A wee while back, a relatively unknown developer released a new game on the Xbox 360. It came out in the dead time of Q1 and nobody expected just how good it would be. That game was Crackdown and the developer was Realtime Worlds. Crackdown rocked everyone’s world and showed a lot of gamers just how much fun you could have with superpowers in an open world environment.
What really surprised the boys at Realtime worlds was just how gamers found new uses for the sandbox in multiplayer mode. With players opting to make up their own ways to compete with each other in the game’s environment. This got them them thinking about multiplayer sandbox environments and from this All Points Bulletin was born.
APB is an MMO which takes the sandbox environment to the next level. With APB, Realtime Worlds have taken the cops ‘n’ robbers theme of Crackdown to a whole new level. Now you can pick a side as either an Enforcer and bust some heads or start your own gang and begin a life of crime all within a the living breathing virtual worth of San Paro.
Before I get down to the fun that you can have stealing, shooting and generally busting heads, APB really has something extra-special going for it with it’s character, logo and vehicle customisation tools. This is one area where no-one else can challenge APB.
To begin with you have the character creation tools. This is the most feature-filled character creation tools that I have ever seen. The bodies can be altered on a wide variety of different attributes including the usuals suchnas build, height, skin and hair colour and facial features. Where this differs from your bog standard games is that each modifyable area has a good range of sub-parameters that can be changed along an analog scale. Skin tone is exceptionally well catered for with a colour pallette that Photoshop would be jealous of.
This also carries over to the vehicle modding tools which allow you to customise you gang/enforcer transport to look mean and drive like bat out of hell. The art team have been to a slue of car modding shows and have really done their homework here as the range of mods that can be applied to your car is exceptionally impressive. each component can also be altered along a broad range pf parameters to fit in with the overall look you want.
Finally, the piece-de-resistance is the logo creation tool. You can use this to manipulate images to create gang and enforcer team logos, tattoos and vinyls for the cars. Again, the features that this toolset offers rivals Photoshop or Freehand for the sort of things you can do to your logos. But the best is yet to come…
Realtime Worlds have been working exceptionally hard on the way in which your logos are applied to flesh, fabric and car bodies. Usually, in games where logos can be applied to clothes and skin, they sit very flat and do not respond to the contours of the medium that they are applied to. Not any more. In APB, logos respond to the surface that they are applied to and will curve and morph around muscle contours, folds of cloth and aerodynamic curves. That’s not all though. The logos will also respond to the colour of the surface that they are applied to.
In order to test this properly they took the logo tools to a local tattooist in Dundee to see what they thought of the results. Needless to say they were blown away by just how well the new tools can apply logos to curved skin. They even expressed an interest in using the tools to help demonstrate to their customers what their new tattoos could look like.
But alas, APB is not just about the character creation tools andthere is absolutely no point in having an awesome-looking avatar if the game plays like an interactive version of classic Fist of the North Star cartoons.
Thankfully, there is as much work going into the gameplay as Realtime Worlds have put into the character creation tools.
San Paro is a thriving city. Without the players the city has a full population of NPCs who go about their daily lives with no thought of the violent gang warfare that is going on in their fair city. In fact the NPCs are one of the key elements in APB’s gameplay. Imagine you are a gang member and you decide to break into a shop and steal its contents. You have to be on the look out for the game’s NPCs as the city’s populace will not hesitate to call the police if they sense that there is something afoot.
Here lies the meat of what APB is all about. Gangs commit crimes and they get seen. The enforcers are called and next thing you know there’s a horde of heavily armed law enforcement officers closing in on the perpetrators with one task in mind. Shoot the criminals down. The real fun here is that only the enforcers have access to radar. They can see where the crime is being committed and what direction the gang decide to flee in. All the gang members have access to is a warning that they have been caught and the enforcers are on their way.
This is where some of the game’s really unique features have the most impact. The gangs can have their own modded cars for getaway purposes and their best driver sitting with the engine running. When the alarm is raised they can pile into the getaway vehicle and the passengers can hang out the windows shooting at the pursuing enforcers. Of course the enforcers have access to some pretty powerful cars as well. If they don’t get the chance to get to the car then the street battle ensues.
The combat is pretty impressive. Unlike many team deathmatch games out at the moment you hear everything that is said in earshot. No longer can teams direct strategy safe in the knowledge that your opponents cannot hear you. If an enemy team member is close enough to hear what you are planning then he or she wil l hear it.
Another feature that is interesting is the matchmaking system. You are matched with patners and opponents based on your fame or notoriety. This essentially encourages all players to go out and make names for themselves as a hard-ass enforcer or the baddest criminal in all of San Paro. This means that if you are relatively new to the scene you will not be left to face master-criminals or San Paro’s equivalent of Dirty Harry alone. On the other hand this also means that those that have attained notoriety to make them San Paro’s equivalent of Tony Montana or Axel Foley then it is likely that they will face multiple opponents on their own.
It’s hard to find a fault here with what Realtime Worlds are putting together here. All Points Bulletin has all the elements to make a really awesome game. No it takes a lot to impress me because I am not the world’s biggest fan of MMOs but APB looks like it might just change my mind.
In other good news, it looks like APB might just be a free-to-play MMO with additional content available through micro-transactions rather than following a traditional subscription-based model. This has not been fully confirmed as yet but if you want to try out APB hit up their website and sign up for the beta-trial which is going on as we speak.
Don’t want to test it up big-stylee? APB will be in stores in March of next year.
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