Alpha Protocol

Alpha Protocol is one of the most addictive and reactive RPGs I've ever played. Dialog has a wonderful flow and rhythm. Characters remember you and your decisions with startling accuracy. The only problem is that out of the box as Obsidian shipped it back in 2010, the game sucks. However people have created suites of amazing mods that fine tune the experience to a wonderfully paced rollercoaster. My personal pick for corrective mods would have to be "Alpha Protocol: Revived." Pick up the game and fiddle with the mods. I assure you, you'll have a damn good time. Happy travels Agent

Alpha Protocol is an excellent game, very underrated and very overlooked even when it was originally released in 2010. You play as Michael Thorton, an agent for a black-op agency tasked with finding and recovering stolen American missiles in Saudi Arabia from a terrorist organization Al Samad. And then everything takes a twist. Your main weapon in this game is choice. From the very beginning, you have 6 ways to start off your character. Each background has different dialogue choices, different specializations, different perks and drawbacks. A more technically-minded player can exploit gadgets and security systems to his advantage, but will have trouble fighting hand-to-hand. A battle-hardened soldier will plow through enemies with his fists or guns, but won't be able to get all the info and data off computers because of his lack of tech knowledge. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Alpha Protocol offers you incredible value for your money. I am on my 14th playthrough of this game and still find new conversation options, new jokes, new items and secret areas, new character dossiers and info. It is a masterfully-crafted game, made to be played multiple times. The order in which you play missions affects who your allies will be, if you can have support or not in certain missions, and who lives or dies. The voice acting is stellar. Particularly Jim Cummings as Conrad Marburg does an excellent job of portraying possibly the best character in the game. Mike Thorton is a likeable protagonist, the other characters are realistic and representative of many real-life types of people. And this game was made before the politically correct nag squad cracked down on games, so some lewd jokes and risqué scenes will take you back to 2010 when our media was not as censored. And as a bonus, you have a Sega Saturn console in two of your safe houses! That was a nice touch! This game is an incredible value for the price. You will play it over and over, it's that fun. Play it!

Obsidian made a spy thriller, and did an enjoyable job of it, but witha few caveats. One, and this is important, IT IS AN RPG FIRST AND A SHOOTER SECOND. Keep that in mind, as if you, for example, try to use a rifle with no points in rifle use, you'll have the aim of someone whom has never used a rifle in their life. Conversly, if you use that exact same rifle with at least five points in rifle handling, pinpoint accuracy is yours. Just Keep in mind THIS IS AN RPG FIRST, and your time will go well.

This is one of the few games (and nearly the only CRPG of its time) where your choices actually changed the game world in noticeable ways. Do missions in a different order? NPCs you meet later will react to where you've been and what you've done, possibly changing their starting attitude towards you and opening/closing dialogue/reward options. Choose to save/kill an NPC? That may open/change which missions are even available to you. Sure, it's got some minor graphical glitches (and I hear there's some glitches with the hand-to-hand combat mechanics), but compared to other games of the time I would classify them all as extremely minor.

I don't remember most of the games I play but I've always remembered this one as one of the coolest and most enjoyable games back when it was released (alongside Conquest: Frontier Wars and Sacrifice which are much older). Have had it wishlisted on Steam for a while but it's probably never coming back there, so it's great to see it here. Most likely gonna buy it eventually just to support the work even if I'm not gonna play it again 🙏