If you manage to get over the repulsive first mission, some highly addictive role playing experience lies in store next.

User Rating: 8 | Alpha Protocol PC
First impressions...why do we tend to guide ourselves by them ever so strictly? Despite the undeniable fact we cannot have the slightest clue what we might be missing on in the moment of prejudice? This lame philosophing took over my mind just now, after finishing Alpha Protocol. I haven't underestimated something THIS much in a long time, if ever.

On the other hand I have to admit even the first impression is important, but AP completely ignores that and so the game starts with an utterly repulsive mission without sending any hints it could turn for better eventually. And so the first hour of the game the player has to wander around a visually disgusting Saudi Arabia, while they're constantly frustrated by technical blunders, annoyed by unpolished controls, and bothered by a very unlikable macho dude. I gave up on the game at this point the first time I played it and uninstalled it. But then I saw the wave of positive comments and ratings and ultimately decided to give it a second chance, with the goal to find out that hidden charm of the game...

And indeed, right after Saudi Arabia the cards turn around with a massive impact. By that I mean the game really does get better. In design, the locations are still kind of meh (and visually too, I guess), but at least they're more interesting by themselves, and overall more likable. Only then I also started to like local dialogues, only then the scene was approached by relatively believable and sympathetic characters, only then I made enough of money to get some worthy addition to my equipment, only then I started to feel how my character truly improves with all the invested upgrades, etc.

The sad part is, as much as the creators did their best on the upgrades, or to put it better on their influence on the character, they somehow forgot to adjust the missions in relation to the upgrades and balancing the whole thing out that way. In other words, after couple upgrades you throw your character through the game becomes a breeze with a finger up the nose and legs on the table (yes, I'm talking about the difficulty). The enemies are across the whole game always just as weak and armed with just as poor weapons, the superiority after setting alarms off is always totally scant (which kills all the motivation to use stealth, when you don't NEED it at any point of the game) and...well, truth be told, there is an unexpected difficulty boost in the final mission (in the outdoors area, to be specific), but even then it's unfortunately soon forgotten thanks to the final boss of the game, who is due to the combination of lame AI and not very thorough level design the easiest of them all, despite the fact he's got the strongest gun to attack you with.

But, to conclude, AP is more than anything highly entertaining and very upstanding RPG, and when one loves this, the hidden charm of the game simply does start to take effect and the game becomes one hell of an addiction. The technical buggers, which strongly repulse you at the beginning of the game, are present throughout the whole thing (and at one point they almost block the progress), and I admit I can't simply look over them and they do reflect in my rating (and I honestly, from the heart of my botton, envy all those who claim they didn't even stumble upon them), but other than that...other than that it's just great and most importantly it taught me to screw first impressions altogether and never prejudge again. Who knows, perhaps I will now be able to find more lost treasures...:)

+ It's faithful to the genre, it's damn addictive, it's damn fun, the story, the dialogues, some of the characters, upgrades show in full beauty

- Saudi Arabia, piles upon piles of technical issues, weak graphics, weak level design, weak AI, a very low difficulty overall, most of the available junk to buy is completely useless, the outro is god awful