Alpha Protocol Review
Short Version: Alpha Protocol is a Mess! The combat is a chore, the AI is laughable and the game is clearly unfinished with the SLOWEST loading textures I have ever come across! Only the intriguing story, shifting character allegiances and unmatched dialogue system manage to redeem the entire experience for fans of RPG’s & Spy Stories, but only just.
What you’ll Like:
• The Dialogue system is the best of its kind right now. Your choices have actual consequences not superficial ones – completely different responses from NPC’s, bonus missions, and new equipment and favors can all be gained through masterful manipulation.
• The Story was Involving & characters were flavorful – I felt like a Jason Bourne, romancing ladies, hacking computers, and uncovering evil plots.
• Fun reading and replying to spy emails, gathering intel and customizing Weapon & Armor while planning your approach.
• Not all missions involve shooting, some are solely to establish relationships and gather more intel for the future.
What you’ll Hate:
• The AI is EXTREMELY Inconsistent effectively breaking the combat portions of the game. Going from walking targets to hyper sensitive one-hit killers that spam grenades every 3 seconds.
• Pistols and SMGs are so laughably inaccurate even with mods that they are useless.
• Broken Stealth play, and some useless skill trees break the Illusion that you can approach a mission anyway you want. You cant.
• Numerous Bugs & Glitches can break checkpoints and refuse to load the next level.
• Are you serious? At one point it took the game 30+ seconds to load a texture on a simple pistol! And whats with all the blur effects?
Final Verdict:
Slightly Below Average
4/10
RENTAL RECOMMENDATION
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166 thoughts on “Alpha Protocol Review”
yeah I bought this game a year ago on steam while on sale, it was a very good game, didn’t have to many problems other than the sorta stupid aiming system, and the fact new guns aren’t much of an upgrade.
to bad Joe had a bad experience with it..
Same here. This build is awesome. Bruce Lee STYLE BIATCH xD
I never tried your build. I went with melee, gadgets, and stealth, and I had a hell of a fun time. I ran up, punched people to death, rinse, repeat.
It was great fun.
I bought this on a Steam sale last yeah and despites its many flaws and rough edges I really enjoyed it actually, it has some very great parts and characters and I really got sucked into it. Huge pity it was rushed and very rough though
Cheers from down under AJ, Great review !! Totally agree with every word you said, i bought this in a 2nd hand shop for $15 the day after it was released (now i know why and i still felt ripped off !!) i played it for maybe 20 mins and i havent touched it since. I’ll have to give your character build a shot. keep up the good work mate
I actually stealthed through the entire game successfully …
And I really like the choices system too. In the end I pratically was an ally of one of my former enemies and killed nearly anybody in the final mission, because I was so engaged in the story that it made me really mad when I found out I was played from the beginning after being nice all the time.
downloading on steam for $2, such a steal for a decent game
Not to mention it’s one of those “better on PC” games. All those texture loading and broken stealth and combat pieces work pretty well on this platform.
I think im gonna get -100 for saying this but…….i didnt mind it
i didnt have much trouble with the game, at first it was a pain, but the stealth stuff wasnt that bad once i was able to become invisible. i guess to each their own
You could certainly see your expertise within the work you write. The arena hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to mention how they believe. At all times follow your heart.
I’m going to download it on PC et try it, i’ll tell you what I think :p
When I played the game I played as the recuit class on normal and i found the game just to easy maybe it was because i was putting all my points into Smg’s and assualt rifles and my health
Hey Joe
I played through the game recently, which I found and bought at a best buy for $20 with the downloadable content that should have expired last year (still works), I bought the PS3 version of this game and found some of the problems with the game that you mentioned but to me it was a $20 game that was worth it because of the dialogue system but you were right about the combat A.I. problems. I’m sorry to say I went through the game with the tech expert character stats that it worked out better for me. Recruit felt like a punishment from Sega and Obsidian, like “How dare you create your own character stats when we had a prefectly good 4 character choices, what is wrong with you!?”
Those were my thoughts and thank you for your time for reading this comment, bye for now
I cannot agree with recension, my verdict is 8/10. Why? Mechanic is s*** that’s true, but I’d played on PC, and textures, checkpoints and all that stuff works quite great, a hell much better than X-box 360 or PS3 versions. Pistols are good because of they great ability “Chainshoot” and shooting from covers. I wondering who would survive with SMG that is useless also on PC. 3 things more: Sneaking isn’t that bad, you need to make a plan, then take your enemies one by one, and that works. AI is not that bad on PC, i mean, they are idiots but they never cheat. The most important is, that Obsidian is not fault all that bugs. That great guys were just cheated by Sega, just like they were by LucasArts with KOTOR 2.
