Alpha Protocol

Things were going pretty well for Michael Thorton in Taipei - making dangerous friends, infiltrating the Triads, uncovering conspiracies, shooting and stabbing dudes - until the boss encounter. His stealth training and silent equipment were little help against a bullet-soaking ninja with a laser-sighted shotgun.

I was willing to chalk up the "boss" of the Saudi mission set (a slightly retarded rocket-launcher affair) as a fluke, but the Taipei boss has me a little nervous about the rest of the game. I really hope this isn't a case where I have trouble finishing the story because the final boss doesn't make any goddamn sense.

As for the story, well... from a high concept standpoint, it's actually pretty good, and the writing in general isn't half-bad either. But Alpha Protocol's general lack of polish reflects poorly on the storytelling, as pieces of dialog segue poorly, or worse, are delivered out of order -- as the game reacts unexpectedly to its countless personality, relationship, and non-linear mission variables. (By including a boisterous Nolan North in its voice cast, the occasionally-stuttering dialog also suffers from an unkind comparison to Uncharted.)

Hopefully, my stealth approach will continue to work well as the game goes on, because (other than the aforementioned bullshit boss fight) it works really well. I guess I might consider keeping a shotgun on me, just in case.

Progress: Finished Saudi and Taipei