Alpha Protocol

[bigmac558]

Alpha Protocol is going to be a third-person spy, action, rpg. It is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment and being published by Sega. It was announced during a press conference back in March 2008. The game will be released on all platforms in the US next Tuesday June 1, 2010

Story
In 2010, a commercial passenger airliner crashes in Eastern Europe, killing all on board the craft. The cause of accident is soon made evident: It was shot down by a surface-to-air missile of American origin. International tensions soar to a breaking point, yet the U.S. government claims no involvement with the crash. Desperate to prevent a global conflict and to investigate the attack, the U.S. government turns to its Central Intelligence Agency to handle the matter with the utmost secrecy.
Calling upon rookie field agent Michael Thorton, they place him undercover in "alpha protocol" status. A classification usually intended for more tenured agents, Alpha Protocol places the agent in a state of unaffiliation with any government or organization, in order to prevent association if the agent is captured by enemy combatants.
Gameplay
Combat
Alpha Protocol is played from a third-person perspective, allowing the player to see Thorton and his surroundings at all times. As Thorton is a trained CIA operative, the tools at the player's disposal include numerous firearms, hand to hand combat using Kenpo, and spy gadgets.
In addition to the action elements, though, players also earn Advancement Points, which can be placed into any of the ten different skills in the game. These skills will increase Thorton's ability to use certain weapons and grant different abilities to him. These abilities are free to use, but require a "cooldown" period before they can be used again. One ability that has been mentioned in previews allows Thorton to scan a group of enemies in slow-motion before popping out of cover and shooting each of them more rapidly than he would be capable of normally.
Dialogue SystemAs with any RPG, Alpha Protocol features numerous characters with whom to interact. Conversations occur in real-time, giving the player a limited amount of time to respond at key "decision points" during dialogue. The dialog system in the game - known as the "DSS" or Dialogue Stance system - allows the player to choose from three different attitudes, or "stances," when speaking to an NPC. Obsidian has said that these options are based on the personalities of the "three J.B.'s": Jason Bourne of the Bourne Identity novels and films, James Bond of the eponymous film and book series, and Jack Bauer of the television series 24, although the game itself does not use these names. During dialog sequences, the player will be able to choose from options like "professional" (Jason Bourne), "suave" (James Bond), and "aggressive" (Jack Bauer), sometimes with a brief description of the dialogue choice (such as "sarcastic") taking the place of the general stance. A fourth, "action" dialogue choice is sometimes available, used to terminate a conversation prematurely. Each NPC will react differently to these choices; one character might be intimidated by an aggressive stance, but another character may find an aggressive stance to be insulting or childish. While dialogue choices will have some immediately noticeable consequences, many may not be seen until much later in game. As each conversation is experienced once per playthrough, multiple playthroughs will be required in order to experience all of the game's content; while the game contains a total of approximately twelve hours of cinematic sequences, a player will only experience around four hours during any given playthrough.
Structure
Alpha Protocol has a hub structure, in which Thorton must utilize safe houses in each of his hub cities in order to lay low between missions. From a safe house, Thorton can change clothing, access a weapons locker, telephone contacts, and attempt missions. Some missions are critical to the progression of the story, while others are optional. Players will be able to buy and sell weapons and equipment within their safe houses. Hub cities include Rome, Moscow, Taipei and a city inside Saudi Arabia.
Customization
Players will be allowed to customize Michael's face, but only features such as facial hair and the like. Weapons and gadgets will also be customizable with added silencers, a larger magazine, and so forth.[1]
The player can choose also which skills to advance, allowing them to reinforce their play style. Examples include making Thorton more capable of stealth, more deadly in hand-to-hand combat, or better at gunplay.
A large list of guns are shown in some demos as well, mostly under fictional names. Some exceptions to this are the FN Five-seven, FN P90, the FN F2000 and the M4A1.

I personally have high hopes for this game, and will be picking it up.

[ReverendSlim]

Reviews for this are coming back kinda weak. From what they said about it on the RebelFM podcast, I went from "excited to play this" to "never going to buy it" real quick.

Watch this video and you might save some money:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...rotocol/100742

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by ReverendSlim

Reviews for this are coming back kinda weak. From what they said about it on the RebelFM podcast, I went from "excited to play this" to "never going to buy it" real quick.

Watch this video and you might save some money:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...rotocol/100742

Yeah the reviews have been quite lame for this one

[beefytwinkie]

Dang. 05:30 into that review video makes me not want to play that game at all... unless it's an invisibility suit or something but the reviewer doesnt' get into it. Not sure what to make of that sequence.

[bigmac558]

The reviews are weak, but the game so far is really fun. I love just running around beatin the crap outta people. I would definitly at least rent this game.