I got All Points Bulletin last week, and have been playing it quite a bit since. I wondered how many other escapists play, and what they think of it?
Personally I'm a little disappointed. A friend has been playing it since the beta and raved about it. Maybe it's because immediately prior to APB, I was re-playing GTAIV; but APB just hasn't lived up to my expectations. Obviously it's hard not to compare it to GTA, given the similarities in basic gameplay style. And APB feels like a shallow imitator of GTA.
I try and be objective though and consider APB in isolation. But why am I still dissatisfied?
Well:
The controls.
Driving is alright. The controls can be a little 'loose'; I guess with lag and somehow fittingly as I've read, as a result of the lag correction. It sometimes feels like you're just trying to persuade your car to turn, rather than actually driving it.
The foot controls are quite annoyingly unresponsive at times though. Again you often feel like you have to pre-empt what you need to tell your player to do, because when you actually press the key they will take it as merely a hint and won't do it until they've thought about it first. This often means dying in firefights until you get used to the sluggish way your player engages the enemy.
The missions.
I think this is my main gripe. The fact is, APB boils down to king of the hill and capture the flag in a modern urban setting, against randomly picked internet players. With vehicles. All of the missions are slight variations on "drive here and pick this up / click on this" and "drive here and defend this area" for the other side. I was expecting car chases, raiding houses, criminals and cops in explosive standoffs. What APB delivers though is again a very shallow experience, more like a 'simple' deathmatch game. A case in point is that as an enforcer, you can 'raid' criminal dens. When I first saw this I was pleased, envisioning kicking down a door with a squad at my back, and storming in shooting on sight. Raids in APB though merely involve going up to a door and pressing F. After which your player amusingly produces a ram and breaks the door, causing an item to appear that you pick also by pressing F.
Add in to that the fact that the player-matching is very hit and miss, and that you can pretty much win most missions by being the first ones to the obejctive and camping: and the whole mission experience is dissapointing.
I could add other criticisms. The way the cityscape feels empty and lacklustre, the disparity that makes it considerably easier to progress as a criminal, and other minor niggles. But at some point I'd just be nitpicking.
On balance of course there are lots of good things about APB. The character and vehicle customisation is the best I've seen in an MMO, and there is a solid market in custom-made gear. APB is also refreshingly light on some typical MMO features like stats and character levels, which works with the simplicity of gameplay. The in-game music is good and can be customised with your own tunes. An additional plus is the fact that APB is not subscription-based. You get fifty hours with the game, and then you can buy more time to add on. This is generous when you consider that the 'social' areas, in which you can customise your character and meet up with friends/clan buddies, are free to play.
All things considered, there is a lot of fun to be had in APB. The criticism that the missions are too shallow is also a minor positive because they're easy to drop into with a group of friends. As always with an MMO there are excellent moments that you just don't get in single-player games. (Being blocked by an enemy team dumping a car over the objective, so ramming the car out of the way with a large truck while team members provided cover was fun!) But ultimately I don't see this as a game that I'll pay to keep playing.
Personally I'm a little disappointed. A friend has been playing it since the beta and raved about it. Maybe it's because immediately prior to APB, I was re-playing GTAIV; but APB just hasn't lived up to my expectations. Obviously it's hard not to compare it to GTA, given the similarities in basic gameplay style. And APB feels like a shallow imitator of GTA.
I try and be objective though and consider APB in isolation. But why am I still dissatisfied?
Well:
The controls.
Driving is alright. The controls can be a little 'loose'; I guess with lag and somehow fittingly as I've read, as a result of the lag correction. It sometimes feels like you're just trying to persuade your car to turn, rather than actually driving it.
The foot controls are quite annoyingly unresponsive at times though. Again you often feel like you have to pre-empt what you need to tell your player to do, because when you actually press the key they will take it as merely a hint and won't do it until they've thought about it first. This often means dying in firefights until you get used to the sluggish way your player engages the enemy.
The missions.
I think this is my main gripe. The fact is, APB boils down to king of the hill and capture the flag in a modern urban setting, against randomly picked internet players. With vehicles. All of the missions are slight variations on "drive here and pick this up / click on this" and "drive here and defend this area" for the other side. I was expecting car chases, raiding houses, criminals and cops in explosive standoffs. What APB delivers though is again a very shallow experience, more like a 'simple' deathmatch game. A case in point is that as an enforcer, you can 'raid' criminal dens. When I first saw this I was pleased, envisioning kicking down a door with a squad at my back, and storming in shooting on sight. Raids in APB though merely involve going up to a door and pressing F. After which your player amusingly produces a ram and breaks the door, causing an item to appear that you pick also by pressing F.
Add in to that the fact that the player-matching is very hit and miss, and that you can pretty much win most missions by being the first ones to the obejctive and camping: and the whole mission experience is dissapointing.
I could add other criticisms. The way the cityscape feels empty and lacklustre, the disparity that makes it considerably easier to progress as a criminal, and other minor niggles. But at some point I'd just be nitpicking.
On balance of course there are lots of good things about APB. The character and vehicle customisation is the best I've seen in an MMO, and there is a solid market in custom-made gear. APB is also refreshingly light on some typical MMO features like stats and character levels, which works with the simplicity of gameplay. The in-game music is good and can be customised with your own tunes. An additional plus is the fact that APB is not subscription-based. You get fifty hours with the game, and then you can buy more time to add on. This is generous when you consider that the 'social' areas, in which you can customise your character and meet up with friends/clan buddies, are free to play.
All things considered, there is a lot of fun to be had in APB. The criticism that the missions are too shallow is also a minor positive because they're easy to drop into with a group of friends. As always with an MMO there are excellent moments that you just don't get in single-player games. (Being blocked by an enemy team dumping a car over the objective, so ramming the car out of the way with a large truck while team members provided cover was fun!) But ultimately I don't see this as a game that I'll pay to keep playing.
