APB (All Points Bulletin) just might be the MMO for people who hate MMOs. Instead of going through the usual slog of level grinding and assigning experience points, players enter a persistent world full of mayhem. Here, you don't need to complete mundane tasks to acquire unique abilities. Instead, you choose a side and wage war against the opposing faction, gunning them down with a plethora of weapons and committing missions. Sounds good to us.
Designed by Realtime Worlds, the same talented developers behind Crackdown, APB is an action heavy MMO that pits two opposing factions against each other in a battle to not only control territories, but the entire city. The Criminals complete missions that live up to their name; robbing banks, convenience stores, stealing cars, spraying graffiti. Meanwhile, the Enforcers are out to stop them from running amok. When both sides clash, all hell breaks loose, as each side looks to wipe out the other. The Enforcers, however, can choose to kill or make arrests. Stunning criminals by non-lethal means allows them to safely walk up and cuff the offender, putting them out of the game for 30 seconds. That's a lot of time compared to merely killing them; they'll re-spawn in roughly five seconds.
Each district can hold up to 100 players at any given time, but there will be thousands of non-player characters walking about and possibly scrambling for their lives. To play, gamers will accept various missions and then team up to complete them. Let's say, for example, that a group of five criminals set out to rob a bank. If they do a good job and achieve a five-star rating (equate this to a wanted level), an all points bulletin will go out and a team of Enforcers will try and stop them. But for the most part, there will always be Criminals looking to do something unsavory and Enforcers attempting to prevent them from doing it, with both sides dying and then jumping back into the action.
Successfully completing missions allows players to gain notoriety and access cash, in-game items, weapons and clothes. Conversely, declining missions causes one's notoriety to drop, so it's in a player's best interest to take as many jobs as possible.
In addition to the mass killing (and remember, good guys' names appear in green, while bad guys' names appear in red), players can also specialize in different skills. If they want to be a wheelman, for instance, they should drive as much as possible.
That is, if they can take a break from customizing. APB features a full suite of tools for players to mess around with. There are 30 different car chassis to unlock, and they have the option to create their own artwork for these vehicles (customized vehicles cannot be stolen). On top of that, they can design their own tattoos and clothes, then sell everything at an auction house.
There's also a deep character creator that grants players the ability to sculpt just about everything. All they need to do is decide on a gender and let their imaginations do the rest.
Thus far, APB looks crazy, but also incredibly enjoyable. We don't always have a lot of time to invest in games like World of Warcraft or Aion, so having an action-based MMO sounds like a sweet deal. As for release date, Realtime Worlds plans to shove the PC version out the door sometime next year, with an Xbox 360 edition (we hope) to follow.
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