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Review - Edit
6.5
Mediocre
| Pros |
 Addictive Cops 'n' Robbers Action Great Player Created Content Tools Incredible Character Customization |
| Cons |
 Driving is a Real Chore Plodding and Archaic Controls Repetitive Mission Content |
Let me preface this whole review by stating right off the bat, that All Points Bulletin is a whole lot of fun. I actually find myself liking the game, despite its many glaring problems, and that speaks loudly for the potential (yes I said it) Realtime Worlds’ sophomore game has at its disposal. Because despite the problems I have with the title, which we’ll get to in a bit, I really can’t help but enjoy the time I spend with it. I equate it to watching the film version of Mark Millar’s “Wanted”. I really hated what Hollywood did to that amazingly balls-out awesome comic, but at the same time on its own merits Wanted: The Movie was actually a fun action flick to watch and one I enjoy despite the fact that it’s not what I wanted it to be. That’s how I look at APB. It’s not quite everything I was hoping for, and it feels lacking in its execution in terms of gameplay and controls to boot.
Realtime Worlds themselves stated a while back that they feared critics’ views would be a mixed bag, and they were right. But it’s not just because some “don’t get” the game the team’s created. It’s because that game just doesn’t play as well as a modern shooter should, at least in my eyes. And yet despite all this, I keep having fun with the game, and I sincerely hope that I can revisit this review in a year and put all my complaints to bed. That said, let’s get to the nitty gritty.
advertisement A Customizer’s Dream
The first thing players will be tasked with is the creation of their character. However, unlike most games where you select from a few hair styles and basic facial looks, in APB if you work hard enough at it you can easily come away with a faithful recreation of yourself or anyone else recognizable. Oddly enough I accidentally made a white-haired version of my realtor… I don’t think he’d be too happy about me turning him into a lawless criminal who plows over pedestrians for fun, but that’s just too bad. Once in-game, and after earning enough funds and gaining some ranks in the game’s progression system players will be able to unlock and purchase plenty of new clothes and accessories which they can deck out with their own or others’ created emblems and logos. You can change the color of just about everything on down to the stitching of your jeans, and you even get to pick what kind of underwear you’re sporting beneath all your criminal or enforcer gear… or you could just go with the underwear as your streetwear, if you’re into that sort of thing.
But the game’s customization tools don’t stop at clothes and tattoos. The same rules for clothes can be applied to the game’s many purchasable cars. And what’s more is that the more musically inclined players can create quick little midi-files which players can have played after they kill someone in a fight. Yes that’s right, you can musically taunt your opponents in APB. The old days of “corpse-humping” are gone, for now you can deface your enemies with a segment from any one of your favorite show tunes. All of this creative stuff is handled in one of the game’s three districts. Two are specifically for the “action” and one is entirely for social purposes. No gunfights, just people milling about making things and chatting. The “lore” describes it as a place where both criminals and enforcers put down their guns for a bit and relax. Hokey, but it serves its purpose.
Realtime Worlds really did come through with its promise to have one of gaming’s most robust customization toolsets. There was a glaring problem where players could just leave their characters idle at the customization screens to gain ranks and thousands of dollars, but that has since been patched. Now to make money as a designer you’ll actually have to sell your designs in the game’s auction system. Sadly, I haven’t noticed many people actually making use of this, and I’m not sure there really is any economy in APB which is depressing considering the tools available for one to happen. Perhaps after all the free money earned from this early “glitch” has been spent players will actually make use of the marketplace. It’s wait and see there.
One more cool personalization detail: you can import all of your own music into the game as you drive about in your car, and if other players have the same song they’ll be able to hear it. There’s little chance you’ll ever run into your lookalike in San Paro, and it’s entirely possible that you’ll see more than your fair share of thematically clothed gangs running around and creating havoc. But how does the game actually play? Well, that’s where things go a little awry.
It’s Like Luke Before He Was a Badass
Remember how whiny and annoying Luke Skywalker was in “A New Hope”? You know before he went off, got trained by Yoda, and became the take-no-crap Jedi that he proved to be for the rest of the trilogy? That’s what the gameplay of APB is like. It’s like Luke Skywalker with that blacked-out helmet on, pretending he knows what the heck he’s doing with a lightsaber while a little floating orb shoots him in the nads with lasers. Let me get to why this is.
The basic set up is as follows. You can be an Enforcer (think deputy with the right to kill) or a Criminal (do whatever the hell you want and laugh the whole time doing it), and you pledge yourself to one of several NPC characters who will give you missions and as you do more for them they’ll open up new gear, weapons and other items for you to use. The game’s two action districts (Waterfront and Financial) offer different looks and atmospheres, but little else in the way they play. If you’re a criminal, the missions you’ll be assigned to will generally be to rob this, plant a bomb on this, or kill this Enforcer. If you’re an Enforcer, they tend to be to stop the robbery of this, disable the bombs on this, or kill this Criminal.
Maybe I should have mentioned it earlier, but the entire game is based on a clever and behind-the-scenes matchmaking system. Meaning, it’s all PvP-oriented. If you are the type who’d rather fight AI, APB really isn’t the game for you. The repetitive and simplistic nature of the game’s “missions” or match types can be forgiven if only because of the dynamic nature of competitive play. No one match will be the same as the next and for the most part in my experience the game’s done a decent job of keeping the numbers even on each mission.
Well I still say this is not really a MMO, just a FPS disguised to look like one.
I also will keep repeating, they are not going to find enough players to pay a subscription to this game. Look for a change in the way they fund this game in the near future.
I wish them luck in getting some of the problems ironed out and hope some of you enjoy this type of game.
Tis is not mmo, tis dont get close GTA or counter-strice. just plain junk.
Matching system is still broken. rank 50 against rank 200+? riiight magic it is... magical that it puts people like that at odds.
I agree with you list of pros, but your list of cons is dumb.
First off: Driving is a chore.
Maybe you should learn to actually drive? Because once I knew how to drive it was easy and fun, but I suppose you should be able to play uber driver right off the start huh?
Second: Plodding and Archaic Controls.
Okay, so no cover mechanic suddenly makes this game uber bad? Guess Planetside's controls sucks to, oh and so does Global Agenda's controls. Seriously, the controls were fine.
Third: Repetitive Mission Content. Okay... maybe you got this one right...
