I have been following this game on/off for the last few months now and I must say that it should be something that will be of great success in the near future.

Here is a YouTube snipped of the official APB trailer:

Essentially, the game is an open world massive multiplayer online ‘rpg’ (?) without any linear structure to it, you just go out and pick up various missions throughout the world. In APB, you can choose whether you would like to be a ‘Career’ Criminal or an Law upholding Enforcer in which depending on your choice gives you a plethora of missions/assignments and ideals of how you are to progress in the game. The customization options throughout the game go from character customization to vehicle customization, with every aspect of creation being taken into great detail.

APB reminds me of GTA IV and City of Heroes/City of Villains in the sense of when playing GTA IV you can steal a car, purchase a weapon, and go on a rampage generating as much chaos in the city to the dismay of the local law enforcement, whom attempt to end your spree of violence with as much counter-terrorism that they can muster, at the end of it all you have an entire city police force (and If I Recall Correctly (IIRC) the Military) which is tasked with an all points bulletin (APB) to capture you using any means necessary (hence the Tanks, SWAT, Choppers, etc.) This aspect of GTA IV can be seen transpired throughout APB as players (not NPC’s) are given this message to capture you if you have been acting ‘naughty’ in the city breaking too many laws, this is not the sort of easy get away as it is in GTA as you are actually being tracked by human players which aren’t so easy to trick by hiding behind a desk or going into a home to duck out of the action to catch your breath. No, my friend, you will be hunted down like a rabid dog living in suburbs with John Travolta (I have no clue about this aforementioned reference but it seems cool in my head right now). APB reminds me of City of Heroes/City of Villains (a game in which I bought but never played, sadly) in the fact that you are able to FULLY customize your character from their clothes down to their tattoos, the tattoo theme seems to move across by the way of you can actually create a tattoo/save it and paste that image onto your customized vehicle, what better way to show the world how much you love your body art 😉 Though I’m not sure about attributes of skills (weapons a character can carry, cars a character can drive, aim, stamina, blocking, etc.) I believe you will need to increase your skill level to obtain certain items throughout the game.

My main thing about this game is that you are able to customize your vehicle and as well, you can trade it in the city for another item or in-game cash. Speaking of in-game cash, this game will cost some monthly payment as stated on the website of Realtime Worlds here. The pricing doesn’t seem bad, if it is anything like I have read online, then if you are a good merchant you can probably play for free by just creating items and selling them in the game market for further playtime.

This game has me very excited about the future of online gaming, as it has evolved so much from the early days of a modem connection to my friends house to play Command & Conquer to full-fledged dedicated systems by the likes of World of Warcraft.

Please, let me know what you think about APB, its pricing scheme, cost, features, and just anything else you might know that you would like to share.

If you are on the Beta for APB, I know there is a very strict NDA in place so have fun and let us know anything you are able to divulge to the world 😉