Being an MMO fan, and always having a strong interest in online games it was a nice gesture that I would get a chance to review Real Time Worlds' All Points Bulletin. APB is a unique game, since it attempts to stand out and make changes to an MMO formula by giving players a new design in the Action-MMO world. Sometimes change is not a good thing. So let's jump right into it.

APB starts off in the city of San Paro, and the current Mayor initiates the City Security Act (CSA) which gives all players the right to bear arms to the fullest extent of the law and then some. The short and dirty explanation is that anyone can become a legal vigilante and fight crime just like Batman, except with less cape and cowl. The criminal that murdered the Mayor's father prior to all of this is out of jail and you get to pick whose side you're going to be on, are you a criminal or an enforcer?

This is all the story you're going to get, sad to say. Normally in an MMO you go through numerous NPC's all explaining different levels of the story and back-story while drawing your character in this world, (apb gold)and then you quickly click finish because you don't really read all that text anyways. Well APB takes that in account and quests and NPC interaction are limited to quick bios for NPC's which are pretty useless and quest text that does nothing to progress the story, just a means to the end of the mission. If you didn't read a single thing in this game, it wouldn't even matter, you wouldn't miss a thing. This really is a shame because it disconnects players with the game, and you're just repeating missions, not for any specific goal, but just to unlock a new bandanna and make some quick cash to customize your character more.