Welcome to Alpha Protocol walkthrough. Here we will go over some main game mechanics and provide links to the pages that you may find useful.
If you want a quick start, then go directly to the first mission page. Or see the main Missions page for the full list of walkthroughs of all the game's missions. Happy spying!
Dialogue[]
Dialogue is undoubtedly the main focus of the game. The dialogue system is unique, as responses are timed and you don't know their exact contents, only the general description, like "Angry" or "Reassuring". Your options are divided into "stances" or "approaches": Aggressive for all top options, Suave for all options on the left, and Professional for all options on the right, and sometimes a "special" 4th answer, that often offers unique opportunities and don't fit into other 3 categories.
Choosing one stance over another can trigger events; make characters more or less inclined to help you in the future; and keeping one stance, or a combination of stances, can give you unique bonuses in the form of perks. Every time you play Alpha Protocol you can have a different experience, by choosing a different combination of approaches for each character. You have to trust your gut and choose the best option for each situation — or stick to a single type of response, if that's what you prefer. But generally, since your job as a spy is to influence people to your advantage, you will get more beneficial results by tailoring your approach to each individual person you talk to.
If you want to know what type of responses a character likes or dislikes, then look up their psych profile in the Dossiers portion of the Intel menu. Besides speaking to people, there are multiple ways to acquire dossier information, such as collecting, buying or reading emails. If you need help acquiring the dossiers, you can find a guide here: Dossier (SPOILERS)
You can also almost always tell the person's preference towards a specific approach based on a first few reputation notifications you get during the initial conversation. Or you can refer to our mission walkthroughs to see exactly what kind of reputation gains and losses you will receive for each dialogue choice. Note that having negative reputation or antagonizing people isn't a "bad" thing in this game — while it almost never provides any real benefits, it does often result in some very amusing dialogue.
To make this walkthrough easy to follow, we list all dialogue choices in the same order for every conversation. We also add an extra comment "Reputation change +/-X" at the end (that looks like this: Mina Tang +1), whenever there is a potential reputation gain or loss associated with that choice.
- Character's name - dialogue number
- Aggressive
- Suave - Reputation change +/-X
- Professional
- Special (Recruit/Veteran/Dossier/...)
Also a small tip: there is a fast-forward feature that lets you speed up cut scenes. Just hold the main attack button.
Combat[]
The game will teach your the combat basics during the first mission, so we will not repeat them here.
The agent history (the game's word for "class") you select at the start of the game will determine your pre-selected skills and your starting equipment, and will also change a couple of dialogue lines. Note however, that you will get an option to respec after you complete your first Operation (which is only 4 missions), and get to select a specialization that will allow you prioritize either 3 pre-determined skills or any 3 skills of your liking (with Operative specialization).
Recruit is more of an extra-difficulty than a class itself, as it doesn't give you any skill points at the start. Completing the game as Recruit will unlock Veteran class, which acts more like a New Game+, as it comes with 12 levels worth of skill points.
When it comes to builds. the most important choice is to decide if you would like to work towards a combat- or stealth-focused build. If you want a brief recommendation, then depending on your playstyle we advise to focus on these skills:
- Stealth combat style favors the Pistols and Sabotage skills and, of course, Stealth skill itself. Pistols in this game are very strong, especially with the Chain Shot skill, which can easily dispatch both regular enemies and the toughest bosses; and they also support silenced fire, making them ideal for a quiet approach. Sabotage is important for allowing you to hack devices more easily and without tripping an alarm, and it helps you avoid cameras.
- For run-and-gun style of combat, Assault Rifles are the best all-around type of weapon, while SMGs and shotguns are mostly support weapons, intended for emergency close-quarter situations. Toughness gives the much needed health increase, as you will get hit a lot in the open combat, while Technical Aptitude lets you heal more and increases the basic stats of all weapons and armor. Martial Arts can be a good support skill, especially with Jump Attack ability unlocked (which stuns most enemies for 5-6 seconds) — or it can even be the primary combat skill you use throughout the game. However, if you want to use it exclusively, then it's recommended to wait until a second playthrough, as it requires some advanced game knowledge.
Later in the game, once level up a bit, you can start combining skills from different styles, but earlier it is better to stick to one style.
Missions[]
After you done with the introduction mission, you will start your first operation. Right away you'll notice that there are multiple missions available: these missions can be completed in any order — and the order you choose will have an impact during the missions. Some missions will affect others by offering new information that you can use in conversations or by enabling bonus objectives. Your decisions can also affect the equipment you have available for purchase in the game's shop (the Clearinghouse), making the following missions harder or easier.
Further, once you finish the first operation, you will gain access to 3 operations in 3 city hubs: Moscow, Rome, and Taipei. You can choose any of them first an do them in any order. You can also leave one hub to visit another, and do the missions there, and come back at any time. There is only a single timed mission in Moscow that can fail (the final one), if you don't do it right away, but you will know it when you see it.
There is no "correct" order to do operations — and changing it will give you a new experience every time you play. If you wish for an easier time then doing Taipei first seems to offer more benefits, as having Steven Heck as an ally helps a lot in Moscow's final boss fight. So, that's the order we suggest for a first playthrough: Taipei, Moscow and Rome.
If you want to know more about how missions influence each other, see this page (SPOILERS): Beneficial Mission Order. We only recommend it for the subsequent playthroughs.
Be sure to hard save often, in case you run into bugs, or want to try out different scenarios without a full replay. The game has an overwrite auto-save feature with a single slot, that only provides one recent checkpoint and your last safehouse before the current mission. You can't save or access any menus during the cutscenes and conversations, only pause.
Links[]
Here are some important pages, for future reference: