Okay. Are there any furry little kittens under it aswell? You know the ones that help you 'romance' all the desperate females?

Ok, so sometimes Digital Downloads are good. When you feel like crap and it's late at night, I'll buy a game with a "DD". I just bought Alpha Protocol...I did this AFTER watching the Gamespot "Review" which says most of the aspects of the game suck but the Storytelling and way you Shape the Story are Awesome.

Frankly, all these so called PRo "Reviewers" are Full of Sh!t. We all know that. I, my-self, think the game looks cool so I'm gonna try it out.

If I'm feeling up to it, expect a "Raven Reviews" coming this weekend some-time. No guarantees though.

Yes please review it Raven... I'd like to know your take.

I was thinking about buying that but after seeing some of the Professional Reviews I'm a little hesitant. You or Wintersong's opinions could be the deciding factor. Let me know what you think.

I'll let Raven for the professional reviews. I'll stick to comment some things of the game. I'm a slow player (in every sense of those words). I just finished the first Story Arc, also known as Saudi Arabia, and my opinion of the game is mostly positive.

• Price 50€: Bad. But if I paid it's because: Obsidian (I like them, sue me), Spy (action) RPG, no Steamworks (being distributed by SEGA, there was that chance...), I could afford the price. Still, quite the price.
• DRM: "Good" (not as good as Stardock DRM in any case). Online activation after installation (with serial from manual), then no need for disks (two DVDs!) or more validations. I don't remember right now more details about the system used though (I think I posted the link in the Civ V thread anyway).
• Theme feeling: Good. I like how, being an espionage PRG, it really makes you feel like one.

If I were to choose a game (that I have played) to compare it to, I'd choose the original Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation. Good story (so far and considering that still beginning... but it's well done) and in the action deparment you can go shooting anything that moves, blow up stuff and/or sneak all the way into the kitchen.

You start by selecting difficulty and then one type of character. Each type (Soldier, Tech Specialist, Field Agent, Freelancer, Recruit) has some ranks in some of the different skills available. I chose Field Agent that gets skills in Pistol, Martial Arts and Stealth. And this choice doesn't limit me when leveling up and buying new levels in any of the skills, just give you a starting point. The skills: Stealth, Pistols, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, Assault Rifles, Sabotage, Technical Aptitude, Toughness and Martial Arts. The limit level for each skill is 10 but when you reach level 4 you can pick a profession specialization, which will allow you togt 3 of them to have a max level of 15. My Mike chose Spy, raising to 15 the max level of Stealth, Pistols and Martial Arts. Each level up you get 10 AP points to spend in skills (Stealth levels costs 6 AP each, for example, while Technical Aptitude costs 3 each). Some levels give you passive bonuses while others give you active skills you can use during the game.

During play you can unlock perks that will give you bonuses. During converrsations, your choices may unlock some bonuses, like +5 to Endurance (acts like Shielding) if your first choices in the game are Professional. Things you do during the game can unlock others, like Black Belt if you defeat 50 enemies in hand to hand combat and that gives you +1 in close combat damage. Or even discounts in the Black Market! Also, during your missions you will have a handler that will assist you giving you information about the mission, and that provides you a temporal bonus during that mission (that bonus can be increased if your relation with the handler is good enough).

There is a Stat section in which you can check all you have been doing in game: how many shots with the pistol, your accuracy with it, number of times you have triggered the alarms or even the number of orphans created (!!!). Very interesting and detailed.

Conversations are quite cinematic and you get a decission wheel to choose your conversation "theme". The wheel is timed and you will have to choose quickly.  There are no bad choices but you can gain or lose influence with the individual you are talking depending of your choices. Some trial and error and/or reading the subject's dossier can give you hints about how to treat them to obtain the better results (some prefer you to be agressive while others prefer you to be more professional). Depeding of the relation value, they will feel Neutral to you, Liked, Trusted or even Friend (not sure if there is more as I just got one of my contacts as Friend).

You can earn money during the game and you can use that money to buy upgrades for your weapons, or armours, or the gadgets. You can even buy intel for your missions. I must say that I like to buy all the intel I can. Some of the intel can be as simple as getting extra resource drops during the mission (extra magazines here and there), creating distractions near the Op site so there are less guards, dossiers (give extra information and bonuses) or even detailed maps of the location (stealth routes, cameras, computers...). The more intel you buy, the less money you have for equipment but depending of your level of skill, it may be a good investment.

