 So many choices, so little ammunition. Michael Thorton has been recruited into an underground government agency. After being nearly killed on his first assignment, he goes rogue in order to find the corporation that tried to snuff him out.
1. Gameplay
Combining two distinct genres can be difficult no matter what the genre or subject matter is. As a result, there aren’t many games daring enough to take the leap and try to combine more than a few elements from different categories. Alpha Protocol, however, is both a role-playing game and a third-person shooter. In some ways it succeeds gloriously where few others could hope to tread. In others, it leaves a lot to be desired. 
Goth chick hanging out with an old guy with a scarf and suit jacket? Right....
Alpha Protocol presents players with Michael Thorton, whose past, present, and future are determined by the players’ choices. Thorton is recruited to a secret government organization and given the assignment of… I’m not really sure what. The player is given a random task to go and hunt down some terrorist in the Middle East. Fortunately things get much clearer quickly as the player is nearly killed by missiles fired from a military tech corporation. The rest of the game consists of missions focused on uprooting the links between Halbech (the evil corporation) and international terrorism. 
The face of corporate greed.
The best parts of this game involve the choices that the player can make as he progresses. There will be countless conversations in which the player will engage allies and enemies and through which he can form bonds of friendship or enrage enemies into making mistakes. Unfortunately, the conversations aren’t always perfect. Players are usually given three different words that can lead to different methods of saying the same thing. The people that the player talks to are usually looking for one of the three. Sometimes the right answer can be obvious, but there were a number of times when the correct answer was nearly impossible to figure out. 
Being "suave" with a guy is totally different than being "suave" with a girl.
Even worse, sometimes the personalities of the other characters seemed to change mid-game. For example, my chosen “handler” (the person who gives me mission assignments and advice) started out liking when I focused entirely on getting the mission done and hated it when I flirted with her. But then halfway through the game she seemed to change her mind and be okay with my advances. That was fine, but it made me wonder if there was more that I was missing with other characters as well. Combat styles will vary depending on what skills the player chooses to specialize in. I chose stealth and assault rifles, both of which were very useful. There are other talents that involve different weapon types, spy gadgets, or other similarly spy-themed abilities. However, I found that the spy gadgets were expensive and somewhat useless and that stealth was unreliable at best. There were a few missions that required stealth, but many more required a player who could hold out in a firefight. Players who don’t specialize in some sort of weapon tree are going to have a difficult time. 
There are a lot of random shootouts.
This definitely wasn’t a bad game. I loved the conversation options and the outcomes of each relationship (both romantic and platonic) added an element of personality that is often absent from similar shooters. But the problems I did encounter kept me from wanting to endure this game a second time.
My full playthrough took around 29 hours. Most of the time I was fairly careful to look for hidden items, so most players could probably complete this game in less time than that. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a “New Game+” option, meaning that if I were to replay the campaign I would have to start over from the beginning. This removes almost all replayability for me. I would definitely like to explore different conversations and endings, but I don’t want to have to remake my character from scratch. There are no multiplayer modes for this game.
This game had a number of bugs that can get annoying, but once the player learns how to work around them they’re not game-breakingly horrible. Most of these involve the user interface, and more specifically the screen that players use to modify their weapon loadouts. But once you figure out a system to work around the issues, it’s not too bad. There was one bug that was somewhat surprising and annoying though. One time I destroyed a turret that dropped from the ceiling. When I turned off the alarm, the turret reactivated itself and would begin to shoot at me and reactive the alarm despite being dead. It would essentially revive itself once I turned off the alarm. Eventually I figured out that if I turned off the alarm and immediately shot the turret before it spotted me, it would remain dead. Still, it was an annoying issue that cost me valuable ammunition. I was more often frustrated by the somewhat illogical nature of the cover system. Other shooters that allow the player to “attach” to objects in order to use them as cover against enemy weapons fire allow the player to vault over cover or maneuver around cover quickly and easily. Alpha Protocol does not include any such system. The player can’t even jump except for at a few specific locations. It was definitely annoying when my character couldn’t even climb over small objects. 2. Parental Notices
The amount of violence that a player will encounter in Alpha Protocol will depend on how they approach a situation. For the most part, the player will have to eliminate most of the enemies in a level. The method of elimination will vary. Most players will use some sort of hand-to-hand combat occasionally, but these consist of simple martial arts moves that are non-lethal methods of neutralizing targets. 
Invisible guitar solo!
Firearms will come into play as well. The player can choose to bring a pistol, submachine gun, shotgun, or rifle. Each is designed to fit a specific role, so the selection of these weapons will differ depending on a player’s style. Enemies hit by rounds from firearms will react. There will be a very small amount of blood, but this is usually hidden by the muzzle flash and the sparks that come from the impact site. 
It was usually difficult to get much closer than this to an enemy.
Dead enemies will sometimes lie in a pool of blood, but there is never any gore. 
Who comes to a gun fight in athletic attire anyway?
