Few games get as many second chances as APB, but then again, even fewer games start off with a premise so promising that I actually want to give them a third or fourth chance. I probably just can’t get my head around how someone could start with “massive multiplayer cops & robbers graced with the most outrageously versatile character editor ever,” and somehow end up with a game that sucks. Now I know how a computer made of explodium feels after Captain Kirk hits it with a bulls***ty paradox. It’s just impossible to accept — no matter how many times I fire the game up just to make sure I didn’t somehow imagine the whole lousy reality of it.
So, if you’re just catching up with the game and somehow missed the backstory: Realtime Worlds and O.G. Grand Theft Auto guy David Jones had this idea for a GTA-ish MMO where progress is based on actual skill and reflexes rather than making your numbers bigger based on how much time you’d blown killing skeletons or whatever. The gaming world collectively flipped its s*** because this is nothing short of a truly excellent idea we’ve all been waiting for pretty much ever since God invented computers. Then development ran long; craptons of money were spent; the game finally made its debut; was received with a resounding “meh”; and Realtime Worlds went bankrupt.
