Protocol
Skip · Shooter · 2018
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 35, under the fair line, at $8.99.
- Length
- 5.2h
- Value
- $1.73/hr
- Reviews
- 74% of 339 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Buy now or wait
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 11 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
By signing below, you agree to follow the Protocol. Protocol is a program of strict rules created to make first contact with an alien life form that got shot down in the Arctic Circle.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 6 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce 650 (min 2 Gb), 8 GB of storage. Windows only.
The value story
It has been discounted 73 times in the 8 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 40 percent, about 5 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 11 days ago.
It is cheaper than 63 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 63 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Cloudpunk ($19.99, scores 61) beats it on value, while it beats CAT Interstellar ($9.99, scores 23).
More about Protocol
Steam's global achievement data puts about 14 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. On a 5.2-hour game, the hours short of it still count in its price per hour.
At 5.2 hours it is a handheld-sized game, and Valve rates it Deck Verified.
The drop-off
82% start to 14% finishA normal fall-off for a game this long. Steam global achievements
What players say
Protocol, developed by Fair Games Studio and published by Sad Horse studio, is a sci-fi action-adventure that blends first-person exploration, dark comedy, light puzzle-solving, and sporadic combat into a single eccentric package. Framed around humanity's first official contact with extraterrestrial life, the game places players in the boots of a reluctant participant drafted into a secretive government program...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
This can be a great game if the protocol was fix the shifty controls picking up things and dropping are allover the place. It makes the game harder than it should be.
Although there is a lot to like in this game, it doesn't even begin to make up for the arcade games. These are WHOLLY unenjoyable. Making the player start each round by clicking a screen that says "Click to suffer" doesn't make them any more amusing. Quite the opposite, in fact. Seriously, what were you (the designers) thinking of? Don't buy this game at any price.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Protocol scores 35/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/724490/protocolReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 29, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.