Take the elements of a third person stealth cover shooter with the game design of a western RPG and what you get is Obsidian’s experimental espionage RPG. While Alpha Protocol looks like one of those generic 2000s PS3 games you’d find in a bargain bin, and, admittedly, it’s not too far away from what the game is, it offers a lot more than you’d initially expect.
The combat is incredibly jank especially when it comes to shooting, I found the best way to make the most was to invest points mainly into pistols and stealth. Chain Shot with a silencer is especially broken when you manage to level it up as high as you can to the point you can cheese your way through close crowds and bosses. But when it comes to stealth the enemy AI is pretty goofy and there’s times where it’s just not even a playable option anymore.
There’s also the plot I guess. While I hesitate to call it “bad” (the worst I can really say is just that it's one of the more basic stories from Obsidian’s catalogue) it does feel very clunky in how it's presented. The first few hours in Saudi Arabia are really weak and don’t leave the best impression of what the game truly has to offer. But once you’ve slogged your way past that the real good stuff begins to shine through. Mostly in the solid character writing and the incredible attention to detail Obsidian put into their mentality of “yeah your choices matter, deal with it”. It doesn’t become too obvious at first but it’s genuinely insane how each and every mission you do somehow dramatically impacts other missions until it snowballs into the ending of the game. It’s hard to even save scum in this game because you can only really save before or after a mission, or whenever the game autosaves whenever you make a choice. Encouraging you to just roll with the punches and get dragged along this wild ride which just keeps unfolding in different ways.
It’s a shame this never really gets to take off with neither a sequel or even a remaster to overhaul the game just enough to make it way more playable. Because it really does lay a solid blueprint for what future espionage RPGs can take from and refine.
The combat is incredibly jank especially when it comes to shooting, I found the best way to make the most was to invest points mainly into pistols and stealth. Chain Shot with a silencer is especially broken when you manage to level it up as high as you can to the point you can cheese your way through close crowds and bosses. But when it comes to stealth the enemy AI is pretty goofy and there’s times where it’s just not even a playable option anymore.
There’s also the plot I guess. While I hesitate to call it “bad” (the worst I can really say is just that it's one of the more basic stories from Obsidian’s catalogue) it does feel very clunky in how it's presented. The first few hours in Saudi Arabia are really weak and don’t leave the best impression of what the game truly has to offer. But once you’ve slogged your way past that the real good stuff begins to shine through. Mostly in the solid character writing and the incredible attention to detail Obsidian put into their mentality of “yeah your choices matter, deal with it”. It doesn’t become too obvious at first but it’s genuinely insane how each and every mission you do somehow dramatically impacts other missions until it snowballs into the ending of the game. It’s hard to even save scum in this game because you can only really save before or after a mission, or whenever the game autosaves whenever you make a choice. Encouraging you to just roll with the punches and get dragged along this wild ride which just keeps unfolding in different ways.
It’s a shame this never really gets to take off with neither a sequel or even a remaster to overhaul the game just enough to make it way more playable. Because it really does lay a solid blueprint for what future espionage RPGs can take from and refine.
BlazingWaters
2 years ago