Equipment of any kind can be upgraded. From oversized magazines for your assault rifle, to a silenzer for the pistol. All the mods affect the different stats of the weapon or armour and which ones you use depends on what you intend to do. Higher levels of Technical Aptitude skill allow you further bonuses in your equipment or even more Gadget slots during your missions. Those gadget include things like explosive grenades, EMP grenades (very useful if you don't want to bother disabling by yourself electronic devices), sound decoys, mines or medi kits.

Missions are in general quite free in how to solve them (different routes in some cases, for example), at least of what I have played. There are some points where shooting your way out of the mess will be the only option (like bosses) but in general your options are unlimited. In my first mission after the introductory one, I had a map marking the stealth route but I was so newbie that I ended shooting everything in my path (which is fine but ammunition is limited so better be accurate in your firing and/or look for extra magazines around). In my next mission I was a ghost, killing all my enemies in my path with my bare hands and avoiding unnecesary attention from others.

• The enemies patrol certain areas and will sound the alarm if they see or hear you, so skills like running silently and using cover are very important to avoid detection and/or kill the guards with your hands/legs.
• Some areas may have cameras (you can see their area covereage, unlike the guard's sight area) and they will trigger the alarm if they detect you.
• Doors can be closed and in need of lockpicking with a minigame based on the mouse and moving the elements of the lock. Some are trapped and will trigger the alarm too.
• Computers can be hacked with a minigame of tracing two different sets of number (one controlled with the keyboard and the other with the mouse) in a screen filled with moving sequences of numbers (you must located two non moving sequences of numbers in all that mess and that match your numbers; moving your numbers with the keyboard and mouse over then and "clicking" on them, will hack successfully the computer).
• If the alarm is triggered, more guards will appear and the present ones will enter alert status, actively seeking you. If you find the alarm device, you can enter a minigame based on a eletronic board and following some circuit paths to press the correct parts (quite easy actually) you can deactivate the alarm. Or you could have bought in the Black Market some false signaling devices that send an "All Clear" signal that deactivates the alarm (I haven't tried this myself though).
• During the mission, dead enemies may drop some money or ammunition, you can find ammunition, money, gadgets or mods for your equipment )until now I have found only 1 though) and in some walls there are medical kits if you need a quick healing (before the next Check Point or if you need to fall back from an awfull situation).

In between missions you are in a safehouse in which you can check the news, your e-mail, the Black Market (equipment, intel) and choose your equipment for the next mission. You can carry only two weapons at the same time, so you must choose the ones that you think suit better the type of mission and/or your style (for now I have stickied to Pistol and Assult Rifle tough) and the modifications to use (their modification slots, divided by type of slot, are limited). Armours also can have mod slots (for ceramic plates, for example, that would give you damage reduction) and a silence value that influences if guards can hear you while crawling through enemy territory (normal clothes are quite good for sneaking while SWAT is not so good... SWAT gives more protection tough). In gadgets you choose which ones you will be carrying onto the mission (lately I go with EMPs and medi kits but I do have explosive grenades as option too, for example). The gadget slots are limited altough they can be increased by better armour with extra gadget slots and/or high levels of Technical Aptitude skill. It's also possible to mod Mike's appearence in the safehouse: choose the skin tone, eye colour, hair style, glasses, beard or hat. Not super customizable but it's a nice touch in case that you don't like the default style for Mike.

Controls in general are good (you can use Xbox360 controller too), graphics are nice (love the details) and options during play are awesome. It doesn't seem that there will be any "roaming" tough. Unlike Mass Effect in which you could have side missions, I don't think Alpha Protocol will have any (or very limited at least, with optional missions that are not really necessary to advance).

<-- Happy customer of Alpha Protocol

Sounds awesome... I guess I'll have to pony up the money for it... I'm not a big graphics whore or anything so as long as they are serviceable and convey a cool story with lots of possibilities It's worth checking out.

Thanks for the review Winter, I appreciate the time it probably took you to write it. Here's some karma for your trouble ... Not that you need it or anything.

A hint for spy-wannabes (like me): Timing is key. A correct timing can be the difference between an alarm being triggered and killing two opponents with your bare hands before they can react to your presence. The ability you get from Stealth skill to detect the enemies and their status/position is key to avoid surprises and to plan your movements. Skills to avoid detection like Running Silently or Evasion can make a huge difference too. In one control tower, I had two enemies in the top guarding some computers. Some clever positioning, position control of the enemies and some running silently stairs up... and I caught one guard from behind. And when I had knocked him down and turned to the other, he still hadn't noticed me and was still checking a computer. He had no chance at all (orphans created + 1?). I could have run stars up noisily and use my pistol (or the Assault Rifle) on them if I hadn't care for triggering the alarm. Or if I had gone the techy way (which doesn't attrack me personally... too much work), use some gadgets to attrack them to the stairs and them defeat them with some well placed charges (shock or mines), for example. Your weapon is choice indeed.

