Calibrator said,

I have finished Alpha Protocol yesterday and can comment a bit further.

As for wanting to play the title: I was always interested in this title, simply because of the relatively fresh scenario (no sci-fi spy-action and not generic fantasy or sci-fi).
Truth to be told, I wasn’t interested to pay the original price as a) the ratings were somewhere between mediocre and average and b) the campaign wasn’t reported to be very extensive. So I waited until it became available as a budget title and I’m sure the reviews and perhaps therefore low sales helped a bit to bring the price down quickly…

Turned out that I already was in the second half of the game when I wrote my initial comments so the game was over quickly.

As said before and confirmed by others the game suffers from technical problems. I encountered the biggest glitch when I had a difficult boss battle where the enemy threw fire grenades at me that lit me up like a christmas tree. So far so good but what happened then was that the fire kept burning endlessly even though the health bar didn’t change AND the boss enemy simply vanished. Not only did I look like “The Torch” – I couldn’t finish the level as I couldn’t defeat the enemy.
A simple reload didn’t work — I had to restart the game and start the level anew to progress.
Now, I don’t mind the occasional enemy getting stuck into a wall (also featured in this game) or dumb AI but this was a more serious problem.

Difficulty and balancing: Could be better.
Most of the game was straightforward when not making any major mistakes when distributing advancement points. The afforementioned boss fight stuck out not because of the glitch but it featured not only the perhaps most diffult boss enemy but also a door lock that had a very tight time limit (all other locks in the game are downright simple compared to this).
The next boss was a heli and several easily attainable rocket launchers lay around for it – and then there was the final boss: Also relatively easy to overcome.

“Linearity”
For shits and giggles I spared every human boss enemy except the last to see what happens. The game reacted accordingly and it really impacted the outcome. I really got where I was headed all the time and what I was expecting. In other words: I got a fair end (and the girl) and the final boss a got what he deserved in a very satisfying way 😉

However, it must be said that many levels are constructed as tunnels, very similar to a game like Uncharted. While goals always have to be predefined and can only vary to a certain extent the levels can’t be approached like for example in Deus Ex or the Thief games (or Far Cry if you compare to shooters).

Setting
Somehow I expected a bit more gritty realism. Think cold war not being fun like in James Bond but in Harry Palmer.
Some of the characters would not only look perfect in Bond movies, some even surpass them in “freakiness” – especially the femals ones.
While I wouldn’t rate the game down for this I think that a bit less “mass appeal” would’ve helped the game to be more of a standout. What we have now isn’t a spy game – it’s a fusion between Deus Ex and Metal Gear Solid. But perhaps marketing experts at Sega/Obsidian placed their bets on more adolescent buyers?

Rating:
My overall rating for the game would be between 80 and 85% as I still think it is a good game, which could have been a bit better.
I’m not sanctioning the game for it’s slightly dated look as the audio part was very well done. The English dubbing was very good, the sound effects were very competent and the music fitting.
So on one hand I think it really deserves more praise but on the other hand I don’t feel like replaying it soon, if at all.
Even if NPC behaviour changes I personally wouldn’t have fun playing a pure stealth character or pure commando instead of the freelancer I modelled. The game isn’t as optimized for stealth gaming as, say, the Thief games and it seems to me that it really punishes players in the last missions for it. An compassionate, intelligent warrior seems to be the easiest character to choose.
Also, intentionally pissing off a dozen of NPCs for shits and giggles to see a slightly different outcome isn’t as appealing to me as lots of different levels would be…

titusx said,

My opinion, yeah ME2 was fun, but the problem with it is being classified as an rpg. It’s not really an rpg… just a cool action/whatever game.
OT: I`m glad Arcania got what it deserved.