I specifically signed up for metacritic to review this game. This game is highly underrated, and from someone who has played games for over 15 years now, i think it is an injustice to see this game score poorly. The level of engagement in this game, the storytelling, the detailed files and information intelligence gathering makes this game unique and truly satisfying. This is not a dumb persons game. Someone who is impatient(most of the younger generation) and dislikes reading will not enjoy this game. It can be a shooter, but it is a thinking mans spy game with real consequences to your actions. To play a game that TRULY changes outcomes based on your decisions is an enjoyment to play. Thats what makes it so much fun. Make your choice. stick with it. don't reload or re-save, and carve your own destiny in this excellent game. Steam has it for maybe 30 dollars right now. This game is for someone who enjoyed games like mass effect, the witcher, baldurs gate, splinter cell. etc. Splinter cell was done well, but was defenitely not as immersive as this game, and wasnt as satisfying. I felt a real connection to the characters in this game and knew my actions would depend on them living or not. Control wise, the game is passable and not dazzling. but with a story that really gets you immersed, it doesnt matter. texture resolution is high, and gives faces a level of realism that is good. Its not all about flair; its about style, an intelligent story and a deep plot. Its very sad to see games like this not get a sequel because of impatient, brain dead gamers. Cheers,… Expand

Honestly, I look at the scores given by reviewers and I have to wonder if they played the same game I did. People give it a lot of flak for a variety of problems, and although they aren't wrong in their criticisms, I personally found those problems minor enough to overlook considering how much fun the game is. The best part about this game is seeing how your dialogue options and choices throughout the game, this is definitely a game that rewards repeat playthroughs. To anybody interested in this game, I would say not to trust the reviews and just try the game for yourself, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I would put this game just a couple of notches below Mass Effect 2 in terms of the enjoyment I got out of it. Decent graphics (especially considering how much people complain about them), fun gameplay, and a great conversation system make this one a keeper.… Expand

I came at this game with high hopes. I am an avid gamer and RPGs are especially close to my heart. However, I was disappointed with this game for several reasons, all of which fit under the umbrella of failed to live up to expectations. A breakdown:
1. Ability to customize playable character is minimal at best. Cosmetic options are very limited, and the skill trees are drawing from an awfully shallow pool.
2. The game borrows rather than steals, becoming a reminder of better games rather than developing past greats into something new. The gameplay is *highly* derivative. To say that the game reminds strongly of: Mass Effect, the Hitman series, and the weaker moments of Splinter Cell, hardly seems like criticism; but the versions encountered in Alpha Protocol are watered down and consistently miss the mark. In doing so, they serve not as a presence of ingenious design and engaging gameplay, but as a poor copy that draws attention to its failure to imitate more perfectly. 3. The game does bring to the table a very interesting dialogue system, modeled on the ME radial. On the whole it is reasonably well-written, supports replay, and fits with the tone of the story. 4. That said, because of the cookie-cutter construction of the game, the dialogue comes out of the mouths of puppets who are obviously puppets and at no point flirt with becoming characters. 5. The AI is frequently stupid and occasionally idiotic. 6. Mechanics issues abound. Errors which in another game might be no more than irritations, in a spy game where goals, story tone, skill trees, dialogue structure are all to some extent hung on the notion of the main character being (indeed becoming) a specialist, the utter failure to allow the possibility of precise and deliberate action was, at least for me, a game-breaking flaw and fouled the whole experience.

