My Review of APB
Posted 07-07-2010 at 12:47 AM by Silverspar
(This is a repost from my Raptr blog with maybe some small additions)
Alright, I got some mixed feelings about the game so it's kind of hard for me to say I love it, but at the same time it's hard to say I hate it. So let me try to explain my feelings as best I can for the game.
First off, it's a carebear style PvP game. And how I mean that is you are given PvP missions that only flag you for specific people, unless special conditions happen. Those looking for total war PvP type scenario, well, they have instances for that but it's not as likely to happen. There is a method that let's you go on a killing spree, but of course, the likelihood of you keeping it long at all is low. Basically if you reach Prestige/Notoriety 5 you can pretty much start killing anyone you want. That being said, let me cover the basics of this.
It's obvious that games like Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto inspired this game. The vehicle driving, gun battles, you name it. The character creation is top notch, rivaling that of Cryptic and their character creation system, and the added ability to stylize your vehicles and create your own music is pretty innovative. However, that innovation comes at a price, even on a powerful computer, as many things end up constantly being placeholder until the character art actually loads. This is pretty crappy, honestly, as you could be in a gun battle with a full team of other people and they are in the default baggy pants, shirt and beanie cap dude look, even if they are a chick, of the better part of a fight while your comp does a search for their character info. This tends to make some battles look bland, and for many people will be exceptionally confusing on it's first go round when everyone looks the same and your only identifying marker is the color of the name of their head, which, quite frankly, can be easy to miss in fast paced and frantic fighting.
Another thing is the city, while detailed, takes a painfully long time to load in for this game. And I don't mean 10 seconds type painful. I mean 30 seconds or more type painful. If your rig is lacking RAM, you will probably stare at a load screen for a long time. Even on my computer with 8 gigs of RAM and nearly 4 gigs of VRAM load times for districts can take anywhere up to 30 seconds, sometimes longer, to load and unload (yea the game actually unloads other zones you've been to as well).
The combat is fast paced, some may even think too fast. Many claim the game is heavily skill based, but, this is where I will disagree. Even though there isn't a traditional leveling mechanic, in the same sense you get stats and hit points, skill still has a low bearing in this game, and specific load outs and set ups will automatically ruin your experience if you get paired up against people like this. There are specific gun load outs that are just maddeningly frustrating to fight against, and they are rampant which can instantly drive any curious newbie player away, forcing this game into an extreme niche market. The biggest complained about gun is a fully decked up N-TEC (typically bigger clip, spray and pray and aiming mods) rifle which has practically no drawbacks and is good at long range and really good at medium and short range. This can make for some exceptionally frustrating gun fights when you can't even get close to a building because you get mowed down from very far away without a chance of getting close since all cover area is a sprint across an open area. It's because of this one gun alone that seeing the Enforcers making actual arrests will be an exceptionally rare thing in this game.
Driving is fun, but it will be a turn off to anyone who hasn't a clue how to drive in any game with a driving section. If you know how to drift, turn on a dime, and such, you can make some exceptional use out of many vehicles. In fact, finding a good driver for chases is almost mandatory. Of course, 90% of the problem in chases is everyone tries to go for their own car instead of hopping in one to gun it down.
Another thing is the chat system is complete crap. They are trying to force VOIP and though VOIP is a big thing for people, others who are absolutely turned off by VOIP will probably be annoyed with the crappy chat interface for the game. As far as language, they don't seem to have rules against it, but if you get easily offended, you may just want to find another game. They don't seem to have any policies against racial slurs or anything going for the real world derogatory stuff.
Griefing can be mildly annoying, when a clan of Enforcer griefers start purposely ramming everyone on the street. This can be exceptionally frustrating when trying to stop a Crim that's getting away.
Now, the last negative, which is prevalent in any on-line game experience, but seems to be at it's worst here is both cheating (hacking) and major imbalance. Cheats out there include speed hacking (I've seen several being able to fire their guns while moving at faster than sprint speeds) or a program that auto aims making it damn near impossible for them to miss (I've seen several using this, and you can tell, they usually face a wall oblivious to the surrounds but instantly whip around 180 degrees and able toes tart firing without missing a beat). There are other types of cheats out there but those are the two worst offenders. On top of that the balance is extremely skewed. Of course Crims will say it favors enforcers, but this simply isn't true considering the N-TEC rifle is low level item, and any nub worth his salt spends time getting it upgraded with the above mentioned mods. This rifle has pretty much no drawbacks and for new people to APB, it will be the most common rifle you fight against if you ever end up in a fire fight against Criminals, and it will make you cry with how easy it is to utilize. Throw in hackers using aim bot and such and there is practically no way to stop a NTEC user unless you catch em by surprise (which aim bot hacks make nearly impossible since they will auto aim at any hostile near em even whipping them around).
Over all the game is fun, but there are so many prevalent problems at launch, balance and hacking, that the company itself will have to scramble and get fixed fast. The game is suppose to be using Punk Buster but that's obviously not working. When you actually get into gunfights with people who aren't decked and aren't cheating, it's pretty fun, and can be an enjoyable experience, but once you start getting rank and threat level, the gun battles start getting more depressing as you end up against gangs of people super decked out and you still have your starter gear. Finding friends is an absolute must, and sadly, Real Worlds made a mistake by making specific guns rewards for following specific contact tracks out of some malevolent ideas.
