Alpha Protocol Game Guide

This intriguing role-playing game boasts an extraordinarily flexible plot, in which your choices have real consequences both on the story and on the gameplay. It's easy to appreciate Alpha Protocol for its high ambitions; it's just not that much fun to play it. 

Shortly thereafter, you meet the game's protagonist, Michael Thorton, who is being inducted into a top-secret United States government agency known as Alpha Protocol. Alpha Protocol's greatest asset is, by far, the complex workings behind its plot progression. At one point, you may receive an in-game e-mail from a female character that references the sexual tension you've apparently developed, but the story never adequately demonstrates that tension; the e-mail comes as a complete surprise. By the time you reach the final mission, you get the sense that developer Obsidian Entertainment had no idea how to wrap the story up. You sense that the voice actors have done their best to lend some humanity to the story, but Alpha Protocol is all business and no fun; all plot and no character. Like the story, the character progression offers a good number of options for letting you advance as you see fit. For example, leveling up your shotgun tree opens up the room sweep ability, which adds a critical knockdown to every shot; upgrading the martial arts tree adds the fury skill that enhances your hand-to-hand effectiveness. Armor and weapon modifications, as well as a healthy array of different weapons, ammo types, and gadgets, allow for further customization. The resulting flexibility is incredibly impressive.

Unfortunately, the basic gameplay mechanics prevent the wealth of options from getting the justice they deserve. If you stoop, the camera pulls away somewhat and you get a better view, though the way Mike scuttles about while crouching is laughably awkward.