By: Mike-san
If there’s anything that APB isn’t, it’s your standard Massive Multiplayer Online. Then again, I’m entirely sure the creative team at Real Time Worlds wasn't aiming to replicate another World of Warcraft clone for the criminally-inclined. Perhaps the idea of jumping right into the chaotic world of All Points Bulletin seems a tad bit frightening for those of us who still cling to the old-world mythology of ‘level progression’ and ‘tiers’ with their equipment and armor. Thankfully the developers were able to distinguish that this is a computer game, and not an MMO. Mind you, I’d love to see if APB makes it to consoles, but I might be asking too much of Real Time Worlds.
All Points Bulletin is a third-person Modern Online Role-Playing game. Everything is in real time. That’s the pace that needs to be placed with APB, as its Crackdown cousin and GTA ancestors have proven so well over the years. It plays exactly like its predecessors did, adding two sides to equation rather than your standard Vice City ‘choose your destiny’ scenario. It mimics the idea of an MMO scenario, adding the war-like feel one would get with the massive PVP between Horde and Alliance (Horde for the win!) Plus, the customization takes from the wonderful formulas of Mass Effect and Saint’s Row, making your character look and feel absolutely original. But let’s assume you have followed the hype of the game that you realize that you can buy and customize your own vehicles, clothing and music. Let’s assume you know all of the No-Nonsense Bounty-Hunters known as the Enforcers, or the Winner-Takes-All, Cut-Throat Criminals. Let’s assume you realize that there are only three districts and two servers. You want the juicy details of the game, don’t you? I knew you did, you perverted bastards.
Let it be known that All Points Bulletin may just be another knock-off of Grand Theft Auto IV, but it pulls you in so damn well. This isn’t just any old server you send your characters to, casting the latest spell that you’ve helped equipped for massive DPS but in fact a living, breathing city that thrives on your victories or your struggles. Game play in the action districts (Which quite frankly are PVP districts, and the only districts that you can enter and actually combat your friends and fellow trolls in) will whisk you in the wind if you’re not up to the fast-paced combat system. Being a third-person shooter, anyone with any sense of the GTA, Saints Row or Crackdown series should be able to walk into this game like a champion. Armed simply with a main weapon and a sub-weapon (and if you’re lucky, a vast array of perks for you and your weapons) you the player are given different assignments by your contacts according to the real-time events going on in the city. Assuming you haven’t entered an abandoned district, you may simply spawn in the Financial District with the mission to hunt down two to three different people, either by yourself or backing up your cohorts. Everything happens in real-time; your own missions can be interrupted by dispatchers from either side, meaning you’ll actively be attacking and defending each side of the game. The idea of a consistent turf-battle between the Enforcers and the Criminals alone makes this game absolutely brilliant, attempting to replicate a real gang war. The action in terms of that certainly provides us with persistency, as a side of five-on-five players could result on a ridiculous hail of gunfire on either sides or a massive chase across the city. The unconventional style of active gameplay certainly makes the game incredibly addicting, as you’re always on with a group of people trying to fight through other people’s turf earning prestige and notoriety. Well played, Real Timed Worlds.
That’s a general statistic of the gameplay that I’ve experienced thus far. While I only have 2 days under my belt, I found that the learning curve wasn’t entirely difficult – it was everyone else who was. The Zombie server is the most populated of servers, and notably known as the harder of the two. Between an over-population of Enforcers running down virtually all of the opposition that I have been a part of, as well as the many aim-bots grinding down any player’s chance to improve, it becomes more of a war of attrition rather than a turf battle. I found myself struggling on the first day, racking up only ten kills out of five hours of play. (Then again, my computer isn’t really built for gaming and the lag overlord damned me for an eternity so long as I play APB…) Before I delve too far into my lack of gameplay, let me first state that the real triumph of this happens to be in its social district, adding ridiculous amounts of customization on how your characters looks, feels, sounds, and even drives. Since playing Champions Online, I thought no other MMO could top its level of customization. Cryptic Studios is well known for its ability to deliver characters few and far between, which made me a rabid Cryptic fanboy for the longest time. However, Cryptic Studios has contention now. All Points Bulletin makes a point to show you that it isn’t half-assing it’s work ethic; when I first started working on my character, I spent a good half-an-hour shifting through different types of designs I wanted for my character. Of course, this was only physical features; the downside to the customization is that your clothing, weapons and cars all have to be unlocked. That being said, customization is ungodly as soon as you get your reputation up to level one-hundred and have a billion dollars lined up in your account. You also have to unlock items through achievements, maxing out your reputation with different contacts, and just being a total badass. Despite this utter lack of character apparel customization, you can turn your standard-issue clothing into DIY masterpieces, as you can play around with different graphics designs, colors and even words that you can create on your Sistine chapels on your wife-beater. What you lack in your closets and drawers, you simply improvise as your own designer. Hell, if you think you really created another Picasso-esque abstract masterpiece on your baggy blue jeans simply add them to the marketplace and get people to bid on your design. That’s assuming you don’t play on the action districts and still want to look kick-ass with your NTEC weapons that you got as a result of your bidding house masterpieces. The same thing works with your vehicles and music too. Of course, I haven’t delved too much into the latter of the three things, but from my honest opinion I do feel like this is my character socializing with the populous, not me or some general face spray-painted onto my character’s head.
Great. At least you and I know that you don’t need the actual action districts to make money. And that’s fine and dandy, but what about the action districts? They are after all the embodiment of the game, the very reason that any one of us APB gamers purchased this guy for. I can honestly say that the rest of the gaming world enjoys the very luxury of the spoils of war in their own endeavors, as I mentioned previously before. On the other hand, as a criminal on the server I never once noticed how criminals outnumbered anyone. In fact, they never have since I’ve been playing. Enforcers are gods on that server, and for good reason. Here, let me give you an example of how they simply out-power us; entering the Waterfront District one day, I found us out-manned 44 to 36. Of course, that’s not all that bad, since it’s only an eight-man difference. What we forget is that the Enforcers are more-or-less the steroid-induced, no-bullshitting-around cousins of the Alliance, and they hunt in packs. I don’t want to single criminals out as stubborn, because we too roll in our groups as well. I just have this strange, subtle feeling that enforcers train 24/7 until they’ve caught every criminal in the server. They’re like wild animals; they tore up a group of us much larger and still got away with a victory. Maybe it’s simply the fact that criminals are against everyone, or maybe the best criminals weren’t on at the time. Whatever the case may be, Enforcers in droves are harbingers of hellfire and brimstone. But that’s the premise of an enforcer; working in groups makes them the most powerful players on the servers, and I admire that kind of teamwork. It certainly makes for an interesting game, and really has me persist in the sense that I’m not simply playing the game to win that round of gang wars. I wanna’ fucking kills these Enforcer bastards and show them up, tea-bagging each and every corpse I come across. Since the second day of gameplay, I’ve actually improved. But still it’s almost not enough without the cooperation of your teammates. You almost fail alone – unless you’re a moderator, a pro or a hacker, fighting alone is the stupidest move you can make. Whenever my friend and I are on though, we find that to be exactly true. And this comes full-circle with the whole idea of turf-wars between gangs. It’s what makes this game absolutely brilliant. That aspect of unity in an MMO can be found even in the most unconventional MMO in the market today. This takes the very slight notion that APB is a GTA MMO and humbly admits that it does it so well...
Will continue with Part Two: The Plea For a Better Gun.
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