Sega has had a rough ride. After the PS2 eclipsed the Dreamcast, due in part to Bernie Stolar's mismanagement of the company resulting in the failure of the Saturn, Sega withdrew from the console market. On top of that, their Sonic games, up until Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Colors, went downhill fast after Sonic Adventure. What is a company to do to get by? Well, one of the things they did was work with Obsidian Entertainment, the company behind the rushed and bugged Knights of the Old Republic 2 and the inferior sequel Neverwinter Nights 2 to produce Obsidian's first original IP, Alpha Protocol. Would Obsidian improve when working on their own property, or would they fall short of the mark again?
The general plot of the game follows an agent named Michael Thorton (voiced by Josh Gilman, who also did the voice of Angeal in Crisis Core) waking up in a medical bay. Finding a PDA, he is contacted by Mina Tang (voiced by Adrienne Wilkinson, the voice of Maris Brood in The Force Unleashed), who informs him that he is now in a super special awesome agency known as Alpha Protocol, a secret agency so secret that even the higher ups don't know all of the resources available to the agency. Not sure how that works, but OK.
Anyways, he eventually comes into contact with his boss, Yancy Westridge (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams, who portayed Lt. Dangle in Reno 911!), who sends him on a mission to infiltrateAl-QaedaAl-Samad and kill its leader, Osama Bin LadenAli Shaheed (voiced by Saren. I mean, Fred Tatasciore), who has gotten a hold of some US developed missiles. Naturally, things don't go smoothly, and Mike, with no one on his side but Mina, must hunt down a link between Al-Samad and Halbech, the company who created the missiles.
All right, the plot is pretty basic. Still, it does the job of moving along at an easy pace. It doesn't drag, but it doesn't rush things, either. Overall, there aren't many surprises, but the game still holds your interest throughout its run.
However, even the best plot will fall down if you don't have the characters to back it up. But if there is one thing that Obsidian does well, it's making memorable and fairly well developed characters. And once again, they succeed here. Besides the aforementioned characters, you run across many other characters, both as allies and as enemies. And even if they are only bosses in one scene, there are very few characters in this game that don't stick in your mind. From the completely insane, yet somehow quite skilled maybe secret agent Steven Heck, to the Scarface wannabe Konstantin Brayko, to the charismatic, but cold-blooded, Marburg, the characters run the gamut from sane to insane, good to evil, and everywhere in between.
And while many games would write down the characters in the in-game dossiers and leave it at that, you will actually see the characters reflect the contents of their dossiers in speech and actions. And none of the characters have flat development, even the seemingly incidental characters turning out to have deep, dark sides in the end. Overall, this game proves that Obsidian Entertainment does have it in them to write great characters. But can they get great voice actors as well, or must we try to plug our ears and read the subtitles to get the characterization?
The voice acting in this game is quite good, thankfully. While Obsidian did a decent job with KOTOR 2's voice acting, they have only improved over time with this game. And, unlike KOTOR 2, they actually got some big name voice actors on board for this one. For example, Steven Heck, the crazy (possibly) CIA agent, is played with relish by Nolan North. And the cold, charismatic Marburg? None other than veteran voice actor Jim Cummings.
Even some more "minor" characters, if anyone can be called such in this game, have veteran voice actors. For example, that bureaucratic pencil-pusher you see at the beginning and end of the game, Parker? He is voiced by Michael Bell, also now as G.I. fucking Joe. I don't want to sound like I'm gushing (which I totally am) but man, you know you have pulled out the big guns (and wallets) when you can convince G.I. Joe to play a bureaucrat.
However, all of the above makes decent movies, not games. For games, you need to have good gameplay. And here, Alpha Protocol does and doesn't deliver. The game is basically a third person shooter for the most part. However, it is quite non-linear in how you progress between levels. Generally, you can go in all guns blazing, or there is a more stealthy route, or there is a more tech-savvy route...you get the idea. But the thing is...stealth is really, really hard to pull off in this game. Maybe it's just because I suck (which is quite possible), but the guards always seemed to notice me right when I'm crouched behind them, having moved silently and am about to knock them out. Or they'll suddenly turn around just when I'm about to shoot them in the head with my silenced pistol. And thing is, if you are not stealthy in the early levels, it is impossible to be stealthy in the later levels, because in an interesting idea, the guards in levels are more careful and wary if you constantly go all guns blazing.
