Let's get one thing straight: I really want to love everything Obsidian Entertainment does. The reason for this is simply pedigree. Obsidian was founded by one half of the remnants of Black Isle, makers of such 90's CRPG classics as Fallout 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, and the Icewind Dale games. Black Isle also helped give BioWare their start with Baldur's Gate. They haven't done too bad for themselves so far. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 both meant well and had a lot going for them, but they launched in a buggy and more or less unfinished state and in the case of KoTOR 2, never recovered through patching. Still the spark was there and I've been looking forward to their original IP espionage RPG offering with Alpha Protocol.
I haven't spent much time with the game yet, having only played through the tutorial and one of the first missions, but I'm getting sense of what to expect. First things first, the tutorial is grueling. While granted, there are things I need to learn, the in-story start up to the game did more to confuse me than anything else. When you get through the initial jump and you get the option to run through a few obstacle courses - with bonus missions unlocked by excellent performance - things get better. Still, the story from the beginning suffers from a bad case of "that's for me to know and for you to find out." All I know right now is that some bad people in the desert blew up a plane and this warrants a super secret US spy agency to recruit me and send me abroad with a fancy safe house to hole up in. My handlers fall into the predictable categories of: coquettish genius analyst chick, jealous hot shot gadgeteer, surly misanthropic old guy, and non-nonsense in-charge CO. Conversation options so far have made the old guy dislike me, the hot shot neutral, and the CO and the chick like me. What effect this will have remains to be seen.
The RPG elements are almost the same as Mass Effect 1, in fact the skill tree might as well be the same. Loading out your character is somewhat interesting, allowing you to mod your weapons, armor, and gadgets to suit the upcoming operation. The conversation system is even similar, except instead of choosing paraphrases, you choose the general tone of your response. In a typical conversation I'll often be offered choices like: aggressive. professional, or suave, with each one having a different effect on the person I'm talking to based on their own personality. While I prefer the paraphrase system, I don't really mind this lighter approach except that they've saddled it with a timer, so whatever your cursor is on then the NPC is done speaking is the response you give. This is often a hassle when the last thing the NPC says may change how you want to respond.
Where the game seems to shine so far is in the openness of the missions. I'm reminded of Deus Ex in that there are specific objective and story points that I'm going to hit no matter what, but (in the map I played anyway) there are numerous options for achieving those objectives. The obvious options are: stealth or guns blazing, but it's never just one choice. I found myself bouncing between total stealth and avoidance, to sneaky take downs, to outright assaults several times during my mission.
Overall the game is what I think I tend to expect from Obsidian, which is probably best described as: entertaining, but clunky. If the rest of the missions play out with the same breadth of choice my first one did, then I think I'll find a lot to like about Alpha Protocol. Right now I won't say to just run out and buy it, but you could do much worse and it's either this or Splinter Cell for the espionage genre these days.
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