In all, the hopes and enthusiasm I had for the game were soundly dashed by poor design decisions and what to all appearances seems to be an astonishing lack of post-production quality control.… Expand

I paid 2.50 or something on sale for this.
How in the hell is that possible ... i get over charged for games half as polished and enjoyable and feel quilty about paying this rediculous amount for a game thats clearly worth much more.
It looks good plays good and is fun.. wish i could say that about the last 60 dollar game i baught.
this one slipped through the cracks my friends.. worth playing and reminded me of Mass Effect in many ways.… Expand

I'm not sure I follow all the people complaining about this game. After just beating it on recruit, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story line is every bit as good as ME2 with a multitude of choices that directly effect the game such as bosses, allies, and enemies among a few. The reactive dialogue system is nice, you actually have to make decisions fairly quickly on if you want to kill someone or spare them, dismantle bombs or save the damsel in distress, its your call. The weapon mechanics could be much better no doubt, but it's not game breaking. Your stats will not affect weapon handling, but the modifications of your weapon will. I focused on stability and accuracy which helped quite a bit naturally. Stealth is nice, but I wouldn't say any one skill is OP over the others. For instance the shotgun gets the ability to knock down any opponent after stacking attributes on it. It's huge, I'd just knock em down and stomp on them for an instant kill and rinse and repeat. If anything I'd say nearly all the main combat skills were OP and made the game to easy. That's were the game's biggest weakness lies. I beat it on Recruit Normal, and only died 3 times. I died twice fighting the boss Brayko, and once because I climbed a latter with a guy manning a SAW pointed at my face. Those are the only times I died. That being said playing on the more difficult setting recruit the game was way to easy with the exception of Brayko. In fact it has the easiest in boss fight I've ever seen. I killed the end boss in a matter of seconds. With the exception of hacking and by passing, the game needs to be more difficult. The AI is not only stupid but ridiculously underpowered. That being said the AI in ME2 had some dumb moments as well and people making the case that ME2's AI is far superior is almost comical. The games biggest strength is it's story and dialogue options. There are literally so many variations on how to go about accomplishing missions it keeps things fresh, exciting and unpredictable. There were quite a few moments where I was genuinely surprised at the twist of the storyline. ME2 despite being an awesome game, was very predictable. All in all I think the game was worth 50 bucks, Considering you do every mission available to you it will take you right around 25 hours to beat the game, which is cheap entertainment. Once you go on your first couple of missions to Saudi Arabia you'll be hooked and you wont put the game down.… Expand

Alpha Protocol is surely one of those love or hate games. The problems are evident, such as bugs on gameplay and bad enemies AI, but if you can tolerate those then get ready to go through a great experience. The history is interesting and the dialogue/choice and consequence system is one of the best I've ever seen, which makes the replay factor a "must do". You will need and you will want to finish this game more than once.… Expand

IGN says you can easily pass this by, but they'll tell you that Mordern Warfare 2 is a must play! even though we've played every iteration of MW2 in every theater of war. AP has a lot of flaws, most due to polish and bad AI but the game still a good RPG experience.

This game has a very ambitious branching storyline but some of the worst game mechanics i've ever seen. The "stealth" in this game is basically an invisibility cloak and the boss fights look like they came out of an arcade game. It seems they would have done a lot better by just lifting the mechanics of splinter cell and combining it with the style of much superior RPGS (like deus ex) they were trying to mimic.

Speaking of which, it tries to be another RPG like deus ex in more ways than one but lacks the clever detailed gameplay or plot design of that classic. The main character is also vanilla boring and cliche. All in all this is a disappointment but not too bad if you want to be entertained by a silly storyline and some mindless entertainment. The graphics in this game are fairly dated and boring to look at.… Expand

Obsidian have really outdone themselves. The story is incredibly thrilling and well-written. Gameplay is fun and challenging, especially bosses. While you can go guns-blazing whole game, playing it as a stealth game makes it 10 times better. Also, Obsidian, who I always considered to be apprentices of the Great Bioware, have created such deep and nonlinear alternativity system, in which choices are hard and consequences can't be foreseen, that it makes me wonder: Did the student become the Master? Only time will tell. On the side note, the technical part of the game is not perfect. Sometimes freezes and lags occur. But, overall, it's a 10. Great job, Obsidian, keep it up!… Expand

Lacks a bit of polish and the controls are a tad sluggish in places, but overall quite fun to play with a nice mix of stealth and action.

