Alpha Protocol

E3 2008 Preview

Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming third-person action RPG is an ambitious take on the espionage world where rookie CIA agent, Michael Thorton, is out to make a name and uncover a huge conspiracy.

Being played within the third-person perspective, Alpha Protocol looks a lot like Syphon Filter meets Mass Effect in terms of gameplay. Players can choose to run through the levels with no regard of tactics or slow it down, as Mass Effect allowed, and choose your actions before the combat begins. With spy gadgets and firearms at your disposal, the decision on how the game is played is ultimately up to the player.

The role-playing elements being thrown in include the ability to earn Advancement Points which players can use within ten different skill sets in the game. Whether you’re upgrading a weapon or giving Thorton the chance to learn new abilities, the role-playing elements will come in handy. In one portion, Thorton was able to slow down time and select up to three enemies in the area to kill before they ever have a chance to fire back. Another ability they showed off was the chance to use a reticule for the gun to get a headshot on the enemy.

To appease role-playing fanatics, Alpha Protocol features countless characters to interact with and tons of dialogue options to play through. Rather than taking the route of Mass Effect, players won’t have the chance to repeat dialogue to get a result that is eventually favorable to them. If you decide to flirt with a girl and it goes horribly awry, there’s no chance of going back to win her over. The dialogue options include the ability to be aggressive, suave or laid back in your responses. Players will need to beware of not insulting or belittling characters or else they’ll suffer from losing the chance to learn critical information that would otherwise be helpful in the game.

There’s also the feature for players to customize their player by means of disguises that they can apply to their character in their safe house. Throwing on garb such as a military outfit or a James Bond style suit, there are a few options for players to customize Thorton to their own taste.

The demonstration of Alpha Protocol also showed a few crucial choices players had to decide. The first was whether or not to pull a gun on a marine to allow entry within the embassy. With not pulling the gun on the marine, they’ll avoid pulling their guns on Thorton later on in the mission. The other choice that was presented was the last portion of the game where Obsidian Entertainment allowed me to choose the fate of one terrorist. In the end, I chose for the developer to shoot the terrorist in the head as I felt he provided no further information for the storyline. These types of choices are going to be spread throughout the game and permit the player to craft their own story.

Shooting for a February 2009 release date, Alpha Protocol will release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC simultaneously.

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