All Points Bulletin

10 Review to this product

• 

  FileNotFound
  August 17th, 2010 on 3:59 pm

  Rating

  Note: Review and rating has been updated due to rising number of cheaters.

  You will see a LOT of 5 and 1 star reviews for this game.

  This isn’t because it’s a “love it or hate it” type of game – it’s because this game depends on YOU to make it fun for yourself.

  So instead of simply reviewing this game I will tell you what I do in the game and why I think it’s fun.

  I play with friends. I am ensured a group that communicates, helps out, and is organized. If I run out of ammo, I know that I can ask to be resupplied be it from a player or a car. If I get 5 star prestige I know that my team will help me out by spotting for crims trying to blow my brains out. I know I’ll get picked up when I need a ride. I know that if I’m engaged in a firefight help is on the way, I know that people in my group will stay if things start going sour.

  With that said, the times I have played with strangers have not been bad, but in cases where people do not use VOIP – it’s hopeless. This is a team based game. If you are unable to be organized and work together you will lose and you will hate the game for it.

  I play on a good and stable connection. The only time I have had issues with lag in this game was when I was on wifi in my basement, this made driving hard but shooting was still surprisingly unaffected. All other times driving has been responsive and fun. There are a lot of different cars, they feel different, behave different and react different to being rammed. Cops in an SUV aren’t going to catch a criminal in a sports car; criminals in sedan aren’t going to be able to ram SUV’s off the road etc.

  I do not use one gun exclusively and I let my team know what I am using. If I am going to be using Less Than Lethal weapons, my team needs to know this and either use Less Than Lethal as well or at least be cautious when I’m trying to make an arrest. (Also doing Less Than Lethal without at least another person is pretty much an exercise in frustration. This is why it’s so rewarding. ) Your team needs to know if I have a sniper rife or a shotgun. Why you may ask? Because if I know that we have a sniper covering a road, I’m going to do all I can to lure unsuspecting criminals into his field of fire. (We’ve had snipers get kill streaks of 10+)

  It is my responsibility to pick the right gun for the job. I would be stupid to try to go on a car chase with a sniper rifle since they cannot be used from cars, just like I’d be stupid to try to dislodge criminals camping a roof top with a shotgun as I’d never even get to it before being killed. You will not have any fun if you stick to one gun and one gun only the whole time. No matter what anyone tells you, ALL guns in APB are useful in certain situations. Yes the N-Tec is the best gun in 80% of all firefights because it’s a medium range gun and it just so happens that medium range is what you’ll deal with the most. No your N-Tec isn’t giving you an upper hand against a 2 shot sniper rifle at long range or a pump shotgun at close range.

  In short:
  
  Play with people you know, if you don’t have friends, make friends, talk to people you had a good experience playing with and friend list them. It’s your job to build a good team. The game cannot do this for you.

  Communicate. You will very rarely win team missions solo and never against a team that communicates.

  Pick your weapons and pick your battles. If you have a sniper rifle and your objective is inside a camped building, don’t pull out your pistol and charge in, go get a shotgun or an SMG. If you have a shotgun and your objective is a rooftop, go get a sniper rifle, if your objective is in the middle of the street go get what you are best with and use it at the optimal range of that weapon.

  Your connection is your responsibility. I do not have any lag in APB. None. I am on high end FIOS connection. If you are getting bad lag on your budget cable line, that’s your problem.

  With all of the above said – the game has flaws. Some a big deal, some not so much and it depends on your perspective which is which.

  The one you will hear a lot about deals with hit boxes. Yes this game does not have location damage, yes shooting a foot does as much as a headshot. Yes all characters, regardless of the avatar, have the exact same hit box that is usually a little larger than the character. This is a balancing issue as otherwise the skinny female would have an easy time dispatching tall fat men who can be 2 times as big as she is. This is a problem for cases when you think you are behind cover but can still be hit. If you want CoD or CS style fights with precision aiming and instant kill headshots. This isn’t it. The strongest gun in the game requires 2 shots to kill.

  Yes there is faction grinding. But considering that the grind is just doing missions – which are what you’d do anyway – it’s not really a grind. It’s just what you do in the game. You can just pick who to work for.

