Alpha Protocol - $2 on Steam
 

Captain Huggy Face writes that Steam has a Sega special that includes Alpha Protocol for USD$2 (it shows $3 for me, which is presumably my localised price). I'm an unabashed fan of AP but if you have any interest in shootery/stealth action/RPGs, it would be hard to wrong at this price. Valid to September 27th.
More information.

I never did figure out the total lack of like for AP. It was quite fun IMO. And at $2 (or $3) it's a great deal!

Still not even worth that much IMO. I expected a lot from this title, but there was just something about it that made is bad…probably has to do with Obsidian being the developer.

I would never call AP great, as it stumbled in several key gameplay areas, had some head-scratching design decisions, was full of trademark Obsidian programming/mediocre implementation of key features, and had a weak, forgettable main story along with perhaps the most grating player-character I've ever experienced. With that being said, however, I managed to get a lot of good entertainment and overall enjoyment out of that game - despite the flaws - and even replayed it 2 times just to experiment with the different choices and the branches that result from said choices. It was one my favorite games of last year, and is perhaps the single best definition of "diamond in the rough." It may have suffered from many rough edges, but it was captivating at times all the same.

I feel that the review scores ranging mostly from 6/10 and lower were far too harsh and unfair. Then again, I'm usually more forgiving of games that are flawed but ambitious; rough around the edges yet full of creative spirit. In most ways, I appreciate AP more for what it wanted to be as opposed to what it actually was. The creative vision of the developers is very apparent in AP; it's a shame that the execution mostly failed to match the vision at times and that there will most likely never be a sequel that could address the negative aspects of the game.

Well, 2.00 is the equivalent of… well… a couple soft drinks? a Starbucks latte? I mean, it costs more than 2.00 to RENT Alpha Protocol at Blockbuster. Hence, I purchased and will give it a try… after I complete Deus Ex:HR of course.

Darn good game.

The problem is people excepted a mass effect with stealth game play. Instead it came out a mess with poor design decisions. Despite that I still enjoyed it.

It's more of a "Is it worth your time?" case.

Hard to go wrong for 2 bucks.

Still disappointed "general public" mostly saw the glass half empty instead of half full.
This game does some stuff extremely well and I´d love to experience it used again, with some other aspects improved, in a sequel.
Along with DKS, freshest gaming experience I had in last 2-3 years.

Yeah, but the question of whether something is worth your time or not is always there, regardless of price.

It's way better than Mass Effect. You don't have to drive a crappy moon car even once in Alpha Protocol!

AP has at least as many frustrating sections as ME. It is a great game in some ways, a bit of a mess in others. Definitely worth your time, and certainly worth giving it a try at $3.

I adored AP. It's probably one of the most underrated games ever. It delivered a very solid Spy RPG experience IMO. I beat it three times in order to explore all avenues, and I loved each playthrough…but alas, some people just don't understand jazz, see what I mean?

I agree, at least in the sense that I really enjoyed AP and can't understand the horrendously bad reputation it has received. While it certainly deserved some flack for its (arguably many, and a few glaring) faults, it doesn't seem right that the positive aspects of the game were largely - if not entirely - ignored. The positives certainly outweighed the negatives for me anyway, and it's too bad that more people weren't willing to dig through the rough spots on the surface in order to find the gem beneath. In addition to the asinine reviews that went out their way to make the flaws seem much worse than they actually were, AP got such a bad word-of-mouth reputation that it killed any chance of a well-deserved sequel almost immediately out of the gate.

A quick question to the fans who seem to be a majority replying to this thread.
Are there mods/tweaks/cheats to :
- remove timer in dialogs;
- add quicksaves ?

(these were the gamestopper for me)

Incredible price for a damn fun roleplaying experience. Just don't expect a simple shooter like ME 2…

You can't really expect to leave something half baked and still enjoy universal praise for it. At least not unless you're in Kafka's league or something. You can take your chances, if you think your effort's worth it, but you can't really be surprised if people don't respond to it.

—————

Anyway… I just bough it. I guess I won't a find a better chance to finally give it a fair try.
(Damn… I just keep gathering games lately but I haven't really seriously played anything since Portal 2.)

AP shows its strength when you play it a second time in a completely different way. You're getting a totally different picture of the conspiracies, dialog is changing quite a bit, and that's the most interesting thing about this game. It's like the books where you chose to turn left and read on page 12 or to kill the guy and read on on page 34.

But yes, graphics are below average and the mechanics of the stealth system always remained a kind of mystery to me. It doesn't offer that much freedom of choice to complete a mission as Deus Ex, but it has some choices.

I agree that AP doesn't deserve extremely high praise, as it unfortunately had too many aspects of the game that were either poorly designed, under-developed, or outright mediocre; these issues definitely prevented the game from reaching greatness. But there were some positives to be found as well, which is why I think that AP should have (imo) at least been given credit for the things that it got right, in addition to simply being enjoyable to play. The flaws are annoying and in some cases they certainly hamper the experience, but as a whole, it's got some good things going for it as well that make it a worthwhile game to play.

The stealth system was competent in an average sort of way, but it was no where near good enough for an espionage RPG. This was my personal biggest gripe with the game: the stealth system certainly worked well enough to be enjoyable, but it lacked the feeling of tension that permeates a great stealth experience like Thief, Splinter Cell, or Deus Ex.

The other issue I was disappointed with was the linear level design. I would have loved for AP to have taken a Deus Ex-like approach to the levels in terms of alternate paths and the freedom to choose the best approach to completing an objective, but it was more like Mass Effect in terms of having fairly linear hallways, rooms, and corridors.

I bought it and I just finished installing it. Finally I'm gonna give a try to this, for $2 it worths more than some $50 crap games (I'm looking at you Arcania).