Injured characters will usually display superficial wounds. These usually amount to bloody cuts and bruises, but nothing more serious. 
Want to know how she got those scars?
There are rare instances when characters can be lit on fire. I never managed to light anyone on fire, but I did see it happen once. 
They're already on fire, why are you shooting them?
Alpha Protocol does have some sexually suggestive dialog, but sexuality doesn’t make an appearance until the very end of the game. Most of the time the player will only be exposed to dialog options and emails that contain references to sex. They’re the kind of thing that two adult coworkers might send to each other if they were flirting (which is the point really). 
Wat.
The female characters are designed to be attractive, but most of their “attractiveness” is lost because they are obviously virtual characters. Most of the female characters are dressed appropriately for their personality / position. There is one exception. A female character called “Sie” (pronounced “zee”) has a tendency to wear far too little clothing for her line of work (she’s a gun-loving mercenary). 
This is what she wears during a Russian winter. I'll let you imagine what she wears during the summer.
Eventually the player will have the opportunity to have sex with any female characters who he developed a positive relationship with. In my playthrough, I managed to romance three of the five female characters with little difficulty. Two of the three sex scenes (including the conversations before the action) were uneventful. You’ll see the underwear on one girl and the other is always fully clothed. The game fades to black, implying some sort of action but never showing anything remotely explicit. 
You got a girl to take off her pants! +500 XP!
The last scene had much greater amounts of sexuality. In it, the character Sie takes off her pants and straddles the main character, who is strapped to a table. She’s wearing underwear and keeps her shirt on (the main character remains fully clothed), but it’s pretty obvious what she’s preparing for. The camera stays above both characters’ waists, so you can’t see anything that’s going down below, but it’s pretty clear that she reaches down between her legs to “release” the main character and then inserts him into her. Again, this is all implied by her movement and their reactions, but the message was certainly clear to me. 
You think she would take off the Bono shades first.
It then fades to black and she gets off the player. She redresses and he gets up. One of the female characters can point out scratch marks on the player’s neck, but those marks are never visible to the player. 
This is what a man looks like when he's hit bottom. Wait, that didn't come out right.
There are one or two instances when scantily clad women can be seen in the game outside of the above described romance options. These are rare though. 
I'm not sure what I'm sniping here.
Substances are almost non-existent in this game. The only substances that the player will ever “use” are health related, and even then there’s no animation to use these substances. The player will have access to health packs that he can use at any time. The symbol for these health packs is some sort of weird hypodermic syringe. However, I never used these once. Instead, I relied on the cabinets that could be found in the game. When used, the cabinet would open up, revealing a full medicine cabinet of random medical items. These items instantly disappear and the sound of a pill bottle can be heard. 
I think you're going to need more than hydrogen peroxide and gauze to treat gunshot wounds.
There are other substances that some characters can be seen with. For example, there is one character that is clearly depicted as an alcoholic. The player only has a real conversation with him once in the bar. 
I don't think you ever see him actually drink anything.
The corporate representative that interviews Thorton during the game smokes a cigar on occasion. 
His shirt matches his teeth.
Another character, who is depicted as a young Russian punk rock lover, has a knife that is described as being used for cutting cocaine.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
The anti-law factors in the main storyline are somewhat vague. The player works for some sort of semi-government agency that seems to complete tasks that above-board government agencies would not be able to accomplish. However, these tasks are never really discussed in detail. The player’s first mission involves such a task, but the details can be difficult to follow. After the main character is cut off by his organization, his efforts to complete his mission go underground. The only major difference between his efforts within Alpha Protocol and his efforts after being exiled is that afterward he’s almost completely on his own. Again, there is very little anti-law in this because governments don’t seem to get involved at all. The one blatant source of anti-law is the emails that the player will get about Halbech Corporation’s corporate efforts. Most of the emails will involve blatantly unethical and/or illegal business practices that could lead to peoples’ deaths. The player has the choice to expose the information, sell it on the black market, or send it back to Halbech. 
I don't expect most players to actually read these emails.
There is no multiplayer game mode available for this game.
There are certain times when the player can use a zip-line to move quickly from one location to another. Some zip-lines will be required use, but the player can avoid these if desired. I tended to find them annoying since they made me an easy target for my enemy and forced me to give up most of my stealth, so I avoided them.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Torture There will be a number of sequences when the player will find someone who has been tortured or, in one case, is in the process of being tortured. Most of these are fairly simple. There are a number of times when the player will have the choice to rescue a fellow operative during a mission. If the player does choose to rescue the operative (often sacrificing another objective in the process), the victim will usually have suffered some sort of abuse at the hands of his/her captor. 
And yet her hair is still perfect. Amazing.
There is one situation where the player will walk in on one character while he is torturing a man. The player can choose to be “helpful” (which will gain bonus points with the torturing character) and suggest using a funnel to pour laundry detergent (or something like it) down the victim’s throat. That part of the abuse is never followed through, since the victim tells the character where to find the torturer’s keys. 
How is he supposed to talk if his mouth is taped up?
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