The game does have a few problems match making and hackers im sure those will be dealt with soon enough but to be honest i cant remeber the last time ive had this much fun playing any mmo this game is a blast if RTW takes care of the few problems this game has its going to be huge
I think the missions could be alot more in depth. I mean raid by breaking a door and the shit falls out for you to pick up? what did you break open the candy machine? Whatever happened to breaking the door down and going in guns blazing or stealthing in to arrest people. Those missions could be so much more.
I can agree with this.
I've not played the game, might play it after I get done doing pretty much the same sort of action in GTAIV and RDR.
Still I mostly want to chime in on the article.
Is the driving and lack of cover enough to take 3.5 points off of the review score? Honestly the praise and talk-up for the rest of the sections say at least 9, and then these 2 complaints maybe an 8.
I'm not saying the wording is wrong or the score, but it seems a bit uneven.
Here's hoping the automobile coding improves over time. Being an artist and graphic designer I'd really like to give the customization a go after awhile.
This, it does seem more like an eight from the sound of the review.
6.5? Hah. Screw this Review.
You know why this game is better than 6.5? Because I don't have to to push the #1 key to kill the same thing over and over and over while watching a shitty animation repeatedly. There may be some repetitiveness to APBs gameplay, but every encounter is ORIGINAL.
Can WoW say that? No, can LOTRO? No.
MMORPG.com... you're institutionalized. If its not one of the Set Standard of games, then you rate it badly.
APB has THE nicest looking characters and THE nicest looking character creation on the market.
The driving is far from how you describe it. It just takes EFFORT AND SKILL to learn.
Pathetic review, absolutely.
So happy I'm not alone on my view on this review. :')
I few things I find as a con in this game:
1. Character Upgrades -
This seems rather ignorant and unbalanced. This is why a Rank 200 can EASILY defeat a rank 50, 3 shots to kill you and 1.5 clips to kill them. No balance because there is no negative to being that tough.
Answer: Remove character upgrades and replace them with clothing that has stats - Each type of protective clothing would offer a bonus and a minus making it fair (Your armor reduces damage but also reduces your run/walk speed a percentage) for instance.
2. Shallow Missions -
This game could offer much more in depth missions. Raid = Breaking open a door and the prize falls out, stopping a bomb means finding it laying on the ground outside the shop or under the car and disarming it. Getting back stolen cars, getting info on crims... all of this is a one stop F shop to no where.
Answer: Every time I break a door and a box falls out I think to myself, why can't the door break open and I rush inside to handle several npc crims and search the place for my prize? I spend hours driving around and as I do I randomly hear people hidden somewhere talking about crimes, why can't I bust in on them and deal with it? and why do the crims leave bombs out in the plain open for everyone to see what happened to having to SEARCH and look for these things? Does San Paro not know what night time is? why must crims work in the daylight hours when it makes sense to do so at night and just imagine action at night how much more interesting that could be blinding people with your head lights and REALLY being able to sneak up on them.
Also I'd like to point out that the current in game voice program seems EXTREMELY bugged. In most cases if you are in a group doing a mission it will put you on different channels until the mission is over and MANY people are now not using voice due to the advertisements.
In beta you would hear almost everyone talking, now the city of san paro seems really quiet.
It seems to have lost alot of its charm when it lost its voice.
That's quite funny, because there's only one button to perform actions in APB which means you'll be pressing that a lot. But I guess that's not repetitive to you. As for animations, the jump animation looks weird in APB - it's as if the character is about to fall on his back.
Next, you're comparing an online shooter to MMORPGs. I hope I don't need to point out why the comparison is off. Besides, encounters are supposed to be different in PvP games because you face various people. I don't see why this should count as one of APB's strengths, especially when you take into account the poor matchmaking system.
I agree characters look nice, but that's not a good enough reason to like a game.
I also agree that driving isn't as bad as many reviewers said. Maybe that's because I was in the beta and it was much worse at some point. It's not great either, but I quickly got used to it.
And to everyone saying the game is so much better when played in a group: isn't that the purpose of an online game? To play together with other people, friends or not? Why should APB be praised for this? None of its gameplay elements are great, some are not even decent.
Just because you genuinely enjoy a game doesn't mean a review is rubbish if it's rated low. A review is meant to point both the strengths and weaknesses of the game, and the present review did just that. The reviewer even started off by saying he finds the game fun, but that alone doesn't mean the game had to score high.
6.5 seems a bit harsh. I would go with a 7.5.
It is funny how the game has its flaws and is fairly repetative. With most of those issues and the writer even agrees that it is FUN!!.
Seriously, in a group of friends or even a PUG it can be very fun. Dunno why, you look at it on paper and look at it for what it is and you go, meh. Most FPS run rings around this game and MMO is a term used LOOSLY to describe some of the persistant world features.
Yet, I still have fun.
How is that? Why?
I dunno, the 6.5 does not sound to rough when you are looking from the game on the outside. From the inside tho... If you are playing in consistant groups..... IT IS JUST F'in FUN!
It is like watchin a train wreck. You know it is going to happen. You know it is going to be gruesome. You know it will not be worth the time. Yest you FREAKIN watch anyway!!!!
Wonderfull review.
You spent time with the title, and it shows, can't say that about the other reviewers. The score was fair for its current state, and your right, only the hardcore would be good to recomend this to at this point.
I've never played this game but I am sick of the horrible reviews here at MMORPG.com. This site used to be the source for insightful and FAIR analysis of MMOs. Unfortunately, it is the exact opposite. The review does not match the score, yet again. Well. This will be my last time on this site. I remember when MMORPG.com came out, it was great... maybe you should return to those roots? Until then, I'll take myself to Massively.com; the information and analysis is fair there anyway.
If you haven't played the game, why do you feel compelled to comment then?
His review was good, his points were good. The game is still fun for all its flaws.
Whats not to understand?
It actually does kinda reflect the game better than ANY review I have read.
The game is just as ambiguous as his review. On its face value it is , meh. In actual play with a group of firends it can be awesome. The problem is it really depends on the group you played with. Some times that is fun and other times it is not. It is really a hit or miss type thing.
If you get in there and start playing ( liek I did on the Keys to the Cty Weekend ) and have this really crappy experience. You would hate the game.
