Part of me longs to be done with this in as efficient a manner as possible. A list of pros and cons, a few features, some discussion on what works and what doesn’t, a score, bam, mission successful. A path that leaves nobody very fulfilled; non-committal, cold and disconnected. There’s a temptation to wax lyrical about what the game does right, throw a few compliments its way, butter it up a bit. God knows there are things to love about this game and with the correct words, the appropriate coaxing, one could grow to share that love.

But like all great romances, this could end in tragedy. Then there’s a voice in the back of my head, screaming in fury, urging me to release the pent-up rage at what could – and should – have been.

Scroll down to read our guide named 'Dialog Choices Guide' for Alpha Protocol on Xbox 360 (X360), or click the above links for more cheats. Mission order/tips for easier gameplay. Make Alpha Protocol a shooter, just edit a file.

To denigrate, to expose, to burn all my bridges with Obsidian’s latest, and never look back. To invoke the wrath of a thousand militant defenders to protect a thousand more. If one thing is certain, it’s that Alpha Protocol is a complicated beast. At its core beats the heart of an old school RPG, masked in third person shooter clothing. Agent Mike Thorton, newly-drafted to clandestine deniable ops unit Alpha Protocol, begins his mission as little more than a blank slate of non-talent; a smattering of skill points is all that stands between him and a bullet to the brain. He can’t really shoot straight, you see, and if he applies himself to learning too many things then he just won’t be very good at any of them. At his disposal are a list of skills to improve, each with various phases of completion.

Like any spy restricted by RPG tropes, Thorton has a limited number of points to spend on abilities, and specialising in a few is preferable to diversifying across the board. This was reinforced when, early in the game, it was time to choose three skills to extend to the final tier. Even by then, however, it’s still difficult to have a handle on the best combination to go with, something which remains prevalent throughout.

It’s never very clear just how the game wants you to play, and despite the choice on offer it seems as if you’re frequently punished for the kind of character you’ve created. In the right hands, this could be pulled off masterfully; a risk/reward system that balances every possible build with pros and cons, alternate approaches, different obstacles to overcome. I’m not convinced Obsidian has the wrong hands, but here those hands shake and fumble to devastating effect. On my first playthrough, I turned Thorton into a superspy with a penchant for electronics and sabotage. By the end he could access any computer, pick any lock, shut down any alarm.

He could even suffer the sluggish, fiddly minigames to do so. Their time limits, though unreasonable, were a breeze to him.

His aptitude with a pistol was to be feared, his perfectly timed headshots dropping foes silently. And if they saw him, his grasp of stealth was such that they’d soon believe they hadn’t. His ability to temporarily turn invisible, even when taking down one guard in direct view of another, came in handy on numerous occasions. It was a shame, then, that Ultimate Espionage Thorton regularly found himself facing down helicopters, armoured miniguns, disco-dancing playboys and one hateful character who seemed to think that behaving like a bull was an appropriate way to stage a boss fight.

The bosses are horrible, misjudged bullet sponges who serve no purpose other than to get in the way. As I built up my Pistols tree, and improved the Chain Shot ability which lets you ‘paint’ your targets before firing off rounds, some of these bosses became more tolerable, albeit never actually enjoyable.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt somewhat, even if their presence irritated me no end. I was a stealth character after all; of course they’d take more punishment.

My second playthrough, as Gung-ho Psycho Thorton, a tough guy with skill in rifles and punching things, showed how wrong I was. Somehow the bosses were even worse, many taking upwards of 100 direct shots from the assault rifle to kill. In contrast, Alpha Protocol’s regular enemies are far more reasonable.

A well-placed headshot will always kill. Body shots do damage based on location and armour quality.

It’s exactly how it should be. Each of the different factions supposedly has different traits, different arsenals and behaviours, yet in practise they all acted in the same way, firing and charging at me blindly if they could see me, ambling about like typical henchmen when they couldn’t.When they’re not stuck in pool tables, or drifting down from the ceiling at spawn points, the goons, soldiers and guards make for decent enough cannon fodder as long as your weapon skill is high enough to actually hit them. As Ultimate Espionage Thorton, the early stages of the game saw my pistol ability as sketchy at best, which was fine when hidden, taking out each enemy with stealth and cunning, but all too often they’d be alerted to my presence and everything would fall apart. That’s almost certainly the point. You’re meant to improve, not just in player ability but in character skill, and there’d be no point if your early skills never let you down. But rather than a tense learning experience, this just led to irritating trial and error gameplay as alarms went off, men fired from all angles, charging in and punching me with reckless abandon.My pistol – little more than a peashooter with skewed sights when I didn’t have the luxury of lining up a shot – proved about as useful in a firefight as a can of whipped cream.