For a game that is supposed to deal in espionage(which one would assume requires stealth and finesse), the controls and "stealth" system were clunky at best. They used the same graphics model with different camouflage skins for multiple firearms, which had some VERY inaccurate stats. I was expecting something on par with Splinter Cell, from all the hype. I was VERY disappointed.

The game starts off rather well. You learn about combat, and the rest of the games mechanics... The stealth and melee is quite enjoyable, but the guns are rather sub-par and the mini-games are just awful. The mini-games aren't fun and they have no place in an action game.

The boss fights, oh how horrible they are. They are tedious at best. You fight some enemy with extra health and they deal extra damage. If you went melee then you're probably going to get beaten up in a fist fight with any boss. Then, the boss fights get worse as the game goes on. There's no enjoyment is spending that much time on a fight. The story is very cliche and offers limited choices. The bugs really bring the game down, but the annoyances found in the gameplay will draw your attention instead.


If the game were just about the stealth, melee, and the occasional gun fight then it'd be a real gem... but there's just too much garbage covering up the fun.… Expand

I'm glad I only paid $2 for this on steam. Behind the frustrating control and menu interface bugs, it's a crappy port of a half-decent 3PS with some RPG elements. The cover mechanics could use some work and the AI is just terribad for 2010. The plot and level design are the only saving graces here. The variety of characters and relevant storyline are enough to keep you interested, even intrigued.

You won't want to play Alpha Protocol... Some of the big drawbacks are flaky AI responses, poor story continuity, and use of an engine that is wayyyyy dated. I was hopeful on this one, but this looks to be yet another game under the Sega umbrella that blows chunks, regardless of how great it looks.

Story and the characters are the highlight, and they work very well. Especially the characters. The game can be labeled as a spiritual successor to Deus Ex. If you liked that game, most chances you'll like this one too. In the last years the games industry has entered a prolonged stage of stagnation, and this title definitely breaks that stagnation by bringing something fresh to the market. Not entirely polished, but nonetheless fresh. Face it, if Deus Ex was released today, reviewers would slaughter it, but yet it remains one of the best games ever made.AP spans wide instead of deep and the reviewers don't like it one bit. There is room for improvement, but not in the most important parts of the game. If the name Deus Ex means anything to you, and if ten playthroughs of it were enough for you, then you should check this one out, and look past the flaws, just like you did with Deus Ex.… Expand

I must buck the trend and say I adored this game. I finished it three times doing every conceivable option and character build. The faction system forged through real character choices is fantastic. The dialogue system keeps things interesting as well. Likewise, I actually loved the combat system, although the game was too easy. Also, AP has perfect pacing; levels never drag on and the game keeps you interested until the end. I only experienced a few minor bugs, so I really can't relate to all these complaints. To me AP will go down as one of the most under-appreciated games ever. To each his or her own, but if you can look past the hate and ignore the quirks, you too might just become obsessed with being Michael Thorton.… Expand

An excellent RPG with an unprecedented amount of C&C. I found it far superior to Mass Effect 2. The different ways you can complete missions and the fact that you can choose to spare every single boss is simply impressive.

Alpha Protocol is a fun, over the top love letter to spy fiction that rewards you for taking the longer route rather than running and gunning.

Voice acting is top-notch and the improved cinematic dialogue is nowhere near the crap Bioware's Mass Effect pulled. Conversations sound and look like conversations.