After retail release I had a friend who kept lauding the game and saying how fun it was. Convinced me to buy it and join his clan. OMG, what a difference that can make. And the fact that if you treat it like an FPS and Expect to die alot it is even better.
6.5 is kinda generous.
I'm just saying this as a SERIOUS suggestion.
Just go with a 1 2 3 or 4 star review from this site!
The out of 10 scale just doesn't seem to fit here any more with the industry friendly writing staff. I'm not being judgemental, I thought it was a good review for a game I've not played and there's a good chance won't regardless of this review.
Still, it's all kind of off.
get lost... this aint wow... we dont want "armor" nor do we want raids .. go back to wow allready sheesh
I've not played wow since it came out with its first expansion...
Btw: Obvious Troll is very obvious. If your the same joker in APB I hope you enjoyed getting Clowned by me yesterday :)
1. I've only encountered a few people that have several character upgrades, but from what I can tell they aren't really significant. So far the weapon upgrades I've seen are +1 clip, +1 bullet or +10% clip size, and 5% increase fire rate.
Clothes with stats take away my freedom to customize.
2. The missions are shallow. I have a hard time accepting any missions that force me to do part of the it unopposed, so I end up only doing bounties. Unfortunately I'd rather do missions unopposed then have any NPC opposition in any part of the game.
Nighttime would add an awesome dimension to the game, along with any weather effects like fog or rain.
Right now I see myself playing the crap out of this game for the first month or two, but finding it stale shortly after.
Nighttime could add an awesome element to the game
This ^^
Missions are incredibly lame and repetitive.
Driving isn't hard to get used to, use the e-brake around corners and you're golden. Problem is, at top speed it just feels sooooo slow.
The lack of a REAL cover mechanic is disappointing. All people tend to do is strafe back and forth with the ntec. (This is just my experience, flame me if you want, no biggie.)
Matchmaking is pitiful at best. I just love rolling people with a rating 2.5 times lower than mine. (read that with a hint of sarcasm)
Overall, I'd say the 6.5 is more than fair for the state the game is in at this time.
I don't agree with the review either. The cons are just not that much of a problem.. Controls and driving takes a couple of minutes to get a hold of and then it works just fine. The matchmaking is a bit broken, yes... but with a good team and some coordination, a 50 can still take down some 200 +. Or you can always just switch district if you get bored playing against the same people over and over...
This game deserve at the very least an 8. I love this game and will subscribe for a while on this one.
like i said, the customization is good but that's really all there is.
I played this game for many hours and overall I have to agree with this review. The game can be a great deal of fun, but for me its shortcomings are glaringly obvious and will prevent me from playing any further. The description of driving as "a zamboni in tar" is dead on. Commonly I see it argued that one just needs to gain skill at the driving and this only takes a few minutes. However, while I could drive just fine after putting in the time, the controls still just don't feel right. They're not responsive at all. It is hard to put the driving experience into words, but compared to other games that involve driving vehicles IMO it's crap. The lack of a cover mechanic is equally frustrating and shallow and would increase the fun and strategy of gameplay a great deal. In addition while missions do vary despite repeating them, for me they still became very repetitive. While there may be some differences between repeating a mission due to combatting RL opponents vs AI these differences are not enough to provide any depth to my game experience. There are also places at this time where you can hang out as a criminal during missions and make it almost impossible to be attacked. These missions turn into can the criminal get to one of these spots before the enforcers can cut them off and then wait 10-15 minutes ftw. The customization is amazing, the concept is great, but compared to other quality driving/fps/tps games it falls flat for me. I am sure improvements will be made over time, the game will get better, and I will be back to check it out. But for now, IMO a 6.5 is perfectly fitting. This is only my opinion based on my experience, I'm not trying to trash the game or anyone else's opinion.
I also have to mention that it's kinda funny that APB requested companies delay their reviews for what was it a week or so after launch? Clearly they knew about the issues and problems people would have with the title, but wanted to sell as many boxes as possible prior to people finding out. At the same time these issues were brought up during beta and the team has failed to respond.
They would have been a lot better off if there were more action areas at launch,Just 2 imo is not enough.At least 4 would have been good. The bad ass customization does not constatute a sub. sure you can spend all the time you want in the social district.
This review is really strange and it actually feels more like the sum of a bunch of interviews and forum posts yet very little hands on experiance enough to give this an adequate review. Maybe make another review a year after the game has been out, with more content and changes and some solid experiance playing through it?
Too many people defend the driving by saying that its not that difficult, once you get the hang of it. The problem, as I see it, is that difficulty isn't the real issue. It's that some of us found the driving to be no fun. I did get pretty decent at it, pretty quickly, since I've played a lot of keyboard-steering car games, but that didn't change how much I hated the way vehicles seemed to be both too sluggish and yet too floaty at the same time.
Not only that, but there's a lack of car variety, no damage modeling, no locational car damage, such as tire blowouts, or shooting through windshields. All of that might be ok, if it were a RPG that distracted the player with stats and the like, but as an action game, it seemed inexcusable to me. It goes beyond fun factor, to the wtf-crap-is-this factor, when I shoot my opponent in the face through a windshield, and nothing happens. Or when I crash, and rather than deform in any sort of realistic way, the entire body just crumples uniformly. Or when I jump out of a speeding vehicle, without even stumbling, and the car comes to an almost immediate stop.
All of that plays into how much fun driving can be, but the real core of fun driving is the acceleration, steering, and traction, and the physics of interacting with the road, as well as anything you might crash into, from the bump of a curb, to an oncoming truck. All of that seems poorly done in APB.
I don't know who's idea it was to put so much work into customization at the expense of all that, in a game like APB, but I am curious, what the hell were they thinking?
Certainly a re-review may be warranted in a year. But people frequently use reviews as one of their basis' for purchasing a game. Therefore, reviews need to be released in a timely manner in relation to the release of the game. The reviewers complaints are largely the lack of a cover system, which is extremely common in most shooter games in 2010, and the poor driving controls. These flaws can be noticed within 20 minutes of playing the game. Not to mention that there is not enough game at this point IMO to keep anyone, even the most avid fan, playing for a whole year.
