Restricted Area Preview
Gorath, 2004-09-27

A few weeks ago we paid a visit to developer Master Creating in Hamburg. They took the time to show us their debut RPG Restricted Area, and we even got the opportunity to play it for a few minutes. Here´s what we found out about this cyberpunk action-RPG inspired by Shadowrun and William Gibson´s books.

The World

It is the year 2083. The world is in ashes after a nuclear catastrophe. The population has found a new home in a few megacities. Although there´s a world government, its power is limited - seven giant corporations have the real power. They have built hidden fortresses in the contaminated wastelands outside the big cities an in these fortresses, only company law counts. They are a restricted area for everybody who isn´t on the payroll.

The characters

Naturally, there is competition between the corporations. When one of them needs some dirty work done they hire freelancers, to avoid getting directly involved. The player has a choice between the following four very different freelancers:
Johnson - a former soldier
Victoria - the only known psionic
Jessica - a hacker
Kenji - a former Yakuza
Each character can learn 15 standard skills and 15 unique skills. Both skill groups are sorted in a pyramid: Master Creating says they´ve chosen the skills in a way that "old" ones can still be used effectively when you´ve reached the top of the pyramid, which avoids a common mistake in action-RPGs. Another point worth noting is that invested skill points can be bought back, so there´s no dead-end for a misdeveloped character, only a hefty monetary penalty.
Detailed infos about the skills and the 6 attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Reaction and Willpower) can be found in this article at RPGCodex.

Gameplay

Restricted Area will have a 15-20 hour long main quest for each of the characters. The four storylines cross each other sometimes - for example when one of the main characters has to rescue another one.
You spend the time between missions in the city, talking to NPCs, doing the usual character related things and acquiring new quests. Advancing in the main quest is optional. There´s an unlimited number of computer-generated side quests, so you have an alternative if the main quest is too tough at the moment.
The action is inspired by the first Diablo: you enter an area, blast yourself through it and kill whatever is in your way. Enemies don´t respawn - what is dead remains dead. It´s also possible to leave a site, do business in the city and fly back to the level of your choice in this area - not exactly a town portal, but very close.
Saving -including quicksave- is always possible, except in dialogs and the like.
Most NPCs you´ll meet in town have a relatively neutral attitude towards the main characters, apart from gender preferences. Dialogs are multiple-choice, and your decisions have consequences. You may open or close certain side quests, earn an NPC's sympathy or antipathy and you will ultimately determine which of the 7 endings you´ll see.
Of course, an unlimited number of quests also demands an unlimited number of items and weapons. Some of them can of course be bought in shops, which restock randomly every time you re-enter the city. But what happens if a merchant has a nice weapon you can´t afford? You can ask him to put it aside until your next visit.
Jan Beuck will talk about RPG elements and the other things that separate Restricted Area from all the other vanilla action-RPGs in the interview we´ll post tomorrow.

Multiplayer

RA will have cooperative MP for 2 players - wasn´t this 4 players some time ago ?! - via LAN and internet. Unfortunately the main storyline is locked and only side quests can be played. Master Creating will offer a lobby and servers for open games - closed servers are not planned. SP characters can be transfered to MP and back, while the main quest is frozen in the meantime.
The developers will consider unlocking the story with a patch, if the demand is high enough. A free coop campaign is also an option if the game sells enough copies to justify this.

