RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Choice is a popular gaming buzzword, typically code for “you can save the village or burn it down.” Rare is the game that gets a handle on the important part of choice, that being consequences; your actions mattering in the long run. Enter Alpha Protocol, Obsidian’s espionage-themed action RPG that boldly declares choice to be your weapon in the murky depths of modern geopolitics. Let’s make one thing very clear at the onset: there is something genuinely compelling about how the story here unfolds, and in that Obsidian has definitely succeeded where so many others failed. However, the cost appears to be a sense of identity, as if the game got so wrapped up in varying sources of spy fiction that it never really decided what it wanted to be.

The title refers to the US government’s super-secret spy agency, kept separate from most of the Washington bureaucracy to give America deniability when they want bad guys dead in a hurry, but don’t want it leading back to the White House. After an unorthodox entrance exam, new guy Mike Thorton (yes, Thorton with just one ‘n’) joins the team and learns the score.  A missile stolen from US defense contractor Halbech just shot down a civilian airliner in Saudi Arabia,  and Thorton soon finds the downed plane is just the latest piece in a big, scary, PMC-driven conspiracy puzzle. Granted, “corrupt businessman ruins everything for profit” is hardly new, but the presentation is one of the game’s strongest aspects, and we’ll get back to it in a moment.

The game controls decently as a typical third-person actioner: WASD+mouselook handle movement and aiming; function keys cover special abilities, grenades, and weapon and ammo selection; space sticks you to cover and alternates with E for various context-sensitive actions. Simple and easy-to-learn minigames cover hacking, electrical bypasses, and lockpicking, though the mouse is a touch sensitive for the hacking interface. The main issue here is less the control scheme than environmental limitations, since jumping, climbing, and whatnot can only happen at spots marked by a glowing arrow. Even if it looks like you could just step over that concrete barrier or hop down from that platform, you’re not going anywhere if there’s no arrow to let you.  The map is also less than helpful, borrowing the Fallout 3 “feature” of displaying multiple floors right on top of each other.

In between the action, you’ll rest up at safehouses, which allow you to follow up on mission leads, respond to emails from your various contacts, and kit out your weapons and armor with accessories.  Most just punch up the numbers for damage per shot, recoil, sound dampening, and so on. Others grant, for example, a short delay before cameras spot you or reduced cooldown on abilities. You also have access to a black market clearinghouse to buy and sell equipment, and gain access to intelligence: tactical data and background about targets, detailed maps, even paying someone to draw off the more experienced guards from a mission. Although the clearinghouse could use a function to equip things you just bought, overall the system works fine.

Well, I could speed things up if you REALLY want me to…

Combat is functional, but riddled with smaller issues that boil down to the AI being wildly inconsistent. At times they’re extremely imperceptive and laughably poor shots.  Other times they’ll go on full alert if they catch a glimpse of you, and can easily tear chunks out of you at long range. The game does set up several legitimately intense firefights, and stealth takedowns are sometimes flashy and always satisfying to pull off, but the problem is that AI goofiness happens all the time. Additionally, stealth is usually an option, but you’ll routinely be forced into a raging gun battle, and you’ll pretty much have to shoot your way out.

Boss battles present a larger problem, and if you weren’t aware this game had them, you might get curbstomped in a hurry. One oft-cited breaking point is a battle late in Moscow against an eighties-obsessed drug-using mobster, who will sometimes bum-rush you and cut you to pieces if you do anything other than run for your life.  Without good skill in weapons the fight can take a while, and your own resources are not limitless. The game bills itself as “the espionage RPG” and proudly states your weapon is choice, but you’ll want a gun ready when it decides to go Metal Gear Solid and fling a caped assassin who can turn invisible at you. It’s jarring to say the least, and while preparation can take the sting out of them, they never stop feeling out of place.

You can customize Thorton’s abilities to your liking, picking one of three preset backgrounds and upgrading skill proficiencies over time.  Ranging from weapons to technical abilities to physical hardiness, upgraded skills unlock special abilities: precision aiming, enemy detection, silent running, damage reduction, and so on. Some abilities are fairly unrealistic – no nanomachines are present to explain pulling off five headshots simultaneously – but they oddly fit the over-the-top nature of combat. You also gain bonus perks for achievements – drop 50 guys non-lethally, or mix up your dialog responses in one conversation – and they carry practical in-game rewards. Once you get used to it, it’s a lot of fun to build your own spy.

Alpha Protocol‘s visuals aren’t bad on the surface, with serviceable character animation and some decent level design. Areas are distinctive, colorful, and usually designed to encourage both stealthy and loud approaches.  Exploration often reveals alternate entrances or gaps in enemy patrols, and it’s possible to completely ghost some missions with zero alarms or takedowns. However, character models don’t seem to interact with the environment well; people often float over the ground rather than actually walk across it, and you’ll occasionally stick to a surface that’s not there. Faces look fine until you catch different people doing the same exact smirk, and the endgame is far too fond of linear corridors and scripted, confusing, or just plain frustrating shoot-outs.

