Alpha Protocol Retrospective

Eurogamer’s Richard Cobbett has penned a retrospective for Alpha Protocol, and while it’s clear that he loves more the idea and some design aspects of Obsidian’s title than the actual game mechanics and plot, he has plenty of words of praise for the espionage RPG.

Here’s a snip:

I suppose it’s not too surprising that people haven’t. Alpha Protocol is many things, but one of them is unquestionably a bit of a mess – a game of clunky shooting, appalling hacking mini-games and often poorly thought out RPG mechanics that could very easily lead to impossible situations. It annoyed the crap out of me many times while playing it.

Reinstalling it now, memories deadened by a year or so, time hasn’t exactly been kind. It’s far from a bad game, and it’s one I’d still recommend checking out. But it is one you have to meet halfway – or at least, grit your teeth and endure the opening desert missions in all their awfulness. If there’s one thing an action RPG with aspirations of shooterdom should never openly draw comparisons to, it’s Call of Duty.

For all its faults though, what it does well it does really well. Alpha Protocol’s greatest tragedy is that its ideas and brilliance have been completely overlooked by the games that could have benefited so much from them. Deus Ex: Human Revolution for instance springs instantly to mind. So many times, in so many games since finishing it, I’ve caught myself saying “You know what this needs? The words Alpha Protocol 2 in its title.”

I’m inclined to agree with some of the writer’s sentiments, as I too wish that more titles learned from its branching structure and choice and consequences-oriented design.