Alpha Protocol Review
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What?...What?...WHAT?!Having dealt with what is probably the worst Alpha Protocol has to offer, let's move on to some other things quite a few people won't enjoy greatly, and which sadly represents elements of the game's core gameplay.
Alpha Protocol is a cover-based shooter with stats determining the precision of your aim, and a contracting reticule showing the need to steady your aim before shooting. This should be familiar enough to anyone who has played FPS/RPGs or cover-based shooter/RPGs. Alpha Protocol doesn't get too creative in this. There are four weapon types (pistol, SMG, shotgun, automatic rifle), each of which is uniquely fitted to a particular combat style, combat range and subtlety of approach. Add in some gadgets, from simple firebombs to proximity mines, and it's a solid enough basis.
Despite that, the combat is not very good. It's not terrible either, but a combination of bad camera work, sub-par enemy AI, and poor variety in combat scenarios makes for a rather tepid combat experience. The game doesn't throw too many trash mob fights at you and the poor AI makes most of them a breeze, but considering the paucity in design here it's probably still too much time in combat, which is an odd thing to say for an action RPG. The poor variety in combat scenarios is a part of a fairly poor, oddly linear level design, which at times makes the game feel like a corridor shooter with a strange layout.Your lack of mobile range you can't jump means a foot-high fence can stop this international superspy.
If you really don't like the gunplay you can go for the martial arts skill, taking out baddies with your bare hands. But this was obviously designed as a supplementary skill to sneaking, particularly so you can beat your way out if caught close to an enemy. As a main combat skill, it won't work as you'll usually be gunned down before reaching the enemy.
Speaking of sneaking, the big alternative to combat is stealth. Much like combat, the stealth gameplay is a bit too simplified to be very satisfying. Guards will be alarmed by visual contact or loud sounds (particularly gunfire), but the game is very vague about how visible you are or how loud your movement is, whereas experienced stealth players will expect visual cues on this. Other small bits detract from the experience, for instance you don't have to hide bodies, they automatically disappear quite fast though if they are found it will alarm the guards.
Leveling up the talent unlocks activated skills such as silent running or shadow operative, the latter of which is essentially an invisibility spell, the best form of which gives you 20 seconds of invisibility in which you can freely silent-kill your opponents. This is quite a bit of fun, but it's not really stealth gameplay anymore.
For the most part, Alpha Protocol is an unfinished game when it comes to taking the combat or stealth approach. It's not often (or), it's often (either). A stealth mission can only be finished by a stealthy character, and a combat mission only by a combat character. Lack of proper skills and equipment are a major setback, they'll be very difficult or impossible to do well. When it comes to side missions, that's brilliant, since you don't have to take on all the side missions, so your choices in character design can exclude you from certain missions.
It's not so good when it comes to bosses. I'm not sure why the designers felt this game needed (boss fights) anyway, it doesn't add too much. But the annoying thing is only the very first boss has a stealth solution, all the other bosses you will have to fight, often in an open fire-fight you can't avoid because the boss is too fast or too powerful in hand-to-hand combat. In a game that otherwise encourages me building a stealth kill character, that's pretty annoying. Even ignoring that, with their limited AI the bosses tend to be of a very predictable, rinse-and-repeat variety, which is probably why the game felt the need to pump up their offensive firepower and health to make them challenging, which feels a bit cheap. As does sending in endless goons, a very old-fashioned platform-esque solution, but again showing some poor design here as in some leaving one goon alive means the next batch won't get sent in, and one goon shooting at you is no problem at a higher level. That said, the game balance really isn't very good, as the pistol chainshot skill can pretty much take care of any boss in the game.
Another big gameplay mechanic that I was not fond of was the Dialogue Stance System. Basically, you get to pick a stance (suave, aggressive or professional) at key points during the dialogue which will determine how Thorton carries on the conversation. The dialogue choice is timed so you have to make your pick quick, a possibly irksome but very consciously made design decision we'll come back to later. The only real problem I have with it, other than occasionally struggling with my mouse to get the proper option in on time, is how it's too vague. Like Mass Effect's keyword based system, I don't really know what Thorton's going to say. That can be very annoying if in his response he opts to call Steven Heck (Steve) even when I know that'll upset him, and nothing in the option itself indicates Thorton is about to do that. Playing guessing games in the middle of dialogue hurts the experience quite a bit.
Missions in general aren't very challenging if they suit your skillset, but they can be quite difficult if they don't. Stealth and non-combat solutions are openly encouraged and that's great, though it can be a bit frustrating how one simple mistake can mess you up and force you to either do the mission badly or start all over again, particularly if said mistake is due to failing one of the messy hacking minigames. There are some timed missions, but not many. Sadly, Alpha Protocol is one of those games that tries to fake-hurry you, telling you that you need to hurry even though you have all the time in the world. It won't work on experienced gamers, and I wish designers would stop trying it.
The last thing I'd like to mention under this header is the character system, which is solid but unspectacular. It's very reminiscent of Mass Effect's, but reinforced very cleverly through the game world to heavily encourage you to specialize as much as you can, by tagging and combining three skills that make sense for your playstyle. Each choice of weapon and supporting skills will net a very different gameplay experience, which means the system pretty much does its job.
A good touch there is the addition of a character history. There's a number of basic backgrounds that don't add much, but the recruit and veteran options add a few dialogue options and gameplay challenges, particularly in the opening area.
The imperfect gunplay is exacerbated by bad aim early in the game, due to lack of skills. That'll bother some people but it's kind of the nature of the genre here, and really shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. An interesting (fix) of sorts is that putting points in gun skills does not only unlock increases in accuracy, damage and recoil control, but also special activated skills that more or less plays like bullet time, or like an aiming cheat. It's a nice enough addition but the only net result is they often make boss fights too easy.
The item system is pretty good, though the game doesn't have too many item drops. In a normal level, you'll mostly find ammo and gun mods, but you'll have to purchase most weapons and armor yourself, and they come at a steep price. That means the item progression is based less on your main items, which you'll update only once or twice, but rather on the mods you use, which can be switched out constantly, including adapting to enemy type or mission goal the pistol silencer in particularl reduces damage and is thus preferable only for stealth missions. It's a bit of an unorthodox system, but it works really well.
