I'm not quite sure where to start with this first play thread, so i'll start bluntly. All the negative reviews out there are seriously missing the mark.
From what I can gather, this game has been receiving some pretty average / poor scores all around. I participated in closed beta test, the Key To The City event, and am now an active player after launch, and I am absolutely loving it to pieces. I spent all my KTTC time, and i've clocked up around 30 hours of gameplay since it launched under a week ago.
I am still completely drawn in and I can't get enough of it.
So.
APB is an online only third person shooter for the PC that runs on a subscription basis (uh oh). You create a character which you can fully customise, and decide to play as either an Enforcer or a Criminal. Each side plays almost the same, with a few tweaks and differences here and there.
After you've made your character, you're guided through a very handy tutorial which teaches you the basics of how to play and what you should be expecting, before you're thrown into the big bad world.
The game is seperated into two different parts: Social District and Action District.
Social District is where both sides can hang out together and is purely non-combat. There are marketplaces here to trade with other players, garages to customise and buy your own personal car, and customisation vendors where you can create your own clothing, decals, graffiti, and you can even use a song editor to make a little tune that plays to people when you kill them. The customisation is absolutely fantastic in this game and there is tons of it.
Action District is where the game happens. The game works on instances instead of a single big world, and each instance holds up to 80 players. Luckily if you form a group with friends or in an action district, it's very easy to move together like a party.
Once you're in an action district, think of it as a multiplayer GTA. You've got your guns, you've got your first contact, off you go. You talk to your contact and pledge to him and he'll start calling you up giving you missions to do. Do the missions for contact standing, and to earn money to spend on bigger weapons and vehicles.
There's no character level system. So someone who's just started playing still stands a chance against someone that's maxed out their standing with all contacts and organisations.
There is no NPC combat in the game. All combat is player vs player. However, you can't just start shooting the other side up as you like.
Let's say, for example, you're playing as an Enforcer. You catch a criminal stealing a car, or breaking into a building as part of their mission. You can 'witness' that criminal by pressing Alt while aiming at him. If you catch the criminal in the act, a dispatch notice is sent to all other enforcers who aren't on a mission. If they accept this dispatch notice, they will be sent out against that criminal that you just witnessed.
The game then becomes an objective based team shooter. The criminals then have to complete their missions, while the enforcers have to stop them from completing their objectives.
It's really very, very, very good.
Enforcers have the same issue. Their missions usually revolve around screwing up criminal business, so they can be dispatched against by criminal gangs that have to stop them from proceeding.
It's not all perfect though - There are notable performance issues even on high spec PCs. Memory leaks and the like. They're being patched eventually but they all carried over from closed beta test which is pretty bad...
The matchmaking system tries to work on a 'skill' basis, and sometimes fails completely. You can have 3 vs 1 matches where the game won't let the 1 man team call for backup, because the game thinks he can take it by himself due to his skill. He can't.
Some of the missions and objectives are ridiculous, too. Let's say you've been battling against the opposing team for 15-20 minutes and it's all brilliant, but then you get to the final stage. The final stage of the quest is just to hold onto a briefcase until time runs out. When the time runs out, the team holding it wins.
You can grab the briefcase, get into a car, and just drive around at top speed everywhere, meaning the entire 5-10 minute timer can just be spent chasing a car with no sign of catching up. Then there's the VIP missions, where you have to assassinate a VIP on the opposing team. There's a 15 minute timer.
The VIP can just get in a fast car, drive around, and unless he really screws up he can just keep driving around for the full 15 minutes, no combat, and win the mission on timeout.
However, I have full faith these niggles and balance issues will be sorted and fixed in time.
If you can get past the initial problems, there's a lot of game here to enjoy. There's a ton more that i've not explained (Enforcers arresting criminals with stun weapons, criminals performing robberies and ram raiding shops, etc) and despite what some reviews have said, I feel there is a lot of game and a lot of content to enjoy. Especially if you're tackling it with friends.
If you've got a half decent PC and like your shooters or GTA style sandbox games, I highly recommend at least giving it a try. I'm very glad I did and i'm hooked on it despite the imperfections.
I'm on Patriot server, as Vally (Enforcer) and Valvalion (Criminal). I've spent roughly 15 hours on both characters so far.
