Rushed, unrefined and unfinished
Alpha Protocol is essentially a third person shooter with role playing game elements, such as Mass Effect style dialogue trees, customisation and character development in skills such as marksman techniques or close quarter combat skills. It sounds good, but it never quite gets the balance right, and crucially gets the main bulk of gameplay so wrong - the action part.What’s so annoying is that you can see that the ambition must have been there among the development team at some point. The Dynamic Stance System, which is essentially a Mass Effect style dialogue feature, where you can choose how to respond to characters by being professional, intimidating or suave can impressively affect the storyline, the way that people respond to you and can affect allegiances within the game. It’s a decent system that was obviously designed to encourage replay value and get you really immersed into the story.But there's no way on Earth you'll want to play through Alpha Protocol again.
Obsidian must have spent more time developing the Dynamic Stance System than any other part of the game because everything else, from the dated graphics to the appalling A.I, feels rushed, unrefined and unfinished. Despite a few enjoyable moments, which inevitably involve blowing stuff up, there’s few positives to report. The least effort, crucially, appears to have gone into the combat and stealth system, which surely should have been the most important part of Alpha Protocol.
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