This game reminds me of MXO it was a good game but could not keep ppl interrested in the game play. they really need to work on the driving and grouping. if no changes are made then it 's going to end up like MXo................... history
I agree with everything except that driving sucks. I suck at GTA for example. The driving was SOOO sensitive, I was hitting everything. Not so in APB. I find driving here very responsive, with just enough grip and not too much wiggle. Oh, and WHAT you are driving DOES make a difference. A sports car will handle much better than a cargo van....duh.
Otherwise all valid points.
Driving only sucks if you are still using the car you started off with.The more expensive cars have much better handling and control.
The thing i currently cant stand about APB is the lack of balance..
Example. Im R 20 with just one character upgrade and no new bonus weapons yet.Im running around doing missions and my threat is building slowly.Next thing i know im placed against three or more people all with R 245 or higher.These higher R players have 3 character upgrades and weapons with 3 bonus slots already so even if i call for back up im pretty useless against those with more equipment and better upgrades.People will like to believe that levels and upgrades dont matter in this game but if they didnt matter why dont we all start out with everything open fresh out of the gates? Rank matters and so do weapons/character upgrades and to new players who just dont know better they will often be out-matched and this could make some people not wanna play the game.
This is probably my main issue with the game right now.The lack of balance.Well that and how over-powered the stuns are for Enforcers but the stun issue can easily be fixed by grouping with decent players who help you on missions.Actually probably both of my issues can be resolved with good groups but speaking from a new player perspective who may not know anyone playing the game it can be rough.
I pretty much agree with the review. And 6,5 seems fine for a game that gets repetitive very fast.
Edit: Also agree that driving feels terrible.
I don't care if MMORPG gives this a mediocre review. The game is extremely fun and I will gladly pay $10 a month for it. Enough said.
this game is just not worth the subscription fee. i feel that it hardly even gived you your money's worth from the box sale alone. the gameplay has been flimsy since beta. you are esscentially paying full retail price to play dressup. the rest of the game is still "i have the biggest gun", and it does not give much room for expanding to even make me care to pay. hell they had a lot of players playing free, but you know what? it was nearly empty because of the crap stink it gave off.
6.5 is about right for APB judged as an MMORPG. But it's not an MMORPG.
It's a game only runs on centralized company servers (Modern Warfare 2), with achievements and unlockable equipment (Bad Company 2, America's Army), and a side feature of extensive avatar customization (Brink, Battlefield Heroes).
APB is a shooter. The next generation of them, IMO. It's squarely in the place shooters have been moving towards over the last five years, and RTW has stolen a march on the competition.
As a shooter, I leave its merits to be judged by those who play those games. I don't. I just hope the tragic mis-marketing of APB to MMORPG players doesn't kill it in the crib. I may not care for it personally, but it's going in the right direction. It deserves to find its audience.
While the cars do feel like whales, higher up in progression I got to buy some vehicles that handled great.
On the customization front, as an artist I have fun with it, but am also frustrated with being stuck with having to work with polygons and symbols. Not to mention the biggest problem with customization is that you just don't get enough inventory space to make a bunch of stuff then sell it on the auction house. I end up being limited to around 3 clothes I can keep to copy and sell on the market. This is because your own character clothing inventory is limited which, when you have 4 different outfits, limits the amount of clothing you can make for sales. I'm not really willing to sell symbols I make when I could sell it on clothing and keep my symbol from being copied then sold on clothing by someone else.
I smell cash shop upgrades... Oi.
probably the last mmo you played within the first 2 weeks of launch, I expect this to change to I hate APB within 2 month echoing the reviewers cons
I would be inclined to think so as well as you get 100 slots for weapons and only 40 for clothing. I seriously will never need 40 weapon slots much less 100, but I sure as hell could use 100 clothing inventory slots.
"
6.5? Hah. Screw this Review.
You know why this game is better than 6.5? Because I don't have to to push the #1 key to kill the same thing over and over and over while watching a shitty animation repeatedly. There may be some repetitiveness to APBs gameplay, but every encounter is ORIGINAL."
So every single game on the planet that doesnt have auto attack deserves higher than a 6.5? great logic there.
I feel like the writer never got past the first car. I found that even taking pedestrians cars; they were all so much better at maneuvering than the starter car. Also, it takes a few hours to get used to it. Not really THAT bad.
It's odd, though. Although I agree on most points (cept for the driving) I would have given it a much higher score. Maybe it's because different things were emphasized to me? I dunno.
After all, you only do missions so you can dress up better.
That's why I did missions bwahaha
Hah! This just proves even more to never trust MMORPG.com reviews. 6.5? MAN, some one must have pressed the wrong numbers...
Matchmaking is broken or they need to reassess how it works. I was level 50 going up against guys level 200. Now that I am level 98, I seem to be dying less and killing more. Hopefully this is a trend that continues.
I have mixed feelings about the game myself. At first I didn't like it. But after a three day marathon I had to stop and ask myself...was anyone forcing me to play? No. I was laughing and having a good time. Ok...so sometimes I was getting killed I was cursing or grumbling. But you get into a rhythm. I actually felt like I was having withdrawal pains at work today.
Driving is fine now and so are the controls, is this review from beta?
Match-making is done purely on your win / loss ratio, which is inherently flawed in a game that makes you more powerful as you unlock new weapons and upgrades.
Driving is alright in it, no different from GTA or Saints Row, so people shouldn't be complaining about that.
One thing to note though, the screen with the two groups fighting from behind to rows of cars, that will never happen in the game. All you have to do is look at a car the wrong way and it will explode, so no one in their right mind ever uses them as cover.
No.
There is a reason why some find driving enjoyable and others find it terrible. It comes down to your PC;
On my desktop I have about 60-70 fps at high setting and I can cut corners, countersteer, evade pedistrians and so on without problems and generally its great fun. My Micro is pure joy to drive on the desktop.
Then if I log on, on my laptop I run 25-30 fps on minimal settings and now on the same car I cannot drive down a street without hitting half the cars and pedistrians and have to completely forget about doing any car chases.
The lower your framerate, the harder vehicles becomes to control. For some reason the key controls become more and more "hysterical" the worse your framerate becomes.
Try a /fps and see your FPS. Less than 30 that driving becomes bad.
This reads like a review from beta. Might want to mention that.
I need to add some more;
>Driving is something you need to get used to. Once you do, it's great.
>The controls are fine. All I'm missing is a toggle crouch.
