When Alpha Protocol was first released, many said that it was a disappointment, a buggy mess, a complete waste of money, but I say otherwise, as it has vastly improved over the years with multiple patches, and here is my review for Alpha Protocol
Agent Michael Thorton is the newest member of “Alpha Protocol”, a clandestine service established to perform covert operations that cannot be traced back to the U.S. government. His initial mission is to assassinate the leader of Al-Samad, Shaheed, after an attack on a passenger aircraft in the Middle East. After capturing Shaheed—whom Thorton can either execute or release—the terrorist leader claims that Halbech, a defense contractor, sold him the missiles and gave him all of the necessary information to carry out the attack. After relaying the information, Thorton’s position is attacked by a missile strike, and Thorton is presumed dead. Being contacted by a member of AP, Thorton is told that the group has been infiltrated by members of Halbech who want Thorton dead, to cover up the fact that Halbech provided the missiles to Al-Samad. So the story for Alpha Protocol is actually pretty good, in the sense that most of it can be a tad confusing at times, and sometime unintentionally hilarious. The Cast of characters in Alpha Protocol is also really great, with a lot of memorable characters, with great voice acting, with the exception of Michael Thorton, who is boring and sounds like he’s completely uninterested in anything happening at all, which actually adds to the character, and makes Alpha Protocol an unintentionally wonderful experience. But the story is also filled with tons of choices; literally everything you say in this game actually matters and impacts the game in both major and minor ways, which also means that Alpha Protocol has tons of replay value. There’s also no moral choices in Alpha Protocol, as no matter what you say, Michael Thorton will end up coming off as a jerk, which adds actually adds more hilarity to Alpha Protocol.
Alpha Protocol is played from a third-person perspective, allowing the player to see Thorton and his surroundings at all times. As Thorton is a trained CIA operative, the tools at the player’s disposal include numerous firearms, hand to hand combat, and spy gadgets. In addition to the action elements, players also earn Advancement Points, which can be placed into any of the ten different skills in the game. These skills will increase Thorton’s ability to use certain weapons and grant different abilities to him. These abilities are free to use, but require a “cool down” period before they can be used again. One ability, called Chain Shot, has been mentioned in previews and allows Thorton to scan a group of enemies in slow-motion before popping out of cover and shooting each of them more rapidly than he would be capable of normally. The combat can be a bit clunky at times, shooting is okay at best, and the stealth is almost non-existent (which is bad for a SPY game), but again Alpha Protocol does it in its own wonderful way. You can also customize Agent Thorton, which always somehow results in him looking like a tosspot, but again it adds to the charm of Alpha Protocol. Alpha Protocol actually looks pretty good, nothing special, but it’s defiantly not bad, but the sound design for it is not the best either. It’s not terrible, it’s just not good.
But at the end of the day, Alpha Protocol is fun, and I think that as long as a game is fun, then it has done its job. If find a copy of Alpha Protocol, you should most defiantly purchase it without hesitation.