The problems some players seem to have with this game are horrendously exaggerated. After playing through the unpatched game several times I have to wonder if it's not a whole bunch of faulty computer rigs that causes problems. Not to say that Alpha Protocol doesn't have it's fair share of problems, but absolutely not any more so than other Unreal Engine games. My guess is that Sega didn't give the critics their pile of "ignore all bugs"-money like EA did.… Expand

Obsidian seem to do better when they fail at ambition (Fallout new vegas, Alpha protocol, Kotor 2, and many others) rather than succeed at a polished safe game (dungeon siege 3 comes to mind). Yes, the developers make flawed games. However let's look at FNV for a moment, it's my favorite fallout game. And yes, it crashes and glitches and breaks. However it's complicated and ambitious, it has detail and quirk. Alpha protocol has it's own breed of ambition. A more subtle kind. What it does with decision making, rpg systems, and genre mixing is engaging and bold. However unlike new vegas, it feels like a budget game. The movement feels akward, the animation feels akward, the action feels arkward. In a pre-mass effect world, people would be more forgiving. However in this climate of action-rpg melding, xp systems in action games, etc. You have the action fans come in and instantly judge it for what they expect it to be. Rather than what it is. And that's not their fault either. What the game truly want's to be is a little hidden. In the end it's a role playing game - and taken as that, the clumsiness can be forgiven with persistence from the player. However if you are easily offput by production values and a budget feel - you will have already stopped playing this game. And that's a shame, because it's got a great choice system at it's heart.… Expand

This may be one of the most incorrectly reviewed games of all time. Very few, if any of the professional reviewers appear to have spent any time with this game before they called it bad and moved on. Alpha Protocol is not a bad game. It is not a mediocre game. It is not an okay game.

Alpha Protocol is a great game. Every decision, literally EVERY decision you make in the game, has a consequence. Whether that decision is letting a young girl live, or choosing to put points into martial arts, that decision will be reflected in the game. Either the girl comes back at a later time, or you smash someone's face into a table during a cut-scene, instead of just punching them.

Decisions are what this game is about. Not combat, not stealth, not being a shooter. This game is an RPG first, an RPG second, and an RPG third. The fact that combat is handled with guns from a third person perspective is irrelevant. This game hands you decision after decision, and you have to live with the choices you make.

Dialogue trees don't exist. What you have are conversations. If you say something to someone that they don't like, you don't get to go back and say something else. They stay annoyed, and the conversation builds off that.

Don't think that means you have to play nice with everyone. This game rewards you for everything you do. Did you become friends with all the ladies? Good job, go have sex with them. Did you creep all the ladies out? Tough luck, buddy. Did you piss off a highly trained killer? Hope you like getting shot.

This game not only deserves a sequel, but it demands it. Any other game that claims your choices matter should take a good, long look at Alpha Protocol, and see if their game holds up.… Collapse

Given the reviews one might get from the Gaming press it would be easy to, as I did, skip over Alpha Protocol as a buggy, nonsensical mess with a lot of ambition but not much else to say. It is not. In fact, given the caliber of other games in the RPG genre at present it is an absolute crime that Alpha Protocol is not rated better.

Getting negativity out of the way first, there are bugs, some of them are annoying like one that sometimes crashes the game when trying to reload after they player has died but for the most part these are either avoidable or not a particularly big deal. The controls are very occasionally a bit janky, at one point in the game the post mission summary potentially tells outright lies because of a misplaced trigger and the first couple of hours are definitely not the best part of the game.

That said, the story while hardly the most original or life changing is a well thought out, extremely well implemented pastiche of every thriller movie, game and book ever. What's more, the dialog, which is incredibly well written to begin with, reacts to almost everything the player chooses to do, up to and including characters reacting (sometimes dramatically) differently to you if you have rampaged through the game murdering everything in your path or played the game as a stealth game without killing anyone. It is difficult to properly express, without giving anything away, quite how reactive to the player Alpha Protocol is. While the dialog system where you pick the tone of your response and have a limited time to choose has its critics in practice the system is pretty good and certainly an improvement on the wooden and repetitive dialog trees most counterparts offer.

The shooting and stealth are both fairly good, as long as you approach it as an RPG and not a shooter, the actual gameplay is both extremely reminiscent of and a fair bit better than the original Mass Effect with a mixture of third person shooting and RPG style abilities coming into play. Stealth is occasionally difficult and sometimes slightly illogical but with practice and a little thought extremely rewarding. While there isn't too much variety in the weapons they all handle fairly well, especially if the player invests ability points in them.

