Alpha Protocol

If you worked for a shadowy counter-terrorist organisation, what sort of agent would you be?

After some action-packed super-secret spy hijinks, you slink back to your Rome safehouse.  Are you in for a roll in the sack, or a taser to the chest? Depends on decisions you made hours ago, so you can’t simply reload your save until you’re knocking boots. Welcome to Alpha Protocol, the spy thriller RPG that features not only branching endings, but branching middles.

The term reactivity crops up a lot as we sit down to play Alpha Protocol: the rep from developer Obsidian is obsessed with the word and all it means. This is because beneath the third-person gunplay everything you do in the game affects the overall outcome, as well as how your character develops.

We found a moment amidst last week's E3 madness to chat up Alpha Protocol Programming Producer Nathan Davis about Obsidian's stealthy, action-ey, story-ey new RPG. Listen below for the latest information on Alpha Protocol's features, story, inspiration, and potential for "kamikaze nonsense."

Fairly or not, RPGs are fatally associated with orcs, aliens and bearded wizards. Not everyone likes the idea of having to level-up characters over 50 hours, or learn different trades just to be a Level 6 cobbler. Sega’s Alpha Protocol, however, is a ‘stealth’ RPG, applying its stat-heavy mechanics and micro-management in a world anyone can relate to – modern day espionage; in an action adventure where you can be

From Bond’s first glowering stare across a baccarat table all the way to Tom Cruise whining like a baby 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 and the rest were a sequence of gaudy car crashes and poorly clipped death animations. Other stabs at the genre