Wow...I have never disliked a game (especially one by Obsidian) as much as this one within the first 15 minutes of playing. It started with the horrifyingly cheap and annoying "minigames" like lock picking and "hacking", both of which leave little margin of error and really detract from the pacing of the game. Then it was the shooting, which is incredibly difficult due to overly sensitive and clunky controls. I would imagine this might be a bit better with a mouse, but missing a shot by an inch because the reticle wasn't in the exact right place is so CHEAP. There are very few games i have stopped playing this quickly due to sheer annoyance at the execution, and this is one of them. Not even worth a rental. Shame on you Sega!

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The two companies Bioware and Obsidian have been responsible for most of my favorite RPG games. Add Alpha Protocol to that list.

The overall main storyline to the game, is actually not that great. (Spoilers) The real threat isn't the plethora of middle eastern terrorists who hate us and everyone not like them, it's a rich white guy and his evil cooperation who want to sow chaos and war so they can sell weapons and make money. Liberal Hollywood has beaten that one to death, see Ironman and a ton of other movies. I would have had more respect for the storyline had they stuck to destroying a worldwide terrorist network. I enjoy plot twists, but an evil cooperation again? Getting really old.

The smaller storylines and characters however are mostly quite good and make the game enjoyable. Unlike in Mass Effect or Dragon Age, you don't build a party of characters. You do however meet quite a few people during the game, some of whom will show up to help you in certain missions. That help however is usually pretty limited.

The dialogue, voice acting and music are all are quite good. Graphics and gameplay are good as well, but could be improved upon some.

Shooting wise the game is somewhat similar to Mass Effect 2. You can take cover and shoot over or around things, and you can target enemies or shoot blindly. Stealth is similar to Splinter Cell or Batman. You can sneak around taking enemies down silently in either lethal or nonlethal fashion. In fact you can try to get through some of the shooting missions with hardly firing at all. Shooting missions can range from short to long and some missions simply involve meeting contacts and having a conversation.

The games RPG elements are well done. There isn't too much character customization regarding looks, though it should be enough for most people. The leveling up of abilities is an important part of the game and not choosing and building up the right skills can make finishing parts of the game a real challenge. Likewise choosing the right weapons and armor is essential. Both individual missions and your skill set help determine what equipment you should be using.

You won't have to wonder weather a character likes you. The games tells you immediately whether you have lost or gained likeability points with someone You can view their attitude towards you at any time in the Intel menu. One thing unique to this rpg, is that you have about five seconds to picks conversation choices, so there is little time to sit and scrutinize your response. Also similar to Mass effect, you pick a response along the jist of what you want, such as "aggressive", not quite knowing what your character is going to say or do. I like this approach alot better, rather then simply just picking dialogue and hearing your character repeat it. It keeps you guessing.

Also another really unique feature to this game is that your conversation choices really do matter. Not just with likeability points, but with how the game builds on itself. Your missions may be somewhat different or not take place at all, depending on choices you've made. Conversations and attitudes towards you will vary depending on your previous actions and choices. Some people may live or die, Some girls, may get with you or hate you. Your reputation really does matter in this game.

There are of course things that could be improved. The minigames like lockpicking get a bit tedious, but are not too bad I suppose. The ending varies abit depending on your choices, but should have been longer. The game itself feels a little short, but then again every game does after playing Dragon Age.

Almost all mission maps are unique and well designed, which is a big plus.

The game has a good amount of replayability Try using different weapons and armor and building up different skill sets. Also try making different choices in missions and conversations to experience all the variations in the game.

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This is the best game I have played in a long time. There are so many options for weapons, armor, gadgets, and how to upgrade your character. It takes thought to do this because you can't upgrade everything all the way in one playthrough. The music and the whole feel of the game reminds me of the bourne movies which is great.

In the beginning, you don't have many skills so it is hard to shoot so I understand why people can get frustrated and hate the game. You are supposed to upgrade your skills. That solves that problem. I don't know why they think it should be a shooter when the front of the case clearly says "The Espionage RPG".

The graphics can vary; they are not great but definitely not terrible. The worst graphics are usually in the cutscenes. The cover system is not the best but it works when you get used to it which doesn't take long. I have not experienced any glitches so I cannot comment on that.

