Locations benefit from the same approach. Obsidian aims to make a game where world travel amounts to more than just a ride on the Palette-Swap Express. Avellone admits generic locations can be hard to avoid.

“There is that danger, so we set up a visual style guide for each area. It isn’t necessarily super-realistic, but we tried to ensure certain color themes are introduced in each location that set it apart. The Bourne movies do this really well. Moscow in the second movie: it feels white as soon as you get there.”

From what we’ve seen, the approach appears to be working: the super-saturated light of the game’s Rome areas are immediately distinguishable from the cold neon and brushed steel of the Asian levels.

“I can say of the three different parts of the world that are finished, they do look and feel very different,” observes Parker. “Our biggest challenge has been making those players feel the way they think they should feel – we’ve taken a lot of pictures, analyzed the architecture. We try to duplicate the look and feel of locations.”

Obsidian isn’t yet ready to let anyone play Alpha Protocol, but our hands-off demo of the game reveals structural similarities to Assassin’s Creed, even if the attendant gameplay is very different. The game’s hubs are safehouses scattered around the world, where Thorton can receive objectives or sell, upgrade and equip weapons and armor. After a brief tour of the Saudi safehouse, all gentle evening light and intricate mosaics, it’s time to see two of the early missions.

“Stop shooting the dead bodies,” sighs Parker to Ryan Rucinski, senior producer and possessor of an extremely fine handlebar moustache, who’s demoing the game. Rucinski’s working his way through a corporate break-in with a simple objective: download intel from the CEO’s computer. The lighting effects are in place even at this early stage, and a charismatic midnight vista is visible from the office elevator. Even the naff corporate artwork on the walls looks right. Sneaking is noise-based, but we’re not getting much of a chance to see that, since the floor is already littered with the corpses of freshly dispatched rentacops.

“I’m a lot better at shooting people in the head than sneaking,” apologizes Rucinski, as he blasts another two guards with a silencer-upgraded pistol. It’s an illustrative moment, and for two reasons. First, it shows the variations in approach available: this is ostensibly a stealth mission and yet you’re free to approach it in a more gung-ho fashion if you can handle the armed response you’ll encounter (there’s no fail penalty for shooting your way in, but you will get a roasting from your handler back at the safehouse).

The second distinction is the extent to which the game wants to welcome you in, giving you the superspy world of headshots and flying kicks, but without the brutal admin of dragging bodies out of sight and tidying up after yourself – the espionage equivalent of being told to make your own bed. Guards will trigger alarms on finding corpses, and Parker admits that if further playtesting reveals players want to shunt their victims around then it may be implemented, but it’s a sign of how streamlined an experience Alpha Protocol is willing to be in order to find an audience.

The freedom of approach becomes even clearer in our second demo level, a dusty Middle East canyon. While there’s no doubt the player’s being tightly funneled towards the objective, a rescue raid on an enemy base, once the base itself appears a number of approaches are available: a slow crawl through cover, sniping your way inwards, or an explosive free-for-all followed by some frantic zip-lining.

It’s all over rather quickly, but it’s important to remember that these are early levels – bite-sized chunks as the game beckons you further in with easy victories, before bringing out the more complex stuff. Equally, shooting and sneaking is only half the fun: Obsidian has given a lot of thought to the balance of both the action and RPG elements, and reactivity and the dialogue system are a big part of the mix.

“We’re used to giving players options as to dialogue and how to approach missions,” says Avellone, explaining that Obsidian’s aim is that the world will react to what you do, both changing the story around your choices (who lives and who dies, who you win over and who you alienate) and providing feedback for your actions via television and radio. All of this raises immediate concerns about the butterfly effect – early whims unwittingly locking you into a certain path later down the line – but Avellone is confident he knows how to play fair.

“The dossier you get on each character will give you indications as to how they’ll react in any situation. We didn’t want to screw the player because we didn’t give them the parameters of how a certain choice will play out.”