Alpha Protocol Preview

[GameBanshee News]

Bit-tech's hands-on impressions of Alpha Protocol seem to help dispel our newfound worries that the game won't be enough of an RPG.

Just to be clear; we’re not saying that Alpha Protocol is going to be as fantasmorgasmly-awesome as Deus Ex was (and still is) – we haven’t seen enough of it yet and there’s bound to be disappointed or worried by the fact that the game is a third-person affair. We can already hear the cries of ‘consolification’ coming over the horizon. We have seen enough to know that the two might have a lot in common though – though we’re not quite ready to use the phrase ‘spiritual successor’ just yet.

What’s just as important as the resemblances though are the differences between the two, with Obsidian’s Alpha Protocol being a lot heavier on the RPG side of things than you’d likely expect from the action-heavy screenshots and trailers. The available skills and abilities that you can learn go way beyond the basic selection offered in games such as Mass Effect, with the range edging more towards the Fallout end of the Official RPG Comparison Table. There are dozens of weapons and abilities to train yourself in and learn to base your gameplay style around – everything from shotguns and martial arts to lockpicking and manipulation.