Ultimate Espionage Thorton was a lover, not a fighter, and even a reluctant lesson in shotgun usage did nothing to equip him for toe to toe fights. Yet when the stealth worked, it worked a treat, and playing as Gung-ho Psycho Thorton felt hollow in comparison. Charging into a room and shooting everything with disregard to Thorton’s own personal safety led to most missions being over in the blink of an eye, a trail of quickly-vanishing bodies providing a very empty sense of accomplishment. Sneaking around, acting like a spy, pulling off a mission flawlessly; those are the moments that caused the game to really shine, even if in the next breath it dragged me, kicking and screaming, off the path I wanted to take.While the combat is a schizophrenic affair, the dialogue is another matter entirely. The plot may be hackneyed, throwaway spy thriller nonsense but the characters who populate the world of Alpha Protocol are anything but, from the deranged ‘agent’ Steven Heck and smouldering photojournalist Scarlet Lake, to the monotone sociopath Conrad Marburg and his boss, the antagonist, Henry Leland. Thorton is a bit of a boorish nobody when he's speaking for himself, but when control of his reactions is handed over, he becomes integral to constructing some of gaming’s finest dialogue scenes. At numerous points throughout, Thorton’s next response is placed in the hands of the player, with a small time limit in which to give one of three (or occasionally four) responses.

B is always professional, the straight-talking agent. Y is abrupt, aggressive or downright insulting. And X, although labelled as casual, suave or seductive, might as well be called the sex pest button. Sometimes A crops up too, if some damning info has been acquired to use against someone (or occasionally, for a swift kill).By crafting Thorton’s responses to suit any given situation, a refreshing change from ‘good or bad’ is observed. Boss man Westridge likes aggressive, eager soldiers. Scarlet likes honesty. Some characters demand adaptive responses to suit the situation, with Thorton quickly jumping from casual to serious to get what he wants.

Others, disappointingly, can be won over simply by pressing one button on every conversation option. Even more disappointing is the reaction when a character hates you. Ultimate Espionage Thorton took care to keep on everyone’s good side, forging deals and alliances, sparing lives and talking through his issues.

Everyone liked him. At the beginning of the game, I was warned this isn’t always the best approach. Indeed, having a handler who hates you can provide an ability boost for that mission (-10% cool-down on special moves, for instance) which may be more beneficial than the respective ‘friendship’ boost. Unfortunately, that seemed to be all annoying people was good for. As Gung-ho Psycho Thorton, I earned the hatred of regular handler Mina Tang, who proceeded to talk to me in the same pleasant way she did when I was Ultimate Espionage Thorton. Other characters may react with more hostility, but this usually just leads to missions being cut slightly short, fewer pieces of equipment being available, and generally less to see and do.

It’s hardly an incentive to play differently, and out of the two Thortons, the Ultimate Espionage edition provided a considerably better experience.Even characters who like you disappear for lengthy spells, some only returning in bit parts that cause their personalities to fall flat. There’s an entire feeling throughout Alpha Protocol that bits are missing, either removed or never finished in the first place, and all the entertaining interaction does little to contradict the notion that you’re playing a stripped down version of the intended game. The main three locations can be done in any order, and while it may appear that scenes and dialogue are added based on what you’ve already done, after two playthroughs it becomes apparent that it’s more of a case of things being removed unless you do the missions in the ‘correct’ order. The illusion of choice is shattered when the only way to see everything properly is to do it in the order the game lists.Most disheartening of all was the final mission. When the routes converge, for them to mean something the pay-off has to be spectacular. Instead it was as if the game -already struggling with intrusive loading freezes and numerous technical issues- just gave up.

I decided to ally with a certain person who proceeded to contact me with encouragement and death threats throughout. One minute he was talking about how we were working together, the next telling me he was coming for me, that I wouldn’t get far. Objectives I was given by my handler frequently failed to match up to the objectives I was allowed to complete. In one section, I was tasked with doing one thing only for an automatic scene to cut in showing Thorton doing something entirely different, something which had no relevance to what was going on, and never made sense with how things transpired. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the game had overcomplicated itself, had offered me all these potential routes without being able to track the ones I’d taken. And for a game where the action was a means to an end, where the twisting, turning journey was the draw, this was unforgivable.So Alpha Protocol is a game about choices and consequences. It’s also a vehicle for ropy combat, infuriating minigames and seducing every woman who glances your way.

