Alpha Protocol

lots of atmorsphere out of zero pixels, this really deserves a remaster/part 2

The consensus seems to be that this is a 'flawed classic' and even after just a couple of hours of play I'd say that seems fair. It's very much emblematic of a certain era of action adventure games that tried to mix elements of stealth, gunplay and the like. Imagine exactly the half-way point between True Crime: New York City and the Tomb Raider reboot (which is exactly where this game falls chronologically, even). The main issue is that the moment-to-moment gameplay is actually pretty frustrating; with a constant "oh god, I messed up the stealth and now I'm having to scramble" feeling even when you're not trying to be stealthy! I never once felt like I was very in control of any situation I found myself in. Also this seems very much to be optimised with controllers in mind so everything from navigating the menus to moving the camera during gameplay seems more difficult than it should with a keyboard & mouse. Is it good and worth checking out? Absolutely yes. You will definitely need more patience than I have if you want to play it to completion, though.

I really enjoyed this game when I had it on the Xbox 360. Really glad to see it has come back, and luckily thanks to the GOG preservation program it actually works on here. I originally bought it on steam only to refund it because i couldnt get it to work.

It's amazing in how many ways you can alter the story. But the gameplay is a hot mess.

This game WANTS to be Human Revolution combined with an Obsidian RPG. It’s not that, but it's a decent effort. The result is more like Mass Effect 1 with stealth elements. It has similarly janky 3rd person cover shooting with decent action RPG progression and (unfortunately) the same needlessly vague dialogue options, made worse by adding a timer to choose your response. It’s also not a very good port with menus being quite clunky (and sometimes buggy) with the mouse. This sounds pretty negative but I actually had a lot of fun for 2 reasons. 1) The mechanics may be jank but they do a good job of letting you feel like your character, whether that's a sneaky guy doing pistol headshots, a juggernaut with a rifle or a karate master. 2) The actual story is an average dime-store thriller with a side of camp, but the PACING is great: snacky missions that feel substantial without dragging, a good pace of new clues and events and a fun grab bag of spy cliches. "Snacky" is a good word for Alpha Protocol: it's a snacky stealth-action game, a snacky spy story and a snacky Obsidian RPG. If you're expecting Bloodlines or Deus Ex or Splinter Cell, you'll be disappointed. But if you're up for a snacky spy RPG, it's pretty unique.