APB: Reloaded aspires to bring GTA into an MMO format, and doesn't quite succeed.
APB: Reloaded is a pseudo-MMO that was originally developed by Realtime Worlds as a Pay-2-Play game. Unfortunately, the game had a lot of financial issues immediately upon release and was given mixed reviews. Since then, Gamers' First has bought rights to the game and has revived it into a Free-2-Play format.
Pros:
+Absolutely incredible visuals for a F2P game that you might even find in some AAA titles.
+Highly in-depth customization for just about everything including vehicles and music themes.
+The game's city, San Paro, features several separate districts. This is to help ease the population of an area at any one time. Each of these districts feature a fully persistent portion of the city and, with one exception, are fully decked out with pedestrian AI, a dynamic day/night cycle, and detail you would usually only find in a game such as GTA or Saint's Row. It truly feels like a living, breathing environment.
+The game features two factions: the Criminals, and the Enforcers. As you may guess, this is basically a cops n' robbers format, and it helps to make it much more fun. While players may not harm each other when they're neutral, they can do missions and go bounty hunting, and during these activities you may engage in battles with your enemies. There are also open-world activities that criminals can do at any time, e.g. mugging civilians and doing "ram & raids," which are basically ways of quick cash through stealing loot from a store display. If members from the enforcer faction witness criminals doing these things, they can engage in a quick game where you have to try to keep your loot from the enemy while you drive to a near by fence to sell the stolen items. It's a cool way of keeping you occupied when you're bored, and can be a lot of fun.
Cons:
-Horrendously bad match-making system will pair a couple of new players with a large amount of highly experienced ones, which, as you can imagine, does not really make the game too fun. And the worst part is that this will happen the vast majority of times; if you're lucky, you'll get a fair match. Technically, you can call in for back-up, but this option is very erratic and sometimes doesn't even work.
-The game is very unbalanced, as high-level gear is very over-powered, making my previous point even worse.
-Very, very long loading times.
-It contains a plethora of bugs and glitches and also has consistent lag and sometimes even crashes, which can ruin the experience during a heated battle.
-Vehicle controls are kind of sketchy and slow to react, especially with larger vehicles.
-After a while a slight lack of content becomes apparent. While the game's story seems to progress through the presence of e-mails, the missions just seem to be repetitive objectives that don't have any connection with the things that are apparently going on.
Summary:
While I hate to admit it, I have to say I am addicted to APB. Yes, there's a ton of technical issues. Yes, the match-making is terrible and balance is non-existent. Yes, it is slightly lacking in content. But the AAA visuals, incredibly detailed environments, and massive amounts of customization (especially with vehicles) just entrance me so much that I still play and fall in love with it every time. Maybe it's because I'm a big fan of these kinds of games. Maybe I like the feeling of a living, breathing virtual city. But whatever the reason, I have no choice but to urge you to try it, as this is one of those things where you either love it or you hate it. See you in the game!