Alpha Protocol

Alpha Protocol is a 2010 spy RPG from Obsidian Entertainment that brought an unusually elaborate system of reactivity to player choices into the genre of action games with RPG elements. Playing as secret agent Michael Thorton, the player travels between Moscow, Rome, and Taipei to uncover a sprawling conspiracy tied to terrorism and private military contractors, with dialogue conducted under a time limit that forces the player to choose responses in a professional, suave, or aggressive tone toward a given character, without knowing exactly what each tone specifically implies.

Decisions made in one mission often carry over into later parts of the game in a way that was unusual for action RPGs in 2010 — allies can become enemies and vice versa, depending on how the player treated them, and information gathered about characters can be used for negotiation as well as blackmail. The game also features a dossier system, in which the player builds reputation with individual factions and characters between missions, which in turn affects merchant prices and allies' willingness to help at key moments. The combat system relied on cover-based shooting combined with RPG skills such as hacking, stealth, explosives, or melee combat, resulting in an unbalanced but distinctive feel that let the player tailor the character to their own playstyle.

The game launched with a number of technical shortcomings, wooden enemy AI, and a combat system that felt unfinished, which was reflected in mixed reception at release. In the following years, however, it gained a reputation as a cult title that players and journalists kept returning to because of its unusually bold dialogue design and consequences of choice, which appeared to a comparable degree only many years later in other games. Today, Alpha Protocol is often mentioned as wasted potential that could have pushed the spy RPG genre much further had it launched in a more technically finished state.

Why play it: Because of its unusually bold dialogue design and consequences of choice, which appeared elsewhere only many years later, it's worth trying despite the wooden enemy AI.