Technical stuff

The game uses an in-house 2D-engine named IRIS, enhanced with real-time light & shadows (-> please note that most screenshots on RPGDot still show an outdated lighting system!), particle effects and a basic physics engine. This combines the typically low system requirements of a 2D engine with some quite effective eye-candy such as persistent bullet holes - but more on this in the interview. ;)
PCs faster than 1 GHz, 384 MB RAM and a GeForce 3 should be able to get the maximum of 120 fps with all details enabled. The supported resolutions are 1024*768, 1280*1024 and 4 windowed modes.
All NPC dialogs are spoken by voice actors, although the PC´s lines aren´t repeated because it would have been a waste of time. In the German version the main characters have Arnold Schwarzenegger´s, Angelina Jolie´s, Jet Li´s and Alicia Silverstone´s voices, so it doesn´t come as a surprise that the localization is top notch. How much effort the still-unannounced publishers for the UK and North America put into it remains to be seen.
Master Creating outsourced the sound track to Dynamedion, a company who came to international attention when their superb SpellForce sound track was chosen as a part of the opening concert at last year´s Games Convention. According to the devs their RA music will be "a gloomy mix of electronic sounds, real orchestra recordings, electric guitars and vocals." The story is told in more than 40 full-motion videos, which are often interrupted to let the player make a decision.

Interface

Restricted Area uses an unobtrusive, highly customizable interface. It´s transparent and uses only a small area of the screen. The devs said everything can be configured. "Everything" includes 3 mouse buttons, keys for strafing -only Johnson can do this- and even the key to open the options screen. We´ll find out soon if this was meant as a joke. ;) The only missing feature was gamma control, but this is no real problem because it can be done externally.
Comfort functions contain things like picking up gold automatically - there´s no reason not to take it -, an auto-equip option for what the computer thinks is the best equipment, mini map and world map, and moving with the cursor keys when your mouse hand is busy.
Movement is precise to the pixel, which was the reason for a few problems navigating through doors in the alpha version.

Misc.

Here are some more random details: A set bonus for items has also been implemented. What makes this even more useful is that items can be exchanged between your different main chars. So it definitely makes sense to play all 4 stories parallel. Item exchange is handled through trunks in your pal Jason´s glider. Jason is the guy who flies you to your missions. Not exactly elegant, but it works. A more comfortable method is being considered by the devs.
Later in the game you might have more gold than you think you can ever spend. This is the correct moment to visit your weapons dealer and ask him to manufacture your dream weapon for you, according to your specifications. Very expensive but probably worth it.
A complete set of mod tools will be made available for download after the German release. If English tools will follow or if they´re in English right away is still unclear.
Difficulty levels are normal, hard and realistic.
The game has a medium amount of blood. It came as a surprise that the USK in Germany rated it '12' because the devs were aiming for a '16' and didn´t see a reason to tone the game down.

So how does it feel ?

After all the theory let´s talk about a few impressions collected in the short playing session.
The action was clearly faster than in other action RPGs. Sometimes the game threw a dozen enemies at once on the main char. Very direct gameplay without unnecessary sentimentality. All the action and effects had no performance impact whatsoever, it was always fluid.
The interface was very good, apart from the few problems mentioned above, which is normal in an alpha version. It´s hard to say anything definitive about the technical aspects because dungeon graphics and music were still work in progress. The part of the old sound track I heard - I guess this is the one which will be the bonus on the DVD- sounded a bit like Quake.
To summarize it, Restricted Area felt like sci-fi Diablo meets Crusader.

German release

Restricted Area will be available in the German speaking countries on October 1st. It ships on DVD in a small card box. The manual will have about 50 color pages. As a bonus feature the DVD includes an alternative sound track.
A German demo is announced for late October, the first patch with a few enhancements collected in the latest previews should come with the release.

Conclusion

No doubt about it, Restricted Area is a potential winner. What we can expect, at least for the German version, is a fast-paced action-RPG in a dark future scenario. The graphics will be 2D with effects everywhere, good enough and lightning fast. Add excellent voice acting, an appropriate sound track and a streamlined interface and you have all your bases covered. Then it´s all up to the gameplay - and this makes a good impression as well, with its dynamic action, well thought out innovations and more RPG elements than the typical hack & slay RPG.
Multiplayer is on a different paper, though. It remains completely unclear how relevant the cooperative MP will be. Hopefully Master Creating will reconsider their position and open the main quest for 4 player coop MP.