TITLE
The Making Of Alpha Protocol, An Inventive, Brilliant RPG That Was Murdered By Mass Effect
AUTHOR
Kirk McKeand
PUBLICATION
The Gamer
YEAR
2021
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Where many Western RPGs of the era were built around binary choices, 2010’s Alpha Protocol asked you to become a chameleon. Playing as Michael Thorton, you’re a super spy who can flit between various archetypes – the three JBs: Jason Bourne, James Bond, and Jack Bauer. You’re a master manipulator who can be suave, unstable, professional, and anything in between. You wear multiple masks. It’s fitting because Alpha Protocol had many faces of its own throughout development.“I feel like a second Alpha Protocol game could have been really, really good,” former Obsidian designer Patrick K. Mills tells me. “There was a lot on Alpha Protocol that we were figuring out at the time, we didn’t know how to do a lot of the stuff that we were doing. I feel like the second one could have been interesting.”
When Mills came onto the project, Obsidian was already on its third vertical slice – essentially a proof of concept to show the publisher what the game could be. The team knew what the story was and where it was heading, but they were struggling to define it mechanically. Arguably, it’s something that the developer never really figured out.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Obsidian Entertainment
GAMES MENTIONED
Alpha Protocol
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Patrick K. Mills