Release Date for Alpha Protocol Confirmed

Obsidian, as the developer, and SEGA, as the publisher, have announced their much delayed Alpha Protocol has received a release date for early summer, with the promise that, this time, the game would not be pushed back. It is set to be released on the PC, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3, and will arrive first in Australia, on May 27, one day later in Europe and, finally, on June 1 in North America.

Initially, Alpha Protocol was set to be launched in the fall of 2009, but because of the high number of AAA games that were coming out, it was pushed back to the spring of this year. SEGA made no clear announcement about another delay but the title quietly slipped to the beginning of the summer, when the release schedule is less crowded.

Obsidian has been describing Alpha Protocol as a mix of James Bond, Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne. It's an action title with deep role playing elements, delivering quite a bit of firefights as they inhabit the persona of Michael Thorton, an undercover agent who is betrayed by the entire agency he works for. He activates the Alpha Protocol and embarks on an effort to actually uncover the conspiracy behind his betrayal.

Alpha Protocol will include a host of role playing elements, starting with the advancement system, which allows Thorton to become better at various skills and get many special abilities. There is also a conversation system based around a big number of stances and the player will need to adapt their answers to the person they are working with.

Obsidian is promising that players will have a variety of ways of solving most of the events in the game, from talking their way out of a tricky situation to just using superior firepower in order to make people bend to their will.