>Missions (quests) are repetitive in any and all MMO's or online games for that matter. the key difference here is that you get pitted against other players, rather than NPC's. That itself will keep you coming back for more. Not to mention the pursuit missions, where you actually have to stop the criminals from "escaping".
After reading the review, I can only say that I disagree wholeheartedly with it. it's almost as if it was written by someone not used to playing Shooters. In fact, I'm quite certain of it.
Oh well.
Maybe that's why they shouldn't review this at all? Because it's not really a mmorpg? They shouldn't even list this on the site, soon every multiplayer game will be here.
Anyway, I'll wait buying this about half a year or maybe even a year? I've stopped being a sucker buying unfinished products at launch haha.
What, along with every other review of APB? Shame no one has reviewed it who can play it properly. Wonder if any gamers can either? No fault of the game of course, just hardly anyone knows how to play it. Either way, same result - not enough subs.
Agreed. I was expecting something different and hoped it would be -- it could have been a breath of fresh air for the MMO genre. Ah well. I think the CounterStrike people will be happy -- the customization is really impressive. Traditional MMOs, i.e. fantasy-based, should take note.
Well i played this game since last Oct, and i can say that i agree with you, except when you say that the matchmaking is "clever", it's actually a piece of junk that everybody condemned since day one as it just stacks Threat Levels to define who's against who, without any accounting on rank nor on weapons.
About the driving, it's clear that it doesn't have good mechanics compared to most games these days, some cars feel like u drive on ice (charge mikro for example), others feel like they are baloons full of air (fly high with the slightest impact).
This game's fun, but imo the worst things that happen to it so far are :
1) Crappy matchmaking.
2) Hit box detection still messed up after over 10 months of beta test (u can empty ur clip in someone sometimes and he doesn't die because the game didn't register all the hits).
3) Aimboters (they still didn't remove all helios bot users and the like).
4) The way unbalanced missions at release (i guess that RTW realized than 5 missions weren't enough so they added like 10-15 more, but these are like 200 times easier for enfs than for crims).
5) Unbalanced weapons, still 8 months after release (this is getting worse than SWG classes balance).
6) Emptyness and lack of content which are not balanced by a good fighting mechanics like a real shooter would have.
Completely agree with you Khorrax.
decent review, although I contest the OPs statement that driving is more of a chore. Find the right car and its like magic, you wait for escape missions just to try it out... and taunt your opponents.
The missions are repetetative and the match making system could probably be improved but in general its pretty fun to play, so long as you have someone with you. This is not a solo play game.
Oh and as far as subscription numbers, well theres 2 servers in EU (where I play) with about 7 different instances per action district and a big social one. Each instance runs up to 100 people, sure its not WoW but Id say right now theres a lot of players fighting it out on the streets of San Paro.
I just hope they add some end game content though.
Just another jazzed up shooter-not really interested.
I have no idea what you just said.
well i think theres only really 2 downsides to the game.
1. the repition- i can over look this to an extent.. the missions themselfs are always the same( theres only like 5 different text senarios) but the places you go ETC are always changing, you can be at the other side of the map donig the same thing you where a minute ago, which does split it up.
2. matchmaking- it can be bad as, you can vs a level 200 but again its about skill i can easily take out some level 200's+ and sometimes i cant at all.. its all skill (im currently level 70)
and the other thing about matchmaking is that you can sometimes be put into a game when its 4 vs 1(you) yes you can find backup but still its not fun and if its a "you get X amounts of lifes mission) you have no chance as they will be in 1 vechile shooting yours.
but i am really enjoying the game, i do agree with after the first 50 hours i wonder who will stay but ill be paying at least a months sub.
p.s. i have been solo'ing so far
He was very generious. 6 mont max it goes sub-free. Its too boring and no content.
Good review and rating. I like when games are rated on what they actually have, rather than "the potential" that they show. I also like that you said in your review that, despite the rating, it is still fun.
Not sure I will jump for the game just yet, but definitely interested now.
I think the driving is definately related to the FPS you are getting in gaeme. For one, the controls are keyboard controls atm and the longer you hold onto a steering direction the further in that direction the wheels will turn. If you do not see the impact of turning in a direction and hold onto the button for a longer period of time you will definately over steer.
Different vehicles have different responses on this theory as well.
Now, IMO. If you make driving any easier you are going to get way more people edriving in the game and killing in this manner over just shooting it out. I think leaving this alone will keep more of the combat out of the cars which have issues of hitboxes and no realistic damage models. Leave it be and force more people out of cars.
I think I am <R50. I group with a number of guys that are well over this level. I am constantly going up against much higher opponents in groups. Stun guns are the SUK if you are playing a criminal. However, I still have fun and get waay more satisfaction when I can take one of these guys out!!!! Especially when they only need to hit me 2-3 times to either stun or kill. Where I have to lay into them with at least a 5-8 hits for a take down.
You still get points and rewards for dieing and losing in game. Just not as much as a win. Yes, the matches are based upon your Threat versus your rating. I think this is to make sure you are being challenged in game. If you or your group is constantly owning everything in your same level would you get bored? Would you not want to accept a more challenging PvP? By bringing together someone who is owning other groups of a same or lower threat level with another group that may not be owning every onee they come across but, are of a higher ranking. Does that not seem to be more of a challenge for you and some chance for the other group to get their tactics straight?
Seems like it would to me and I bet that was the original thought behind the current process. However, since there are so many players QQ'ing about this unfair advantage and mash up I assume it will be changed. What you will end up with is a group that uses their own VOIP. Play together constantly and will virtually OWN the whole area every time they are on.
Just remember, this is what you asked for.
Completely agree with Khorrax... Maybe Cujo was kidding?
"But I am damned good at racing games."
Being good at "Burnout" or other arcade-style racers means nothing in APB. Yes, the controls feel a bit sluggish because everything happens server-side. Aside from that, vehicle modeling is based on sim racers, rather than the arcade variety (the devs even said as much). Once you practice a bit to compensate for the lag in input, driving is pretty damn fun. I find it no more difficult than leading my targets back in the good ol' days of playing FPS's on dial-up.
Overall, I agree with just about everything is this review, vehicle handling aside. I am also a current subscriber to the game who was in both closed and open beta tests. The game is far from perfect, but for me it is indeed fun. I also understand what the game is, and isn't. APB really is a love it, or hate it game. There isn't much of an in-between.
