• Summary: APB takes the universal theme of Criminals and Enforcers and brings it to a persistent, open-world, online multiplayer setting in the modern, crime-ridden fictional city of San Paro. Some players will achieve notoriety by feeding on the city, its people and its businesses - the Criminals. Some will live by a higher code and instead feed on the criminals and their organizations - the Enforcers. This dynamic where players become the core content for other players is one of the many unique features of APB. APB promises unrivalled customisation options and scope for creativity thanks to its innovative expression suite, gritty, urban conflict in a persistent online world and a leaderboard dynamic allowing players to become in-game celebrities. [Realtime Worlds] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 42
  2. Negative: 9 out of 42
  1. The game world offers both fun for wannabe cops as well as fun for the chaos-men. Good community support and many ways to express yourself in the social districts boost the game.
  2. APB has to learn how to play its obvious trump card, a brilliant customisation suite. With tools that give you power over every aspect of your persona – cars, clothes, tattoos, shape, logos, victory jingles and even the tunes pumped out of your stereo – the game really gets that people are the brands of the 21st century.
  3. APB had a simple concept, one that anybody who used to be young and a dead shot with a squirt gun could have gotten behind, and Realtime Worlds managed to screw it up completely.

See all 42 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 45
  2. Negative: 25 out of 45
  1. The fact that it's all free, APB is a fantastically fun game filled with endless customization, good PvP, great graphics, with lacking content. I have only played this game with friends, so a large part of my score is probably due to that, but the ability to form a group called "The A Team" and formed by characters that look perfectly like the real deal, in a black van with burnt orange trimming and a logo that is identical to the real thing is just priceless. Hours of fun with my friends, and since it's free you can't complain. Definitely worth checking out. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. The Customization in APB is some of the deepest I've seen rivaling games like Oblivion. The Driving with sirens and random mayhem also make for great fun. 2/3 of the game are spot on and keep me playing time and time again. The downside? Cheaters and more so the Combat system. The weapons in APB are horrible and make me believe that regardless of their hand in GTA, RTW had no business making anytype of shooter. The pistols function as .50 cal sniper rifles with awkward firing rates, the assault rifles are horribly inaccurate also with awkward rates of fire, and so on. Basically ranges, rates of fire, and accuracy degradation are all f*cked up. Also there is no system of FPSesque aiming that you would see in most 3rd person shooters. No sniper scopes, red dots, acogs etc, just the same crappy zoom for everything. The Game has great potential but the weapons mechanics need an overhaul and the hackers need to be dealt with. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. APB is one of those great examples of a good game gone horribly wrong by misguided developers. I've been waiting for this game for years, but I always seemed to miss out on the beta periods. I was hoping it'd be intense, exciting, balls-to-the-wall gameplay gold; needless to say, I was grossly disappointed. First of all, the initial character creation is daunting, and I had no clue what to make of it. It's seriously flawed, and I had no way of changing anything but my facial features, as I simply couldn't navigate the interface. Similarly, starting out seems rushed and uncontrolled. The training program includes solely a single mission (I wasn't matched to any opposition, so it seemed terribly easy, whether or not this is intended is questionable). Then, you choose which world you want to be in. I was thrown into the first one myself. I'm not sure why you can't switch worlds, as now I can't play with anyone who happens to be in the second world. In any case, then I was dropped into the gameplay area with my fancy recruit clothing. I quickly pledged my allegiance to some NPC (why this is important, I'll probably never discover) and bought some clothes so I didn't look fresh off the boat, but I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how to put them on! I checked the website's FAQ, which resulted in being cut off by some cryptic database error. I asked everyone I could, but nobody would tell me how. I eventually figured out that there were these weird terminals where you could BUY clothes, but considering I had so little money and everything was prohibitively overpriced, I was stuck with the clothes I got off the NPC. I then, after about half an hour of searching around, found a hidden store area with only 1 other person in it where you could change your clothes and character. If you don't want to waste over half an hour figuring out things that should come naturally to any experienced gamer, look elsewhere. The other big issue is the matchmaking. I haven't played APB for a few weeks, and just today they released a patch claiming to help fix it, but the general consensus remains to be "it sucks." You are RARELY matched with anyone remotely your skill. I'm not sure how they managed to screw this up. but you always end up being grossly overpowered by one person (or, worse, teamed up on by 5 or more). If you're not part of a clan, don't bet on scoring good group members with the in-game grouping system. Most of the time my group members were off driving into each other and stealing cars for no reason. Also, the tasking is not optimized at all. On many occasions you end up accepting a task where you're on the opposite edge of the city, and by the time you reach the objective, the opponent has already completed it and moved onto the next one, resulting in a never-ending goose chase that ultimately results in a failure. As for the shooting aspect, it's just a generally bad idea. It's difficult to aim and the starter gun is absolutely horrible. In the end, size really DOES matter when it comes to gunfights. If you use the basic gun, you are guaranteed to lose, no matter what. The driving, while I found it tolerable, is pretty quirky and difficult to learn. Don't expect Need-For-Speed-style driving physics. Just put it this way: it's like GTA, but worse. The graphics are nothing to write home about; I didn't see anything special myself. I've got a comparatively great computer, but the graphics seem simplistic. GTA4's graphics are definitely better and more refined. I was horrified to see the lightbar in action... come on RTW, that's kid stuff, just switching between red and blue. More effort is definitely required there. In any case, I'm generally disappointed with APB as a whole, and while I would still like to see some kind of clone based off of this general idea, I'm hoping I'd be impressed enough to actually pay for it instead of this underdone junk. I honestly think Second Life has more to offer than this, and it's much, much less expensive (read: free). Expand
    • 5 of 5 users said yes

See all 45 User Reviews

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