Restricted Area

"Good idea, badly executed"

It is rare that I would give a low score on a game, but unfortunately, Restricted Area is a game that I would want to find a hack to super-pump my character and just run through it instead of spending 30 hours trying to beat it once to see the ending before uninstalling it.

Restricted Area got a good idea behind it. A setting in the future, click-and-kill actions, a character development system that allows you to choose from different things to improve. But this is where the good stuff stops. Regardless of graphics, sound, or game system, everything in Restricted Area has a feel that seem as if the project lacked funding, staff, and time.

Graphic:

The dungeons (or warehouse or whatever you call it) are very repetitive. There are only 4 or slightly more than 3 settings. A warehouse, the sewer, the desert before you enter the warehouse, and the castle at the end of the game. There aren't many characters for you to interact with and you would probably only encounter 3 types among the full list of monsters in the game during each raid on the dungeons. (Not including the desert area) Also, there are only boxes and barrels and finally some furnitures for you to blast at during your dungeon crawl. But unfortunately, that's all there is....

There are CG scenes between main missions. But don't expect anything near Final Fantasy or Diablo 2. This really shows that the development team needed some extra hands.

Story:

There is story in Restricted Area, but it was never really developed enough to let you know the full story. There are 4 main characters that you can choose to play with, but somehow, the game seems to expect the players to know all the characters. This is especially true when 2 of the main characters would just pop out from nowhere during the story, and your main character would seem like they knew each other all along. Regardless of which character you play as, the story of the character didn't seem to develop itself enough before the game ends. Heck, there are only 5 main missions in the game and you're done!

Gameplay:

For a click-and-kill RPG, the bugs in this game are certainly annoying. After getting weapons that can push back enemies, I often get an issue with monster stuck in walls. I would then need to use skills or weapons that can shoot through walls to finish those monsters off.

In terms of the action, well, what do you expect? It's click-and-kill, but from a distance this time. I don't really complain about the fight system because I knew this is coming my way from beginning.

I also find that the XP system is okay. You don't really get stuck forever trying to make a level and the skill level ups are noticable. Yet, I also find a major flaw in the design of the game's skill system. (Warning of Spoiler)

In the game, there's a doctor and a nurse who you can ask for help in deleting some of your skills. (and it costs money) If you delete a skill, you would regain some skills points which then be added to another skill instead. Sounds good? Well, not really. If you delete a skill from the bottom of the skill tree, you might find yourself in a situation where you may not add an additional point to your most current and often more powerful skills because you've deleted the pre-requisite! In other words, unless you make a misteke when distributing the skill points, it would be pretty rare that you would need to spend money deleting the skill. If we may continue adding points to newer skills with older skills deleted, it would actually give a better use for the doc's service.

Sound:

If you enjoy hearing gun shots and painful screams of your enemies dying, I guess that'll satisfy you. There are some environment sound effects like rain, so I guess there's one area where they did do something about.

Overall:

If anybody tells you that the bugs are acceptable in Restricted Area, they're not telling a complete truth. Do expect enemies to disappear behind walls, your character trapped in a mission with its objective disappeared, or running thru the wall suddenly and get stuck in the world of darkness.

Rather than saying that this game is bugged, it feels unfinished. It might have been better for the development team to get proper help and devote more time and resource in completing what could have been a good game, than a "beta-like" game that we're getting today.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/05