Alpha Protocol

Format PC

Developer Obsidian Entertainment

Publisher Sega

Genre Role Playing

8 Comments

From Bond's first glowering stare across a baccarat table all the way to Tom Cruise whining like a petulant child and sticking explosive chewing gum on a fish tank - the international spy thriller has been a cornerstone of popular culture for decades. So why has it never really translated to games?

Only one Bond game was ever any good (which wasn't even on PC) and the rest were a sequence of gaudy car crashes and poorly clipped death animations. Other stabs at the genre were late-'90s shooters with internationally themed levels ("Wow! A Chinese sewer!" "An underground base in Mexico? Awesome!").

In fact, the closest we've come to matching a Bourne or a Bond is Deus Ex, with only internationally hubbed adventures like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis treading on its coat-tails.

Well, no more. Not if Obsidian have anything to do with it anyway. You see, Obsidian are developers of outstanding pedigree (formed from the ashes of Black Isle, the creators of RPG touchstones Fallout and Planescape: Torment) yet of late they've been somewhat saddled with being known as the developer who delivered the borked ending to KOTOR 2 and, with Neverwinter Nights 2, created a worthy game that went largely unnoticed.

Now though, with their own world to play with and a remarkably fresh take on the genre, they're on the offensive.

Betrayed by his superiors. Hunted by his own country. The only man alive who has hint of a conspiracy that is soon to result in massive loss of life. A spy who's a bit rubbish at first, but does have some as-yet unfilled skill slots that could lean on the violent side.

Michael Thorton (that's 'Thorton', not 'Thornton' like the high street chocolatiers or our production editor's home village) starts off in full-blown Mission: Impossible territory - gone rogue with only a list of names and potential safe houses, and several thousand air miles to help him.

From there, Obsidian are taking him and us on a journey they hope will meld the aura of the three JBs - Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer and James Bond.

CRUISE CONTROL
"Yeah, Alpha Protocol has much of the edginess of the new James Bond movie," smiles Ryan Rucinski, one of Obsidian's senior producers, as we mull over his new roleplayer.

"Although the development of AP actually started before the release of Casino Royale. So when the movie came out and we saw the results, we knew we had made the right decision. There have been a lot of movies that have influenced
us during the conceptual creation - Mission: Impossible, the Bourne films, Ronin... However, one of the main contributors in look and tone was Syriana. If James Bond is where the action comes from, Syriana has a big influence on the theme."

Yet what Obsidian want to stress more than anything is that Alpha Protocol is a role-playing game.

You'll have multiple missions open in different hubs around the world (locations currently being bandied about include Taipei, Rome, Moscow and Saudi Arabia) and you'll be able to flit between them at will - each one containing one overarching operation and a cavalcade of minor missions leading up to it - be they stealing sensitive data on a hard drive, tailing suspects or extracting information from grumpy NPCs through bribery, diplomacy or murder most foul.

"The mission structure is designed to present Thorton with an Operation, and then there are several avenues he can explore to tackle it using the skill set or preference of the player," explains Rucinski. "We don't want to force you through a linear series of levels, we want to treat every operation in the game like a mini-hub, where you get a number of missions you can tackle in any order, just to give the player more freedom."

THORT THAT COUNTS
As for developing the skills of young Mr Thorton, the system being developed is a classless one - with 10 skills in which to level up, each containing 10 slots to spend your valuable Advancement Points (or experience points) in.

You won't be able to max out your character, instead you'll be moulding the game into your chosen form of super spydom - whether its gruff no-nonsense headshots, sneakily hiding in the dark, bloody and silent close combat or gadget-heavy explodifying.

A higher rank opens up different options and perceptions, while almost superhuman secret-agent abilities are on the menu too - working on a 'use and cool-down' basis during the action. The example of this that Obsidian conjure up when prompted is, amazingly enough, heightened reaction times that let you assess situations in slo-mo before letting rip with a six-hit chainshot to decimate a room full of gun-toting terrorists.

It's a mundane example, true, but Alpha Protocol's over-the-shoulder chase-cam action does seem to be a step up from your average RPG. Combat will have you running and gunning, taking cover or sneaking about the place - but that's not to say you won't be able to build your character towards the hand-to-hand fisticuffs recently in vogue.

"If Thorton can get close enough to enemies or if enemies get the jump on him, we have a variety of martial arts moves you can employ. There's nothing as satisfying as getting close enough to a guy to have him turn around just in time to plant a jumping knee to his face," explains Rucinski, displaying a hitherto unexplored knowledge of Sunday League football. "For the very stealthy player, the martial arts can provide the most silent way to dispose of enemies."

Mixing your own skill with increasing RPG capabilities (weapons, hacking, electronics, traps, stealth or whatever) will gradually move further and further into comic-book heroism - but that isn't to say the game ignores realism.

"Realism is important to Alpha Protocol. We've tried to create situations and themes from actual news items and hypothetical scenarios," says Rucinski. "Our technologies and equipment are also realistic. We made it very clear early in development that we wouldn't have a near-indestructible bipedal robot running around shooting things. If we used a robot, it would look like what the military or SWAT would use, with wheels and treads instead of legs."

Near-future is the byword, so as to allow for more gadgets and gizmos than ever before. But this is entirely a Casino Royale rather than a Die Another Day "OMG invisible car and surfing on melting CG iceberg" exercise in depressing Fleming-grave-turning.

GOOD CHATS
In a lot of role-playing games (mentioning no names, cough, Oblivion), the people you meet retread the same conversations again and again - mostly accompanied
by a frown or a smile depending on what armour you chose to put on that day. Not so with AP - where first impressions count.

Meet someone and act all gruff with them and they won't be all that impressed for a fair while - unless they're a sexy woman who's been designed to want to play chasey-sexy and might like that sort of thing.

"Essentially, the player chooses a 'stance' for Thorton (suave, professional,
or aggressive - although the actual breakdowns branch a great deal from this) and then Thorton responds appropriately - and amusingly," explains Rucinski, having selected his own internal suave stance.

"The dialogue system is also set up so that you can't repeatedly have the same conversation with an NPC to try to find the 'best' answer or all the information available. This means that if you are a jerk to a person you will get a reaction the next time you talk to them. It reinforces how important that first impression is."

Conversations will whip along at a realistic pace, with you selecting changes in how Thorton responds to maintain the flow of real-life chatter.

Gaming's former forays into the lives of secret agents, Deus Ex aside, have only ever focused on the guns-blazing elements, and perhaps a pretty lady or two in cutscenes.

Alpha Protocol wants you putting in the legwork, doing the reconnaissance, chatting up the receptionists and looking moody in fancy hotels - it knows the excitement isn't all in the violence, but in the setup, the situation and the supporting cast. In premise and pedigree, it's a sure-fire licence to kill. Let's hope the execution is as flawless as it needs to be.

Will Porter