Good news for those who are still fighting the good fight, who still carry the proud banner of truth and justice, and who are committed to fighting for what is right, not simply what is popular. Five years after it was unceremoniously discontinued, Alpha Protocol is back on GOG.

If you're a stout-hearted, righteous person, you already know that Alpha Protocol is a straight-up shocker, an Obsidian RPG set not in the familiar settings of fantasy or science fiction, but in the modern world of international espionage. Depending on which skills you specialize in, the game can be effortless or tremendously difficult: what actions you choose to take really mattered, in a way that has rarely been realized in games since.

But while I'm excited that Alpha Protocol is finally back in stores (or rather, back in one), that's not all that's happening here: in a chat with GOG's Zuzanna Rybacka, the company said Alpha Protocol as an important part of the process of "getting back to our roots of good old fashioned gaming."

While GOG has announced that it will return to its roots in 2022 as a leading Internet destination for DRM-free stone-cold classics, CD Projekt said that Alpha Protocol's "very long release" (the company typically revives games took longer than that: about six months) has reached its climax, one gets the impression that the company is eager to begin its return.

According to Rybacka, GOG is naturally very excited to have a big company like Sony releasing big modern titles on its platform, but the "good old games" vibe has been lost with the proliferation of modern titles. Therefore, the store is "going back to the core and bringing back the classics: ...... Basically, our point is (among others) to keep all the games that are going out of date and make them accessible to the younger generation"

.

In other words, Zoomer can finally experience the grand joy of Mike Thorton, an Alpha Protocol agent, and three different kinds of assholes: professional (Jason Bourne), swerve (James Bond), and aggressive (Jack Bauer)! That is to say.

Of course, in addition to its pitfall-laden skill system, "Alpha Protocol" is also a technically cumbersome game to play. This was a game from the "Bugsidian" era, when Obsidian was famous for putting out ambitious (and, in my opinion, exceptional) RPGs, but the technical aspects left a bit to be desired. The bugs and crashes were so numerous that there was no time to bemoan the fact that all the points had been spent on assault rifles when it was first released.

However, GOG believes it has fixed most of them. The company tells us that, thanks to the efforts of its reverse engineering team, "the most known significant bugs from the original Alpha Protocol are now 'very rare. Or, rather than a team, Rybakka said, it's more like a single wizard that GOG keeps in its office, whose main role is to "do crazy stuff that we can't wrap our heads around."

In addition to bug fixes, GOG says the Alpha Protocol version comes with full support for DualSense, DualShock 4, Switch Pro, and Xbox controllers, compatibility with the latest operating systems, cloud saving support, and a new feature for the PC The game will come with support for achievements, he said. It will also include a "licensed soundtrack," so I guess that means the music for the Battle of Braeco will be majestically intact.GOG didn't tell me if the game is a permanent exclusive, but I would be surprised if in a year or two on a store like Steam or Epic, Alpha Protocol will magically reappear in stores like Steam and Epic, I wouldn't be surprised.

I myself have had the opportunity to play around with the game via GOG Galaxy, and I can assure you, my friends, that this is definitely "Alpha Protocol". Don't expect a GOG remaster, because GOG did it, and at first glance you still can't distinguish it from the game you remember, but the controller works, the game doesn't crash, and you're running around like the most insufferable agent in town, without any trouble. I was able to check it out. As much as I dream of a sequel or a full-blown remaster, I'm sure I'd embrace it if I ever thought the game was dead. It's finally time for this spy to come in from the cold.