Picked this game up because I had a gift certificate.

User Rating: 7 | Alpha Protocol PC
I gave this "review" the title I did, not because I am instantly trying to deride the game, but simply to illustrate that given what I had read and heard about the game, it's unlikely I would have purchased the game at full value.

That being said, I doubt I have to review the premise of the game in any detail, but for clarity Alpha Protocol: The Espionage RPG is a game where you take on the role of a spy investigating the destruction of an in-flight airliner. That investigation quickly leads you into the grim and murky world of international politics, money and power.

I thought the opening sequence of the game was pretty well done. With the exception of the abrupt introduction into the conversation mechanic (more on that later) I felt the developers did a great job of keeping you out of the loop as to what was actually going on.

However the opening sequence also revealed some of the games bigger flaws that continue throughout the game.

The cover mechanic:

While for the most part the cover mechanic is reasonably effective, a few glaring glitches, control and camera issues and inconsistencies pop up often enough that can make taking cover, maneuvering while in cover and leaving cover a bit more frustrating that it needs to be. A couple of examples: while in cover sometimes you will be seen and it's not clear why you were seen when in other similar instances you remain undetected. A section of wall that looks exactly like one you just left behind from cover, suddenly cannot be used to provide cover. You cannot throw a grenade from a crouched position when behind cover -- as I found out when I blew myself up into tiny bits. And on rare but annoying occasions, either due to bad camera angles or glitches in the game, I was unable to leave cover and move along, so I had to reload a previous save.

The shooting mechanic:

Pistols are pretty useless. Maybe they become better if you invest the points into them, but at low levels, shooting enemies with the pistol had virtually no effect. Shotguns are OK provided you can get close enough to use them without getting eviscerated. That leaves sub-machine guns which eat ammunition like it grows on trees and hit the target about as often as I would (and one would think a spy would be better able to stabilize the weapon), and assault rifles, which are so overpowered I almost feel bad using them. I find the targeting mechanic to actually be pretty good ... once I have the rifle locked onto a target's head (for instance) a single burst will bring that target down. Which leads me into asking, why I can only use the assault rifles in automatic fire mode? Why can't I set them to fire a single shot to conserve ammunition?

The conversation mechanic:

While chatting up characters in the game, you will eventually get prompts at the bottom of the screen that range (usually) from professional, suave and aggressive. The game tries to get you to get a feel for the character and respond in ways that will cause the character's attitude to adjust to you in positive ways. That way when that character acts are your 'handler' you will get bonuses to one attribute or another. However, it's not always clear how you should respond to get a positive response and that is further complicated by the fact that you only have a discreet amount of time to make your choice. On a few occasions (especially near the beginning of the game when I was unused to the timing aspect) I "chose" a conversation style that had a negative impact of the character's attitude toward me. However, those negative attitudes don't seem to have greatly impacted game play much -- if at all. But why the developers decided a timing mechanic was necessary OR why greater detail isn't given for the responses is a bit of a mystery to me.

The stealth mechanic:

This ties in with the cover mechanic, but why you can sometimes walk right up to an NPC and remain undetected while on other occasions you are spotted from a pretty good distance is hard to understand. Also once you get about half way through the upgrades in the Stealth abilities, you gain the ability to literally become invisible for a short period of time. This is not a hiding in shadows ability or using NPC line of sight to your advantage; your character becomes superhuman and can turn completely invisible. I did not understand that game play decision at all. Basically if you are patient enough, you could kill almost every NPC (non boss) without ever firing a shot.

Enemy AI:

Atrocious. There's no other word for it. The NPCs will move in inexplicable patrol patterns or will stand facing a wall for eternity. They will run right down the hall into your gun fire, they will bumble into one another trying to find cover (which they never do), they will occasionally notice a fallen comrade and simply go berserk, while at other times they will blithely ignore their dead compatriot and continue on as if nothing is amiss. I also think they took shooting lessons from Star Wars Stormtroopers as they couldn't hit me from range if I were chained to the wall.

All that being said, I still find I am enjoying the game. The flaws I mentioned above are in some ways inexcusable at this day and age, but they can all be overlooked and/or worked around such that they aren't game breaking. The characters you meet throughout your investigation are for the most part reasonably interesting, the locations are exotic and look well enough (especially the safe houses), the missions do provide some latitude as to how to complete them (either guns blazing, using stealth or some combination of both) and the story is put together well enough that I found myself getting drawn in.

Bottom line, I think Gamespot's rating of six is a bit low and I would recommend this game to others provided they knew ahead of time that there are some game play elements that should have been improved upon and/or fixed prior to it's release. Even with its flaws, the game is still enjoyable.