Alpha Protocol™

In retrospect, Alpha Protocol is a rather unique game. To this day, no one else has combined the spy genre with an RPG. It was a solid combination. The game’s greatest strengths were its mature storyline and interesting characters, while the dialogue and decision-making systems created a strong sense of actually shaping the plot. As for what hasn't aged well, the gameplay stands out; while it was bearable through the lens of nostalgia, I certainly wouldn't remember the game for its gameplay yet, aside from that, it is still worth trying out or at least revisiting..

16 years later and people are still trying to the entertain the false notion that it's a "problem" that the player character in an RPG's competency and effectiveness is determined by their loadout and stat allocations. Yes, michael should blow off his foot when he picks up a shotgun and has no experience in how to use a shotgun. Good game good.

Alpha Protocol é um título ambicioso e inovador em narrativa. Para quem valoriza história, escolhas e replay, ele pode ser uma experiência memorável, pois pesquisando na internet obtive a informação que o game possui cerca de 32 finais. Já para quem busca ação refinada e gráficos de ponta, pode se decepcionar, mesmo para a época de lançamento os gráficos não eram muito bons. Apesar disso, gostei bastante do game e recomendo!

probably the best completely broken spy rpg of the early 2010s, top 5 easy

A janky ride, but a fun one. Good replay value due to the choices at hand. Story is entertaining. Melee build for gameplay made it more enjoyable for me.

My time on Steam does not do this game justice. If this was on a platform, I've played it on that platform. This was almost pure perfection. Everything has it's own quirk, the combat isn't 100% straight forward, the hacking, bypassing, and lockpicking are all their own unique systems. And when you start playing all of it feels awful. For the full experience start with the "rookie" profile. You start with zero skill points and zero skills. It's ridiculous. You can't shoot, can't fight, can't sneak. You are rougher around the edges than a Sea Urchin. (bonus, finishing the game starting with Rookie unlocks Veteran and lets you basically have an NG+ in a game where NG+ didn't exist in the first place). And then you hone yourself into the kind of, "spy" you want to be. The "tutorial" chapter does not do this game justice either. Getting through Saudi Arabia is a big teaser. But let's talk what you are actually doing, sneaking (or Rambo'ing) both have their trade offs. How often you are seen or not seen, how many alarms, knocking out or killing enemies, it all effects how people will perceive you and talk about you as well as to you if you meet them. Some people love ghosts, others lover loose cannons that blow up every enemy in sight. The talking to people is another big thing, you can unlock Dossiers that give you insights into how to respond. There are bonuses for being loved or being hated by people. Hell even neutral has some minor boost as well. And it takes all of it into account. Guns, (between 4 classes, Pistol, Shotgun, SMGS, and Rifles (assault rifles)), have their own stats that everyone should be readily familiar with by now, stability, recoil, accuracy, damage, and ammo. Each gun can hold 4 upgrades, Barrel, Sight, Clip, and Accessory. They will add or subtract from your stats for the gun. You can bring 2 each mission, and it's up to you to decide your loadout. You get a mess of gadgets too but I will not be breaking all of those down. There are a ton. And of course there are armors, some focus on stealth, some on rambo, some are a mix, and they too have a ton of "attachments/upgrades" to fine tune to how you want things done. Onto the Bypass, the easiest of the "stealth" features. Since rambo doesn't care about alarms. This is typically how you shut off alarms or bypass electronic doors. It's follow the numbers. The paths are the same between all bypasses, just the order that changes, so if you memorize the layout then you can speed through this rather quickly. After that it's lockpicking, and this was designed with an Xbox controller in mind. I've tried it on mouse and keyboard (and I love me some M+K) but it's tedious beyond belief. You use the left trigger to put pressure on the pin(s), then when you hit the sweet spot click it into place with the right trigger. It takes time and practice. You will get to a point where you fly through this as well. Now onto my favorite part, the hacking. I hated it at first. It's a screen of changing digits but there are 2 strings of digits/characters that are not changing. The top timer is your overall timer, the bottom is when the location of the 2 strings change, unless you lock one or both in. You use the left stick to control the left number string (you are looking to overlap it with the corresponding sequence on the "changing" grid) then when you find it you lock it in with the left trigger. Same for the "right" string. It's good. I love it now. The story is wild and stupid and cringe. Remember people, this was peak for 2010. It made you feel like a spy. You could earn and buy intel that either made knowing people or locations easier. You could hack money from terrorists and add it to your personal slush fund to buy weapons, armor, intel, etc. You could romance all the ladies if you wanted to. There are also "perks" you get from certain dialogue choices, combat choices (like stealth kills/knockouts or just plain old shooting enough people in the head), and such that give you either discounts, endurance (armor), better cooldowns or length of skills. Speaking of skills, you get a whole range. Stealth, all 4 gun types, technical aptitude, sabotage, toughness, martial arts and they all change the way you play. Martial Arts improves hand to hand damage, how much damage is dealt to you in hand to hand, how long your combo is, etc. Technical Aptitude makes gadgets stronger and hacking/lockpicking/bypassing easier as well as increasing how much money you get from hacked sources. Guns increase all your stats and damage as well as what bonuses they have that give you a bonus as well. It's a pain to get running on windows. I swapped to Bazzite recently, and it runs almost flawlessly. I haven't had to mess with compatibility or anything. It's been almost smooth. Except for a bug in the skill "awareness", makes it stop working when you grab basic. Once you master it, it works again, but it makes the Saudi Arabia sections very painful if you started as a Rookie. Even with it's age, it's worth playing through atleast once or twice. This is a game that should still be a series. It's one of the best "spy" games ever made.

One of the most iconic rpg games of all time, a game from an era while obsidian's main concern was delivering a perfect RPG and had great development teams. I hope we will someday see Obsidian return to its roots and work with people who puts good gameplay and story over trying to give nonesense messages to players. Great game to buy and play, %900 better than the comedy they call "avowed".