Alpha Protocol definitely has its high moments. The story flows well, once you reach the meat-and-potatoes of it. The RPG elements of it are well-crafted, with a nod to the conversation stylings of Mass Effect. The abilities you gain as you progress make for a more immersive gaming experience. Characters keep track of your progress and reference previous missions as you interact with them, impressive given that you can do missions in almost any order you want.
But Alpha Protocol definitely has, to its detriment, more low moments than high: AI so mind-bogglingly stupid that I wasn’t sure I’d actually gotten a final product instead of an in-house code test disc. The textures that mysteriously appear and disappear as you traverse locations. Random scattered load-points that interrupt the flow of gameplay. A character that is so “everyman” plain and uninteresting at times that he is utterly cliche as a spy (and then the script has him doing something interesting that has him become intriguing again).
Ultimately, the game seems almost bipolar in those high and low moments. It feels like it was the product of two separate development teams who weren’t in sync with what the other was doing. The good moments point to why Obsidian does solid sequel work on existing IPs (Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and hopefully the forthcoming Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege III). Unfortunately, the bad moments muddy the waters too much for the good ones to really truly shine.
GRADE: B-
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