  There are only a handful of guns in the game. This is true – sadly this is no Borderlands. All guns are useful and all guns are situational. Yes the N-Tec is the best to have most of the time but there are also plenty of times when it’s the wrong gun to have.

  Yes the matchmaking can be awkward. For the most part it will put you up against what’s available rather than what’s ideal for your rank. There isn’t really any way around this. If you are forced to fight a superior team, make the best effort and maybe you’ll learn something and be the better team next time. (I’ve seen quite a few public groups go “Oh it’s these guys again – they owned us last time!” and give up before even firing a shot.)

  The mission locations turn into unbreachable camp fests. This is true for some mission locations, especially in cases where it’s a VIP mission as this allows the VIP to hide in places that can only be accessed by one path that can be covered by multiple snipers. Little can be done about this short of eliminating all hiding spots which I think would be a loss to the game. If you as the VIP managed to get to a safe spot and setup your team to cover you, you already won – regardless of how ‘lame’ your opposition thinks the spot you hid at is.

  Money is worthless in the game. This is true. Money is meaningless. So are 99.9% of the items. If you are in a clan – and you should be. You will receive league rewards, which will be unique guns, cars, upgrades, etc. I have not had to pay for the majority of guns that I own. I am rolling in money and blow it on unique cars. This has the scary potential of forcing the APB market of turning to RTW points which are tied to RL currency. Either way, if you expected this to be like WoW, it’s not. Nobody will be impressed by your ‘rare’ car or your ‘rare’ gun.

  Bugs, cheating etc. Personally, I’ve not seen any cheating first hand in the 40 hours that I have played the game. I have heard plenty of people complaining about cheaters, calling other cheaters etc. Here’s the thing. I have played against people who were accused of cheating – they were good but they were not the CoD aimbots that I’ve played against before. If there are cheaters in APB, you can go 40 hours without seeing any of them. (Yes my playtime does include KttC event which is where you’d expect the most cheating due to disposable keys.)

  Racism, Nazism, profanity etc. Yes you can customize your character in any way you want. The game will not stop you from drawing a swastika on your forehead and sticking SS logos on your back/red car with a giant swastika on the hood. You will get banned for it – eventually, but I’m sure you’ll be able to offend plenty of people first. So if you are the kind of person who is easily offended by – well anything, this isn’t for you.

  VOIP cannot be turned off. This means you will hear what other people close to you are saying, even if they are not in your group. Yes this means that you’ll hear other people talking to their wives while playing the game, you will also be forced to hear people scream insults at you. Once again, if you are easily offended, this game isn’t for you.

  Payment scheme. Yes you can pay per hour, yes you can pay per month, and yes you are paying for a first person shooter with a lobby and not a true MMO. It’s not a big deal to me. If it’s a big deal to you, don’t buy it.

  To me, all the flaws of the game don’t come anywhere near outweighing all the fun you can have in it. I am enjoying it, and loving the flexibility and the in game VOIP. Hearing the people you kill curse in frustration or better yet spew out insults as you arrest them is absolutely priceless – but here you can have it for $50….

  Update: Well – I’ve met some cheaters over the weekend, confirmed cheaters. Yeah I saw some shady stuff before – but not entire groups like this.

  Over the weekend I’ve run into at three groups who were exclusively composed of aimbotters and wall hackers. I switched servers to avoid one, only to run into another. Switched again to find yet another group and at that point simply quit. Like I’ve said in the review, I’ve not run into such obvious botting before yet confirmed sightings of hackers obviously caused my enthusiasm for this game to sink fast.

  The groups were impossible to beat. You could not flank them as they knew where I was coming from and would open fire as soon as I came around a corner. (Half the time I’d drop dead before I could back up as two people engaging me instantly would kill me right away.) They shot from moving vehicles with perfect accuracy, be it with an OCA, N-Tec or Obeya. (Their weapons were upgraded sure but only for ROF and DPS. Everyone in the entire group never missed. Never. Not even with spray and pray SMGs.

