Obsidian has a great deal of amazing gameplay mechanics ideas. It's only a shame that they were unable to implement them
Alright, I'll begin with the strong points of the game. Like any Obsidian game, Alpha Protocol delivers good voice acting, story and dialogues. I won't go over a resume of the story as you probably know it by now, it might feel somewhat generic, but it's convincing. The minigames for lockpicking, hacking and disarming alarm are simple and original. The game allows for plenty of customization for appearance, weapons, armour and skills. Sadly, that about sums it up for the strong points.
On the downside, Alpha Protocol has a lot going for it. The first thing that irked me was the character animations. Walking almost feels like floating and sneaking around is laughable. However, facial and melee animations are good. The graphics themselves are outdated - they're not awful, but we've seen much, much better. The shooting mechanic is unintuitive and bland, not to mention Headshots will not guarantee you an easy kill. The cover system doesn't work well, the camera will often get in the way of your shooting and you'll have a hard time taking cover in some spots. The AI is terribly bad, enemies run around for no reason, climb ladders out of nowhere and they have the annoying "aim bot" ability, which brings me to stealth. There is no actual stealth in this game, you cannot hide in shadows or bushes, there's only a number of passive and active abilities that make you more quiet or invisible for a period of time, but once the enemy has spotted you, you can't hide. On top of that, if an alarm is triggered and you don't turn it off, every enemy will know your exact position, even if they're a hundred feet, three restrooms and a labyrinth away.
Alpha Protocol presents good storytelling and characters, but does not satisfy in every other aspects. There are a lot of great ideas in this game, but none are fully developed. If Obsidian had pulled off stealth mechanics ala Splinter Cell and shooting ala Mass Effect 2, this game would've been perfect.