Restricted Area Q&A

Hamburg-based developer Master Creating recently released the first information on Restricted Area, its upcoming futuristic action RPG. We caught up with the managing director of Master Creating, Jan Beuck, to find out more about the game's futuristic setting, action-oriented gameplay, and branching story.

GameSpot: To start things off, give us a quick overview of Restricted Area.

Jan Beuck: Restricted Area is an action RPG with an accent on both action and RPG. On one hand, we want to bring you more action--this means the game plays faster, the controls are more direct, and you can even find some shooter elements. For example, you can switch between your weapons without entering the inventory. On the other hand, we try to be more RPG-like, and we developed a discussion system with real choices, a storyline with surprising twists, and a complex but easy-to-use attribute and skill system.

At the beginning of the game, four totally different characters meet each other in a downtown area. They have only one thing in common--the need to start a new life. You choose the one you want to play as, and this choice determines the point of view you experience the story from. As the game's story develops, your character will be able to team up with a variety of other characters and fight against the Osaki company.

Let's take a simple example: One of the characters is caught while trying to steal something. If you play as this character, you will sit in a cell for a while until one of the other characters rescues you. Then you two will have to fight your way out, side by side. If you are the character who rescues the character who was caught, you have to go in and find him first. You will also have to make sure he doesn't die during the escape. If you are neither of these two characters, you will do something totally different at this moment. Also, it's logical that a cyberspace mission can only be solved by Jessica, the computer expert, while a mission that requires brute force is predestined for fighters like Johnson or Kenji. So if you want to see everything, it'll be worth playing as each character.

GS: We understand that Restricted Area is set in the year 2083. What can you tell us about the world at that time?

JB: As a result of environmental pollution, most of the earth is covered by the so-called wastelands, contaminated deserts with ruins and shelters where only mutants live. The only exceptions are the oceans and the cities, which grew larger and larger until they merged together to form giant megacities. Smog covers the atmosphere over these megacities, so the light is always dim, but colorful commercial projections and lanterns make up for the lack of light. This stands in contrast to the merciless, continuously shining sun over the wastelands.

Where once-powerful nations dominated the globe, threatening each other with sudden nuclear annihilation, one global government now rules the world. This global government is weak, and megacorporations have become a law unto themselves. People who accepted their sovereignty were protected, but the outcast, dissidents, and rebels were exploited and abused, continuing a condition that has existed between the weak and the powerful since the time began.

On the other hand, if the megacorps want a job done but they don't want to dirty their hands, they need outcasts. Through an outlaw's existence is not listed in any government or corporate database, the demand for outlaw services is high. Some are computer experts, sliding like a whisper through the visualized databases of the giant corps, stealing the only thing of real value: information. Others are ex-soldiers, armed with weapons and synthetic reflexes.

To protect their secrets from these criminal freelancers who steal them for other companies, the megacorps build large subterrestrial fortresses far out in the wastelands. As only company law counts there, that's what's known as "restricted area."

Technology is now far more advanced---cyber implants and genetically enhanced organs replace most external equipment and can be bought to increase your abilities, going far beyond the possibilities of a normal human.

GS: Will the player's progress through the game be linear, or will there be opportunities to explore and attempt subquests?

JB: Beside the nonlinear main storyline--which not only has different endings for the characters, but also has multiple endings according the way you play--there are an unlimited number of computer-generated subquests, so the game will never get boring unless you don't like the game itself. Once you finish the main missions, you are still able to play subquests.