Some good news: Alpha Protocol is back, after a few years in digital purgatory, thanks to GOG.
While I’ve spent a good chunk of the last few years catching up with Bioware RPGs of a certain vintage, Alpha Protocol was probably the game that kicked that whole process off. (It’s somehow very on-brand for me to be inspired to play 00s Bioware games by something that was neither developed by them or even released in the 00s).
Although in some ways, the parameters of your quest are quite narrow by RPG standards – you act alone, and have to be a male spy called Mike who behaves like a knob regardless of your choices – it otherwise packs a surprising number of alternative story permutations into its fairly compact running time.
The dialogue system, which requires each decision to be made quite quickly, and the relative lack of heavy-handed signposting about the right or wrong thing to do in each case, both contribute to a more thrilling ride than your typical ‘choices matter’ type tale.
There are, of course, plenty of bugs and glitches and signs of general clumsiness, too, but it’s an interesting game and one well worth checking out now it’s available again. (My own last playthrough was the beginning of the pandemic, at which point I wrote a less than coherent review. The two facts are possibly linked).
Having seen AP retail for a couple of quid for many years, as part of the general and possibly unrealistic expectation that the price of older games should start to plummet after a while and then remain at rock bottom for an indefinite period, it is a bit of an adjustment to see it come back at 16 quid, although this no doubt reflects the effort involved in exhuming the proper rights and clearances, all of which is part of the generally nightmarish scenario that dictates that digital games of a particular period are suddenly made unavailable in the first place.
(I should also say that, despite having no such problems myself, some have reported issues in getting the game working on modern PCs, which this new version claims to resolve).
And, while Mike Thorton might be back in action, there’s still no sign of a return for Solid Snake (and Raiden) as Metal Gear Solid 2 remains unavailable on GOG, despite vague promises that its withdrawal was only temporary.
Perhaps Konami considers these promises now fulfilled via the remastered MGS collection on Steam, although if they were really committing to that being the ‘definitive’ version of the games, the fact that you can still buy the first game on GOG with no issues seems a bit odd.
Anyway, enough grumbling: let us relish in the mildly positive news that a whole new generation of gamers can enjoy the charmless ramblings of Agent Mike!