Alpha Protocol (Hands On)
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Some declassified time with the upcoming role playing game that has players taking on the world of espionage
Tags: Alpha Protocol Categories: PS3 Previews, Previews, Xbox 360 Previews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 21st, 2009
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Alpha Protocol is billed as spy oriented action RPG, but after a while actually playing the game, it felt more like an action game with a spy theme and some RPG elements thrown in. Players can go through the various levels using straight up action, guns blazing, as well as sneaking about and silently taking down foes. Each method has its own rewards. By placing more emphasis on hand to hand combat instead of pistols, the way the game is played will be different from the player who places more emphasis on ranged weapons and moving about stealthily. Other attributes that players can “level up” include mastering technology, better health or conversational skills.
The game opens up with a little bit of a mystery as to the introduction of the character, and soon the player is thrust into battle behind enemy lines in Saudi Arabia. It takes a while to get to this point, so some patience with the beginning is needed. We get a bit of training and quite a lot of dialogue at the beginning of Alpha Protocol, which helps to immerse the player in the game environment.
It is the dialogue that seems to be the central feature Alpha Protocol wants players to focus on, with different “stances” to take during conversations. Players can maintain a professional atmosphere, or attempt to be smooth and suave. Occasionally a more aggressive stance will be needed, or at time when the opportunity arises, simply taking some action and interrupting the flow of the actually conversation may be more productive.
While the first section of the game that I played through seemed to focus more on straight action where gunplay was a requirement, later levels are promised to be more varied. Some groups are going to be able to detect the stealthy spy easier, but will be a bit easier to take down. Others will be tougher to take out, but easier to navigate around. This is all meant to balance out the gameplay and provide a variety of challenges without emphasizing one style of play over another.
With the variety of play methods comes a branching storyline. Players will not know who the enemy truly is until towards the end of the game, and the dialogue choices will affect this. Each style of dialogue will come with its own rewards, there is no “good versus evil” dichotomy to worry about. It is possible to play through the game acting like a total jerk and get rewarded for it.
Playing through the game will open up a new difficulty level, the recruit, where the dialogue is altered to reflect somebody coming into the agency as a total beginner. Skill points will be reflective of this and the player will start out with nothing. By finishing this, veteran mode open up and then the game is playable with the characters as a super bad ass and the dialogue will reflect this as well. Another reason that it will take a while to unlock this mode is that it will feature some of the more over the top moves that one might more readily associate with a parody if it were initially placed in the main game.
While the first mission set centers on Saudi Arabia, three other cities are also featured in Alpha Protocol. After the first location players will have the opportunity to “respec” their character (redistribute the attribute points accumulated) then head to Moscow, Taipei and Rome. Another storyline feature Alpha Protocol will have is the ability to hit these cities in any order. The game isn’t an “open ended” sandbox style of game, but does allow players to carve out their own path to the ending.
A couple of things bothered me about the game as I played it, and it wouldn’t be fair for me to gloss over them. The first is that the game felt a bit more action oriented than RPG. I’m sure that as I progress further in the final game when it arrives I’ll get a greater sense of actually leveling up my character and his attributes, but Alpha Protocol really felt much more like an action game than anything else from the section that I played. The other thing that really bothered me was the complete inability to pick up an enemy’s weapon after taking them out. That person is dead and won’t be needing that RPG launcher, but I sure could use it on that group of enemies. I should be allowed to pick it up.
Still, despite these issues, Alpha Protocol was fun. I only got to play a little over an hour of the game’s beginning so I wasn’t able to delve as deep into the gameplay as I would have liked, but do feel that I got a good taste. What I’ve seen does have me eager to see more.
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Tags: Alpha Protocol
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 21st, 2009 and is filed under PS3 Previews, Previews, Xbox 360 Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