  Until the cheating is dealt with, this game will not be fun. I’m ok with all of the previously mentioned issues, but cheaters make a PvP game impossible to enjoy.
• 

  Catherine Zacharovich
  August 18th, 2010 on 3:58 am

  Rating

  APB has had advertisements talking about it being an online living and breathing city, but that is not what it is. APB has a subscription requirement and acts like it is an MMO, but that is not what it is. APB is basically an online shooter game, like say Battlefield or Counter-Strike, but with slightly higher player counts and taking place in a Grand Theft Auto-style city. There are no real missions though, and no one in the city is a real person except combatants. The gameplay goes like this: choose a “map,” of which there are only two, load in, be grouped, shoot dudes. That’s it. Sure there are objectives, but they are not any more complicated than a Counter-Strike match… stop the bomb, steal the package, etc.. Sure there are “missions” but they have no context or real story, just “oh my there is a bomb” and then you drive and stop the bomb.

  On top of this, it’s not even a good shooter. Aiming mechanics are okay but there is no lean, no first-person mode, no real gun physics. There is also no location-based damage, which makes combat feel clunky. Cars drive like crap and more important are useless in most missions, as the objectives are hidden away in an alley or behind a fence. You will basically only use cars to drive from one Counter-Strike match to another.

  The game’s main selling point and positive feature is customization, where you can dress, tattoo, paint and sculpt your virtual killer from a plethora of templates and your own imagination. Even if APB is the best character creator ever though, what does it matter if the gameplay sucks? Very little.

  On top of all these flaws there is the simple fact that APB is asking for a monthly or hourly subscription payment for 80-100 person multiplayer that doesn’t even feel that large since 90% of the time you will be in 5 on 5 matches. You see the other players wandering around, but they are only brought into the action in extremely rare cases when so much “backup” is called in that wars escalate to 10 on 10 or 20 on 20… I never saw higher than that, and even 80 person multiplayer is barely more than Battlefield (and less than free-to-play MAG on PS3). APB just frankly does not deserve a monthly payment… with a Guild Wars model of charging for new arenas or items it might have worked, but as it is you would be an outright fool to accept a monthly bill for this kind of game.

  Wait 6 months if you are curious… it will be free-to-play by then most likely, and you can give it a try.
• 

  Twisamafoo
  August 18th, 2010 on 9:53 am

  Rating

  Before I properly review this game I would just like to state that I have been playing this game since the Closed Beta (3rd phase/group “Sharp Shooters” I believe) and have probably logged over 100 hours thus far. I say this because I’ve read too many reviews by people who seemed to have not played very much of the game, considering it is similar to an “MMO” and requires more “studying”, if you will. I will try to be as in-depth as possible, so that for those that are really questioning whether or not to buy the game will hopefully be able to make that decision hear. Read as much as you like.

  In short, I can’t pull myself away from this game. It’s definitely not perfect or without a number of issues… But the mix of unique vehicles, tight gunplay, and immense customization make for quite an appealing concoction.

  GRAPHICS/AUDIO
  
  I usually would, but I won’t cover the graphics or the audio extensively… I want to mainly focus on the gameplay here because that seems to be the main topic of discussion. If that’s all you really care about, please skip the following:
  
  -The graphics are good, not great. There is a lot of pop-in even on MAX settings, and there seems to be a lack of graphical settings (i.e. dynamic shadows always on). It’s just a min-max slider with some Anti-aliasing options. The PC requirements are a bit much (currently a Quad core is pretty much required for a stable 30+ fps due to some dual core and Realtek issues) and what they currently list as required/recommended should probably be bumped up a bit. Also if you have a 32-bit OS, customized textures will be automatically set to low-res due to memory constraints.
  
  -The audio in this game is quite good. Haven’t played too many games that have the Doppler effect… in effect. Each vehicle has a unique engine sound, and (this also ties into the customization aspect) advanced player vehicles can choose different components that change the sound of the turbo, transmission, speaker, siren, exhaust, dump valve, and amp audio (all pulled straight from the game). The weapons are decent enough to the point where they are satisfying to shoot. You can hear bullets whiz past you… and rocket launchers… well, let’s just say thanks to the aforementioned Doppler effect, the sound of rockets flying by let’s everyone nearby know you mean business. It strikes fear into my heart every time I hear it. Needless to say, the audio in this game was given special attention during development, which makes me very happy.