It’s a harrowing tale of ambition which far exceeds its boundaries, of broken promises and broken game mechanics. Characters drift in and out of Thorton’s story as swiftly as enemies drift in and out of the scenery.

It’s a fleeting glimpse of something great, mired in frustration and disappointment. It’s a game in which you’re free to choose your own path, as long as you’re prepared for an arduous hike and don’t stray too far off the safety of the trail. And in the end, just as all paths lead to the same destination, my thoughts always arrive at the same conclusion: This deserved to be so much better.

.: May 27, 2010.: May 28, 2010.: June 1, 2010Mode(s)Alpha Protocol is an developed by and published. It was released for, and in May 2010. The player assumes control of agent Michael Thorton, a new recruit at a clandestine United States agency called Alpha Protocol, which is given unlimited resources to conduct covert operations on behalf of the government. Thorton becomes a rogue agent and must unravel an international conspiracy to stop a war. Throughout the game, players must make many choices that affect the narrative.

Played from a, players can confront enemies using firearms, gadgets, martial arts,. The game features extensive customization and a dialogue stance system that allows players to select dialogues based on three different tones.The game's development began in March 2006 after publisher Sega approached Obsidian for a new role-playing game.

While Obsidian co-founders and came up with the concept of an 'espionage RPG', no one was assigned to lead the project until early 2008. The project was mostly inspired by iconic spy characters such as, and; and by films including,. Sega also participated in the game's development, supporting the plot rewrite by, and sending quality assurance and cohesion strike teams to ensure there were no plot holes.Alpha Protocol received polarized reviews upon release. Critics praised the game's setting, customization, and reactivity, but criticized its gameplay, story, graphics, and presentation; it was generally considered to be ambitious but executed many concepts poorly. Retrospectively, the game's reputation improved and it gained a.

Despite Obsidian's desire to develop a sequel, intellectual property owner Sega was not satisfied with the game's financial performance and no sequel is planned. All sales of Alpha Protocol were halted in June 2019 due to expired music licenses. In this gameplay screenshot, Michael Thorton is hiding behind a in the midst of a.Alpha Protocol is an played from a. Players assume control of Michael Thorton, a secret agent who must travel around the world as he unravels a conspiracy that threatens his safety. At the start of the game, players can choose Thorton's agent history; options include Soldiers—which focuses on using heavy firearms, Tech Specialists—which have an arsenal of gadgets to use, and Field Agents—which encourages the use of.

There are also Freelancer, Recruit, and Veteran options, in which players custom-build their own class. Players can customize elements of Thorton's appearance, including his hair, eye color, costumes, and accessories including hats and glasses.Missions typically start at a safe house, which serves as a hub for players. In the hub, players can select missions, access the to buy weapons and intelligence, and use the weapon locker.

Weapons can be extensively customized; options include the addition of a scope to improve shooting accuracy and the use of phosphorus ammunition to burn enemies. In missions, players can approach their objectives in a variety of ways; they can directly confront enemies using the four weapon classes—submachine guns, pistols, assault rifles, and shotguns—and use gadgets such as grenades, and detonated mines. Players can buy armor that boosts Thorton's endurance during missions.

Non-lethal means can also be used; Thorton can use martial arts or tranquilizing guns to knock out enemies, and stealth to evade enemies and security measures such as cameras. Levels are intricate, with multiple paths for players to use and explore. Players can collect money bags and open safes in mission areas, and use the money to buy weapons after returning to the hub. Players can hide behind a cover to evade enemy fire and prevent themselves being noticed. To open locked doors and encrypted computers, and disable alarms, players must hack them by completing mini-games.

A mission summary screen, which lists the number of completed objectives and individual players killed or knocked out, appears after the completion of missions.By choosing the correct dialogue options and completing certain gameplay challenges, players can earn small combat enhancements called Perks. Thorton's skills can be extensively customized. Players earn while completing certain actions. Skills points are earned when players after earning sufficient experience points, which can be used to upgrade nine aspects of Thorton's skills; namely Stealth, Pistols, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, Assault Rifles, Sabotage, Technical Aptitude, Toughness and Martial Arts. Spending points on these aspects unlock new skills that can be activated to enhance Thorton's combat efficiency. For instance, a skill known as Chain Shot slows the passage of time and allows players to kill enemies in rapid succession.

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