APB IS BACK & BETTER THEN EVER
But how good was APB originally? Many people would argue not very, considering it was shut down within two months and completely bankrupt it's developer Realtime Worlds. I am not one of these people, sure it is true those things did happen. But only because off a few fundamental problems with the game, problems that have been fixed by Gamersfirst. Who have bought APB and re-released it as a free-to-play game entitled APB:RELOADED that is now in open beta. Get it here: http://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/
But why should you get it? If you want the full details, read on... But I do advise you to start downloading the game before reading this review... considering it's going to be one long download.
APB offered the most expansive customization options of any online game to date. When you bought the original game, you'd have to pay a monthly fee to play the shooter portion of the game. But you'd have unlimited access to all the customization options (character, vehicle, and music editor) no matter what. This wasn't the best of ideas. Considering your average gamer could care less about arts and crafts and just wants to kill people. Again I am not one of these people but I understand their reasoning.
Now, the shooter portion of the game is completely free, but all the customization has become severally limited for the free-to-play gamer. For example, before you could have a maximum of 50 tattoos on your character... now you can only have 3. Not to worry the people who actually ARE into the creative side of the game, because now instead of paying for the action you have the option of paying a monthly fee that will restore all your customization limits. A fair trade off if you ask me... considering the free-to-play gamers can still buy all the cool stuff made by the artists without using any real money. While the artists make a profit for doing what they love.
APB was extremely unbalanced for new players. Since I got the game when it first came out I was on even grounds with everyone, considering we were all new players. But as the weeks went by and all the original players got access to game breaking upgrades along with the broken matchmaking system, there was never really any chance for a veteran to be beaten by a newbie. Thus anyone who got the game later on, would start it, get extremely frustrated with it, and leave never to come back. Not exactly the best idea for a long term business model.
Now, to talk about upgrades. Firstly they aren't even called upgrades anymore, they are called modifications. Why? Because they no longer make you better... they make you more specialized. For example, before there were... Weapon upgrades that would make your gun shot 10% faster, do 10% more damage, and so on. Character upgrades that would make you have 25% more health, take 25% less damage, and so on. These upgrades had NO downsides and could be used simultaneously with one another giving such ridiculous bonus to the players that were already good at the game (considering you'd have to be good to get said upgrades), new players didn't have a chance in hell. Now however modifications behave very differently. Firstly they're all color coded and those of the same color can't be used with each other. The idea of which is to not allow players to make game breaking combos while encouraging players to try new and creative combinations instead. Secondly they all have downsides that outweigh their benefits. For example the modification that makes your gun shot 10% faster now makes it 30% less accurate as well, or the one that makes you 30% resistant to damage also makes you run much slower. So basically a new player with no upgrades is the most balanced all round character and anyone who uses modifications should only do so if it benefits their play style, but the downsides will never make them overpowered.
Now, to move onto the matchmaking. To sum up the old system... it was terrible. New system? Much better. Before there was no real rating of skill and players could just lose a bunch of games on purpose and be pitted against new players that they would demolish. Now it takes into account true player skill not just wins and losses and puts you against opposition accordingly. While even more ways to balance the system are in the works, such as servers that only new players can join off limits to the veterans.
APB had a sever hacker problem. Any online game is going to have hackers, but the problem with APB was that the developer Realtime Worlds never banned ANY HACKERS! and everyone knew this so there was no real deterrent from hacking yourself. By the end of the games existence there were so many hackers that the only way to compete was hacking yourself. Which many people did. By then the developers couldn't ban hackers because they would be banning the remainder of their player base.
Now? Hackers are actually banned. Simple.
Lastly I will talk about the new cash shop implemented. I'm perfectly fine with it. Considering the game is FREE now the new developer has to make money somehow. So besides the monthly fee you can pay for more customization options you can also buy unique guns, vehicles, and so forth. Which at first seems unbalanced... making it seem like only people with money have access to the best stuff. But this isn't true at all... Everything in the cash shop while unique isn't better then anything you can unlock while playing the game yourself. It's just a shortcut for the people flush with cash who are to lazy to do it themselves.