  GAMEPLAY
  
  I’m going to separate this into Vehicles, Combat, and Customization if that’s fine with you?

  Vehicles
  
  -A lot of people are complaining about how vehicles control in APB. They claim “delayed steering” and the like. And well, sadly they are right. You will often have to turn a little bit sooner than you think you should. Why do they control kinda crappy? Well it’s for a good cause. The vehicles have delayed response because they are controlled server-side, meaning how well the vehicles control depend on your latency/lag/ping/etc. to the server. (Just to note, I usually have around 100ms on the North American servers, which are located in Dallas, and I’m from Chicago. Not bad, but not great for a competitive game like this.) They do it server-side so that collisions are more accurately predicted and to prevent the implementation of vehicle hacks. If vehicle control was done client-side, every time you saw yourself hitting pedestrians or enemy players, there would be a delayed response to that… Meaning that visually, you would see pedestrians slide through your vehicle and probably not react (aka DIE) until you have already passed through them. As it currently stands, vehicle collisions are VERY accurate and satisfying thanks to their decision to do this server-side. You get used to the delay to the point where you dont even think about it and it just works naturally. Trust me. It’s really annoying for the first few hours, but it gets better.
  
  -Vehicle physics is pretty spot on, the wheels have a good bounce to them. Some vehicles have certain specialties (one jeep has the uncanny ability to rarely ever stay flipped over)… both good and bad (one vehicle seems to accelerate too quickly for its own good, often popping a wheelie). The damage model is kinda.. meh. You can’t shoot through windows, and you can’t shoot tires out sadly. You really only see dents being made in cars after collisions. So, visually, the vehicles kind of feel dead… in some ways. It’s kind of hard to explain, I guess. Hopefully some upgrades to the vehicle system will be made. Overall, though, it’s enough to create satisfying driving experiences. There’s nothing like taking a chase up onto the freeway with your buddies hanging out of the windows shooting at the enemy vehicle in front of us as we fly through the air due to having driven up one of the many number of ramps found throughout San Paro. It’s not uncommon to see a group of people making their own race tracks in the city. Let’s just say that there are MANY lols to be had with the vehicles and physics in this game (one time I jumped out of my speeding car to see that the car had just a second after rammed into my enemy’s vehicle at an incredible speed, causing his car to flip over a number of times in front of me as I unloaded just enough rounds to make him explode before he stopped rolling. I didn’t even know he was in front of me…)

  Combat
  
  -When I read reviews about the combat in APB, they say this is where the game falls short. Why? Well mainly because of the boring, repetitive missions, and imbalanced weapons. I will not lie to you. The missions pretty much consist of running to a point and pressing the F key, capturing a circle, holding onto a task item for a certain amount of time, “escaping”, and just plain ol’ killing the opposition. The missions themselves are not fun, but the PVP combat still is. The missions are only there as a means of creating PVP opportunities. I mean, let’s be serious here, they aren’t really any different from the Multiplayer Modes found in any other online shooter, right? And these are basically fetch quests, which are found in every single MMO… except you usually do those all by yourself. That’s real fun, right? In either case, the missions bring you and your opposition to areas ALL over the city districts. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pvp mission firefight in the same area more than TWICE. And that is definitely saying something considering I’ve been playing for over 100 hours (75% of which was most likely in the action district). So what that pretty much means is… you won’t be playing the same “map” over and over again like in Call of Duty. You can’t memorize every single spot, so you can’t really anticipate anything. Almost everytime I accept a mission, I’ll be brought to a new and interesting area with lots of verticality, and different paths to take for flanking. There is almost always more than one way to get to an area, which is great.
  