From what I can gather, this game has been receiving some pretty average / poor scores all around. I participated in closed beta test, the Key To The City event, and am now an active player after launch, and I am absolutely loving it to pieces. I spent all my KTTC time, and i've clocked up around 30 hours of gameplay since it launched under a week ago.
I am still completely drawn in and I can't get enough of it.
So.
APB is an online only third person shooter for the PC that runs on a subscription basis (uh oh). You create a character which you can fully customise, and decide to play as either an Enforcer or a Criminal. Each side plays almost the same, with a few tweaks and differences here and there.
After you've made your character, you're guided through a very handy tutorial which teaches you the basics of how to play and what you should be expecting, before you're thrown into the big bad world.
The game is seperated into two different parts: Social District and Action District.
Social District is where both sides can hang out together and is purely non-combat. There are marketplaces here to trade with other players, garages to customise and buy your own personal car, and customisation vendors where you can create your own clothing, decals, graffiti, and you can even use a song editor to make a little tune that plays to people when you kill them. The customisation is absolutely fantastic in this game and there is tons of it.
Action District is where the game happens. The game works on instances instead of a single big world, and each instance holds up to 80 players. Luckily if you form a group with friends or in an action district, it's very easy to move together like a party.
Once you're in an action district, think of it as a multiplayer GTA. You've got your guns, you've got your first contact, off you go. You talk to your contact and pledge to him and he'll start calling you up giving you missions to do. Do the missions for contact standing, and to earn money to spend on bigger weapons and vehicles.
There's no character level system. So someone who's just started playing still stands a chance against someone that's maxed out their standing with all contacts and organisations.
There is no NPC combat in the game. All combat is player vs player. However, you can't just start shooting the other side up as you like.
Let's say, for example, you're playing as an Enforcer. You catch a criminal stealing a car, or breaking into a building as part of their mission. You can 'witness' that criminal by pressing Alt while aiming at him. If you catch the criminal in the act, a dispatch notice is sent to all other enforcers who aren't on a mission. If they accept this dispatch notice, they will be sent out against that criminal that you just witnessed.
The game then becomes an objective based team shooter. The criminals then have to complete their missions, while the enforcers have to stop them from completing their objectives.
It's really very, very, very good.
Enforcers have the same issue. Their missions usually revolve around screwing up criminal business, so they can be dispatched against by criminal gangs that have to stop them from proceeding.
It's not all perfect though - There are notable performance issues even on high spec PCs. Memory leaks and the like. They're being patched eventually but they all carried over from closed beta test which is pretty bad...
The matchmaking system tries to work on a 'skill' basis, and sometimes fails completely. You can have 3 vs 1 matches where the game won't let the 1 man team call for backup, because the game thinks he can take it by himself due to his skill. He can't.
Some of the missions and objectives are ridiculous, too. Let's say you've been battling against the opposing team for 15-20 minutes and it's all brilliant, but then you get to the final stage. The final stage of the quest is just to hold onto a briefcase until time runs out. When the time runs out, the team holding it wins.
You can grab the briefcase, get into a car, and just drive around at top speed everywhere, meaning the entire 5-10 minute timer can just be spent chasing a car with no sign of catching up. Then there's the VIP missions, where you have to assassinate a VIP on the opposing team. There's a 15 minute timer.
The VIP can just get in a fast car, drive around, and unless he really screws up he can just keep driving around for the full 15 minutes, no combat, and win the mission on timeout.
However, I have full faith these niggles and balance issues will be sorted and fixed in time.
If you can get past the initial problems, there's a lot of game here to enjoy. There's a ton more that i've not explained (Enforcers arresting criminals with stun weapons, criminals performing robberies and ram raiding shops, etc) and despite what some reviews have said, I feel there is a lot of game and a lot of content to enjoy. Especially if you're tackling it with friends.
If you've got a half decent PC and like your shooters or GTA style sandbox games, I highly recommend at least giving it a try. I'm very glad I did and i'm hooked on it despite the imperfections.
I'm on Patriot server, as Vally (Enforcer) and Valvalion (Criminal). I've spent roughly 15 hours on both characters so far.
If I make another character I'll have to go Patriot.
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