From front to back: unconscious stripper, obvious spy, oblivious guard, and the most interesting wall in the world.

Audio is a major redeeming factor, from weighty gunfire to the well-paced soundtrack. Apart from a smattering of licensed music, Alpha Protocol features a healthy mix of quiet stealth tracks and blaring orchestras or rock pieces for the action. The Rome section stands out in both departments; an interactive cutscene where you’re confronted by a sinister private military contractor is an excellent example, with tense strings backing the menacing tone of the conversation. Speaking of that, veteran actors and newcomers alike give standout performances.  No surprise for, say, Jim Cummings or Nolan North, but Josh Gilman plays a solid deadpan snarker in Mike Thorton. He might not be an emotional fellow, but Thorton is never short a one-liner and his delivery often got real laughs from this reviewer.

Characters will react to a staggering number of choices you make throughout the game, and this is a large part of what makes Alpha Protocol work.  Everybody has more to them than meets the eye, and the game never cheats when someone you trusted suddenly pulls a gun on you. Their disposition towards you matters throughout the game; crack a guy’s skull and he’ll tell you what you want to know, but his friends will double up on security in the next mission. Likewise, do your homework and read someone’s dossier carefully, and you’ll know they’re not the real killer when they’re at your mercy, or you can needle them into fighting to the death.

Strong characters and presentation help take the otherwise typical plot and elevate it to another key point in the game’s favor. At first, characters seem bound by stereotypes and first impressions, and your agency cohorts spend a little too much time articulating gameplay elements aloud. However, once Thorton makes a name for himself and things start happening, the quality of the storytelling ramps up considerably. Major spy operations start coming together, like an excellent hotel sting in Taipei where you coordinate efforts with your local contacts to get information quietly. Even boss villains aren’t always shooting gallery targets, and appeals to their better angels – and yours – may change the nature of the game.

The plot still isn’t perfect, given the timed response system isn’t always clear on what your options are. Case in point, selecting “proposition” when discussing a business proposal caused Thorton to crack a joke, which the other party didn’t like. You will occasionally see a dialog loop, with a character telling you something twice. There are also plot holes and other issues, like in Rome where a choice of objective in the final mission doesn’t seem to matter; both lead to roughly the same outcome, which is odd since they’re drastically different on paper. Some scenes just look funny when Thorton wears full combat gear and weapons into public. And despite what Thorton’s boss might tell you, it’s not always an option to end a conversation abruptly or slam the guy’s head into a desk until he gets to the point. They really need to map that to a button someday.

METAL GEAR?! Not quite, but that’s no excuse not to blow it up.

The whole package has a weird half-serious, half-silly feel to it, like the game never really develops a strong identity of its own. At times it pulls toward the Bourne movies, at others Bond villain nonsense or straight-up Rambo. And yet, if I’m honest, the first thing I did when I finished was start the game up again to see what would happen if I did this instead of that. The battle with the eighties cokefiend, mentioned a few paragraphs ago, was indeed frustrating.  It was also highly entertaining, and the boss himself had a lot of personality, right down to his extremely loud attire.  When it was all done, I wasn’t even mad.  I settled for bribe money, and like so many other choices it wound up having an impact in the very next mission.

This isn’t even touching on some of the game’s best moments, like dealing with the enigmatic-but-honest Albatross or the likeably loony Steven Heck. There is just too much to cover, and in spite of the reasonable running time – a thorough playthrough will clock around 25-30 hours – the game has enough character content to keep several playthroughs interesting. You can turn the whole conspiracy on its head, befriending everybody from the bottom up – where certain women are concerned, put innuendo-friendly quote marks around “befriending”  – or you can start shooting and not stop until you’re out of bad guys. There are very big and very consequential choices to be made, and while the plot may stumble and the gameplay will trip and fall on its face, there is still something deeply compelling about what Obsidian was trying to do here.

Paired with better, more consistent combat and gameplay, Alpha Protocol could have been a milestone. If you’re waiting for a game to accurately represent real spycraft, or even the next Mass Effect, then Alpha Protocol won’t satisfy. But if you can grit your teeth and push through some annoying gameplay, if you can forgive the game for making a bad first impression, then you may find something really special on the inside. It’s a game that gets better once you’ve figured out its eccentricities, which will do you no good the first time around. And yet, with the memory of real choice and consequence fresh on your mind, you might be ready for more the second you’re done.

This game was played to completion and reviewed using a retail copy.