  -The balance. That’s hard to determine. There definitely is a way for a player to gain an advantage over another new player. There are weapon upgrades, character upgrades, and vehicle upgrades that add small stat bonuses (I really mean small, like 12% reloading increase… ooooh). I won’t lie, it probably does make a difference in some situations, but not to the amount of absurdity I’ve seen some people raise it to. No matter what your level, your unupgraded weapon can take out any upgraded weapon with the right team tactics and skill. This game is really meant to be a TEAM game. Not a go out and solo everything with one type of gun game. You need to take advantage of many ranges, and be ready to change weapon loadouts on the fly (with field supplier upgrade, allowing you to change weapons and resupply anywhere every 300 seconds or so). Usually it’s best for teammates to take advantage of certain ranges. Have everyone equipped with different types of weapons for different situations. Have someone specialize in close-range with the sub-machine gun and less-than-lethal taser, while someone sits back with a bolt-action sniper rifle, picking off those that you have damaged who attempt to run away. This game is more tactics than skill based. Most of my kills have been made when my enemy was unaware of my presence or when I got the jump on him/her, or had a more advantageous position (ie, behind cover while he was out in the open). This game is not as imbalanced as other people may try to say. It’s just that this game can have quite a steep learning curve for some people. It is very competitive, and you will often run into groups of clans or hardcore players that utilize every aspect of teamwork available to take you out. That’s why it is almost NECESSARY to play this game in a group with some friends or hopefully people that you know. Random pub groups work better than solo, but not quite as well as with friends. I cannot stress this enough. You will have a lot more fun playing with some friends. I REALLY. Really. Mean it.

  Customization
  
  No matter what review you read, you will no doubt find that this is at least one are of the game that undoubtedly shines in. There really is limitless means of customization in terms of your character’s and vehicle’s appearance (and sound). Since I’m an audio guy, my personal favorite thing is the music studio, which if you’ve ready anything about this game you should know about. I can make full length songs and 5-second themes that play to the player I just killed, and to everyone in a mission when I’ve won. It’s great because I can now not only show off my killing skills, but also my CREATIVE skills. There is a lot of time you can spend customizing yourself to look like anything. I won’t even bother trying to explain the amount of depth found in most of the editors. Just trust me that it’s enough and is only planned to continue growing. The only thing people might not like is that clothing, decals, vehicle parts and the like are unlocked as you level contacts and organizations in the action districts (done by doing missions). So you will be somewhat limited in terms of creation until you play a bit of the action-oriented side of the game. There are also many opportunities to show off your creations with display points, graffiti points, and dj studios in the social district that are purchasable, winnable, or first-come first-serve…able.

  SUMMARY
  
  So as you can tell, I find this game very enjoyable when playing in a group and with my friends. I do happen to be quite decent at this game, so that may be why I don’t find it as “imbalanced” as other people even when I don’t have any upgraded weapons. Or maybe the matchmaking is just working like it should for me, and not posing me against those high levels when I’m still myself a low level (I played much more in beta than I currently have at release).

  This game is a very promising future, though. Why? Because RealTime Worlds actually listens to us, the players. They’ve made some rather drastic changes to the game based on feedback (RTW item manufacturing cost removed, particular weapons nerfed), and will continue to direct the game in accordance with what we really want. We’ve been screaming for player-housing, and guess what? It’s been pretty much verified that it will be worked on eventually as the engine was already designed for it. Melee weapons are also looking to be a possibility. And those chaos districts (free-for-all) are already being worked on. I’d recommend taking a look at the APB forums if you don’t believe me, there’s a Dev Tracker that let’s you see every post by the developers. I’ve probably read through every single one since I’ve been in beta. These guys seem truly dedicated to this game.. and are just as excited as the players are to see what it will turn into months, years, from now.
  
  It’s a niche title, I can’t at all guarantee you’ll like it. The combat mechanics are hard to describe, you’ll just have to watch some gameplay videos on Youtube and elsewhere to see if it fits your style. I honestly just hope that people who are on the edge will at least give it a try if they think they’re interested… as you may end up enjoying it just as much as I did. It’s a shame but… It seems like the most voiced people are those that utterly despise this game. People like me that really love the concept and keep coming back to it day after day… are being drowned out. I hope this helped!
• 

  JD
  August 18th, 2010 on 2:54 pm

  Rating

  I just cant stop playing this, honestly give it a go! after a few hours playing with some friends you will not want to stop!

