APB is a GTA style MMO… it delivers exactly what it promises. However for some reason hordes of people don’t understand this.
I’ll admit this game has more then a few problems; however most of them are avoidable and being fixed.
Problems can be expected from a game that doesn’t follow the basic MMO structure that made WOW such a success… This game is trying something different. At first indeed I was skeptical but now know they definitely succeeded at making a great game. Bold words from a random nobody on the internet I know, but I intend to prove why I’m right.
Since I have so much to say, I’ll split the review into multiple parts, firstly the payment plan:
APB was original marketed as being free to play. When in fact what RTW (the developer of the game) said was that “the game wouldn’t follow the traditional method of payment for an MMO” which everyone translated to it being free once the initial purchase of the game was made. But of course, it was too good to be true and it would indeed not be free to play… This was made clear about a month before the game was released and a lot of people were disappointed. Especially me once I heard the official payment plan, which is a merge of a monthly subscription and cash shop. On paper this sounds terrible, but I was pleasantly surprised once I got used to it. Let me explain:
For the most part monthly subscription is a much more preferable method. It insures that the ENTIRE game is accessible to the people paying to play it and encourages (and provides money to) the developers to continue fixing bugs, making balances, and adding new content to keep the players interested and continuing to play, thus making more money.
Whereas a cash shop method I truly despise. All it does is cut out a LOT of content from the game so that the individual player has to pour money into the game to have access to features that are usually not even permanent. Of course you can play the game without using any money… However without doing so it really just feels like an empty husk of a game, especially if its PVP oriented in which case anyone who actually paid money has access to a far wider and stronger arsenal of weapons/armor/spells/etc. Making the experience rather lack luster… constantly being mowed down by kids with an unsupervised or infinite supply of their parent’s credit card number.
SO RTW COMBINED THE TWO METHODS OF PAYMENT TO MILK AS MUCH MONEY FROM THE CONSUMERS YOU SAY…!? COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE!
Nope, it’s not possible. Because this method of payment is truly the best there ever was for an MMO. Basically when you buy the game you get 50 hours of game play time (a jip I know, a month would have been a lot better but whatever). After you have used up this time you can no longer get into the “action district” but still log onto the “social district” whenever you want… which I will go into later. To get more action district time (which is really where the game is played) you have two real options: 1.) You spend $6 for an extra 20 hours that don’t expire. 2.) You decide to be a big spender and throw in another $4 for a grand total of $10 for about 720 hours, however they’re only good for a month, as in… explained much more clearly… you get a month of unlimited playtime.
What kind of idiot picks option number 1 am I right…? But in all honesty it kind of makes sense for the person who doesn’t really play that often, since the time never expires. But I DO play often so option number 2 is looking a lot better.
Of course like the rest of life it’s not that simple… this is the part where the “cash shop method” sinks its sharp talons into the raw flesh that is this game. But surprisingly the scars left don’t hurt… they feel good even… like you’re some kind of sick masochist. Basically $10 gets you 400 “RTW POINTS” which is the second currency of this game.
Then you use the 400 to buy unlimited time for a month or 200ish something for the 20 hours.
You’re now probably wondering why this system is so great… thinking it’s just another annoying step you have to take. Well let me explain Mr./Mrs. Impatient. Here’s the reason why I love it: NO CONTENT IS LOCKED FROM THE PLAYERS! Then what’s the point of the RTW points you say? Well… no it’s not used to buy a super awesome gun that will completely slaughter the players that don’t have it; you can’t even use it to buy regular equipment from NPCs. RTW points can only be used to pay for your subscription and buy things made or earned by other players on the marketplace (in place of basic “cash” the regular currency in game). For anyone who didn’t understand the last sentence… what it basically means is… YOU CAN PAY FOR YOUR OWN SUBSCRIBTION! In all honesty this game is free to play… but with no features taken away. That is simply amazing. It isn’t even hard to do… if I might recite a few examples.
After completing a long set of missions I was awarded a “Rocket Launcher”, not being interested in using said racket lawn chair as I like to call it… I put it on the marketplace and sold that single weapon for 800 RTW points/$20 of someone’s real hard earned money. This will pay for two more months of game time, in which I can get at least half a dozen more rocket launchers considering it only took me a week to get my first. But the success story doesn’t stop here. I then earned a “LEVEL 3 UPGRADE” which if you played the game you’d know they aren’t easy to get. Since I didn’t really need the 2% increase to my health I decided to see what it was worth on the marketplace. Someone bought it for 4000 RTW points… SOMEONE SPENT $100 ON IT! That’s 10 more months of game time. I’m already covered for a whole year because some R-Tard stole his mom’s credit card. The only thing that I’d want is to be able to buy more copies of the game with my RTW points… in which case I could buy it for my friends. I’m rather confident they’ll add this feature in the future. But at any rate I think I’ve proven why this system went from sounding like a sketchy plan to rob people blind to being the best payment plan ever used in an MMO.
TO RECAP:
The entire game and all its features are unlocked to the players. The players who play a lot can even sell the things they have for more RTW Points to continue to pay for the game, never having to put in money out of their own pocket. However the players who do have a blank check for their MMO needs can buy these RTW Points and then buy from THE PLAYERS THEMSELVES the things they want, however not being able to buy things that aren’t accessible to the regular players thus never having an unfair advantage. All the while RTW will get a reliable supply of money, thus still continuing to update the game.
Update 9/29/10 - Okay it's dead now, the servers are shut down and the company declared bankruptcy!
Update 4/1/10 - APB has been revived. It is in closed Beta currently with 5,000 plus players and being tuned up for re-release. Updates to follow.