The score given may seem low, but I think it's pretty close to what I would have given it. Maybe a solid 7, but certainly no higher based on its current form.
fair review I must say. This game is kinda hard to review though since there isnt anything else like it, so being that alot of people Iv watched havent had problems driving so much, and didnt complain about how repetetive it was coupled with the fact that there isnt another game llike it I would say its a bit underrated. The reviewer did a good job of pointing out alot of the bad in the game, when there is still alot of good to that is easily passed by without commenting on.
lol i'm having great fun in APB. sounds to me like another flame war on mmorpg.com.
Not a fair review score imo either. Its a great crack ^^
Lol, a flame war? It's called the truth and the truth hurts doesn't it? APB should be a F2P straight-up like I been posting on their forums from day one. No one with any sense should pay a monthly sub for a TPS with no content.
First off I have to say there isn't anything really wrong with the driving, I have so much fun with it and I'm pretty decent at getting from A to B without hitting things other than pedestrians (I play a Crim) so that arguement is kind of off base. The second, the part where you said you unloaded fifty bullets into a car window and nothing happened? well that isn't right at all...I know it's an exaggeration but still with the right about of bullets the car kind of goes boom with the people inside it becoming insta-dead. The cover mechanics i kind of agree with the article on that, it would be nice to have something like gears of war, however with everyone on the same playing field when it comes to cover it really isn't all that bad, besides you're not going to take cover behind your own vehicles or npc vehicles due to the fact they can blow them up. The only real problems i've had with the game is there are still a few exploits going around, im sure the occasional hacker, and also the lack of variety in the weapons, sure you can put other upgrades in the empty slotted weapons and customize them a little but in the end I would prefer to see some other weapons in there as well. All in all though, I absolutely have a blast playing this game no matter how long I play it. I can play it for 20 minutes or 8 hours and still have a crazy amount of fun with it. I'd give this game no lower than an 8.
I really do enjoy playing APB, but I do feel like it's the case that I'm enjoying it in spite of itself.
My main gripe with it? The engine choice.
Why in the nine rings of this hell called earth did they pick the Unreal 3 engine? >_<
This rating is in keeping with all the others, in fact it may be slightly above average. Are all the reviewers just bad at it? And what of the 6/10 user score on metacritic. are all those bad at it too? And if if the fault is with the players and not the game, which seems unlikely, it's still bad news if hardly anyone can play it properly! In concludsion, this game will not get many subs.
Definalty not a game for soloers, might give it a bash once its had a content update or two.
Kudos to the reviewer, this is pretty much exactly how I feel about the game. It has alot of major gameplay issues in a shell that is bursting with possibilities. I really hope this game takes off and expands.
On matchmaking, the reason people get paired so unfairly is the nature of the limits on district sizes, 40v40 will limit you to being pitted against one (or several) of those from a limited pool of 40, so if you are R50 and the lowest ranked opposing force that is not already on a mission is R200, you're going to probably get paired off against you . It isn't that the matchmaking is broken necessarily (it could be) but a limited pool of variety to choose from makes the matchmaking difficult. So really the nature of the problem is a bigger issue, only having 40v40 in an instance of a district. Grant it w/ the size of the districts, the servers, etc I don't think it could handle much more than that to fix the issue.
The hardest part is it makes the new player expereience a bit of a die, die, die, slowly get better, die less, etc. At least you get rewards for losing as well.
An admitingly kind half-arsed idea to fix this follows:
Rank restricted zones, maybe like 1 action district as an All ranks, 1 as low, 1 as med, 1 as high or something like that. Some way to regulate better what district instances you get stuck on. One downside is this would make things feel even more lobbyish vs open-world MMo style.
On that note I would love to see a fully open faction pvp chaos district.
im sorry again. but i think if the sub was dropepd it would make it worth peoples time. you just dont get back in gameplay what you are paying. and really the only thing worth any money in this game is the customizeation system..... thats it nothing else is worthwhile!
1. The handbrake is your friend, if you don't use it you will fail at driving.
2. Anyone who thinks adding cover to this game would help it hasn't really played it. You can make your own cover just fine by hiding around a corner or crouching behind something and popping out to attack, adding shooting around corners without exposing yourself would bog down firefights so much it would be retarded.
3. Yes the missions are repetitive in content, but what MMO's aren't? The variety comes from how the mission plays out against different human opponents. Is it perfect? Not even close, but it is entertaining.
4. Its an mmorpg... just because the zones are instances doesn't mean anything, its every bit as much an mmo (maybe even more so) than a game like Guild Wars.
What's funny is :
1) This game doesn't have what it takes to be a P2P.
2) RTW originally planned it to be F2P.
3) EA came into the loop...
Having a game that costs 50 millions £ be that shallow, with a broken MM and unbalanced weapons is a great job.
Don't forget that it's the 2nd most expensive game of all time fellows, not just something a couple peeps developed in their garage, it costs more than a Red Dead Redemption, than a WoW/EVE/EQ1/EQ2/Whatever MMO u want to insert here. And it turns out as a game with no content, and under par on every aspect (fighting, driving...) besides customization.
You don't have to pay a sub if you buy enough RTW points ingame to trade for more game hours.
400 RTW = 30 days game time so if you can keep making that you play for free
does not change my stance, i knew that but remember that you still have to be able to sucker people..... i mean sell that much.
also its still not worth retail price
I hear alot of comparisons to Hellgate: London as far as genre and payment go. That's....not really a good thing. If this game is your thing then more power to you. I've been waiting for a FPS/MMORPG hybrid, and I approve of testing the boundaries of genres, but I just don't think I'll be picking this up.
So its not a mmo? so its not massive multiplayer online? lol i hate when retards try and say games arnt mmos learn what mmo means before runnin off saying it isnt a mmo if anything its a MMORPG id say mmofps buts its not a fp game in third person eaither way still an mmo.
GW is not really a mmo. By that logic modern warfare is a mmo too. I mean there are thousand of peoples in the lobby waiting to enter an instanced deathmatch.
its a MMO but its NOT a MMORPG...we'll call it a MMOTPS.
not this crap again.
towns and outposts in GW are persistent. all characters are stored on arenanets server. everything is over 1 shard. EVE is the only other game to have this MMO unification.
it's just that they smart technology to replicate the games persistent game world multiple times depending on the player usage. just because the technology is flexible it does not mean that it does not have MMO elements.
also you do not get to decide how much instancing determines what classifies as a MMO and what does not. Read up on the server and streaming technology before you speak such nonsense again.