  JD
• 

  Jason Mace
  August 18th, 2010 on 6:53 pm

  Rating

  Ok everyone here are my thoughts ive played this game for a good fifteen hours as a gangster so I cant say im the most experienced player but there’s a reason for that. During game play I noticed many glitches such as combat for one to shoot, reload or zoom in or out or any thing really I find that sometimes the controls don’t respond and i end up being killed because im still trying to zoom out or throw a grenade at enemies. Also while driving sometimes the vehicle im driving suddenly dosnt want to turn and I end up driving into a wall. Its so frustrating I broke my cheap key board the other day from frustration it just seems like the creators didnt test the product fully before putting it out for release.

  But don’t get me wrong when the game is working correctly its a blast there are many different weapons, vehicles, and customization of character to keep you entertained for hours also the player to player interaction is simply amazing. And there’s nothing like seeing your kill fly back in the air from a hit from your sniper rifle. But simply put the game isnt ready to play unless you can handle random glitches and being killed constantly from them.

  Me personally I will keep this game and wait until some changes are made hopefully soon so I can go back to robbing poor pedestrians and killing enforcers.

  I give this game a 3/5.
• 

  Dominick Totaro
  August 19th, 2010 on 1:35 am

  Rating

  I love the game and everything about it….except the part where after spending about 60 bucks you then have to buy hours to play. I very much dislike the pay as you play thing. Game wise: 10/10. Payment plan:-10/10
• 

  BlubBlub
  August 20th, 2010 on 9:11 am

  Rating

  This game is fantastic! Don’t listen to the other comments, it’s everything I’ve been wanting from a game like this EVER! A bit like GTA but taken to a whole new level with MMO type gameplay. It’s so awesome customizing your new car then grouping up with a bunch of friends to go agaianst the bad guys (or good guys . I like to play as an Enforcer, and hit the siren and lights when I get despatched on an APB. AWESOME, AWESOME fun and soooo addictive! The game can only grow and get better and better! SO. MUCH. FUN. YEAH!!!! 5 stars!!!
• 

  Pecos Bill
  August 21st, 2010 on 4:07 pm

  Rating

  I’m surprised at the negative reviews of this game. I’ve found it to be great fun but maybe that’s because I have a regular gaming group to play with — I don’t know how much fun this game would be solo or grouping with different random people every day. But then, I would say the same thing about any online shooter. (L4D isn’t that much fun with 3 other random jerks, either, in my opinion.)

  My only problem with the game is that it’s a “2 month-er” — a game I will probably play for about 2 months because while it’s a lot of fun, it’s not a game with a lot of depth to it. Kinda like Team Fortress 2. Great fun but since it lacks depth, 2 months was about what I got out of it.

  This game uses the “MMO” model which does have some advantages over regular FPS gaming, which is why it’s $10/month to play (first 50 hours are included with the initial purchase, though). Under the regular FPS model, anyone can run a server, often with stupid rulesets, stupid maps and hacks, and it’s a hassle logging in every day trying to find a server to play on that doesn’t suck, and then trying to get your friends into the same server. Under the MMO model, which APB uses, the game company runs the servers, which hold (currently) up to 80 people per instance, which not only makes it easy to get rolling but makes it easy to get all your friends in with you and the servers are stable and run the expected rulesets.

  Weapon selection and vehicle selection is good — not awesome, but good. The game physics are a lot of fun — there’s lots of destroyable terrain and things to smash into and ramps to jump, etc.

  It’s also, frankly, refreshing to get a “Mature” rated game. Usually MMOs go for a PG rating but in this game the citizens in town will cuss you out more than most players will and there’s plenty of violence to go around.

  Note that there is no “PvE” in this game — all action is players fighting other players. There are NPCs but they are there to be mugged, shot, run over or avoided (depending on your goal) and they don’t fight back. All combat is between live players. There are things you can do without having an enemy around but they are mostly excuses to start fights. For example, criminals can steal cars from NPCs for cash. Enforcers can “witness” this and get an attack order on the criminal. So stealing cars is really just an excuse to start fights between players rather than something you would log on and aim to spend hours doing.

