I don’t really do formal reviews, mainly because I’m not paid to do so, but here’s a few bullet points on my likes and dislikes about the game from my 10 hours in beta:

Thumbs Up:

• It was easy to pick up and play.  I thought the learning curve for doing missions wasn’t very steep at all.
• Believe it or not, the PVP is consentual.  You can only attack players that have accepted a mission or backup call against you.  Once the mission is over, no one can attack.  If you don’t feel like fighting, ignore the mission and backup calls.
• The customization is beyond fantastic.  Customize your physical character, their clothes, your car, your music…and more.
• Driving is a chaotic affair, just getting from point A to B without blowing up is its own meta game.  Learning to drive is fun, and driving well is a challenge.
• You can catch some major air if you know where to find the ramps and hit them right.
• Enforcers can kill.  They don’t have to arrest criminals, they can just be vigilantes and kill them.
• The matchmaking was nearly flawless.  I got put into groups consistently and was almost never alone.
• Aiming takes a steady hand and can be challenging.  Prepare to die.  Alot.
• Calling for backup often works like a charm.
• Teamwork pays off.  It is awesome to get a kill because the enemy is distracted by a team mate, or they kill them before you get ganked.
• The mix of different mission types was refreshing.  Some times I was guarding an area and the clock was my friend, sometimes I was racing to catch a guy with a critical item in a hectic car chase with the clock working against me.  I never knew what I was gonna get.
• The game has true crafting.  Make your own shirt decals, theme songs, you name it.  And you can sell it in the marketplace for cash!
• There are many unlockables to keep achievers busy.  Many of them help your character stand out in the crowd.
• Unlimited action district time for $10 bucks a month.
• Creating a clan (guild) was painless and easy.

Thumbs Down:

• Performance was iffy.  In two long sessions my system locked up and had to be rebooted 4-5 times due to the game crashing.  Not good, but the game is solid otherwise and can recover if this is stabilized soon.
• Only 80 players per instance might not be enough, but the city map size still kept things pretty action packed if all the car crashes I had with other players was any indication.
• Adding players to my clan was confusing.  What I tried either didn’t work, or I wasn’t doing it right and had no clue how.
• Being limited to only 5 hours of action district time stunk, and there was no way that I could tell to increase it.
• This isn’t an every day type of game (yet) like World of Warcraft .  Right now it feels like doing missions over and over will get repetitive like the early days of City of Heroes.
• What’s the end game?  Getting the best weapon and vehicle?  Then what…more missions?  See the item above this one…
• $10 bucks a month for unlimited action district play will likely not keep many people paying when they can continue to unlock hats in Team Fortress 2 and new prestige emblems in Modern Warfare 2 for free.  Even doing a pay as you go style with rollover minutes may not do the trick.  Can’t beat free in online play where shooters are concerned.
• It lacks mass appeal simply because it is a shooter.  Many people just won’t enjoy getting killed all the time because they can’t aim and shoot fast enough to compete.

With some more depth added to the action style of play, I could see myself committing more time to APB.  I had alot of fun running missions, and at the end of the day games are supposed to be fun.  APB delivered that, and I pre-ordered the game.  It has potential and I’d like to see where Realtime Worlds takes APB in the future.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 06/14/2010.
Posted in: Beta, Commentary, Featured, Impressions, Opinion, Reviews, Video Tags: All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds

APB’s podcast went up recently and it shows the final stretch of the long running game play segments that RTW has been showing us through these podcasts.  This time, we see more gun play and a little vehicle action but also a bit about how player’s levels are displayed and the “call for backup” mechanic.  An additional feature was shown, where the cops can arrest a criminal…or your crooked cop buddy can execute them while you are reading them their rights.  Check the clip below to see it all in action:

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 10/17/2009.
Posted in: Beta, Featured, Video Tags: All Points Bulletin, Podcast, Realtime Worlds