Review: All Points Bulletin - APB

What happens when you take a pretty game such as Grand Theft Auto IV and add some multi-player by developers new to the RPG scene? You end up with All Points Bulletin which is the latest over the shoulder shooter mashed up with an RPG element. This week we're going to find out if the big city, pretty lights, and fancy cars can make a great game. The developers who once brought us the sweetness of the original Grand Theft Auto and the award winning Crackdown have now brought us their first attempt at a city based MMORPG third person shooter. Hit the jump for backseat ride into the city of San Paro.

Realtime Worlds is hitting the streets with guns blazing. Whether or not they know how to use those guns, is still questionable. With All Points Bulletin, players will get a shot at either becoming a criminal or an enforcer to determine the outcome of the beautiful city of San Paro. Having MMORPG attached to the tag of the game, All Points Bulletin does have a subscription fee that some people may be afraid of. Realtime Worlds charges its players for game time, whether they choose to purchase hours or go for a full unlimited subscription for a monthly fee. This game has some great high points, but some extremely low points which will need to be addressed lest Realtime Worlds wants to hold the record for the shortest lived MMORPG ever. It's always best to hear the good news first, so let's get this show going.

This game is stunning. Perhaps it's just my cup of tea, but I've always enjoyed being in the city. Throw in some awesome cars and you've nearly got me. All Points Bulletin does a wonderful job of making a gorgeous city. The bad part is that they only give us two maps to play with. In RTW's favor, I'll say the maps are definitely big enough for lots of play. Players will find themselves quite busy as they must hop from contact to contact completing missions in order to raise their ranks and receive the bigger and better items. Missions may be repetitive, but it's not exactly the story your going after in these missions. Its to see if you can handle whatever random match up you get thrown against. This game does a great job at entertaining its players even though there is a lot of repetitiveness to be had. I'm sure that Realtime Worlds has plans for future maps, as well as new contacts, missions, and exciting objectives.

(Clothes clothes clothes! It's every girl's dream!)

All Points Bulletin also has one of the greatest customization features for any game that I've seen. Straight from the character creation, players will have hundreds of different options on how they want their character to look - not everyone who cruises the streets of San Paro is a beefy well chiseled heavyweight champion. Most MMO games use armor and weapons to separate the boys from the men. While there is no armor in All Points Bulletin, there are definitely tons of clothes to choose from. Hit the streets in a classy tux or break into banks looking like Jesse James. The choice is yours.

Not only will players find themselves customizing their characters, but what they drive as well. You weren't expecting to be walking the streets of San Paro were you? Players can jack cars from citizens, and they can also purchase cars through contact advancements. Once players have a sweet ride, they can deck it out with sweet decals, awesome logos and wicked cool paint jobs. You can't be driving around looking like a fool in some old hoopty. Customization has always been a really big thing with me and Realtime Worlds really hit the nail on the head with the decisions players can make in All Points Bulletin.

Do you know what else they hit? They hit every player's ball sack with a 2x4 when they introduced their below average type of game play. There are so many aspects of the game that are currently screwed up,  that my head spins when I try to figure out where to start. So, I'll be reaching into a hat for this one to see what goes first. Matchmaking is our lucky draw so lets begin with that.

(The names have been removed to protect the innocent! A massacre should never be broadcasted.)

Please note the screen shot above. Does anything seem off to you? Well for people who are new to All Points Bulletin, I'll give you the run down. One player out rates the other player by a score of 185. One player is also using a rocket launcher, which is a fairly decent end game pick vs a player with the starting weapon. For all you World of Warcraft fans out there, let's make this work in your terms. Take an end game player and throw them in an arena with a character who was made twenty minutes ago. Do you have an idea who you'll be placing your bet on?

(May be fun in a stand off, but not so much in an escape mission or two control point mission.)

It doesn't end there though. In our next screen shot, also shown above, you'll see that we're slightly out numbered. While players will almost always have the option to call for back up, it doesn't mean that other players will accept or the game will actually allow others to join your mission. This becomes insanely frustrating after it happens for the third or forth time. I believe what the developers had in mind was for players of higher ranks to go up against a lot of lower ranked players. This may have worked had the system been able to actually pit us against a lot of lower levels. What ended up happening was a a mixture of mild ranked players and a couple high and low end players. While we held our own for the most part, the mission boiled down to one huge zerg fest for the objective. It needs some tweaking because after spending a good five to ten minutes completing minor objectives, your dreams come crashing down as the final mission pits you with twice the amount of enemies. I'm pretty sure this happens quite often, for both sides. For most of the missions, being out numbered is quite a problem. Only a couple in which I have experienced were enjoyable, not because we won, but because it really felt as if we were trying to hold out. I still don't know why anyone thought this was a good idea with an unpolished matchmaking system though. Why would this make it into the final product and not a well placed matchmaking system? Take some time and sort things out. Being out numbered can be fun, but in certain objectives.

