Alpha Protocol Preview

A new hands-on preview of Obsidian’s spy-themed RPG Alpha Protocol has surfaced over on the Official Xbox Magazine website.

…we grabbed a controller and headed out on the first mission, which finds Thorton awakening in a medical bay, dazed and confused. Immediately, you choose whether to rip out your IV or leave it in. Of course, much weightier matters are often yours to decide, from the fate of major NPCs to whether you want to try to sweet-talk the ladies, you superspy you.

But at first, we blasted through a horde of guards in what turned out to be a cool mini-surprise that we ain’t spoiling. Alpha Protocol felt much more like a third-person shooter than an RPG and that’s intentional. (Our biggest concern was that when you play a low-level D&D character, you kind of suck,) Parker says. (We spent a lot of time on a rules system that allows for player skill, [while granting] a lot of advantages based on your character’s [level] over the course of the game.)

So while you will see XP earnings pop up in all the usual places, we were also able to deftly connect with headshots right from the start. And in another mission, where Obsidian bestowed a much more advanced character on us, we got to see how those skills pan out. You can level up Thorton in 10 areas half involve combat, but there’s also stealth, hacking, gadget use, and health. Improving in each earns you special abilities that Parker freely admits (are kind of like spells. They’re well beyond what a normal human can do.)