Alpha Protocol

So thanks to some pretty solid bargains I managed to pick up a few games over the Christmas season for cheap. Highlighted deal being getting Splinter Cell: Conviction, Bioshock, and Alpha Protocol for twenty dollars. A pretty good deal I must say. But primarily I was excited for getting my hands on Alpha Protocol. I was intrigued by what I had heard about in regards to the game, but heard that it had a few bugs and so I wanted to wait till I could try it out for a bit less than sixty dollars.

All in all though it's a pretty solid game. The game itself is kind of the bastard child of Mass Effect and Splinter Cell if I had to describe it to anyone. It's a 3rd person shooter-rpg that is pretty heavy on the story and as well has a pretty solid dialogue wheel system much like Mass Effects, and depending on how you respond to people and choices you can make in conversations, you can have quite a drastic effect on the overall game. Definitely a fan of the story and the characters even when sometimes the dialogue comes off a bit flat, but it's great if you choose the more sarcastic responses often as they all say some pretty funny things. The whole espionage and globe trotting story also has some great Bond undertones to it, and Michael Thornton is actually a very interesting character that has already grown on me.

I've been enjoying the game though it has quite a few bugs here and there, especially when you are doing missions and engaging in firefights with enemy agents. Frankly the enemy AI is pretty idiotic, running around and often not even shooting, reminding me of doing the facility mission in Goldeneye and laughing at how awful those guards are. As well in some boss battles there have been some frustrating glitches, and some pretty funny ones. Favorite moment was when a certain boss was on some stairs with some henchmen. I cleared out the henchmen with ease and as I ran up the stairs, I stood just below the villain, and he just shot over my head but couldn't hit me. I proceeded to unload my machine gun into his face until his health was gone. Huge boss battle over in about 15 seconds.

It's definitely been a fun experience I would say even with bugs, and if Obsidian would have put a bit more time into this game (as well as coughfalloutnewvegascough) then this could have become something great and we could have seen more of Agent Thornton. Sadly all we will be left with is some multiple play throughs and wondering what could have been. Still though, it's an enjoyable little game thats worth checking out, especially if you can get it as a bargain.