According to the promises of developers, screenshots and even the first minutes of the game APB can be accepted for exclusively multiplayer and online version Grand Theft Auto 4. But, despite the rich genealogy ( Realtime Worlds Made the first Crackdown , And the lead developer Dave Jones stood at the origins of the series GTA ), APB is not related to modern criminal simulators.
Imagine GTA 4, in which all social aspects were brought to a separate safe area, and two other city cards were given to the endless game to the Cossacks-robbers. Or imagine Crackdown , Where skyscrapers hanging over the city perform a purely decorative function, and all the action takes place in narrow alleys, in warehouses and roofs of one -story houses.
Miracles in the sandbox
At first glance, the APB world is similar to a full -fledged virtual sandbox – a rather beautiful city landscape with neon, advertising posters, crazy pedestrians and leisurely traffic in their business. But this whole sleepy “matrix” is cut through the first lightning of online lawlessness: when trying to cross the street, a truck is knocked down, which is driven by a tattooed punk in dark Galaxy Spins Casino glasses and an acid T -shirt.
On the territory of each district there are about eighty armed players belonging to two warring fractions. By default, criminals and police cannot shoot each other – the hunting season will begin when you take your first mission, and before that you can not pay attention to the bullets whistling around the bullets. The exception is players who have reached the cherished fifth level of prestige (for policemen) or bad glory (for criminals), who are declared an open target for all players of the other warring party. In general, San Paro is a dysfunctional city, around so many freely flying grenades, exploding cars and careless drivers, which can be completely perished as a result of an absurd accident.
Car carpets fly past the motorcade, from the windows of which variegated well -dressed well done sticking out, watering the surroundings from Kalashnikov machine guns. No less wildly dressed personalities hunt each other in small groups, snipers occupy the roofs of the surrounding shops and cinemas, they are trying to smoke them with grenades ..
The fighting ceases as suddenly as they begin: the players who have just tried to kill each other calmly sits down the cars and move out about their business. To join the common fun, just swear allegiance to any of the NPCs on the map or join the group already performing any task.
City sharks
To date, two combat cards are available in the APB: Financial District and Waterfront Distribric. Theoretically, the first is imprisoned for foot missions and shootings in city labyrinths, and the second – for car chases for the auto largest and the insides of a huge ship. In fact, the game has only three types of missions that are not much different from each other in the implementation technique: no matter who you play, where everything is happening and what gaming heights you managed to achieve. You need to either hold the checkpoint, or deliver the object from point A to point B, or perform a purely formal action at the remote point of the card – you need to stand motionless and crush the Action key, and the game proudly calls it a fagger of the machine, collecting evidence, drawing graffiti or raid on drug shade.
The plot load and the variety of goals in the APB is not more than in Counter-STRIKE. All these tasks are nothing more than a reason to tackle one group of players to another in an arbitrarily taken section of the card. There are minor tactical subtleties – there are missions for a while and until a certain number of killed rivals, and camping at point B may be more effective than camping at point A. Much depends on the knowledge of the route, the ability to quickly climb onto the roof and reach from the point of repaan ..
But the structure of the action is always the same: they received the task, rushed to the assigned place, if we managed before the enemy – we take a favorable position and win, if we did not have time, then most likely we lose.
Street shootouts
All customization in the APB is put into a separate quiet area (see. our insert), where they do not shoot and do not use cars. In combat districts, you can either take plot tasks from the NPC, or look for adventures on their own: criminals can steal cars, hire shops and shake civilians for the purpose of robbery, and police officers can report on committing a crime, kill or arrest criminals and … steal vehicles.
Sooner or later about your activity will become aware of the enemy, and he will send a detachment for reprisal … This is all the lessons in the game. Even in Crackdown, one could explore the upper city levels, participate in races, collect orb. There is nothing to explore in the APB (although all sorts of towers and skyscrapers rush around, both combat areas are purely two -story), there is nothing to participate in (well, how much pedestrians can be robbed?!), any of your action ends with a local defmatcha – except for those cases when the game could not find the enemy and the mission ends in your favor without any resistance.
