Disclaimer: I am not a professional journalist or game reviewer. I am a gamer who plays games for the sake of enjoyment. Hence, my focus will not be on eye-candy (In-game and visuals alike, you’ll find out when you play it) or awesome surround sound, but above-average gameplay. What I write here is my opinion. All registered trademarks and brand names are intellectual property of their respective owners.

Alpha Protocol, developed by Obsidian Entertainment(Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights 2) and published by SEGA, thrusts you, the would-be super spy, into a virtual world of espionage, double-crossing, deal-making and the like. You take on the role of Michael Thorton (Yes, that’s Thorton and not Thornton), a deniable-operations agent, who finds himself in the midst of some really, really confusing and ambiguous global politics. No spoilers, now.

Basic premise of the game is an FPS, with added tactical options, covered with a layer of role-playing elements, albeit a bit too thinly at times. While Obsidian did a fair job of immersing the player in the game’s environments, there are moments where you tend to wish you had more realism, especially when you’ve got the drop on your adversaries and they shrug off the blast and shrapnel from a fragmentation ‘nade that just went off some 2 metres away in the open.

Starting off with visuals; I’ve heard and read comments about AP having somewhat dated graphics for being a mid-2010 release. I’m not sure about that. True, the occasional graphical glitch where you see through walls when up close will cause some irritation, but apart from that, the visuals are fairly decent, and definitely not too taxing on a mid-range system (Radeon HD2600 + Core 2 Duo E7400). It’s no Mass Effect 2, though, so don’t go looking for that kind of fit and finish. 7/10 for this one.

Audio:

The weapon sounds are…odd. Just that, odd. They don’t sound too reassuring when you’re paying close attention to your adversaries’ gunfire. Also, sound seems to have little dampening. I can overhear a conversation through a solid concrete wall. My weapon reloads are unbelievably loud (and no one seems to notice!). My crouched footsteps are a bit of a wildcard here: they’re quieter than my reloads but they trigger curious investigative-guard behaviour. It could be linked to the gameplay, but all in all, the sound is a bit of a ‘meh’ moment for AP. 4/10.

Gameplay:

It’s not as stealth-oriented as Splinter Cell Conviction (I can NOT believe I’m saying this), and it definitely throws more combat confrontation chances your way, but it has its moments. Suspension of realism must be applied here; I find it hard to believe that a dark outfit in a shadow can be spotted from across the doorway but a blue/black outfit sneaking across an open railway yard can be missed by two observers in an observation post (This is where the RPG elements kick in: stealth score, affected by stealth stats, gadgets, and stances).

The AI tends to do some rather silly things at times, such as walk in a circle when checking out an unconscious or dead person, and not taking cover when getting shot at (apparently if they ran fast enough I can’t hit them; what sound reasoning).

Firearm combat is pretty standard, with a few neat twists, such as critical shots if aiming at a target long enough; massive shotgun blasts that knock adversaries, objects and what have you to the floor (Concussive shot from Mass Effect/2, anyone?), no-reload, continuous-fire submachine gun skills (Assault rifle barrage, again from M.E.), and the like. I’d like to see this get a ton of improvements, otherwise it’ll remain a somewhat mediocre core to an otherwise decent game. 6.5/10.

Controls:

Oh my this one’s a clunky one. Camera controls are terribly awkward at times, especially when dealing with aiming/peeking round corners. Aiming/character view control is also another flawed aspect: gun aiming’s too sensitive, and view control’s too sluggish. What this means is, turn one up/down to acceptable levels and the other will be terribly twitchy/sluggish. Definite problem here with 3/10.

All in all, AP is worth a patient, determined playthrough or three if you can look past the gameplay issues and initial dreary gameplay. Once you get used to the game and break past the initial ‘weakness’ of your character, though, you’ll begin to appreciate the decent immersion of the environment.