Alpha Protocol (PC)

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Stealth will also be an option depending on the kit in your inventory

As you'd expect from an RPG, everything can be levelled up, including weapon skill, critical hits and the like. Each weapon has a special ability, too. We see the pistol special ability, the Chain Shot, described by Nathan as a "quasi bullet time mode" where the player freezes time, lines up three different shots and then unleashes them all at once. In a later mission, the one leading up to the incident with the weapons dealer, Thornton uses SMGs to clear out a room and we see another special ability, the Bullet Storm. "As long as he has the skill activated he'll never have to reload and he'll do massive damage" Nathan explains. We like.

Most of the RPG-ness of the game will be conducted in one of the game's many safe houses. These hubs will be where you'll coordinate with your contacts, receive intel on and select missions to embark on, buy and sell equipment and customise Thornton himself, which Nathan demonstrates in a CIA safe house in Saudi Arabia.

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It's standard customisation fare - facial hair, helmets, glasses, outfits, mission specific load-out, weapons locker for mods and the like can all be tweaked, swapped around and equipped. But, unlike in other games, you won't be messing about with your threads just for stat bonuses and to impress the ladies. Thornton's outfit will often have an impact on gameplay. Remember that incident with the marine we described earlier? If Thornton had a combat suit at his disposal he may well have been able to sneak to the US embassy with nary a care in the world. "We wanted to make sure you're always the crazy, sexy, cool stud super spy Mike Thornton," says Nathan. "But we wanted to give you some ability to change some of the things a super spy might want to change."

As of this moment we haven't seen anything from Alpha Protocol that's got our RPG hearts thumping too violently. Comparisons with BioWare's sci-fi RPG epic Mass Effect are inevitable - the dialogue system looks similar and the weapon specific special powers we've seen remind us of the Power Wheel. The over the shoulder third person perspective and cover based combat, while not exclusive to BioWare's epic, just adds to the sense of familiarity.

We've got high hopes for Obsidian's next-gen action RPG

It's how your decisions impact the game world and Thornton himself which has our eyebrows raised. In Mass Effect it was clear what decisions would make your character more evil, or more good. In the end these moral choices were driven more by the pursuit of specific statistical bonuses than genuine concern for the characters and plot. Nathan promises a system with blurrier lines.

"We actually decided to go with more ambiguity in the game," he explains. "This is more of a real world setting, so in the real world a lot of the time there's not a definite right or wrong. Especially in a world conspiracy, it's difficult to piece together who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. There isn't a choice that's better for Thornton necessarily. It's just how your Michael Thornton will approach the world."

How this will work in practice is the next question we're hoping Obsidian answers over the coming months. Fingers crossed the decisions you make will amount to more than a means to a statistical bonus end.

Alpha Protocol is due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in early 2009.

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