Like I said, though, that is only what the game is for the most part. There are hacking minigames for computers, lockpicking, and keypads/alarms. For computers, you have a grid with a bunch of moving numbers and letters, and you have to find the two sequences that aren't moving and match up with them. For lockpicking, you have to adjust each tumbler to find the "sweet spot", then lock it in place. Finally, for the keypads/alarms, you have to find the path to each number, then light them up in the correct order. They don't tend to be too challenging, but they work well, and you can tell how they correlate with what you are hacking.
But the most interesting part in the game, surprisingly, is the conversation system. Set up similar to Mass Effect, you have a "conversation wheel", and you press buttons to choose a response. However, you don't really get an idea of what you say, so much as what tone you'll have. Basically, X is the suave James Bond-type response, Y is the aggressive Jack Bauer-type response, and B is the professional Jason Bourne-type response. Occasionally, you will have a fourth response type, but for the most part, these are the three types. And rather than than having one "please everybody" button, each character responds differently. Some people like you to stay professional and not be aggressive, while others will be the exact opposite, not liking it as much if you stay professional rather than be aggressive. And, unlike many other games, you aren't punished for making people dislike you. Rather, it's just a different path, with each path having its pluses and minuses.
As for the whole "choices have consequences" thing, well, it's true in this game. I was shocked too. But the game does actually offer different choices. Go to one city and finish it before another, and your actions might be mentioned by another character. But it doesn't even stop there. If you finish Taipei before Moscow, you get an intel option for a boss that makes him a lot easier to take down. If you finish Moscow before Rome or Taipei, and you get a contact in Taipei that you met in Moscow. And if you finish Moscow before Rome, you will be more familiar with a certain character than you would be otherwise. And that's just the bare minimum. This is a game that really does lend itself to multiple playthroughs with more than just superficial differences.
Overall, this is a pretty decent game. All right, the stealth system, and some other parts of the game, may be bugged. Some of the dialogue option results are impossible to predict (wait, I get a dossier by doing what?). And the game lacks an option to bone Sis. However, the game is overall fun, and the multiple paths, with genuine differences and consequences is enough to forgive the more minor flaws, in my opinion. In the end, I highly suggest you check it out. At $30, it is well worth your money.
The general plot of the game follows an agent named Michael Thorton (voiced by Josh Gilman, who also did the voice of Angeal in Crisis Core) waking up in a medical bay. Finding a PDA, he is contacted by Mina Tang (voiced by Adrienne Wilkinson, the voice of Maris Brood in The Force Unleashed), who informs him that he is now in a super special awesome agency known as Alpha Protocol, a secret agency so secret that even the higher ups don't know all of the resources available to the agency. Not sure how that works, but OK.
Wheeeeeeeeeee!
Anyways, he eventually comes into contact with his boss, Yancy Westridge (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams, who portayed Lt. Dangle in Reno 911!), who sends him on a mission to infiltrate
All right, the plot is pretty basic. Still, it does the job of moving along at an easy pace. It doesn't drag, but it doesn't rush things, either. Overall, there aren't many surprises, but the game still holds your interest throughout its run.
However, even the best plot will fall down if you don't have the characters to back it up. But if there is one thing that Obsidian does well, it's making memorable and fairly well developed characters. And once again, they succeed here. Besides the aforementioned characters, you run across many other characters, both as allies and as enemies. And even if they are only bosses in one scene, there are very few characters in this game that don't stick in your mind. From the completely insane, yet somehow quite skilled maybe secret agent Steven Heck, to the Scarface wannabe Konstantin Brayko, to the charismatic, but cold-blooded, Marburg, the characters run the gamut from sane to insane, good to evil, and everywhere in between.
And while many games would write down the characters in the in-game dossiers and leave it at that, you will actually see the characters reflect the contents of their dossiers in speech and actions. And none of the characters have flat development, even the seemingly incidental characters turning out to have deep, dark sides in the end. Overall, this game proves that Obsidian Entertainment does have it in them to write great characters. But can they get great voice actors as well, or must we try to plug our ears and read the subtitles to get the characterization?
