Alpha Protocol Reviews

A second batch of Alpha Protocol reviews are now available for our scrutiny, though they’re not the most favorable critiques I’ve ever seen.

GameSpot gives it a 6.0/10:

Alpha Protocol’s ambitions are commendable, and if you’re a role-playing fanatic, you’ll enjoy investigating its intricacies. It’s unfortunate that its various ingredients are so undercooked. The flaky cover system, the mediocre production values, the fundamental blemishes gone unchecked–these elements add up quickly and drag the experience down. The elaborate storytelling and character progression are impressive. It’s too bad that the gawky, glitchy gameplay can’t rise to the same standard.

G4 gives it a 2/5:

Obsidian has the talent. We’ve seen the studio make great games that merge action and role-playing before. But in this instance their intel was bad and the mission a failure. From a squandered setting to dysfunctional gameplay to numerous bugs, it’s very difficult to recommend Alpha Protocol to nearly anyone beyond the most masochistically hardcore RPG fan. But even to those still considering, I’d lend this piece of advice: Treat Alpha Protocol like a covert government operation. Pretend like it never existed.

1UP gives it a “B+”:

It’s always left me a little bit dismayed that the modern definition of a role playing game has been “pretty much any other kind of game, except with a lot more numbers in it.” Alpha Protocol has XP and skills to level up and whatnot, but the dialogue is what has me paying attention. I don’t have a lot of patience for cut-scenes, but cut-scenes where at any second I may have to make a snap decision that will determine how a good chunk of the rest of the game plays out, as well as how other characters will relate to me? That’s the textbook definition of roleplaying, which doesn’t enter into games all that often, and almost never in a context that doesn’t involve elves.

And Destructoid gives it a dismal 2/10:

It’s disgusting that a game in this forsaken a state is asking for a single thin dime, let alone sixty bucks. Even if it was free I wouldn’t recommend it. Alpha Protocol, to its slim credit, has its basis in noble and ambitious ideas, and those ideas are even well executed on the whole. However, while the ambitious stuff hits the mark, the bog standard gameplay has suffered beyond measure. You can build the most magnificent castle in the world, but if the foundations are made out of wet feces, everything’s going to crumble and fall apart before your very eyes. Alpha Protocol is a castle that’s collapsed in crap. Proof that even the most accomplished of visions are worthless if the fundamentals aren’t in place.