The only reason I feel people have based Alpha Protocol is they came to it expecting a different game to what they got. It is not a shooter and shouldn't be judged as one, nor is it a stealth game, it is an RPG through and through and labeled as such. The closest comparisons are the original Deus Ex and the original Mass Effect, both of which it is on a par with for storytelling, dialog and gameplay.… Expand

Despite my high score here Alpha Protocol is not a game for everyone. It's also a game that you have to know exactly what your getting when you go into it. Alpha Protocol is a pure RPG. It's not an RPG shooter like Mass Effect, or Third Person Shooter with RPG elements like Mass Effect 2. A pure RPG. This means that when you shoot with a weapon you haven't trained in if you, the player, make a perfect shot the invisible maths can make it so you still miss. If you sneak around without points in stealth, no matter how diligent you are, you will be caught. Your stats drive this game as much as your choices. The mechanics of this game are not broken, they are just standard RPG mechanics put in a genre where, if I'm honest, they don't entirely belong. That said, by the later half of the game you will be sneaking shooting or hacking your way around your chosen field without much problem. Whether you will enjoy this or not is a personal choice, though I find the system to work adequately.

The choices and dialogues are what make AP shine. They've taken Bioware's Dialogue wheel and Obsidian have advanced their own influence systems, and added their own little twists making interacting with each character both enjoyable and a challenge in its own right. The timed dialogue makes conversations more fluid, reactive and just plain fun. There are no "bad relationships" with people, hostile influence offer different bonus and can even unlock completely different routes through the game. Speaking of routes, there are so many different possible ways to play through the game and a multitude of different endings (including at least 3 different "bad guy" endings) that replayability is a big plus here.

Then we come to worst part of any obsidian game. The bugs. Oh boy the bugs. From what I've seen I've missed the worst of them, but even the relatively tame ones such as the character refusing to stick to the wall for cover, or stick too much and refusing to move in time and be frustrating. Still past the bugs there is a deep, interesting and inventive game that if your willing to accept the rather odd mechanics is well worth playing.… Expand

The story is gripping and the way that it branches really gives the player the power of choices that matter. You really feel like the decisions you make have an impact on the game world and that there are consequences, both positive and negative, for the things you do and say. Some people may not like the dialog system, but I think its absolutely genius! Limiting the time you have to choose dialog responses makes you have to think on your feet and pay close attention to detail. Not to mention, it allows for great replayability of the game. The characters are also really well constructed, each with their own personality, likes and dislikes, that you have to find out to successfully navigate conversations. Voice acting is pretty good too.

Another large aspect of the game is the RPG element: choosing your skills, specializations, weapon loadout and customizations. Although the interface could use some work, it isn't the most cumbersome of console-ported interfaces. That said, I think the mechanics are well done. The skill tree is reminiscent of Mass Effect 2 except you have more individual skills to choose from which is nice. I've read that the skills can be unbalanced and lead to "power-leveling", but I've chosen to ignore reading what particular skills those are because I like finding out for myself. I'm going to defend the game here and say that unbalanced skills in an RPG is perfectly acceptable; Of course not every decision you make is going to be the right one and that is the beauty of having choices--having consequences to those choices.

The weapons customization is also slick and adds a good bit of depth to gameplay since you can customize your weapon mods to suit your play style. For example adding a silencer may decrease damage but gives you the advantage of stealth.

I also like the experience/achievements system which rewards you differently based on your approaches to situations in the game. I never felt like I was missing out by not making a particular choice, because the game would reward me either way, but the rewards would differ.