PS sorry for my english, I’m still learning it.
you ned to play this on the ps3 i played it with recruit, pistols and smgs and was fine
I don’t know if the game’s been patched since this review or what, but I have not had a problem with it. The stealth works great for me, I think I’ve fired my gun a handful of times…don’t we remember what Lambert said in the first Splinter Cell game “Your gun should always be your last resort.” I hold by that and only fire when necessary. The dialogue is great, I agree 100% with Joe on that.
The texture loading is a bit slow at times, but I don’t really mind that. It seems to happen to me mostly after loading a checkpoint, that’s about it. It gets a little irritating, but I haven’t come across a time yet when it took more than 3 seconds to load them. The customization of your character and weaponry is great. This is what I’m looking for in a spy rpg: dialogue heavy, emphasis on sneaking and customizable to the nth degree. It’s a great game and it’s got me back reading Ludlum novels. I’d give it at least a 7.
Got it for $5 on D2D – so i’ll give it 7/10 for that price!
I agree, the dialogue system is simply put phenomenal. BEST DIALOGUE SYSTEM EVER.
As for the rest, I didn’t run into ANY bugs, nor did I have problems with textures loading, but then again I played the PC version.
As for stealth, I played through it as a stealth/close combat/pistol specialist, and guess what? It’s completely doable and not all that difficult. Ofcourse you can’t be a stealth fella wearing heavy armour et cetera, but you can be if you actually go in that direction. It’s more of an RPG than a third person shooter in that respect. The game mechanics aren’t what you are(or what I am) used to, they’re quite complicated, which is really really rare nowadays. Somewhat unsupprising given that it comes from Obsidian (which consists of the people from Black Isle Studios, the company that made the absolutely brilliant Baldur’s Gate series and the even more brilliant Planescape: Torment).
It’s by no stretch of the word a perfect game, but it’s not NEARLY as bad as you make it out to be.
this game could have been the next metal gear solid but the game is fucked up you try to be
stealth but no they now were you at in a sec this a is good but its not ready for the big titles
I agree with Faceless, in that, I agree with Joe about his rating of this game and how the dialogue system is phenomenal, but Joe got the combat system a bit wrong.
The pistol is the most accurate weapon in the game and actually is pretty overpowered, honestly. It’s not meant to be used at long distances like Joe was using it.. you need to get in close and keep the crosshairs on your target. Once it and zooms in and turns red, bam, headshot. THE UPGRADES HELP. The upgrades are what make it overpowered because soon it does become accurate at farther distances..
And then the chainshot ability is just ridiculous. You slow things down, place a bunch of headshots, and bam. Chainshot makes all the bossfights ridiculously easily, especially if you combine it with the ability that eliminates cooldowns.. radiance or something.
After the pistol, the shotgun is hands down the 2nd best weapon. The dumbasses that charge you? Or anyone that gets in too close? Or you just go charge after people yourself? One ‘charged’ shot knocks enemies instantly on their ass.. or the shotgun’s special ability is to have the same effect as the charge shot for a short period of time without the charging. Just knock everyone down on their ass and then stomp them.
Once you quickly realize how overpowered your weapons can actually be.. you can blow the game relatively quickly and get to the best part of the game, the dialogue.
The hand to hand combat is actually pretty effective, too, and Joe didn’t mention this at all. And I’m not sure why he had problems with steath combat.. if you wear an armor that cuts down on noise, you’re able to sneak up on people fairly well, and throughout my gameplay, I was able to sneak up on and take out a lot of people without firing a shot.
so can i buy it when the price drops
“-If anyone at Obsidian is proud of this final product, I will be shocked and appauled” *crazy annoyed smile*
Congrats Joe. You actually made me ROFL! I don’t think anyone on the interwebz has done what you just did.
So from me to you.
*ACHIVEMENT UNLOCKED*
-Took GeGs ROFL Virginity-
IMHO game was awesome, mechanics take some time to adjust, that’s true, but you can feel how your character stats improve through the game. I agree bugs were very annoying, most hated by me was when you change your point of view game freezes for a fraction of second then the view changes by 180 degrees or so (I’ve read many people had this issue not just me).
Obsidian has the same problem Troika had. They make games with original ideas, great story and amazing atmosphere but they have a bad luck when it comes to producers that forces them to release unfinished game (see KOTOR 2). To this day Troika’s VtM:Bloodlines is my favorite game despite it was released not even in beta stage but in alpha, but I have yet to play a game with a better atmosphere, characters and “talking heads” than in Bloodlines.