Alpha Protocol

2010 was an exceedingly bleak period for RPGs, but even within that barrel crater there was a ray of hope. Playing through the first segment of Alpha Protocol you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The opening takes place in the middle east, which for many years was the tiresome setting of nearly every single uninspired military shooter. But hang in there because only an hour or two later you'll be getting the full Bond experience. Exotic locales, oddball villains, and romance options galore! For an RPG it's relatively short, yet the game's reputation system is a web of intermingled results that add so much replayability. Reputation comes from in-game actions or timed dialogue sequences that lends a cinematic flow to conversation, with three stances (aggressive, suave, professional) leading to diferent outcomes over time. Negative reputation can offer benefits too, and it's really fun to commit to a certain personality type. That said, there are problems. The game is as unbalanced as Steven Heck, with the Skyrim stealth archer meme in full effect. Specalizing in pistol/stealth skills transforms you into a demi-god that not even bosses can touch on the hardest difficulty. It's also built for consoles with checkpoints and vanishing bodies. If you can look past that, Alpha Protocol is a unique and memorable one-off.

Is alpha protocol a perfect game no not by any means but it is a one of kind gem, the amount of choice in this game is just an amazing it's at a level that still hasn't been replicated, its a game that I keep coming back too year after year, if you haven't played it look past the jank and be prepared to fall in love

A game that revolutionized relationships with NPCs despite having sort of janky spy game mechanics, pretty amazing game either way

It's one of my favorite RPGs of all time. No need to say more.

as title states, the missions do become a bit repetitive in my opinion but i chalk it up to user error.. the stealth in this game seems borederline impossible more often than not; forced combat sections, enemies clustered who never stray from each other, enemies posted at choke points with no method to get behind them.. my ideal playthrough would be stealth gameplay, Solid Snake style, but inevitably i mess it up or the game messes it up for me during almost every mission. thus it becomes repetitive because im just mowing through people with an assault rifle which ive upgraded maybe once and have 2 level-ups for. the parts i do like? when stealth is possible, the interactions with other characters in the story, your choices seemingly making real change, and my god does mike have jokes- i choose the 'funny' option a lot because i like jokes and this guy is so much funnier than i thought he would be, i expected the marvel style "erm that just happened" comedy at every turn but no its much better. soooo basically i have been having fun more consistently than with some other games, but mostly because of dialogue and the increasingly rare successful stealth operation.