The story of Alpha Protocol starts out stagnantly. You are introduced to your protagonist Michael Thorton and have to go through a lengthy tutorial mission to grasp the basics and then finally get into the pure spy action. You can choose from different classes varying from a soldier to a stealthy spy. I picked a soldier like I normally do in RPGs that give me the option. You have to initially stop some enemies from capturing weapons from America in Saudi Arabia. Sooner or later Michael finds out that the government has been using him as a henchman and then starts the quest for redemption and the classic "save the world" concept from the corrupt government and Halbech, an evil arms seller, that are aiming to control the whole economy by terrorizing and threatening people with nuclear weaponry. A cold war which might lead to World War III.
The characters are uninteresting and the only person you will actually care about is your creation, Michael. Every other secondary character have no real personality to feel emotion about contrasting it with the likes of the superior Mass Effect 2. Mina, an associate of Michael throughout the game, barely shows emotion and is just there to decipher some perplexing parts of the plot. Excluding Mina, no other "main" secondary character accompanies Michael throughout the game. Obsidian adds 3-4 more females that have different personalities (from suave to aggressive) just to satisfy Micheal's sexual needs throughout the game. They also fall in the "sexual intercourse" fad recently implemented in RPGs these days. I didn't really feel any rancor towards the antagonists of the game either so never really awakened any emotion of dislike since they appeared so common and weak. Michael's dialogue options make the game feel vastly different with every choice you make. There are plenty of endings as well but I don't think the game innovates you to play through it more than once.
Soundtrack in Alpha Protocol is merely noticeable. It's like every other common game you'll find there with some enjoyable audio to listen to sometimes but not played enough. The sound effects are weak and guns sound equivalently ineffective. Explosions sound like farts and melee sounds very unrealistic for an espionage RPG. I like the atmosphere the sound sets though while you're in stealth sometimes and reminded me a bit of Splinter Cell but it's stealth system screwed up frequently and abruptly ends some time of enjoyment you might have invested. Voice acting is good. I didn't find any bad voices or anything annoying you usually find with a moderate number of characters. Michael has his stereotypical gruff voice like every RPG male should have. I'd like an accent selection though to relate to Michael more if he had a Greek accent like I do. But then again Greek accents sound retarded so thankfully I didn't make a video review for this game. Other than some minor audio effects flaws and the absence of a continuous soundtrack enriching the game's atmosphere, the audio department of this game is good but nothing amazing.
The visuals in Alpha Protocol is the worst part of the game. I'll start with the "pros". The game shows polish. But you can't suit a pile of crap with a tuxedo and say it looks good. Maybe I exaggerated the crap comment but the game's visuals are very PS2-like in some cases and I just had to shake my head while playing it. Michael thankfully looks like a sympathetic character enough to relate to. For me, you must relate to all RPG protagonists in the said genre. The character customization is shallow but enough to make your Michael from a suave playboy to a homeless hobo. The guns look simple and can't really distinguish the different models. The gold plated AR looks pretty pimpish but sadly the only cool gun in Michael's repertoire. Environments vary thankfully. Thankfully because they mostly look bland and plain and Obsidian mostly recycled them and just painted them with a different color and added different props. Indoor areas are the worse since they also deprive exploration and just enter from one ugly room to another leading to some severe boredom. The animations of all enemies and Michael also look atrocious. Stiff and awkward which make the whole realistic spy game to a weird Robocop game referring to its robotic animations and laughable movements Michael can execute like his crouching-walking. Overall, the graphics of this game are mediocre. The polish is enough to blind some people from its blandness but sooner or later you notice the amateur work oozing from its sometimes impressive design.
Lastly, Alpha's gameplay starts out bad but it turns good which alleviated me. You have to accustom to the awkward crosshair that must allow it some seconds to focus on enemies but when your guns upgrade the accuracy increases. As a soldier class I didn't use alot of stealth. When I did it never worked for a long time but it provided some results mostly. Guns deal damage and never had a problem with them. SMGs are weak in the beginning but once again when upgraded it is brutal. The cover system of Alpha is unfortunately average. You can stick on it in some occasions and enemies can shoot you through it miraculously sometimes. Just when you thought it becomes realistic. The melee is an alternative but is so clunky that is just rarely enjoyable to look at and you just
found myself just purchasing upgrades for my guns which was perfect enough for enemies. I also like the armor in the game. It looks pretty awesome on Michael and for my Soldier type character he was a badass in the end.
The dialogue impacts the story dramatically and lead to some gameplay changes. It's easily my favorite part of Alpha. You have a time limit and choose from an aggressive response, a suave response, a professional response and sometimes a unique action like executing someone. Despite the bad lip syncing, the dialogue in the game is rarely boring. Like I said, I just wish the story was a bit more exciting and different from other games.
tl;dr: Overall, Alpha Protocol is an average RPG. I thought it would be great but it really is a RPG with some unique dialogue elements, good gameplay, dull graphics and wouldn't advocate the story to anyone. It wouldn't seek my buy approbation but a rental for those diehard RPG fans.
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