I don't know what is wrong with the critics. I see no reason why this scored so low with them other than they expect beautiful graphics and easy shooting from the get go. Maybe I just like being a spy more than a spaceship commander, but Alpha Protocol was more fun than Mass Effect 2 for me. How do graphics even matter if you are having fun? It is a game. It's a shame the critics killed the sequel because this deserves a much higher score than most of them gave. I hope someone else decides to make the second one and don't dumb it down. Just polish it more. Give them their pretty graphics so they have no excuse not to love it.

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im going to mnake this relatively short so here goes...

all the reviews saying this game is an rpg and not a shooter are the ones that really matter. i think too many people wanted to compare this game to some mindless (in my eyes anyway) shooter. it is not a shooter and no, it doesnt have the gameplay level of a shooter. this game is a unique rpg experience that PLAYS like a SHOOTER. in a gaming landscape where the next game is just the same old cookie cutter game just being retitled and hyped up it is nice to see someone try something pretty fresh. the story was pretty good and the graphics are not nearly as bad as everyone makes them out to be. sure, the game isnt perfect but im a very picky gamer and i found this game to be quite enjoyable. if youre a big fps shooter fan who is obsessed with graphics you wont like this game. however, if youre an rpg fan who is tired of the same ol thing this game is for you.

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The game has its flaws. Personally, I found the stealth element far more engaging than any stealth action game I've played before, and I've played a couple of the Splinter Cell games, and Assassin's Creed. You have to think quickly, respond to your surroundings, and use your skills strategically. The character sheet has a great deal of depth, and I think this game system would translate very nicely to PnP or a sequel.

The loot and the gear you can buy seem balanced pretty well.

While the plot has its problems from a strictly critical viewpoint, there are plenty of surprising twists, and a fair share of intrigue, not to mention the remarkable range of choices you have in many parts of the game. You cannot skip any dialogue or movie sequences, however I find myself rarely wanting to, even after playing through for the second or third time on a mission. The real time dialogue works really well. The system of influence on characters is fun and intuitive, although I wish it came into play more often and had a little more development. The dialogue is well done in performance and writing, at least insofar as it keeps my attention pretty well. Overall it holds my attention quite well, even when I'm being irked.

The save system uses checkpoints. This doesn't combine very well with a combat system that, while generally pretty unique and fun, has definite irritating qualities. I frequently needed to reload on normal after making some major or minor error, forcing me to go back to the last checkpoint. This is both good and bad, good in that it shows how dynamic the game environment is and how much your tactical choices make a difference, bad in that is the most repetitive and frustrating aspect of the gameplay.

Bosses zoom around the level supernaturally and hit you for ridiculous damage on normal difficulty. In many boss fights there is a weakness of some sort, but typically I'm driven to exploiting a certain bug to avoid the frustration of dying and reloading repeatedly for the same boss fight. You can die *very* quickly fighting a boss. It makes me loathe boss fights.

In general the combat is very rewarding, and requires you to think on your feet and act fast. Something I didn't notice about Splinter Cell or Assassin's Creed, at least not for me. Also, cover is important but cover isn't arranged in obvious ways, and you need to improvise as best you can. The AI also tries to get you out of your cover, which would be a good thing. The problem being, the enemy has an infinite supply of grenades and is generally trying to push you out of cover, which is pretty easy to do - and it takes a very long time for your armor to regenerate, which might be a result of how the RPG stats work.

To bring another game into the mix, Mass Effect 2 combat was a lot more polished, a lot less interesting, unique, and dynamic. That goes for Mass Effect 1 combat as well, and to some degree for Splinter Cell and Assassin's creed combat, although AC has a very nice dueling mechanic.

Somewhere between Bioware and Obsidian is the perfect RPG developer. I would say this game isn't real high on replayability, especially that you can't skip dialogue, but it's awesome for a first time playthrough and a shame they won't get a chance to refine this gameplay and story developing technique, which rival earlier RPG's.

I rate this game five stars because I love the game. From a critical standpoint, I would give it three or four.

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When I first heard that Obsidian (Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords) was teaming up with Sega to create the first-ever espionage, I was genuinely excited about the prospect. Two years of waiting later, and over a day and a half of playing, I am reasonably satisfied with Alpha Protocol albeit with some moderate concerns.

Story:

The story is definitely on par with anything Robert Ludlum ever wrote. You are Edward Thornton, a recently recruited spy to stop terrorists from blowing stuff up. Along the way you encounter beautiful dames, evil bad guys, double agents, friends turned bad, deception, drama, blah, blah, blah. Very contemporary and fairly compelling as one would expect from a spy game. Wanna know more? Play the game!

