I have played Restricted Area some the latest week and I'm rather impressed. I don't speak alot of german but I understod the most important stuff (with the help of a dictionarie).
I have played through the game on normal difficult with two of the characters, Johnson and Kenji, which focuses on ranged and close combat. I have played a little with Victoria who focuses on battle through proxys ala diablo necromancer (though she has some standard combat abilities and can stand her own in combat, at least in the beginning), I have not come very faar with Victoria so I don't really know how she is supposed to be played. As four the fourth character, Jessica, I haven't thuched her at all. I think she is supposed to be a "magic" user (and i hate playing mages
).
Role-Playing: Well it ain't fallout but it's not trying to be that either. I would say that the role playng extends to about the same amount as diablo 2. You get to place atribute points and skills but you don't really give your character any personality. You may choose what to say in some conversations (unlike diablo) but it dosn't really matter what you say (not that I really knew what i was saying
) the resoult is always the same or you have to speak to the person again and say what you are supposed to say to get somewhere.
The main quest is linear quest that (probably) are story related. The story circulates around some company called Oxygenetic and the man supplying the missions is called Mr. Jones. The missions are rather simple but to an extent different for the 4 characters.
The side quest are provided by a guy named Mr. Smith who is some kind of contracter. All the missions Mr. Smith gives are random, which means 5 levels of dungeon crawlning and finding a box/person/boss. A good thing with the quests are that when your done you can simply press a button and *popp* your back in the city, so no running through 5 levels of empty corridors (1 or 2 exceptions).
Combat: The combat is simple but good. when you click the enemy your character attacks. There are some aktiv combat skills in the characters skill tree but most off them are passiv and boosts attackrating, damage, defense etc.
The whole combat system actually remindes me alot off diablo but it's still different somehow.
all weapons may be upgraded several times at a NPC in town (costs an eponential amount off money)
Character system: the game has six different attributes to spend 3 points on at every level-up. Almost all of the stats are important to all characters to a deegre.
Strength: Close-combat damage, ability to use equipment.
Konstitution: Life amount.
Dexterity: Attack rating, Ranged-combat damage.
Intteligense: "Mana" (Non-existent for Johnson?)
Reaktion: Defense
Willpower: Resistans to damage and stuff
all characters have two skill trees in pyramid form:
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| - -
| - - -
| - - - -
| - - - - -
This means every character has 2*15 skills to spend points in. One skill tree is the same for all characters the other one is personal.
Every level up you get like 10 skill points to place, the higher up on the pyramid the more expensive the skill is, the more levels you obtain in a skill the more expensive it gets. For some money you may change your skill decisions when you are in town which can come in handy when you explore the game for the first times.
I like the chracter system, its simple, straightforward and probably easy to understand if you know the language.
Items in the game comes in three shapes: White standard items, blue items with a different number of improvments (the most common form) and Unique yellow items which for the most time susks pretty hard :\
The weapons in the game ranges from katanas to machineguns. shotguns, pistols, flamethrowers and fully automatic plasmaguns.
The other equipment consists off bioware or robotic parts which you miraculesly attach to yourself anytime you want. You got two legs, two arms, three various internal organs, a brain ad an eye. The legs and arms are either right-arms/legs or left-arms/legs but they can be reversed for a price at the NPC.
All items has a manufacturer name. There are 6 manufacturers and if you have two or more items of the same manufacturer you get a bonus to one of the attributes (the weapon gets a damage bonus).
All in all i like the item system it gives you that "must-find-a-better-item-feeling" which makes you play a couple of extra side missions before going to bed and the manufaturer thing gives it an extra dimension.
One very neat thing is that when you store your things you have one staorage space which is shared by all your characters. This means tthat if you find a nice machinegun with Kenji you can transfer it to Johsson. Very Neat!
As a conclusion I can just say that I totally love the game even though I don't understand much more than the basics. It dosn't do anything revolutionaire but it gathers what all other games in the same genre has done good and improves it.
Its weak side is in the ROLE-play, it's a diablo-type of game and it dosn't pretend to be anything else. If you hated diablo skipp this one, if you liked diablo (like me) get it as quick as you can. The cyberspace environment gives it a good distans to diablo so it dosn't FEEL like a diblo-clone even if it might play as one.
Some last tips if you decide to get Restricted Area:
*Johnsson and Kenji are rather simple characters start with one of them.
*Willpower (willenskraft) improves damage reduction (widerstand) which, a least for Kenji and Johnson, is critical.
*Reaktion improves the ability to dodge an attack (auschwishen, or something) this is also important.
*Get Items which improves Widerstand and Auschwishen. (both point-wise and percentage-wise)
*When your inventory gets full, dump stuff that isn't worth much so you can pick up more expensive stuff.
GAAAH!! That was way more than I intended to write! Well no harm done i guess