In the end, it will be a game you either love or hate, but it's obviously extremely niche.
Alright, I got some mixed feelings about the game so it's kind of hard for me to say I love it, but at the same time it's hard to say I hate it. So let me try to explain my feelings as best I can for the game.
First off, it's a carebear style PvP game. And how I mean that is you are given PvP missions that only flag you for specific people, unless special conditions happen. Those looking for total war PvP type scenario, well, they have instances for that but it's not as likely to happen. There is a method that let's you go on a killing spree, but of course, the likelihood of you keeping it long at all is low. Basically if you reach Prestige/Notoriety 5 you can pretty much start killing anyone you want. That being said, let me cover the basics of this.
It's obvious that games like Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto inspired this game. The vehicle driving, gun battles, you name it. The character creation is top notch, rivaling that of Cryptic and their character creation system, and the added ability to stylize your vehicles and create your own music is pretty innovative. However, that innovation comes at a price, even on a powerful computer, as many things end up constantly being placeholder until the character art actually loads. This is pretty crappy, honestly, as you could be in a gun battle with a full team of other people and they are in the default baggy pants, shirt and beanie cap dude look, even if they are a chick, of the better part of a fight while your comp does a search for their character info. This tends to make some battles look bland, and for many people will be exceptionally confusing on it's first go round when everyone looks the same and your only identifying marker is the color of the name of their head, which, quite frankly, can be easy to miss in fast paced and frantic fighting.
Another thing is the city, while detailed, takes a painfully long time to load in for this game. And I don't mean 10 seconds type painful. I mean 30 seconds or more type painful. If your rig is lacking RAM, you will probably stare at a load screen for a long time. Even on my computer with 8 gigs of RAM and nearly 4 gigs of VRAM load times for districts can take anywhere up to 30 seconds, sometimes longer, to load and unload (yea the game actually unloads other zones you've been to as well).
The combat is fast paced, some may even think too fast. Many claim the game is heavily skill based, but, this is where I will disagree. Even though there isn't a traditional leveling mechanic, in the same sense you get stats and hit points, skill still has a low bearing in this game, and specific load outs and set ups will automatically ruin your experience if you get paired up against people like this. There are specific gun load outs that are just maddeningly frustrating to fight against, and they are rampant which can instantly drive any curious newbie player away, forcing this game into an extreme niche market. The biggest complained about gun is a fully decked up N-TEC (typically bigger clip, spray and pray and aiming mods) rifle which has practically no drawbacks and is good at long range and really good at medium and short range. This can make for some exceptionally frustrating gun fights when you can't even get close to a building because you get mowed down from very far away without a chance of getting close since all cover area is a sprint across an open area. It's because of this one gun alone that seeing the Enforcers making actual arrests will be an exceptionally rare thing in this game.
Driving is fun, but it will be a turn off to anyone who hasn't a clue how to drive in any game with a driving section. If you know how to drift, turn on a dime, and such, you can make some exceptional use out of many vehicles. In fact, finding a good driver for chases is almost mandatory. Of course, 90% of the problem in chases is everyone tries to go for their own car instead of hopping in one to gun it down.
Another thing is the chat system is complete crap. They are trying to force VOIP and though VOIP is a big thing for people, others who are absolutely turned off by VOIP will probably be annoyed with the crappy chat interface for the game. As far as language, they don't seem to have rules against it, but if you get easily offended, you may just want to find another game. They don't seem to have any policies against racial slurs or anything going for the real world derogatory stuff.
Griefing can be mildly annoying, when a clan of Enforcer griefers start purposely ramming everyone on the street. This can be exceptionally frustrating when trying to stop a Crim that's getting away.
Now, the last negative, which is prevalent in any on-line game experience, but seems to be at it's worst here is both cheating (hacking) and major imbalance. Cheats out there include speed hacking (I've seen several being able to fire their guns while moving at faster than sprint speeds) or a program that auto aims making it damn near impossible for them to miss (I've seen several using this, and you can tell, they usually face a wall oblivious to the surrounds but instantly whip around 180 degrees and able toes tart firing without missing a beat). There are other types of cheats out there but those are the two worst offenders. On top of that the balance is extremely skewed. Of course Crims will say it favors enforcers, but this simply isn't true considering the N-TEC rifle is low level item, and any nub worth his salt spends time getting it upgraded with the above mentioned mods. This rifle has pretty much no drawbacks and for new people to APB, it will be the most common rifle you fight against if you ever end up in a fire fight against Criminals, and it will make you cry with how easy it is to utilize. Throw in hackers using aim bot and such and there is practically no way to stop a NTEC user unless you catch em by surprise (which aim bot hacks make nearly impossible since they will auto aim at any hostile near em even whipping them around).
Over all the game is fun, but there are so many prevalent problems at launch, balance and hacking, that the company itself will have to scramble and get fixed fast. The game is suppose to be using Punk Buster but that's obviously not working. When you actually get into gunfights with people who aren't decked and aren't cheating, it's pretty fun, and can be an enjoyable experience, but once you start getting rank and threat level, the gun battles start getting more depressing as you end up against gangs of people super decked out and you still have your starter gear. Finding friends is an absolute must, and sadly, Real Worlds made a mistake by making specific guns rewards for following specific contact tracks out of some malevolent ideas.
In the end, it will be a game you either love or hate, but it's obviously extremely niche.
Total Comments 0