Brain; meet stupidity bomb because you're about to be blown away. This game is all about Enforcers vs Criminals. It's a duel to the death and somewhere along the line criminals got the short end of the stick. Now before people begin running their mouth in the defense of Enforcers, know this, I have played on the Enforcer side as well. With over 80 hours pumped into All Points Bulletin I can confidently say that Enforcer has it a bit easier seeing as they are given almost everything they need to squash criminal scum. You can ride your radar all day long, knowing exactly where your opponents are and where they are going. Did you manage to get to the objective area first? Good for you. You will NEVER be taken by surprise unless you're brain dead or have just recently graduated from Doom. But wait, there's more! Gunning down people just not your forte? Perhaps you're the type of person that couldn't hurt a fly. Grab a stun gun and crowd control everyone! This is no exaggeration folks, you can literally crowd control up to two criminals with some sort of stunning item, whether it be a stun gun, grenade, or bean-bag gun. Wheres the proof you ask? Just take a look below.

(Keyboard meet wall. Mouse meet floor. Monitor meet fist. Unleash the rage!)

There has currently been a war on the All Points Bulletin forums on whether or not stun items are currently overpowered. Sorry Enforcers, but I have to take the side of the Criminals on this one. You are currently easy-mode. There's just no other way to say it. Realtime Worlds has turned Enforcers into what Warlocks use to be in World of Warcraft. You can crowd control two people at a time, and if things get hectic, you just launch grenades at who ever you stun. This gives Enforcers more of an execution type ability. They can drop criminals to their knees and blow their heads off. “Doesn't the stun gun have some sort of range?” you might ask, in hopes to defend your stunning abilities. Some will say yes, but I again have a screen shot to back up my claims. What you will be seeing is an Enforcer atop of a parking garage snipe me. Now he certainly wasn't able to make it close enough to arrest me as he made a direct beeline, but he was well aware of this and just began unloading into me with grenades and secondary weapons. GG Realtime Worlds.

(My attacker dropped down from the upper level and began chucking grenades and firing at me. Fair fight.)

Aside from the matchmaking and balance issues that Realtime Worlds has failed to discover, weapons seem to have their own balance issues as well. Ask around and you'll find out that the bigger weapon usually always win. 90% of the wars that occur in All Points Bulletin seem to be mouse button 1 mashers. You race around the corner with your finger digging down into your mouse to see who wins. Rarely will a fight take place where opponents are more than 50 meters away. Wars will boil down to a grenade spam fest and when that is over with, you unload everything you've got within 10 meters away. Back to the bigger weapons though. Many keyboards, mice, and headsets will meet their untimely demise as one player will get the jump on another, only to be immediately smeared against the wall when their opponent does a 180 and waxes them.

As a gamer, I've played a lot of shooter games as well as RPGs. I may not be tournament approved material, but I can definitely hold my own in a shoot'em up game. All Points Bulletin has to be one of the most rage inducing games that I have ever had the opportunity to play. My first impressions have been erased only to be replaced with blood red visions as my eyes bleed from busted veins. With that, I still play. I still play because I'm hoping that things will get fixed. I would love to see this game succeed and become something great but it is just so hard to do so. The looks are definitely there, the customization is spot on, and the addiction is there. In the defense of Realtime Worlds, this game is still in its infancy. All games have their glitches, bugs, poorly designed systems and what not in the beginning. This is my plea to Realtime Worlds. Fix your shit. It's that simple. Listen to what players are saying and find a way to fix the bugs, glitches, and balancing issues with your game. You have the ability to host a great game, but without proper game play, no one is going to want to play.

MSRP - $49.99 Hour Subscription Plan

CASRP - $29.99 - No Subscription Plan

CouchAthletics.com doesn't rate games with stars or percentage, we tell you what the game is worth to us.  We paid for the game just like you will, or won't.  We're telling you what we paid, and how much we feel the game is worth.