Reviewing Restricted Area presented me with a rather unique challenge. The conundrum at hand involved attempting to choose a single word that could truly capture the essence of all that is Restricted Area. After a considerable effort, only one word would suffice: Unfortunate.

Ostensibly, Restricted Area is a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk style, science fiction role playing game that places heavy emphasis on combat action. Realistically, Restricted Area is simply a stylized Diablo II clone commingled with elements of the classic Fallout series and placed upon a cyberpunk stage. Make no mistake, Restricted Area is not a true clone of anything but its influences are unmistakable.

The fixed isometric view and character movement is straight out of the Blizzard design guide. The barren landscapes, mutated creatures and other character are a ringer for the Fallout series. And the cyberpunk influences are practically torn from the pages of the masterful works of Phillip K. Dick or William Gibson. Regardless of the inspirators which prompted the creation of Restricted Area, it is the melding of these sources that gives the game its particular ressentir. And a fair job is done of it too. The dark, dirty, ultra-high tech "cities" blend pretty well with the dusty, barren wastelands by using a shuttle method to move you to each zone. The interface, menus, weapons and other items precisely match the other elements in the game. The weapon images are particularly well done but the bio-engineered body parts are also very good.

The audio is a real mixed bag. Vocal tracks for the cut scenes are much better than most and the orchestral theme is also pretty good. By contrast, many of the effect sounds are limp and amateurish while the techno theme will never be confused with the work of The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method or Rob Dougan. On the other hand, it is very cool to have the choice of theme music.

Now let’s look at the features of Restricted Area and see what they got right, what went wrong, and why I think they missed the mark.

The cut scene movies are of a pretty decent quality, I’ve certainly seen a lot worse from larger developers with bigger budgets. Unfortunately, it is pretty much the same movie for each of the characters. All of the backgrounds, sounds and durations are the same, only the one character changes. Additionally, you have to install a special piece of software to play the movies and personally speaking, that’s damned annoying.

There are four characters, all are human and there are two of each gender. Each character has a moderately detailed back story, a unique look and specialized skills. One of the best things about the characters is that even though this is a role-playing game (hey, they claimed Diablo is a role-playing game too) most of the characters do not fit into the classic stereotypes. It’s also cool that they at least took the time to provide a decent little history for each of them. The obvious exception is the Psionic which is essentially a classic Mage class. A mage that wears leather mini skirts and comes packin’ heat. Let’s take a brief look at each character as nothing matter more to an RPG than the characters.

First up is Johnson. Disillusioned soldier and heavy weapons expert, Johnson is the only character who can use the flame throwers or plasma throwers. He is also a prime example of how a character does not fit the classic roles. While he specializes in heavy weapons, he can use nearly all weapon, except melee. This is no “tank” or “warrior” class. Everything is about range and accuracy. Early in the game you will take on mostly primitive enemies with few skills and weak equipment but soon you’ll find yourself up against more difficult foes who are more adept at the use of ranged weapons. The heavy weapon can be very, very cool. Lighting off the flame thrower and watching mutants and giants turn into matches it wicked. However, flame throwers and plasma throwers are energy based weapons so they will run out of power and take a few second to recharge. And this exposes the single more annoying thing in the game. The one element that really just frosted my @ss. You cannot easily change weapons. No hotkey, no mouse combo, nothing at all. To change weapons you have to open the inventory panel and move a new weapon into the single weapon slot. By the time you do, you’re dead. Johnson, thankfully, has very few active skills. Most of his skill tree is spent upgrading accuracy, etc. But let’s hold off on skills for a moment.

Victoria Williams is the lone Psionic. Dressed like an extra from Romy and Micheles she can strap on the gat and throw a beatdown on anyone fool enough to tangle with her. As she progresses through the levels she gains abilities with more weapon but I stuck to the handgun most of the time. It’s pretty effective in short range and upgrade skills are a generic for each character. Another cool facet of the character is that each of the psionic abilities is both functional and looks cool.

From the loins of the Yakuza spawns an electric Samuria, Kenji Takahasi. Kinji’s bio and skills shape him into the only melee fighter in the game. In most games, this would be the tank. But since Restricted Area uses so many ranged weapons, it is far more important to beef up on agility so as to avoid all types of attacks than to have a focus strictly on strength. This is especially true when you consider that Kenji is the only character that can use two weapons, handguns of course, at the same time. Been perusing the John Woo library have we? But since we have no way of easily changing weapons, the ability is freaking useless. Since the map size is so small, handguns are almost as affective at range as an automatic rifle. At best you might bust off three rounds by the time your enemy is clawing your eyes out and since you have no melee weapon equipped despite being the close range specialist…Oh, how about using one of your cool attack skills. Right, skills…

Believe it not, the honor for quirkiest character is actually bestowed upon Jessica Parker. Quirky and damned near useless. This little lady is your sole conduit to cyberspace, the only one who can use a terminal. Unfortunately, cyberspace travel and combat is a very unpleasant experience. The controls and interface are just different enough to be annoying without any benefit and aside from some special skills you can use, there doesn’t appear to be much point to it. Great concept, but poor execution. What is cool however is the special companion Ms. Parker gets saddled with. It your own, personal combat drone. It hovers within short range and packs a pretty powerful punch. When you get into a tight scrape, this is your saving grace. That’s nice. To bad the damned thing chews through energy faster than Dubya can hang a FEMA director. Combine the rate of energy loss with the complete lack of any ability to recharge that energy and in a matter of seconds you are the proud owner of a floating piece of useless debri. The Restricted Area equivalent of Kato. That is overstating things a bit. There is a skill that will allow you to recharge your drone. Unfortunately it is also the topmost skill in your tree.