James Bond + Mass Effect = Alpha Protocol

Shadowy government agencies, mysterious paramilitary organizations, elaborate schemes that threaten to tip the world into Armageddon, and maybe some gunfights with sexy women with Eurotrash accents... yeah, I like me some spy stuff. More than that, though, I like the chance to really get into a character's shoes and stomp around a bit, almost as though I were "playing" a "role" or something like that. Weird that spy games don't often give us a chance to insert ourselves into the fantasy in the way Alpha Protocol does. In fact, I can't think of any that have even tried, outside of Deus Ex. Certainly not any that pull it off so well.

The dialogue is what does it here. When your secret agent alter ego isn't shooting people, he's talking. Thankfully, it's never the "put the controller down and go make a sandwich" variety of chatter. Think Mass Effect, but without a moral spectrum. The three most common dialogue options (Professional, Aggressive, and Suave) pretty well encapsulate the emotional range of your usual covert operative. Well, except for Suave, which here comes off less like James Bond and more Leisure Suit Larry. A little disappointing, but at least it doesn't fail to amuse. How every other character reacts to your dialogue decisions, and how this changes their attitude toward you is a high point, but I'm more impressed by the fact that this actually affects the game's larger plot.

At one point I had just won a gunfight with a teenage, goth-girl assassin, and afterward we were having a pretty one-sided chat. She was either mute or ignoring me and the whole thing was creeping me out, but at least I had a gun pointed at her head. Meanwhile, among my dialogue options for this asymmetrical exchange of words was a separate one labeled "execute," which I wasn't really thinking about using... until she went reaching for something inside her jacket. Bang. +1 dead creepy girl. And in a couple seconds I was feeling like kind of a jerk when I realized that she wasn't going for a gun, after all. Oops.

The thing is, she was actually kind of important. Not just in terms of another gameplay bonus or whatever, but in that there was a whole little plot woven around her that I won't see, as well as the fact that some other characters actually seem to have cared about her a bit and now they want to have a word with me. Actions have consequences? What a fun idea.

I like this sort of thing. It's always left me a little bit dismayed that the modern definition of a role playing game has been "pretty much any other kind of game, except with a lot more numbers in it." Alpha Protocol has XP and skills to level up and whatnot, but the dialogue is what has me paying attention. I don't have a lot of patience for cut-scenes, but cut-scenes where at any second I may have to make a snap decision that will determine how a good chunk of the rest of the game plays out, as well as how other characters will relate to me? That's the textbook definition of roleplaying, which doesn't enter into games all that often, and almost never in a context that doesn't involve elves.