For the last few years, APB has been one of the most anticipated MMOs, and most anticipated PC games in general. Finally, we get a chance to play Realtime World’s “cops vs robbers” on a large scale in a huge city, and finally, we get to see what it’s all about. Sadly, it’s all about nothing. The game is a huge disappointment, and despite its level of polish, there’s simply not much to do in the city of San Paro.

In APB, there isn’t much of an MMO feel, besides the ability to create a character which can be customized to an insane degree — which might be considered the best aspect of the game. The basic structure involves you doing a lot of missions, collecting cash and guns, upgrading your gear, rinse and repeat. While this has worked for many other games, it doesn’t work for APB because of two reasons, 1) the missions are boring and repetitive, and 2) the combat is just as boring and repetitive, and worse of all, there is no learning curve, no way of getting familiar with the game first, you’re simply thrown right in with players who have far more powerful weapons. You’ll die so many times in the beginning that you’ll just wanna give up on the game. We almost did. On top of that, the controls are too complicated and there isn’t a cover system — something badly needed in gun fights in a game like this.

For an MMO, you’d expect lots of missions and quests and stuff to generally keep you busy. Yet in APB, there’s isn’t much of that, and what there is, is pretty basic and unrewarding on the most basic level. Visually, the game looks great and the city of San Paro is well structured and rendered. However, it’s empty. Which, for an MMO, is a big deal. Overall, APB is a massive disappointment, and the years the developer spent making the game don’t really show anywhere — it still feels like there’s two years left of development to make a decent MMO.

The Good:
Great customization
Great concept
Polished

The Bad:
Poor execution
Not much to do
Horrible learning curve
Not much of an MMO at all

Overall score: 3/10