This game is simply disappointing. It was a great idea and the first 50 hours were fun. But after that the game drys up.
The first thing I noticed was how much you could customize everything. It definitely gave players the choice to be unique in every way. You could heavily customize your car (best part) and player. The car customization was probably the best aspect of the game. It allowed players to really show off their unique, personal taste. I was actually amazed at not only the number of things that you could customize but also how much you could customize each thing. You can change individual components (such as the wheels or front & rear bumpers). And you can color each of these individually and add things such as symbols, lines, shapes, type, pictures, etc.
The player customization is pretty extensive too. You can choose from many different pieces of clothing, plus you can customize each piece quite a bit. The player can not only change the color, but also add symbols or custom created logos/images. The player can also custom create tattoos. This part is very in-depth and really allows the player to get creative.
Customization is definitely a key aspect of APB. Realtime Worlds did a great job of making the interfaces very user friendly, allowing anyone who has at least a spark of creativity to go wild. This was one of my favorite parts of the game and sadly the only aspect that did not disappoint.
The game play is not nearly as good. In fact, the game play is extremely flawed. I will admit that at first it was pretty damn fun. I would go so far as to say that it really got me hooked. But no game, book, song, or movie is going to get very far with just an awesome beginning.
Not only was the game was riddled with bugs and glitches (expectable for a new MMO), the balance was horrible. New players would be pitted against veterans who had been playing over 100 hours. And the only good gun was the ak-47. Plus the bad balance made getting a good gun even harder unless you were willing to spend real money on it. The buildings were also quite flawed. I remember how criminals would just camp the roof of one building and be unstoppable. It was a serious flaw.
Not to mention the zoom system. The zoom was terrible. Many guns had extremely limited range and low accuracy. I think a scope-type zoom would've greatly improved the game.
The worst part of the game was how repetitive it was. After a week of exploring all the new content it became very boring. It seemed that all you could do was drive and shoot. The raid mission was just one player banging a door until it dropped a suitcase or brown paper package.
The driving was good. The drive-by system was pretty good too. I can't say that I had any problems with the controls. Weapon customization was pretty good and went as in-depth as one could expect.
Realtime Worlds was great to think of this. In concept, this is a GOTY contender, or at least "most innovative of the year." Sadly, in practice it was not very impressive. The worst part is that most of the problems could've been solved with simple game updates. These basic flaws can be somewhat expected of any new MMORPG. Especially one as radically new as this one. But Realtime Worlds went out of business about 2 months into the release. The servers went down, and now everyone who bought is pissed. Luckily, the rights have been bought and it will launch its new free-to-play servers in a few months. Hopefully the new owners will make some improvements.