easy and intuitive enough but it’s difficult to quickly evade grenades because you can’t cleverly vault over covers to escape the blasts. Similarly, should you decide to retreat from a low cover, there’s no way to quickly detach yourself from it, instead adopting a sneaking position once you back away from a low cover, hence causing escapes from grenades when you’re in cover more difficult than it needs to be.

Of course being a secret agent, it’s necessary that Thorton is not only skilled in the arts of open combat but also in the art of evading detection. I really like the amount of flexibility which I am allowed to exercise when approaching a given situation. If you like the shoot-first-talk-later approach, you would appreciate the head-on combat capabilities of Thorton. If you prefer a more quiet approach, you could choose to tackle the circumstance from a stealth angle. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of stealth options offered in the skills and the number of stealth-favored gadgetries available to you, the gameplay in Alpha Protocol never seemed like it was designed to take advantage of the stealth approach. A silent takedown isn’t about taking cover, sneaking around under the cover of darkness or awaiting opportunities in the shadows to outwit your enemies but rather about becoming invisible and murdering enemies in fully lighted conditions without their buddies noticing anything conspicuous. One of the gadgets, a sound generator, meant to lure enemies into your hiding place for you to slaughter doesn’t really function as advertised because the A.I. direction here is so random and haphazard. Depending on how you would like to play, the lack of any plausible stealth mechanic here may or may not be a bane but it hurts when Alpha Protocol draws back on its ambitions as soon as it sounds it.

Part of the reason why the stealth mechanic couldn’t function in a decent manner is the inconsistent A.I. direction. While there’re times when enemies would utilize cover and lob grenades over to flush you out from cover in a firefight, it’s hardly convincing when enemies stay riveted to a spot and shoot at you and pretend that there’s no threat when you down an enemy partner beside his buddy. Boss fights are challenging but the challenge is seldom derived from the intelligence of the bosses but rather the very high health and insanely damaging melee attacks which cannot be blocked. At best, boss fights feel cheap but you could mitigate the disadvantage by being equally cheap, using technical glitches to position yourself in a spot that gets the bosses stuck in a particular location so that you can lay down the lead into their bodies with ease.

The entire package is wrapped in visuals generated by Unreal 3 graphics engine though the result isn’t necessarily impeccable. Having said that, you won’t find anything spectacular here but the visuals work in getting the job done. The only gripe I have about the visuals is how some textures take quite a while to pop in. Animations also suffer from a poor presentation. There’s clearly a lack of liveliness when characters talk but as far as being utilitarian goes, there’s nothing that the technical details of Alpha Protocol can’t decently handle. Before this review wraps, I would also like to give special mention to the 3 creative mini-games which can be initiated when picking locks, hacking computers and deactivating alarms. There’s nothing really significant but there’re definitely some fine touches there.

Final comments
Alpha Protocol is a decent RPG-shooter that does many things right but also does many things wrongly. As strange as it sounds, the finer aspects of the game are as equally substantial as the flaws. But to set things straight, I did enjoy Alpha Protocol. It's hard not to like the Mass Effect styled dialogue trees that give you conversation choices which affect just about every other event that happens in the game. The highly customizable weapons give full ownership of your guns and introduce a high level of personalization in the weapons that it’d be difficult not to compare the weapons here with the tweaked cars in Grand Turismo or Forza Motorsports. The skills are interesting but aren’t helped by an underpowered shotgun. The cover system and stealth mechanic are imperfect while the A.I. is inconsistent and the bosses are cheap. All is wrapped up in an unimpressive coat of visuals. But by the end of it all, there’s still some decent fun to be had here.