I think this type of game should be called "persistent shooter" instead of MMORPG :D
Anyhow it's not bad as the review suggests but content is limited at the moment but there is potential there.
To expand on #2 a bit I would also add that the combat mechanics in this game emphasizes dynamic use of the environment and MOVEMENT more than your average MMO. There's no target lock here, move along please....or get shot to pieces if you don't get your ass out of the line of fire. Duck, dodge, weave around...but don't sit still. Even the campers continuously shift position within their area. Terrain makes a difference here, more so that what the average MMO player is used to.
And as for driving? It's no more a pain to learn than GTA. Now add to that the bustling traffic of a metropolitan area and a hundred other players running around in vehicles.....yeah it' a helluva ride you just aren't going to find in any other MMO.
RTW has never called this a MMO, players did, and reviewers have incorrectly.
You dont buy a Subscription. You buy time. When you login, the timer starts counting down. When you log out the time stop. I find this type of subscription to be far more profitable to players and devs.
http://www.tentonhammer.com/apb/video/mmo-in-apb
So the executive producer doing an entire interview about the MMO aspects of APB doesn't count I guess?
Does not make any difference how they word it, they just won't find enough people to pay for this game that way.
Unless they change it to a f2p model or just make the purchase count like guild wars this game will be short lived.
And the game is NOT a MMO by any shape or form. Just another shooter.
Look I'll agree it's not an MMO the same as Global Agenda isn't but they hyped it as one and it's listed on this site and many others as an MMO. The executive producer even did that exclusive interview for ten ton hammer on the MMO aspects of APB.
It's listed as an MMO on the wiki, half the podcasts have MMO in thier titles and it sure was advertised as an MMO.
I'd like to add imho Planetside with it's three factions, vehicles ranging from four wheelers to tanks to air craft with bases, towers, outposts and a huge load out of cert choices was better than Global Agenda and APB put together. Until they screwed it over with BFRs.
It doesn't matter how they word their payment model, and it doesn't matter whether they called it an MMO or not (although, I think they were quite happy with this description when justifying the 'subscription') the point is not enough people will pay monthly, or hourly, to play this game. I'll be amazed if a year from now APB is a thriving game with a healthy 'subscription' base. I wouldn't be at all amazed if it doesn't even exist,in any form, though.
Planetside, better as in more weapon and vehicle variety (using a sci-fi theme) huge land masses to do battle on and the overall much larger scale battles, yes. Still there are things both GA and APB do much better. Stuff like more complex battles, more tasks to carry out to make the battles have more variety, a better control on the balace in numbers of the sides fighting, much more possibilites of character builds, and more unique looking characters.
Hasn't the definition of MMO been watered down/changed to being something persistant with progression?
And yet this MMO site not only reviewed it but has a section for it. Interesting.
Would play this game if it had stayed F2P. What does this game do that GTA and RRD don't? Offers more customization? Not a big enough selling point for me personally. And the driving does suck in this game. It may take some skill, but nothing I'd brag about. Go play GTA IV or a racing game if you want to see what driving should feel like. And the combat systems are antiquated. No hitboxes? Really? How are you going to be a modern TPS without hitboxes, let alone without a cover mechanic? Find it hard to believe they spent five years on this game.
What makes a MMO? jsut becasue you shoot that makes it less of a MMO?
hell they could make the thing room based and it would still be possibly called a MMO
it means massivly multiplayer online game. not Massivly multiplayer everyone ****ing around on the same area game where you must have role playing elementsa and shooting makes it just a shooter game.
Whether or not this game plays like an MMO seems irrelevant to me. After all, like an MMO, it requires additional monetary investment to play. That fact has to be taken into account for reviewing purposes more than anything, particularly in the “value” category: does the experience justify both the cost of the game AND additional payments? Many reviewers have argued that it simply doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the key to the city event, even if my enjoyment was rather shallow. But to me, the in-game shop and the game’s zonal structure cries out for an F2P model, or at least the Guildwars method.
Took me longer to download this game than it did to figure out I got Jacked by another bad game.
The game surely has its flaws. But driving and lack of a cover system aren't one of those. The game(beta) ran terribly on my PC, so driving was often the only thing I could do.
Sure, sometimes the game hiccupped so much that I crashed into things. But you could just as well be bumped by another player. And I didn't feel slow driving one of the faster cars (though I guess speed is also faked by the lack of grip at what might seem low speeds)
I didn't really miss a cover system. The problem is that you compare a PvP game to a PvE game. Cover works great in the games you mentioned, because you have a large opposition yet you are supposed to be able to handle them.
If you'd have a cover system here, shootouts would take years, or a grenade toss fest. Or it would last until someone ran around the flanks making your whole cover system pretty much useless. And that already happens plenty with the spawn mechanism of the game.
I don't see myself paying to play this game, especially because on slightly over min-spec, the game performance is simply too unstable.
this is an awesome post. nice to see somebody being objective and having the ability to see value in things that aren't based on their own personal preferences.
the problem with it being panned by RPG players who shouldn't have expected to like it in the first place (and therefore, should not feel vindictively "letdown") is that there really IS NO existing MMOTPS market yet. real shooter fans GENERALLY ignore the MMO space since it has virtually nothing to offer them. the majority of those trying it were expecting way too many RPG elements and "progression" from it, because the only real MMO communities (at this time) are %99 RPG players. there are a lot of shooter fans out there that know nothing about it, yet a huge portion of MMORPG junkies knew about it, and too many of them got hopelessly (there was no hope for them to be satisfied) interested in it.
hopepfully the MMOShooter scene can finally now come into being and have its own news sites, communities, etc...... but that might not come about until a couple more games like this are released.
This site gives Global Agenda an 8.0, yet APB a 6.5. The reviewer need to get a clue; their impressions suck just from that comparison alone.
I foresee this game going F2P in the next 6 months. Its an instant gratification game, log in, customize the snot out of character, shoot some bad guys (or good) . Game over.