Side missions exists but are quite related to the story. I meant more like unrelated stuff. But certainly there are related side mission and to complete the optional stuff in the game, which is not uncommon, can be quite important/interesting. (i.e. Completing a side mini quest in one mission made one boss in another mission easier) It's like visiting places: you go from the safehouse to missions and that's all. And that's fine because I'm a spy in a important mission and not a tourist but I understand that some might expect some more "freedom" in their movements out of mission. The game is quite focused and feels a lot like a movie, which is great to me. It's not like in Oblivion where you were supposedly in an urgent mission to stop the Gates and... well, you could spend most of the game doing other stuff and not bothering at all with the Gates until you had decided that it was time to finish the storyline.

The conversation forces you to think quickly ("How should I treat him? What did I learn from the dossier or my previous encounter?") and you better be careful moving through the options. A mistake can have you selecting an option you didn't really want. And altough talking options have no real bad results per se, actions that you can choose through the conversation wheel could (kill someone you didn't want to, or start an attack instead of keeping it cool). Grace under pressure, I suppose.

The numbers minigame is not newbie friendly and had me for some minutes in the tutorial trying to figure it out. At least can be partially avoided spending money (and gadget slots) in EMP devices. It's tricky and I have some trouble with the number controlled by the mouse but not sure if it's just a matter of sensibility. Seems that like in Mass Effect 2, there are mods and Sabotage skill that can give you a better chance to beat hacking/locks (I suppose that giving you more time to beat them). I have found that lockpicking also can be tricky with the mouse movement but it's quite minor in comparison to the numbers one.

I haven't played Indigo Prophecy so I cannot compare to it. 

The parts where you have to choose a conversation option are timed (i.e. try to hit on the female handler or treat her with respect, arrest someone or extort him,...). E-mail reply options aren't.

I didn't comment on it but the game uses Check Points to save your progress. If will save automatically when you reach one and you can create your own save games. When you load a game, you start in the corresponding Check Point. I have only tried load game once during a mission and I had to kill the first guards again but I'm not sure at to which point the area is reset (I suppose you keep stuff and mission goals). I wish I could give a proper name to each save game instead of hacing to stick with the autonaming (which isn't informative enough).

With online activation, there goes my purchase.

So while I don't like my games needing any kind of online activation/presence, it's a system I may consider to accept depending on the game we are talking about (like I did for Mass Effect or now for Alpha Protocol). In any case, if I put a word into "" (like saying "Good"), it'll likely be not to be taken literally (or in absolute terms). Did you see a "Good" in Theme feeling? Nope. Wonder why.

Not trying to convince you about buying the game or changing your stance about online activation. Just saying. Your money is yours as are your reasons to buy a product or not.

So I finaly actualy installed and played this. Ummm yeah after getting used to Biowares movement animations it was a painful dive back into console mediocrity for the rendering and the moveing and several other parts of the game.

I really like the premise and the concepts for the gameplay but they seem to have botched the port to PC for sure. (Basic stuff guys; if I press M to bring up the map, let me press M again to close it).

I can see why people give it low reviews though the initial impression of the weapons is that a 2 year had her first firearms lesson. A trained agent who can't even hit a target 2 feet away is... disapointing. It totaly removes any 'beliveability' and fun from the early game.

I also don't like how you seem to be locked into a specilisation? Im not sure but none of them opened up the trees for all the things I wanted (i.e. some were ones I dont want). Not sure whats up with that later on though.

Im also feeling like Im supposed to sleep with every female I meet... This has the effect of me insulting (well as far as possible) every female I meet (err... in game at least).

EDIT: The best way to sum up this game, as I have just learned, is that it is more fun to answer your emails (in game) and talk to people (again, in game) than do any of the 'action' missions.

If this was Splinter Cell - this would be such an awesome game.

Just some thoughts I had.

Seriously though, there should be some minimum standards for interface design on PC. Its getting silly. Id rather the PC version be delayed than suffer such childish interface design. Blah blah blah my never ending rant about how interface design is the most important part of any application and that a bad interface makes bad software blah blah blah.

I'm going to assume that's sarcasm, since Circle is on the right, at least on PS3.

Oh yeah, Obsidian were a bunch of morons who couldn't design a proper interface for their PC game.  Alpha Protocol isn't nearly as bad as MW2 though (seriously, most half-assed port ever).