The scenario in first-person shooter titles as a genre today is comparable to the NBA's Western Conference: it's an ultra-competitive plane where the juggernauts of the business can make above-average efforts look mediocre. This forces the hand of developers to diversify their gameplay elements in an attempt to stand out to an ever-growing herd of technical beasts.

Case in point is Obsidian Entertainment's latest project titled Alpha Protocol ( Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC). This upcoming shooter attempts to balance role-playing elements with fast action to give fans of both genres something familiar yet fresh. They recently held a conference call and answered some key questions about it.

Obsidian executive producer Chris Parker opened the conference by revealing that Alpha Protocol has been in development right after Neverwinter Nights 2 was finished. He said that his team wanted to explore new ground and do "something a little more action-based, a little bit more accessible."

"We originally went for a more realistic version of gameplay and the way Thorton interacted with the world, but that wasn't as exciting as having some kind of magical abilities," Parker told members of the game media. "Michael Thorton (protagonist) is a super-agent, so we have added some abstraction, and something... like super-powers."

Parker then said that Alpha Protocol is customization-intensive, but it's not your regular RPG where you design a character and assign stats and what not to his attributes. Leveling, according to him, will be automatic but players will still have a lot to say about how Thorton performs in combat.

According to Obsidian, the bulk of customization happens with the assignment and mastery of skills and the choice of equipment and accessories to equip. Interaction with in-game characters will also determine which factions eventually become friend and foe to the player.

And while powersuit-based action is a strong trend these days, Obsidian's design team refused to adopt it and explained "we wanted to stay away from just having guys in suits... it helps gameplay-wise if they have over-the-top characteristics."

Obsidian concluded their conference call by earmarking Alpha Protocol as an RPG-FPS hybrid which is unique in the sense that it allows players to actually affect things happening around them. All of this sounds ambitious, but considering what kind of games we've seen lately, we dare say that almost nothing is impossible.