Obviously there are hardly any MMOshooter players, because there are hardly any MMOshooters!
I don't like a lot of the MMO(kiddie)RPGs I see on this site. Yet I'm not saying they should get their own community site too. APB lends itself quite well towards playing a character (role). Sure, it might not be an MMO in the true form (up to 100 players in one shard). But then many other games aren't either.
MMO or not the game can actually be fun if they keep suporting it and listening to players, i had some good laughs while playing it and in the end thats all that matters, to have fun.
This game has huge potential down the line. I can't wait to see what is in store. I've been gaming for a long time and I haven't really had that 'game', if you know what I mean. For some odd reason, this game just sticks to me. When it works, amazing things will happen. You will smile, laugh, cry, scream out in anger, relax, chill and cruise with your friends. I don't know what it is but I love it.
That's a good point about Global Agenda because I've had a hell of blast with this compared to the mehness of global agenda.
+1
I honestly see a good number of people buying this. Those into shooter will buy this game and buying time is pretty much cheap. Compared to what you spend on a subscription like World of Warcraft and Aion Id consider it a steal. Besides what does and doesnt make a game an mmo. Just cause a playe doesnt feel it isnt an mmo doesnt matter. What the industry says does. A.P.B is and mmo because it has a 100 people playing at one time. It's not an MMORPG. It's not an MMORTS. It is although the first MMOTPS. Which their will be more to pop up later down the line. One they work out some bugs and and add a little more to gameplay. This game will turn out to be one of the best shooters on the PC in a while. Who know. This could be the way the next Unreal Series goes.
The problem there is what mmo is'nt repetive. WoW=repetive. Aion=repetive. Everquest series =repetive. Thats all mmo lets just face it.
But there are different kinds of repetitive. There is the generic kind of repetitive quest/mission we all accept as a limitation inherent to the game genre in which the dynamic is the same (go kill x, go collect, go deliver, etc...) but the details are different, then there is the unacceptable kind of repeatable quests/missions that scale to your level and they call it "content".
Truthfully thats World of Warcraft latest addition of patches felt like unacceptable kind of repition. Same on Aion though. I wand my godamn Tabula Rasa back damnit!!!!
Good review. The reason why I think APB sucks is because I looked at what the key features are supposed to be and realize how much they utterly fail.
1. Is it a shooter?
No cover. And saying "lol Planetside must have sucked" is pretty damn stupid. Way to compare a 2010 game to what...a 2003 game? In its prime, Planetside blows APB out of the water. You want to make a good shooter...make the game first person. We're PC gamers...not console gamers. Back to cover. What really got me going with APB was the fact I was tucked behind something and leaing out, yet I was hitting the wall in front of me. The person I was shooting at could still hit me and I died. If the person was a bad shot I could scoot out far enough and still get them. But finding that invisible sweet spot was pretty lame. And to the guy saying "we don't need armor stat go back to wow" I'd like to point to the cheezy weapon slot upgrade system thing. You see, games like CoD allow you to upgrade weapons but the base weapon without upgrades are usually just as lethal as the upgraded version. This is not the case in APB. You have the newby AK47 you will get smoked almost all the time by somebody with upgrades. I play CoD World at War starting out at lvl 1 I can still finish in the top half on each map with the lvl 1 stuff. So a shooter APB is not.
2. Driving
Cars are too easy to blow up as well. And not being able to shoot through glass is lame. Should I keep going? As to "elephant on ice" I think that has to do with how data is handled server side. It's very slow to respond. Gee Mr. Planetside mocker...funny how Planetside not only got driving down in large scale encounters...but also got flying down as well. If they do something to tweak the communication between client/server then driving might be ok. But for now it sucks. So...there's the 2nd feature of this game shot down.
3. Open World
Basically what RTW has done is create a system that more or less puts you in a 5 man instance but has you doing that instance while in the "real world" with other players around you. The fact there really is not anything outside of your mission that can impact you makes it a fancy way to do a 5 man instance . You're basically in your own little bubble within the city while on a mission. Make it all open world and put in a weapon lock system or something to stop nubs from griefing their own team. Or make a temp rating system so that if somebody does enough griefing there's a bounty on their head to be collected by people of the same faction. Not to mention the fact the game was sold as "100 player zones" and they couldn't even come through with that. Planetside....server technology 7 years ago....what?
4. Customization
I have to admit this is the ONLY place this game just kicks major ass. I'm driving 3 of my buds around and we see a van..you know the one...the child molestor van...with the words "Candy sold here" written on the side. As nasty as some might think that is, I laughed my ass off. Unfortunately getting a few laughs with my twisted humor isn't going to keep me paying to play this game.
5. Missions or Questing
Whatever they're supposed to be, they get old really quick. Outside of the missions there aint much to do besides sit in social making your avatar look like how you wished you looked in real life. And yes..the matching system sucks. Probably because they really don't have a choice when you only have 80 people on a map. Good luck fixin that. And yes the whole "kick the candy machine to get a prize" raid mission mechanic is pretty shallow game play.
tl;dr version: I hear people say "this isn't a typical game...it's something new." Then please tell me what the hell it is? It's not a shooter...it's not a driver...it's not a quester. Is it a "sit in social and make my avatar look like how I wish I looked in real life" game? If i want to play a shooter, CoD is better. Play a driver, tons of better driving games. Hell GTA4 driving is better. Quester? I don't have enough digits to count those. What is so good and different about this game that's supposed to make folks pay to play it?
Having not bought the game yet (Due to money problems) but being one of those that has been waiting what seems like an age for it to come out, I can say that I am so relieved.
I am relieved by real people going against all these scary reviews that sound like they're not describing the game I've been waiting for.
I played in the beta but got too frustrated by the constant stunning. It just takes an enormous amount of fun out of the game. So, I'm with the ones that will be happy to see this game go under, even though it was a good try.
This game doesn't offer a First person View? They should be embarrassed of the guns in this game. Nerf Gun Arena blows these pieces of crap away. The magnums wont stop someone hitting them solid three times dead center heart, just wakes them up to turn around and spray ya with bb's. They were probably hoping a company would buy them out or gain attention for their talent. Which they deserve, they have talent developing the game, graphics, etc. The Gameplay sucks, thats all. haha. Crimecraft has a new video (new to me), featuring the weapons games like APB should issue.