Review

APB: All Points Bulletin

Realtime Worlds has taken an old concept, brushed the dust off, handed it a loaded gun, and unleashed it upon unsuspecting gamers. As soon as it sees a gamer it squeezes off a couple rounds, forcing them to take notice of its new threads and cool tattoos. If you have ever enjoyed a game of cops and robbers, All Points Bulletin is looking for you and it has infinite ammo!

To be fair, I am normally not the best person to talk to when it comes to MMO’s as I tend to shy away from games that require a monthly fee to be played. I also have very little patience for the proverbial carrot, dangled in front of me by game developers trying to get me to keep playing their games (just keep grinding to level 70 because that’s when the cool stuff happens). I don’t have as much time to play games as I used to and paying monthly for what feels like a chore seems backwards to me. Some may disagree, but this is just my current opinion. APB on the other hand feels different in its approach. There are still genre staples like quest giving NPCs, character progression and customization, and collectible items. However, APB takes those conventions and flips them on their ear, creating a more enjoyable experience. Everything is fast paced and action oriented. If you need a mount (a horse, dragon, or in this case vehicle) for quick traveling, there is no need to complete a lengthy quest to acquire one. Just go out and steal a vehicle. No need to travel between NPCs to get missions, just pledge to one and they will send missions your way. It’s even easier to join up with other players, even if you’re a noob. With the “looking for group” option, you can be placed in an open party with other players of similar skill. Everything feels streamlined and user friendly in APB, making it more approachable to gamers like me. This breaking down of the MMO barrier is one of the reasons why this type of game works, as anyone can join in on the fun.

Speaking of joining in on the fun, before you can start blasting fools in the fictitious city of San Paro, you have to create a character and join a faction; Enforcer (cop) or Criminal. After a stylish load sequence you are presented with the character customization screen. APB has the most extensive character customization I have seen in a video game… period. Champions Online has nothing on this game. You can change everything from the color of character’s nose rings to the amount of freckles they have. The size, shape, hair, texture, age, race, and weight of your avatar are all adjustable. Things like wrinkles and scars can be added to different parts of the body with different degrees of severity. The same level of detail is extended to the clothing options. You can even add clothing in layers (if you want a black jacket on top of a red button up that’s open to show off a smiley face t-shirt you can). You can also customize the clothing by layering different shapes and symbols. These designed shapes can also be used to customize vehicles or to create unique tattoos. Think of the great paint jobs in Forza and you’ll see where I am going with this. Not only can you layer these shapes into custom designs, APB helps by making them look real. The tattoos look like they are really inked on the body (as apposed to looking like cheap body paint) and the folds can be seen through designs on clothing. My only issue is that sometimes, user created content can look blurry once out of the customization screens, while NPC’s look great.

notice the UFG tat

After you have completed your character creation, you can select from three different districts in San Paro; The action districts, Financial and Waterfront, or the social district. No just to clarify, these aren’t just fancy names for three different servers. These districts are different locations, which are broken into “instances” (sub layers that are parallel to one another) on a given server. Meaning, you can only join one server but you can jump into different districts, each with their own instances. Like any other MMO, this is to prevent servers from becoming overcrowded. Even if you’re in the same district as someone, you might be in a different “instance”, therefore you won’t see them in game. The social district is where you can meet up with people and not worry about stray bullets. You can also customize your character, vehicles, music, and weapons. Basically, it’s a safe haven to meet people, trade/auction off items, and change preferences. The action districts are where the magic happens. I became a criminal (naturally) and jumped right into the fray. Once inside the district, I was able to talk to NPC’s to receive missions, as a criminal I was given crimes to commit. Completing missions allows your character to level up, unlock weapons and items, and increase their popularity within a given sub-faction (Blood Roses and G kings for the criminal’s faction for example). As you build your reputation, you’ll become more distinguished and can build (or unlock) more contacts within the sub-factions. These contacts provide you with additional missions to complete giving you the opportunity to unlock more items. The missions themselves can range from very simple to very complicated. One mission may have three parts to it, each with its own objective. For instance, the first part of a mission may be to steal an informant’s car. The second part could have you breaking into apartments looking for information on the informant’s whereabouts, resulting in a final mission to rig his hideout with explosives. Then there are the complicated missions that have six or seven parts. These missions usually require a team of players, working together to outsmart their opponents. Playing the lone wolf in these situations is a guaranteed express ticket to the morgue.

After you’ve started committing crimes and completing objectives, an alert (apb) is placed on your group. It is sent out to gamers who chose the Enforcer side, giving them the opportunity to create a match. Their job is to stop you from completing your objectives at all cost. This adds to the excitement as the cops can show up anywhere at anytime. They can even call for backup by sending a signal out to other Enforcers to help them. Of course, depending on the mission type, criminals can do the same. What ensues is all out war as players decorate each other with bullet wounds. For the most part, matches are exciting and fair. Criminals will be leading Enforcers on high speed chases, popping their bodies out of the side of vehicles to shoot at their pursuers. Enforcers will be blasting hoodlums or humiliating their opponents by arresting them. Fun times!

On the other hand, matches can get down right frustrating. For one, your progress is shown in two different categories; rank and notoriety levels. Your rank is based on how many missions you’ve won and how well you’re doing as an individual player. Notoriety is based on recent actions. Let’s say that you’ve just started playing and have a low rank, but you’ve been causing trouble (robbing people, stealing cars, ect). Your notoriety will begin to increase. When you begin missions, your opposition can be chosen based on your notoriety and rank. Meaning that you can be ranked low and have a high notoriety and APB will assign higher ranked Enforcers for you to play against. These higher ranked players can come equipped with stronger weapons and better buffs, leaving you in real danger. Not only that, but having a lot of notoriety makes you a walking target and any Enforcer can start a mission in which they are tasked with hunting you down. This can become frustrating because as long as you have a high notoriety (which you can get just for winning missions) you can be a target. What makes matters worse is that once a mission starts, you can’t quit till it’s over. It’s like having 5 stars in GTA and the cops won’t leave you alone. You can lower you notoriety by paying an NPC to lower it for you, but good luck making it to them before another match starts. This can be a problem on the Enforcer side as well as a “hit” can be placed on them once their notoriety level is high enough. The difference is that you can attract cops at a low level, where as having a “hit” placed on you requires a high level. Then there are the missions themselves. Majority of the sub faction’s contacts assign the same missions (or mission type) at there beginning levels. This can make climbing the ranks of each sub faction overly repetitive. If it wasn’t for the dynamic matchmaking, APB could have easily fallen into the usual MMO slump.

Despite those frustrations, APB is a very fun game. However, the majority of the fun in MMO’s comes from the people you play with. I joined up with the best clan in APB and have been having a blast (shout out to the Warriors of the Wasteland). Being around people who like helping their fellow criminal (like explaining how some of the vague game mechanics work or giving you a high ranked weapon when you are just starting off) is a great way to spend time in San Paro. APB’s laid back yet efficient approach to grouping people by skill helps in this endeavor. There are other elements that stand out in this game. The dynamic way matches are made, the great action oriented gameplay, the super customizable options, user friendly controls, immersive environments, and great graphics go a long way. However, it can be a little rough around the edges. The match making can be a little harsh, NPC’s tattoos and designs are always crisp while user created ones can be blurry, some weapons kill quickly while others take a ridiculous amount of bullets to get the job done, and the missions can get overly repetitive very quickly. Again, these problems can be overlooked for all the fun one can have. Also, being that it is an MMO, patches are inevitable. Realtime Worlds has designed one of the best PC games on shear concept. The rest of the bullet ridden cake is just icing!