In terms of weapons, I was only able to play around with the standard-issue assault rifles, handguns and grenades, but I'm told a whole range of weapons will be available to both sides from various reputable (and not so reputable) sources. Regardless, if there's one thing I noticed in my playtest, it's that you shouldn't expect firefights to be a simple case of run-and-gun – some key locations in the city are surrounded by twisting alleyways and some with huge open areas, so tactics are necessary to avoid coming a cropper.
After sitting down to play a few missions for a good hour or two, I came away feeling something that is rare for me when it comes to Massive Multiplayer Online games – a desire to carry on playing. The presentation and structure of play makes this a more casual (and in my case, fun) experience than hardcore grind-fests such as
World of Warcraft.
There's ample reward for getting hooked as well. The game comes with 50 hours of game time within the Action District, but you can top up your hours or purchase a monthly subscription for unlimited time in the main gameplay arena. But besides the chaos and destruction is a deep level of creation and customisation that makes
APB truly feel MMO-worthy.
As well as creating almost every aspect of your character, there's a vehicle studio to tune various acquired cars, and a music studio that allows you to play with a sequencer and make your own 'death jingles.' The next time you kill an enemy, that ditty will play on their screen, just to rub it in. Make it something annoying, like the McDonald's theme tune, for maximum impact.
RealTime Worlds' tagline for
APB is 'Creativity, Conflict and Celebrity.' Excelling at one of the first two elements and the 'celebrity' status becomes available to you in the form of social notoriety. If you're known for being a bit of a hotshot in combat, then your bounty from the opposing side ticks up. Whoever kills you wins the bounty – and a renewed price on their own head.
On the flip-side, you can get 'famous' by simply creating a lot of items and passing it on to other players. Apparently the editing modes are so intricate that one could create totally custom designs and sell them for RealTime World Points – the virtual currency that gives you game time in the
APB's Action District. The developer hopes that, despite being unproven, this online marketplace scheme will take off.
Throw in virtual rewards, leaderboards, social leagues, and even the ability to place statues of yourself in San Pero, and you have a game that has the potential to be the next evolution of open-world games. Of course, between now and then there remains a few questions unanswered – will exploring the Action District without engaging in missions every so often get tedious, for example – but it's something that the ongoing Beta will hope to address before launch.
APB will be hitting the PC in Summer 2010.
