His ability to temporarily turn invisible, even when taking down one guard in direct view of another, came in handy on numerous occasions. And if they saw him, his grasp of stealth was such that they’d soon believe they hadn’t. His aptitude with a pistol was to be feared, his perfectly timed headshots dropping foes silently. Their time limits, though unreasonable, were a breeze to him. He could even suffer the sluggish, fiddly minigames to do so.

By the end he could access any computer, pick any lock, shut down any alarm.

On my first playthrough, I turned Thorton into a superspy with a penchant for electronics and sabotage. I’m not convinced Obsidian has the wrong hands, but here those hands shake and fumble to devastating effect. In the right hands, this could be pulled off masterfully a risk/reward system that balances every possible build with pros and cons, alternate approaches, different obstacles to overcome. It’s never very clear just how the game wants you to play, and despite the choice on offer it seems as if you’re frequently punished for the kind of character you’ve created. Even by then, however, it’s still difficult to have a handle on the best combination to go with, something which remains prevalent throughout. This was reinforced when, early in the game, it was time to choose three skills to extend to the final tier. Like any spy restricted by RPG tropes, Thorton has a limited number of points to spend on abilities, and specialising in a few is preferable to diversifying across the board.

At his disposal are a list of skills to improve, each with various phases of completion. He can’t really shoot straight, you see, and if he applies himself to learning too many things then he just won’t be very good at any of them. Agent Mike Thorton, newly-drafted to clandestine deniable ops unit Alpha Protocol, begins his mission as little more than a blank slate of non-talent a smattering of skill points is all that stands between him and a bullet to the brain. At its core beats the heart of an old school RPG, masked in third person shooter clothing. If one thing is certain, it’s that Alpha Protocol is a complicated beast.

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