Alpha Protocol

I passed over Alpha Protocol back when it came out in 2010. It just didn't make much impact on me at the time. Though I had seen enough that having it come up for sale on Steam for something like $2.99 made me consider, and in the end, pick it up.

It might be rough around the edges, but it's by no means bad.

It's a "modern" spy game in third-person with stealth/shooting sections and choice-based dialog sections. It's sort of Mass Effect + Metal Gear Solid (or James Bond/Mission Impossible). Reviews mentioned lots of bugs, but the only ones I actually ran into during play were issues of poor AI - most notably the occasional guard standing still looking into a corner rather than walking a patrol.

There's XP to be gained, and points to be spent in skills that give improvements, passive abilities, and some active abilities. There's a variety of gear and gadgets that, while not offering a huge range, does make you choose to some degree. You can focus on stealth or offense. You can use points and gear to make the hacking/bypass minigames easier. You have the option of killing a lot of the major NPCs or sparing them (and tranquilizers are an option for the standard enemies). I don't know how much branching there actually is in the story, but some things seem to shake out differently depending on choices. It all feels like a sort of early iteration of the design, but it works pretty well and makes me actually wish there had been a sequel or two to refine it all.

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