Go to the past
There is just a online shooter in front of us: let the shootings take place in city decorations, let the special forces and terrorists come to the place of the battle on decorated and modified cars, let all the participants are beautifully and diversely dressed, and after the victory, the enemy can play you a melody from the “Terminator” (not Fill out to customize your musical theme) ..
This is a online shooter in the latest technologies of 2001 – car physics in the game at the level GTA 3 (cars have two discrete states: a whole and exploding), there is no system of using shelters or dividing the fighters into classes, and the shot in the leg is equal to the shot in the head (which in our time you will not even see in free Korean FPS).
There is no development of the character in the game either, there is a system of issuing bonuses (like new dark glasses or rings in the nose), equipment and weapons modifications depending on the number of missions performed and earned money. When and for what you can get the next mod, the game is not indicated, the developers believe that the prospects of upgrades are enough for the players to fulfill wretched monotonous missions again and again.
If you are satisfied with the endless game on the same card in Counter-Strike or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, then you may well earn the long-awaited AK-47 in APB and not die from longing … but why do you need APB in this case APB when it is full of much more perfect online shooters?
Online anatomy
APB has only one interesting point: this is the mechanism of the organization of missions. There are no computer rivals here – only alive, and for each mission, the game should collect (if possible) the same number of criminals and police officers approximately equal abilities. This is the first online shooter in which the matchmaking match does not occur in the online lobby, but right in the game, on the go, from among ready-made teams and individual volunteer players.
Forces are not always equal – in the fifth minute of the game, four elite clanets with modified weapons can fall on you. But you can call the help, and then … the entire APB is on the escalation of the action. With a successful combination of circumstances, the game progresses from an individual duel to a team shootout, and from it – to a full -scale war with the participation of dozens of players and grandiose mass chases after half a city, which in dynamics and stress can manage with any police union.
* * *
Mass battles are extremely rare – but at such moments of the ideal action it becomes clear why this game was conceived and what potential in it is laid down. As in any online game, in APB you can change a lot. To come up with new, interesting types of missions and classes for players tired of a defmatcha, make changes to the engine, add fresh areas – and in a couple of years to get a decent multiplayer project, which will not be a pity to lay out $ 7 in 20 hours of gameplay (or $ 10 for Month of the game – you can pay a converted game currency earned by the theft of cars and the sale of T -shirts at the auction).
The only question is whether the servers will not be empty after a month or two: people can simply get away from monotony. 50 hours of game in combat areas are attached to the APB, but even with the most favorable matchmaking match in it it becomes absolutely nothing to do after 15-20 hours.
Reigracy – Yes
Cool plot – No
Originality – Yes
Easy to master – Yes
Evidence of expectations: 50%
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 7
Sound and music: 6
Interface and management: 7
Waited? A bold attempt to put the functions of policemen and criminals in the city simulator. But the city itself is still very unfinished.
Mania rating: 7.0
"Fine"
[[Break]] sleeping areaYou can spend weeks and months on the customization of the character and equipment in the APB – the benefit of the game in the social area is free. Around each terminal the suffering. Someone on the screw is sorting through the patrol car (then the matter will come to painting and artryur!), someone is busy with music (you can collect a simple melody that the opponent you killed by you will hear; elementary topics from iconic eight-bit games prevail), someone draws their own (or clan) logo, which can then be applied to clothes and on the car ..
There are also a lot of things with clothes – new equipment items should be opened and bought in stores, from the old ones you can repain and arrange everything for yourself, up to linen and shoes. If you need a certain talent and straight arms to work with emblems and music, then any player is capable of building a decent robe for the character: any character looks cool in a black suit, sneakers and a loose tie over a T -shirt … Even a woman!). Dailed jeans and other fruits of your work can be sold at auction, and pay for the game in combat areas.
With rare exceptions (customized weapons and cars), all this does not affect the gameplay – to shoot a person in a strict suit with a sherry star on the lapel is just as simple as a half -naked freak in shorts. But in the first case, click on the trigger with respect.
Battle freak
Strange and very strangely dressed personalities are walking along the streets of San Paro. Apparently, most players set themselves the task of stuning the opponent with their appearance – or at least a coloring ..