Now for the bad parts: Enemy AI is lacking. For example, anytime you sprint, guards have the uncanny ability to hone in on your location. Also, this isn't Splinter Cell: Enemy bodies disappear almost instantly and guards don't really get suspicious when you kill their friends as long as they don't directly see you doing it (or hear you). Also, the alarm system is kind of broken. The game works on a checkpoint system so even if you trigger the alarm in one checkpoint, there are no negative consequences for the following checkpoint area. This means the game is very forgiving when it comes to stealth. Trigger the alarm? No problem, just bust out your assault rifle and kill everybody in the area then continue to the next checkpoint.

The other large annoyance is the save system. The game uses checkpoints for saves and overrides each checkpoint save when you reach a new one. This can be frustrating when you want to go back in time, only to find your last manual save was 2 days ago because your checkpoints were overwritten. Now when I first found out there was no ability to quick save, I thought it was a stupid design decision. But now, I see that it falls inline with the rest of the game's design philosophy: You're choices matter and there are consequences to your actions. Allowing you to quick save whenever you want takes away from the gravity of your actions since you can redo them infinitely without consequence. Overall if I could change it, I would keep the checkpoint system, but have it save each checkpoint separately.

That said, I think the save system and the poor AI are excusable, given the very engrossing story and the very well executed branching and dialog system. That's not to say that the action and actual gameplay are not fun in their own right, just that the former elements steal the show. I'm sad to hear Alpha Protocol received such poor reception from the press and initial users, but I hope others will give this diamond in the rough a chance. And just hopefully, Obsidian will be given the chance to do a sequel.… Expand

This game is simply amazing! You get the decision making/conversation options/RPG elements similar to Mass Effect; and you get the espionage and humor from Metal Gear Solid. This all blends together to create a unique gaming experience with a huge replay factor, with different classes and game play routes. The story of this game is thrilling and always making you want to see what comes up next, every time I stopped playing I would run scenarios through my head trying to find out what would happen next!
You can choose to be a real spy and go in silent trying not to be detected, or go in guns blazing and making all the noise you could ever imagine. You get to choose who to believe, choose who to ally with, choose who to kill, and so much more.
But like with any other game ever created, and that will be created there are bugs that can get annoying at times. The graphics are decent, not the best, but nowhere near the worst. The enemy AI can be stupid at times and the saving feature is somewhat frustrating.
Overall this game has gripping game play, a very thrilling storyline, and you can replay over and over again. I really hope they make a sequel because this game truly does deserve it.… Expand

The expectations before you play could polarize your views. Some play this, expecting "Splinter Cell : The RPG". Others expect "Neverwinter Nights, guest-starring Sam Fisher". It's probably more "Mass Effect in modern times" This would be a good game, if it wasn't for Obsidian's modus operandi of making something that could be awesome, but failing to implement it correctly. There are bugs, optimization issues, dumb AI, annoying saving (and loading) system, and short-ish campaign. On the other hand, it *is* engaging. Dialogue options, one of those "choice and consequences" concept that doesn't fall flat on its face, different gameplay approaches that actually work, and finally a plot that doesn't revolve around doomsday nuclear weapons threatening the world peace. As an old-time pen-and-paper RPG player, I can confidently say this is a role-playing game. Those who play for action may be disappointed.… Expand

I'd like to review the game but seeing as the game crashes at the launcher and the .exe file doesn't run to skip the launcher, it gets zero. Another good try Obsidian, here's hoping you don't run Fallout New Vegas into the ground like you did with the KoToR series.

Do not in anyway purchase this broken and uncomplete excuse for a console port. Abysmal, i gave it two cause I liked the conversation options and how characters interact, too bad the interacting is like it was written by a 11 year old. Bad game.

This game is my favorite Spy game to date, I had really high hops for this game ever since I first saw it announced in gamerreview magazine, it met alot of my expectations except for one or two charactors that I didnt see in the game or didnt have much dialoge with. This game is alot of fun to play and as much as I love Mass effect 1/2 I think the action/custimization in this game is better, now with that said there are some glitches with enemys that would be AWESOME if they fixed but even with that the story is interesting enough for me to ignore that.… Expand