I purchased Alpha Protocol quite cheaply from an on-line site's clearance sale.I wasn't really expecting much when I finally got round to playing it a couple of months ago due to critic apathy and stories of glitching. I don't understand where that hate came from as this is the greatest game Bioware never published. It's better than the first Mass Effect (and uses a system, which is, in many ways, similar). The money was clearly spent where it counted: script, voice acting and story. The story is pretty much as good as you'll get in a video game (perfectly serviceable spy hokum) and demands repeated play-throughs to allow you to everything from taking over the world yourself (good and evil variants) to sailing off into the sunset with whichever of the women you've managed to seduce.
Combat can be played steathly or shooty (or some mixture of the two) and, bar a few boss fights, is always fun and intuitive. The story is the star though. This game should have been huge. It really is as good as, if not better, the best of those Bioware style "player choice" RPGs (it , does away with any element of simplistic moral judgement for one thing) yet it remains a curiosity. Given the love that was obviously spent on the game, what happened to it must break the developers' hearts. I am on my third play through on the 360 and, other than occasional minor graphical glitches, have had no problems.
This generation's overlooked gem
I purchased Alpha Protocol quite cheaply from an on-line site's clearance sale.I wasn't really expecting much when I finally got round to playing it a couple of months ago due to critic apathy and stories of glitching. I don't understand where that hate came from as this is the greatest game Bioware never published. It's better than the first Mass Effect (and uses a system, which is, in many ways, similar). The money was clearly spent where it counted: script, voice acting and story. The story is pretty much as good as you'll get in a video game (perfectly serviceable spy hokum) and demands repeated play-throughs to allow you to everything from taking over the world yourself (good and evil variants) to sailing off into the sunset with whichever of the women you've managed to seduce.
Combat can be played steathly or shooty (or some mixture of the two) and, bar a few boss fights, is always fun and intuitive. The story is the star though. This game should have been huge. It really is as good as, if not better, the best of those Bioware style "player choice" RPGs (it , does away with any element of simplistic moral judgement for one thing) yet it remains a curiosity. Given the love that was obviously spent on the game, what happened to it must break the developers' hearts. I am on my third play through on the 360 and, other than occasional minor graphical glitches, have had no problems.