Alpha Protocol Preview

After spending a few days with a pre-release build of Alpha Protocol, the editors at G4 have whipped up a quick hands-on preview. On character perks, mission structure, and dialogue system:

Working hand-in-hand with Thorton’s abilities are the perks he earns during the game. These are usually the result of decisions made in conversations and during missions that grant you even more advantages, and puts further emphasis on the results of your decisions. For instance, during your Alpha Protocol training, a video from the terrorist group will be playing in the lobby area. Sit and watch the entire thing, and you get a (News Conscious) bonus that gives you a 5% discount when purchasing weapon/armor upgrades and items from the Middle East clearinghouse. Bigger, game-altering decisions will have an effect, too. Choose to execute a key character, and you’ll miss out on the recoil control bonus you’d get if you let him live. And if you’ve invested time into building a good relationship with your handlers, you’ll get a tiered-bonus perk for every mission they control (the better the relationship, the more effective the bonus). These perks accumulate and stack with each other, so it pays to be careful with how you deal with people.

What’s struck me about Alpha Protocol, based on the amount I’ve played thus far, is that despite the rather vanilla storyline (oil controls everything, corporations and PMCs are bad, can’t trust governments, nobody is who they seem, etc.), the mission structure and conversation system really create a good sense of actually playing as a spy. By that, I mean it’s not just running around shooting the terrorist bad guys.there are missions where you go to a suspected safehouse and attempt to say the right pass phrase, or sit down at an outdoor cafe and have a talk with a menacing adversary.