Game Play:

When I researched and read about Alpha Protocol, two games struck me as strikingly similar in nature and would be the basis for comparison: Splinter Cell and Mass Effect. One for it's stealthy nature and the other for it's strikingly similar game play respectively. While playing through Alpha Protocol with a neutral observer (a poor soul unfortunate enough to venture to my place for a free beer and ended up having to watch me play for a few hours) we found ourselves consistently comparing Alpha Protocol to the two games mentioned.

The game centers around three basic mindsets of spy game play; professional, suave, and aggressive or Jason Bourne, James Bond, and Jack Bauer respectively (my apologies if you get none of the spy pop culture references). You can go guns-a-blazing in a situation, sneak around, or, in less instances than you'd think, you use tech and sabotage to make your way around. However, more often than not, you're either gonna sneak around and ninja vanish kill everyone or just charge in like Gears of War... although the latter doesn't work as well.

So, you're probably gonna have to sneak around. Fortunately, the AI has a very linear though process and will follow their assigned paths perfectly making observation and killing very easy. The trick is to try and make your path of killing not coincide with the vantage point of another bad guy. Again, fortunately, the designers of the maps made flanking very easy with alternate paths to follow.

Combat is where it gets interesting... in a "you got to be kidding me" sort of way. Close-quarter martial arts consists of rapidly hitting the red "A" button when you get too close to utilize your firearm. Problem with this is that the "A" button also corresponds with your "takedown" command so while tailing bad guys I would get close, the bad guy would move a little and my "takedown" command would disappear but, too late! I already hit the melee button and thus my cover is blown. This happened A LOT when I was playing and it got annoying.

As for shooting your firearm, the accuracy of said firearms revolves a lot around the same physics as Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords as in you have a certain chance of missing even with the enemy in your crosshairs... this means you will miss a lot early on in the game until you hone your skills even if the bad guys is ten feet in front of you. Needless to say, the combat really needs an update patch.

Next are the gadget mini games. The lock pick and bypass games are interesting enough and very similar to Mass Effect 2. The only one that REALLY sucks is hacking, where you take a line of code and try to find it in an ever-changing grid of characters. Unless you have a big screen and a fair amount of depth perception, this mini-game will crush your soul. It took me five times to get it right the first time because my darned A.D.D. wouldn't let me focus right. :P Needless to say, take your ritalin (use as directed) before attempting this mini-game.

Between missions you can customize your character at safe houses and change your most basic of appearances. After being able to create anyone I want in Mass Effect 1 and 2, Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, and Oblivion, I found myself seriously restricted in customizing Thornton beyond hair, hat, and maybe putting some kewl accessories on the pistol.

Lastly is the dialog system. Love the idea of very basic word choices, derived from the three spy "JBs" mentioned earlier, changing an entire outcome in the game whether big or small. It can spell the difference between success and failure, victory and defeat. It is highly entertaining to try out the dialog choices but my beefs with it are two fold.

1: You only experience dialog at key points and during mission briefs/debriefs. In Mass Effect and similar games such dialog systems where omnipresent if not a substantial part of the game.

2: Some of the differences between the three spy mannerisms were way too subtle and lack any real excitement. I was hoping for an over-the-top James Bond style dialog every time I chose "suave." It just doesn't seem as genuine as originally hyped.

One more beef... no sniper rifles? Not kewl man, not kewl.

Graphics:

Good sometimes, bad at others. Am I the only one who had trouble aiming down the sights due to the graphics not being able to catch up or the calibration was off? Facial graphics are standard, nothing amazing. The environments are authentic, but hardly breathtaking.

Sounds and music:

Mostly rehashed stuff from other films. Again, nothing special although the dialog is wonderfully recorded and seamlessly applied. Kudos there.

Replay Value:

Moderate. I felt more motivated to get a few achievements by skimming the origin stories in Dragon Age: Origins more than playing through Alpha Protocol.

All in all Alpha Protocol could have been simply amazing but decided not too. Obsidian and Sega have many glitches to fix and need to make the game a LOT less linear.

85% overall. Solid B.