I like big guns, and I cannot lie...
The voice acting in this game is quite good, thankfully. While Obsidian did a decent job with KOTOR 2's voice acting, they have only improved over time with this game. And, unlike KOTOR 2, they actually got some big name voice actors on board for this one. For example, Steven Heck, the crazy (possibly) CIA agent, is played with relish by Nolan North. And the cold, charismatic Marburg? None other than veteran voice actor Jim Cummings.
Even some more "minor" characters, if anyone can be called such in this game, have veteran voice actors. For example, that bureaucratic pencil-pusher you see at the beginning and end of the game, Parker? He is voiced by Michael Bell, also now as G.I. fucking Joe. I don't want to sound like I'm gushing (which I totally am) but man, you know you have pulled out the big guns (and wallets) when you can convince G.I. Joe to play a bureaucrat.
However, all of the above makes decent movies, not games. For games, you need to have good gameplay. And here, Alpha Protocol does and doesn't deliver. The game is basically a third person shooter for the most part. However, it is quite non-linear in how you progress between levels. Generally, you can go in all guns blazing, or there is a more stealthy route, or there is a more tech-savvy route...you get the idea. But the thing is...stealth is really, really hard to pull off in this game. Maybe it's just because I suck (which is quite possible), but the guards always seemed to notice me right when I'm crouched behind them, having moved silently and am about to knock them out. Or they'll suddenly turn around just when I'm about to shoot them in the head with my silenced pistol. And thing is, if you are not stealthy in the early levels, it is impossible to be stealthy in the later levels, because in an interesting idea, the guards in levels are more careful and wary if you constantly go all guns blazing.
Did I do that?
Like I said, though, that is only what the game is for the most part. There are hacking minigames for computers, lockpicking, and keypads/alarms. For computers, you have a grid with a bunch of moving numbers and letters, and you have to find the two sequences that aren't moving and match up with them. For lockpicking, you have to adjust each tumbler to find the "sweet spot", then lock it in place. Finally, for the keypads/alarms, you have to find the path to each number, then light them up in the correct order. They don't tend to be too challenging, but they work well, and you can tell how they correlate with what you are hacking.
But the most interesting part in the game, surprisingly, is the conversation system. Set up similar to Mass Effect, you have a "conversation wheel", and you press buttons to choose a response. However, you don't really get an idea of what you say, so much as what tone you'll have. Basically, X is the suave James Bond-type response, Y is the aggressive Jack Bauer-type response, and B is the professional Jason Bourne-type response. Occasionally, you will have a fourth response type, but for the most part, these are the three types. And rather than than having one "please everybody" button, each character responds differently. Some people like you to stay professional and not be aggressive, while others will be the exact opposite, not liking it as much if you stay professional rather than be aggressive. And, unlike many other games, you aren't punished for making people dislike you. Rather, it's just a different path, with each path having its pluses and minuses.
She's an adult, I swear! *gets put in cop cruiser*
As for the whole "choices have consequences" thing, well, it's true in this game. I was shocked too. But the game does actually offer different choices. Go to one city and finish it before another, and your actions might be mentioned by another character. But it doesn't even stop there. If you finish Taipei before Moscow, you get an intel option for a boss that makes him a lot easier to take down. If you finish Moscow before Rome or Taipei, and you get a contact in Taipei that you met in Moscow. And if you finish Moscow before Rome, you will be more familiar with a certain character than you would be otherwise. And that's just the bare minimum. This is a game that really does lend itself to multiple playthroughs with more than just superficial differences.
Overall, this is a pretty decent game. All right, the stealth system, and some other parts of the game, may be bugged. Some of the dialogue option results are impossible to predict (wait, I get a dossier by doing what?). And the game lacks an option to bone Sis. However, the game is overall fun, and the multiple paths, with genuine differences and consequences is enough to forgive the more minor flaws, in my opinion. In the end, I highly suggest you check it out. At $30, it is well worth your money.
I actually just finished my third play through this morning, making it through without killing anybody at all (Other than Shaheed's tank driver). I'm planning on starting my fourth character shortly.
