Yeah, the stealth is properly the worst part, and that's saying something considering you can become literally invisible. Eat your heart out, Same Fischer. And I agree that the conversation system is a lot better than ME's, but I didn't like the gunplay too much. It wasn't terrible by any stretch, but I was playing stealthy, and there was a boss fight that I got stuck on for about 2 days because I didn't have the firepower to beat him.

I do feel you on the voice recognition system. While it does connect you personally with the characters, it's frustrating when you're in the midst of a firefight and they think you're cussing them out. Even though it's kinda funny when that does happen, I did the same thing and started using the button inputs about halfway through it too.

I played it on the PS3, so I didn't have the setup issues, but I can tell from your above comments that it's just another minor thing that some reviewers have found to gripe about. It's just a shame that they're so wrapped up in nitpicking the game, because they screwed up, and allowed themselves to miss out on a great sleeper hit over a minor technical issue.

Enjoy the rest of the game! 🙂

8/10 sounds eminently fair to me. I was actually fairly impressed with the voice recognition system when it worked — unfortunately, my headset doesn't cancel out noise very well so there was too much "misheard" stuff for my liking — and turning up the noise threshold just meant it couldn't hear me. The main thing for me, though, was that I simply don't like using voice commands — I feel like I'm on the phone to one of those automated-response robots. 🙂 I'm glad the option to use buttons is in there.

Yeah. The negative reviews I've read do seem to focus on its minor quirks and flaws and blow them out of all proportion. I accept that PC gamers in particular are fussy, but in all seriousness, the configuration thing is, as I say above, an issue you run into precisely once: before you even start playing! It does not affect the experience of actually playing the damn thing at all.

This is a great game that's been ripped to hell over it's minor quirks. As one of the reviewers that's review sits on Metacritic, I put my time into the game, thouroughly enjoyed it, and awarded it an 8/10.

I love Alpha Protocol. The conversation system shits all over Mass Effect and the gunplay isn't as bad as people make out — certainly no worse than the original Mass Effect. The stealth stuff is a bit poo, though.

Tempted to replay it after BD.

But yeah, I was put off by the control issues you mentioned, but if it supported a gamepad, I would just use that. Sometime's it just works better. And why is it whenever a game uses voice in a cool way, it always sucks/is ignored? Endwar was pretty cool, and the voice control worked well. I never played it but I believe Full Spectrum Warrior did the voice well too. But, Hey You, Pikachu was total garbage.

I'm admit, I had put Binary Domain on my "bargain bin" list, but only because my gaming habit is going to cover my growing Pathfinder habit. Minis are like crack. You can never have enough.