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A lot of people have given Alpha Protocol a bad rap. True, it has some issues, but the game is endlessly fascinating. I have played it through 5 times, and each time, I have gotten a different outcome. Many games advertise that the ending depends on your choices as you play the character. Alpha Protocol does this better than any other game I have played, better than KOTOR, better than Mass Effect 2. Events are sensitive to every nuance... not only to who likes you, and who doesn't, who has died and who has not, but also to each verbal choice. Sometimes, you don't see the effect of a single sentence. uttered early on in the game, until the endgame. The key to replaying this game is to play each run-through differently, because if you do, you will get different information, different options, and different outcomes as the game progresses. I am working on my sixth run-through right now, and I am looking forward to finding out what will happen this time. Be sure to listen the the newscast that plays while the credits roll at the end of the game; it describes the political effects of all your efforts during that game.

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I really don't get all the negative "PROFESSIONAL" reviews from the game magazine industry. I played the entire game and although it's more gunfights than espionage, I enjoyed it more than Sam Fisher's newest outing. Still, it's like the Mass Effect's younger brother that tries really hard, but is not as cool. Nailed the "reporter", but no luck with the other ladies yet. Too bad it's not a team based RPG (i.e.: KOTR). My only real gripes were with getting temporarily stuck in the cover mechanic and that some of the bosses were unnecessarily way too hard to take down. There is a satisfactory weapon customization (booo, no sniper choice) and the hand-to-hand combat is simple and effective. I'm looking forward to DLC and I'm already on my second play through. It's not going to be for everyone, but I loved it. Rent before buying, if possible (I don't regret my pre-order at all!).

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This game caught my interest about a month or so before it's release and based on the generic descriptions in the previews, I was already on board. A modern day, spy centered RPG by the same designers of Knights of the Old Republic 2? (One of my favorite RPGs ever in terms of character and story depth.) Sign me up.

Then about a week before release, the reviews started rolling in. Horrible graphics they said, glitches that render the game almost unplayable they said, frustrating control scheme. Almost everything that could be wrong with a game was listed as being wrong with this game, and obviously I was disheartened.

I eventually passed on this game during launch day and started looking for the next great RPG, which had me waiting for Fallout New Vegas basically, but after a week or so of waiting, I came across an Alpha Protocol review here.

The reviewer, another RPG fan like myself, pointed out that reviews from "mainstream" game sites like IGN and Gamespot, are often not only biased, but different features weigh more heavily to them then to the average gamer. For example, games with "amazing graphics", like God of War III tend to end up with high scores no matter how dull, short and repetitive the rest of the game happens to be. Yet on the other hand, things like depth and plot don't seem to count for anything in the mainstream game critic world.

I also get the feeling that certain games are given artificially good scores based on how much hype is surrounding that particular game. Perfect 10 for Grand Theft Auto IV? REALLY? I mean, the game was good, but aside from the improved graphics, it was a step BACKWARDS from GTA San Andreas in every way.

Anyways, enough of my rambling about the game review industry and on to the actual game. Basically let me put it this way, if you like a good RPG story and the freedom to make choices that dramatically effect how the story plays out, then this is your game. Period. Anything you may have heard regarding glitches, bugs, bad controls, AI, whatever, it's not enough to take the wind out of this one feature. Every choice I've made in the game so far, (I'm probably a good 6 hours in), and I'm already dying to know how it would've turned out if I made one of the other multiple decisions. (And yes, I even reset the game a couple times just to check.)

As far as gameplay goes, just remember this one little fact about the game and you won't be disappointed at all. THIS IS NOT A SHOOTER. Don't play this game like Gears of War, this is more a realtime RPG combat system than anything else. Train your weapon of choice up to a respectable level and you should have no problems taking out 80% of the guys in the game. I will admit that boss fights are rather tough if you don't have a little bit of assault rifle, but they're nowhere near impossible. Just might take you a couple tries to do it with a different weapon.

However, if you're one of those graphics perfection who flips out and returns a game just because they saw one tiny bit of clipping or texture popping, this game clearly is not for you. The graphics are probably, at best 3 years old in terms of quality and texture popping is somewhat normal. Even so, it's hardly enough to take away from your enjoyment of the game or make it unplayable.

I guess in closing I just wanted to say I felt this game got a bad wrap. This game delivers on exactly what it promises and has exceeded my expectations. This is what Mass Effect 2 SHOULD have been, but instead, the boys at Bioware seemed to bow to the trends and make their game into more of a shooter than an RPG. Good for them I guess, but props to Obsidian and Sega of America for keeping this one much closer to the RPG genre than the shooter genre.

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First of all im doing this by phone so please bear with me. Also note that this is a review of the xbox 360 version of the game.

For a long time I was excited for this game bit almost didnt get it because of the reviews, dont pass this game up. Im going to try and keep this short/blunt. Alpha Protocol is a good game! However it isnt for everybody. Don't go in expecting splinters level of stealh game play ie hang from stuff. Don't expect a third person shooter like gears of war, and dont expect mass effect! I can not stress that last one enough.

While it has issues with textures poping, I am on my second play and have not had any AI issues. This game as said before doesnt have the best graphics but what it does have are more then good enough. Now this game is a bit....rough. It does not pamper you like most games today. I read a person saying it should have gears of war cover bit I never had an issue pressing A as soon as I hit cover. I also read people say its hard to shoot.....its an rpg not a shooter lvl up your skill and any gun can be awesome (although it isnt hard to do so even before hand).

I guess what im trying to say is if you are actually any good at gaming then sneaking and shooting are not as hard as people say. If you want a fun interesting game then dont skip this, just be sure you can handle playing something that doesnt hold your hand all the time.

FOR PARENTS:

If you want to know how child safe this is, it does have (suggested) sex that you need to go out of your way for. However from the three parts i have seen of this none had any nude or side boob stuff. One did have panties but thats it.

Anyway this was way longer then i thought it would be but i hope it helps!

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I'm not going to lie to you, this game has it fair share of issues that drag it down for being truely great, but that's not to say that there isn't greatness to be found. While the universal opinion is pretty poor for Obsidian's 'Espionage RPG,' for pretty valid reasons, the games real problems can all be traced back to one thing, lack of polish. You can find examples of this in nearly every review so instead I'll just explain why I still love this game.

To start I was floored by just how different 2 people can play it. I'll explain, myself and 2 buddies both took on different playstyles. One went pre-set Commando, another choose his own skill tree, while I went pre-set spy. Not only did this change how we handled missions, but it also effected our relationships, convesations and how possible contacts viewed us. The choices we made really seemed to have impact on the world as well as our characters, unlocking various perks affording small bonuses unique to them.

While not the most original story, it still manages to get in a few real good twist before the end. The characters you interact with are rich and while if a little stereotypical are well voiced and diveres, especially Thorton your main character.

Lastly, I found character progression to be pretty well done. My character seemed to level up at a pretty steady rate through out the game and when it came time for the finale I was nearly max. The skills you chould purchase I also found to be extremely usefull, unique, and fun to use.

Final word, I can't in good conscience recommend 'Alpha Protocol' as a $60 purchase, even though I love it. At least rent this game though I would implore, give it its fair chance before dismissing it. Sure there are alot of bugs and design flaws, but I promise you the RPG element is well implemented and the choices you make could give Mass Effect a run for its money.

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I'm personally very surprised with the critic reviews of this game. I consider myself a fairly difficult gamer to please to the point of compelling me to complete a game. I found the game enjoyable and the plotline/plot decisions made me look forward to coming back to the game. I didn't run into any of the technical issues that were cited in nearly every review... yes, there was some texture load, but I feel like it's in quite a few games and it's not really something that kills the ambiance. And for the record, yes, the stealth walk looked very silly...

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This is a game that has suffered more from poor advertising then poor game play. I found the game very fun and not at all broken. I agree that it gets a little twitchy at parts. However if you go into the game expecting a RPG it is not at all disapointing. I think the reason it has had such bad press is people expected Halo and it is much closer to KOTOR in game play. The RPG elements are great and alow for a great deal of control over skills, looks and personality. I like the timed mini games as they add a element of suspense and hurry to the game intrensic to all good spy movies, i.e. 'red wire, green wire'.

My major problem with the game is that it is to level based giving it a Doom like feel. Also the levels are set out in such a way that you feel like a rat in a maze, your only options are going from point A, to point B. This being said you have a lot of choice in how to get through the maze and your choices will alter later major plot events which leaves you guessing at the consiquensces of your actions throughout.

Finally if you are a fan of Call of Duty or Halo this game may not be enjoyable for you it is based to much around RPG tactical skill and not on pure personal ability. If on the otherhand you enjoy complex plot, and Deep RPG elements you may find yourself as addicted to the game as I am. I'm not saying that one is better then the other just that this game requires a strong prefrance for RPG over shooter.

