Alpha Protocol Preview
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It Doesn't Look Like A Role-Playing Game: At least the Mass Effect games are science fiction, which makes it possible that someone might mistake one of them for being a role-playing game, even though they look like shooters. Obsidian's Alpha Protocol, built like Mass Effect in the Unreal Engine 3 but set in the modern world of a James Bond or Jason Bourne sort of spy, really does look like a third-person shooter. I watched a Sega producer play part of one of the game's early levels during a demo of the title in New York City last week and it sure looked like he was playing a third-person machine-gun raid of a Middle Eastern military complex. I needed the producer to tell me that the size of the gun's targeting reticule was affected by some of the player-character's gun-oriented stats. I needed him to remind me that he was activating various earned perks that would, for example, briefly display enemy positions on a mini-map before needing to shut off for a cool-down period. In other words, I needed him to remind me of the underlying stat-based, RPG-ness of this game. It's not obvious at a glance.I'll reserve judgment for now, but if Alpha Protocol turns out to be less of an RPG than Mass Effect 2, I may have to bombard Avellone's inbox with a string of profanities.
