As with Mass Effect, Alpha Protocol features a level-up menu that allows you to allocate points to a number of skills such as Assault Weapons, Sabotage and Toughness. Adding experience points increases the chosen skill, thereby opening up new talents and powers including increased aiming or activating a brief cloaking device. Given the way most missions play out, we recommend filling the Stealth, Assault and Toughness criteria above all else, as these allow for a more enjoyable experience and one that becomes easier to handle over the course of your adventure. It can be overwhelming at first when you aren’t clear on which traits are best to upgrade, but once you’ve become familiar with the intricacies of the system you’ll quickly learn to appreciate which abilities provide the best advantage in battle.

A large portion of your time will be spent hacking terminals, picking locks and bypassing wall-mounted keypads. Some are used to open doors while others serve to deactivate alarm systems or transfer sensitive data; the easiest of these is the lock picking mini-game, where a ‘sweet spot’ must be tapped per tumbler in order to access a room or safe. Computer hacking is by far the worst, forcing you to wade through a screen of jumbled, constantly moving numbers and letters until two sequences are matched; it’s uncomfortable for the eyes and appears far more often than any of the less brain-melting mini-games.

Boss battles are served up at the end of a handful of levels and afford the game its most difficult moments. Rather than presenting a genuine challenge, these come across as cheap and unfair, relying on respawning grunts coupled with overpowered armaments and rebounding shields. Melee combat should be used sparingly, generally working for a time then leading to an enormous health drain once your foe decides to hit back. On most occasions, what results is a battle that’s as much about health-chipping damage and running around in a panic as it is about chance. It can seem as if luck is playing a bigger part than skill and if you’re anything like us, you’ll probably make a hot-tempered decision to execute just to prove a point.

Clocking in at over 15 hours, Alpha Protocol is considerably longer than most other third-person shooters. There’s no multiplayer component of any kind, so replayability rests on the capable shoulders of the game’s choice system, although subsequent playthroughs won’t appeal to everyone. Characters can live or die on your say so, then appear later in a different capacity if you’ve chosen to let them go – it all makes for an interesting experience that is unquestionably your own. Technical hitches rear their head here and there and the animations range from stiff to borderline ridiculous, yet these issues never serve to ruin the presentation in any real way; it’s always passable but rarely inspired.

What Obsidian has crafted is a decent first attempt that shamelessly borrows elements from some heavy-hitting titles in an attempt to make them its own. While we refrain from using the term ‘unique’ in any capacity, somehow the result feels fresh enough to warrant at least a single playthrough. The tutorial is cack-handed and off-putting, motivations can be tough to follow and the shooting is some of the worst we’ve seen in recent times until sufficiently levelled-up. On the basis of such hefty criticism based on so many development mistakes, Alpha Protocol may sound like a title to avoid, yet there’s something about it – be it in the pacing of the middle stages or in the tale itself, which escalates as choices made begin to unravel – that results in a troubled experience positively bursting with sequel potential. Flawed yet fun, Alpha Protocol is a choice-based shooter with enough appeal for the story-driven gamer. Everyone else should choose to rent, even if it’s just to watch Thorton mince.

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