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Protocol is a fun game. I just finished it and i was pleased with the story b/c you get to direct the direction of the conversations, which gives an appeal for a second play through. I will say that some of the boss fights are ridiculous, most notably the crazy russian but overall they are not to bad. The shooting can be a little awkward at times especially if you are moving but they are not near as bad as others have said. The reason I gave it an overall score of 4 is b/c of the graphics which really was kind of disappointing given how long the game was in development but even with this the game is engrossing b/c of the story and twist and turns. If you can get over the game not looking like MGS 4 or Conviction then you will like it. If you are not sure rent it and I think you will see what I mean.

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If you aren't a patient person, this game is not for you. Now, that's not to say the game is slow, because it's not. But there are true flaws in this game that you need to accept before you can really enjoy this game. So let me lay it out:

The Good:

-Strong story, with characters that feel real (within reason, I'm looking at you, SIE. And you, Brayko). The story is complex, and actually makes you think.

-The gameplay mechanics wise, is pretty bad. Glitching, clipping, getting stuck in floors or in walls, the cover system...but what I mean is the way it works in terms of the story. What the gameplay does do is make most situations very tense, and make you wonder might be happening next. AND, unlike a game I liken this to (Mass Effect), I loved the ability to be able to play through using stealth. The option is always on the table, and I liked that.

-Your choices matter. Now, your choices matter in Mass Effect, but nowhere near the way they matter in Alpha Protocol. And I'm glad AP didn't limit the types of choices you get to make. Because there are a number of big choices you get to make, along with more simple ones. The one drawback to this system is the conversation system. Sometimes the choices they give you aren't clear. For instance, at the end, one of the choices is "Betrayal." What does that mean? Am I going to betray someone? Or am I going to talk about being betrayed? Along with that drawback is is the timer. It's both good and bad. It adds a dynamic feel to conversations you have, however, sometimes a character you are talking to is talking, and the timer starts, and you don't know what they are going to finish their sentence with, so how can you make a conversation choice that quick? I like the timer, but I think it could be improved slightly to allow you to at least digest what someone is saying before replying.

-Being able to upgrade weapons and gadgets is nice.

-The different ways you can play through the game. There are a lot of contacts and alliances possible in the game, but only a set number of missions and ways you can interact with these people. What that means is that you don't have time to court everyone. If you spread yourself too thin you'll end up with no real allies.

-No morality bar. We have all played those games where are "Goodness" or "Badness" is tracked. This game does not, and I love it. There is no right and no wrong, only the choices you make -- just like in real life. It's refreshing.

The Bad:

-Weapons. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but Alpha Protocol seems to rely on a skill/chance system when firing weapons is concerned. If you ever played Morrowind, you know how frustrating it can be when you're right in front of someone trying to slash them with a sword and you are hitting nothing but air. In that same way you can be right in front of someone firing your weapon and you'll miss. It's aggravating.

-The mini games. See longer reviews for just how frustrating these can be. My advice to anyone who hasn't played it is just to invest in the sabotage skill and use overclock a lot. It will ease some frustrations.

-Out of place exaggeration. Why the game works for me is because it feels grounded, like it's something that could actually happen. But then they throw a character like SIE at you (Russian commando warrior woman who marches around in camo pants and a very revealing top. Really? That's the way a hardened mercenary dresses? Really, a completely unarmored and skinny Russian mob boss is the most difficult boss battle? It just makes no sense.

-Your safehouse computers. Yep, I'm complaining about this -- If you have played the game, you saw the sweet setup in all of the safehouses. However, it's completely illogical. The servers powering your ONE computer you are using looks like they could run 200-400 computers at fast speeds. I'm not kidding, there are like 15 servers for one computer. Now, I understand the need for encryption and redundancy defenses and what not. But seriously, 15 servers? It's a minor point, but when I saw it I was like...WAT.

Conclusion: If you have the patience for a good story (which is becoming an all-too-rare-commodity these days at the expense of clunky gameplay and frustrating mini-games, don't pass this game up. With the number of ways possible to play through this game, it's definitely one of the few games in recent memory I can recommend even at about $53. I intentionally left out any mention of graphics in my review, because the game is immersive enough that you don't really notice it. Yes, sometimes they show close-ups that really show how awful the textures look up close...but in truth, if graphics are that important to you, you aren't someone who is going to like this game anyways. Anyone gone back and played Goldeneye on the N64 lately? Fantastic game, but these days it looks like you're wearing a pear of foggy glasses, the graphics are so simple. It's the game that matters, not the graphics so much.

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