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Make A Point!! A.P.B ( All Points Bulletin) Review

All Points Bulletin, or APB, is a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game from EA and Realtime Worlds. In it you must choose to be a criminal in the city of San Paro or one of it's legalised vigilantes, the Enforcers.

This game heavily reminds me of both Crackdown and Grand Theft Auto. The lead designer is the same that worked on both games though, so that is understandable. The setting is San Paro, a fictional city in the USA. 20 years ago the mayor of the city was assassinated and since then lawlessness has taken over, with crime gangs running the streets. 2 years before you set foot in the world a new mayor was elected. She has made it legal for civilians to go out and combat the criminals any way they see fit, in the City Security Act. This has created the two factions for the game, the Criminals and the Enforcers. On entering the game you must choose to be a part of one of these gangs. The Criminals, not surprisingly, get rewarded for law breaking whereas the Enforcers benefit from stopping them.

Upon entering the game, whichever side you choose, you'll be thrown into the Tutorial District. This is designed to give you a feel for the game where you can't be shot at by the enemy. In it you'll complete a few easy missions and learn how to interact with the world. Also, you'll meet your first contact. This is the guy that gives you your missions and sells you your weapons. You can pledge to him to receive greater rewards. Your prestige is your level and will increase as you complete missions and, after the tutorial, fill enemies with bullets.

Once you've completed your tutorial you'll be off to another district and the proper game. The Financial, Waterfront and Social districts are all possible destinations for your new law breaker/upholder. The Social district is where you can....socialize. There's no conflict in this district, whereas in the other two you can be attacked at any time by a member of the other faction. I just entered the game and “Number13” was on a kill streak and all Enforcers were ordered to intercept, which I think is a really good feature. It provides you with another level of gameplay, other than just doing missions. There is an emphasis on group play in these districts. As soon as you enter you are given the option of being placed in a group or finding one yourself so if you prefer to play solo, I don't know if this is the game for you. This group ethic is continued with the chance to create sub gangs inside your chosen faction, These are basically clans/guilds that allow more interaction with fellow members.

The graphics are good but not spectacular. MMOs do suffer from a graphical weakness because they have to load quickly. Long load times are the death of an MMO so you can't really blame Realtime for keeping them steady.

All Points Bulletin is a solid game. It didn't blow me away and want me to spend hours glued to the screen but it was enjoyable. It is basically GTA online so if you're a fan of the series, which I know many people are, I'd recommend this title to you. I just wonder if it can compete in a market that is flooded with MMOs. It does have one major advantage over the most of it's competitors, in that it doesn't revolve around swords, shields and magic. It takes place in a real world setting instead of a fantastical land from long ago so this could be enough to cement it's place in MMO history.

Gamersathome Score: 7/10

Review By: Richard Daniels