You may call it Protocol, Alpha Protocol.
When starting out the game, you pick a background for your character, which determines your starting attributes. You can also opt to start as a Recruit, meaning 0 aptitude points on every skill, but, beating the game as a recruit unlocks the veteran background, which lets you start with a ton of AP on your next playthrough. Pretty neat.
The plot is a pretty generic, but very fitting, agent goes rogue to stop a big bad. I didn't think the story was particularly compelling, however, there's a lot to it. There are a ton of dialogue choices which will have different impact on the ending, as depending on how you respond to every character, they will either like you or dislike you, which will then change how they respond to certain answers which will, in turn, change bits about the story. The game is divided into 5 main chapters, 3 of which you can do in any order, and on every chapter you could potentially kill every big bad or ally with them, depending on your choices. There are other parties involved in every chapter, some which will come back in other chapters, with whom you may also forge alliances, or have them as opponents. There's a lot of small dialogue changes and variations to how the story pans out, depending on what things and in which order you do them, other characters will mention them or act differently, which was honestly mindblowing. And it doesn't stop there, in most chapters you can pick the order in which to tackle every submission, and the order in which you do them will ALSO affect how some characters talk to you, and they might also affect the other submissions. The amount of care and detail that went into this is truly staggering.
The RPG aspect, is clearly well done, but there were a few caveats. For instance, while the voice acting is decent for most characters... the main character's delivery is wooden like a plank of wood. It's disappointing considering the rest of the cast did a decent job. Another issue I had, is that sometimes it's hard to guess what your possible answers mean. You always get a very limited time to decide, and usually, Triangle is an aggressive response, square is a suave response, circle is a professional response, and X, when available, is something a bit... special. Thing is, even with those guidelines, every response is highlighted by a single word such as "Mission". There's no way to guess what "Mission" could end up translating into when your character responds, so you may end up saying stuff you really didn't mean to, and that could affect the character's response.
The actual gameplay is where the game stumbles a bit. Since this is more RPG than shooter, shooting is a bit wonky. The targeting reticule is huge when you aim, even when aiming down the sights, instead, the only way to land precise shots is to hold down the reticule over an enemy for 1-2 seconds to make your shot as accurate as possible. There are a few unlockable skills for every weapon type that help with aiming, but it will always feel a bit slow. Word to the wise, spend the AP you earn on every level up on pistol skills, as the pistol is over powered, and its special ability freezes time, letting you shoot 5 straight shots directly into an enemy's head for MASSIVE damage. With enough pistol aptitude, you can even pre-aim and steady your shot WHILE hiding from cover.
There are numerous hacking and lockpicking mini-games, which to be honest got a bit tedious by the end. I was a recruit, investing in Pistol, Rifle, Health and Close Quarters Combat skills, so the only upgrades I could give my Stealth abilities were by my equipment, so the time limits got too strict, and if I failed it meant triggering an alarm and alerting every enemy in the vicinity. But even without the strict time limits, they got boring. And since there's a lot of money to be obtained by lockpicking, I kinda had to do them if I wanted to buy more equipment. Speaking of money, it can also be spent on Intel to obtain bonus objectives or perks/benefits for upcoming missions.
Something that was endlessly annoying was the fact that you can't vault or jump over even the shortest of walls. It's incredibly annoying feeling so limited in movement by this. Oh! And I was playing the game as Bond, so I romanced all four possible love interests. One of these ladies I was hoping to get on my ending... but during the game's final mission she is held hostage, so you either follow the big bad or go rescue her. I meant to go rescue her, but I accidentally went the wrong way... which locked the door behind me. I immediately suspected I screwed up, so I grenade-ed myself to death... but it was too late, the game's aggressive checkpoint system locked me into my choice. I spent the last mission feeling bitter, as I didn't really want to replay the entire mission just to save my main squeeze.
While it's a bit stiff in some places, there's a lot of attention to detail put in every other facet of the game, which makes it highly replayable. It's also, quite probably, the only Spy RPG out there, and the fact that they nailed most elements is nothing to scoff at.
7.0
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