  There are some flaws in the game — players finding hard to reach places to camp, but that’s no different than any FPS. FPS gamers have been camping since Doom. I don’t know why any FPS fan would be shocked or dismayed by it. We’re used to dealing with campers.

  It’s a smooth action game with no serious flaws that I see, other than the lack of depth. You can gain achievements for your character which come with rewards but there’s no long term goal like building up a base or taking over a section of the city or anything like that. Still, you’re missing out on a couple of months of good fun if you don’t buy this game.

  I already spent my first 50 hours and just re-upped for a month of unlimited time. I’m getting my money’s worth. If I were you, I’d give it a shot.
• 

  Kenneth Geddings Jr.
  August 22nd, 2010 on 12:57 am

  Rating

  When you first start up APB you are greeted with a very detailed character custimization screen, in fact one of the most detailed ive seen in an online game. You can spend perhaps hours sitting and custimizing the look of your character but when you actually load up the game itself you soon discover as you pan the camera around yourself that:
  
  Hey! you dont look half as good as you did in the character creation screen! Instead of having a highly detailed charecter you are reduced to a poorly detailed charecter model in the game that robs most of the unique detail from the character you originally created. This first impact alone to me shows signs of trouble already. When you get into the game more you realise that there isnt that much to keep you coming back. The game takes place in one large city broken up into 3 districts, one district is the “social district” which offers shops and places to chat with other players…however it is extremely small compared to the other districts and does not allow you to drive around in vehicles in it. Yes the game does have all kinds of customization features for yourself, your clothes and your car, however once you realize that there is not that much depth of gameplay or that much of a world to explore you start to wonder if the developers spend more time in making all these great tools to customize things without actually making any depth to the game at all!

  Basically you can pick between “cops” and “robbers’. So to speak. One side is the enforcers that go around and patriol for crime, and the other side are the ones doing the crime. At first this sounds pretty cool, but in reality you can only “stop crimes” that you have a mission on….and there are no npcs in missions only other players..which bascially means no story based quests just a bunch of pvp missions. The probem is the driving in the game sucks…the vehicular controll is terrible and while running around shooting people is fun you are stuck with a 3rd person perspective instead of having any FPS mode available. there is not that many unique areas in the game and after a while it starts to feel the same old same old. That and the graphics feel very outdated (aside from the character custimization menus which look great)

  Considering there are not that many shooter type MMos this really could have been something big if the devs just had spent more time on it. It doesnt even feel as great as Grand theft auto which it is clearly trying to emulate at least in those latest games you actually can have FUN exploring the city (and playing online). This just leads to boredom and frustration after awhile and isnt worth the price. I played the beta but judging from the final reviews they didn’t change anything at all. Save your money for Cataclysm instead at least that has FAR more content (in just an add on) that this game ever will!

  Considering the fact this is from the same company who brought us the awesome Xbox 360 games crackdown and crackdwon 2, it is a great shame they chose not to put as much “love’ so to speak in this game as they did the 360 games!

  Shame on you Real Time Worlds! World of Warcraft is dying to have a newcomer to knock it off its pedestal and this certainly is NOT that game.

  In fact in some cases it couldnt really be called a MMO as only up to 100 people can be in any district at one time.. Yay.

  APB vs. Goldshire in WOW in a busy server: youd get more fun in just goldshire!
• 

  C. Rodriguez
  August 23rd, 2010 on 2:47 am

  Rating

  This game is merely “OK”.
  
  Character creation is superb, graphics are nice but gameplay is repetitive and lacks interest.
  
  Paying a subscription to play a certain amount of hours of this game is certainly not worth it.
  
  As I understand the developers once envisioned this game as a “free-to-play” and then decided to charge for it…
  
  Well, it REALLY should be free-to-play and have pay options such as better weapons, customizations, etc.
  
  If they decide to make it F-T-P, I will certainly come back, meanwhile I will stick with the simpler free-to-play “CrimeCraft” that has good NPC and PVP combat gameplay.