Lost Potential and Turmoil: The Life of All Points Bulletin

We’re gathered here today to celebrate the short lived phenomenon that was All Points Bulletin and its developer Realtime Worlds. Attempting to make a successful MMO is no small undertaking and it was clear from early on that Realtime Worlds had their work cut out for them. Described by its father, David Jones, as a “the bastard child” of his company’s creative efforts, APB began life as an online police vs. criminals action game. David left DMA Designs (a company he co-founded in 1988) and founded Realtime Worlds in 2002 after being involved in the creation as such classics as Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto.

Crack down, leg up

Realtime Worlds’ first game was a controversial success. Many fans and critics grew to love Crackdown with its open world, addictive collectibles and co-op mayhem. Others admitted to purchasing the game solely to play the limited-time Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta which could be accessed only with a Crackdown game disc.

Regardless of gamers’ motivations, Crackdown was a modest success. When questioned by fans and journalists regarding their involvement with Crackdown 2, they publicly announced Microsoft had missed the boat and they had moved onto an ambitious crime themed MMO without them. During that same time, many prominent RTW designers and staff left to form Ruffian Games whose Crackdown sequel has met with equally mixed reviews and sluggish sales.

From the earliest demonstrations of the game, fans held out high hopes for an open world Grand Theft Auto Online-style game. The core concept had great promise. Players would chose their side and craft an astoundingly customizable character and vehicle. From there they would begin by playing short missions either solo or with a group. As the missions progressed, police aligned characters would be called to take out the crooks. Once the group met the requirements for player versus player gameplay the letters APB would display on players’ screens signaling the beginning of a small scale cops versus crooks battle scenario.

As the 2008 release slipped into 2009, RTW struggled to maintain control of the distribution rights to their fledgling MMO. They finally landed a deal with Electronic Arts as part of their EA Partners program. Console fans received disappointing news in July of 2009 when rumors of an Xbox 360 release were put to bed; APB would be PC only for its initial release.

Beta and omega

The game began closed beta testing during an extended period starting in October of ’09. The game’s beta was extended to the public via nearly unlimited beta key giveaways in mid-June of this year, weeks away from the release. A few Nukezilla staff, having many-enthusiastic members, attempted to see the game during a pre-booked PAX East hands-on, only to be pushed aside for bigger, more important sites.

Lucky for us, Chelsea got hands on time with the game and reported her thoughts. Our own Aaron Wheaton who participated in the closed beta back in March had these thoughts to share regarding the highly embargoed beta, “FUCK yeah APB” and “Man the PvP is really good”. Clearly these early impressions kept our overall excitement riding high.

However Aaron quickly cooled on the game, as did other staffers with closed beta access. Their overall impression was that the game was demanding on hardware and shallow on content past the repetitive “drive here and kill or be killed” motions. We received review access to the game with a very generous 100+ hours of game time, following the switch to a different PR group.

The review code was delivered with a strange embargo, a full ten days following the retail release of the game. The gaming press as a whole was offered access to the game, but asked to stay mum about the experience until the ten days were up. The request was delivered with the intention of forcing reviewers to experience the game with the public, similar to how Blizzard handled the launch of Starcraft II.

However, between public beta access and word of mouth, the game’s reputation appeared to be permanently stuck in the mud. By the time the game was released in late June, Nukezilla staff had lost interest in devoting hours to a collaborative review for the site. The game began receiving mediocre to low scores from nearly every outlet. Very soon the game will be laid to rest with a paltry 58 according to Metacritic.

Nacho father’s shoot’em up

As Nukezilla’s last remaining staffer with interest, I took several stabs at playing the game for our review. Between two separate downloads of the massive client, accidentally setting up a UK account and frequent patches, I only ended up logging three hours of in-game time. APB’s character creation tools and customization options were impressive and I created a tall, African-American police officer who had more in common with Japanese manga than gangsta (sic) style.

Despite the wild variety of player designed characters that can be encountered, shot or befriended, the core mechanics of the missions, gunplay and driving were all severely under-developed. Even on a high-spec PC connected via a solid broadband connection the input lag encountered while driving, walking and shooting made the game a nightmare to play.

There were only a handful of weapons to choose from, but as you went up against group after group of player-controlled enemies it’s hard to get a grip on your effectiveness as a combatant. I upgraded weapons, planned my attack and co-ordinated with my team, but each battle felt like rubber band battles from hell: *pew pew*, Oh I died this time, well time to jack another car to get back to the combat zone.

As for the “single player” missions, the creative geniuses at RTW only offered up a handful. The mission briefings were probably the meatiest part of the equation. Plant a bug, raid a safehouse, pickup a gang’s bomb; all of them played out in the same way. You received a waypoint, written instructions on your “target” and once there, press F to Raid/Capture/Plant Bug/Pickup Bomb. Sometimes there’d be an exciting timer element; others were just a toggled action. I can’t imagine where the millions of rumored development costs went into this game.

And then there was none

Realtime Worlds has entered administration with layoffs and now, the unceremonious announcement of the shutdown of APB servers. The game appeared to have great promise, given the company’s pedigree and ambition. I’m sure we’ll hear the full story of what happened with RTW and APB someday and in some cases, we already are. Realtime Worlds were working on another MMO title, Project MyWorld with Develop reporting that the game was purchased by an “anonymous American company”. From all accounts, the talent that resided in the Dundee studio was suffocated by poor management at all levels. If David Jones and co. are up for another go, here’s hoping they will see better returns on their labors.

APB had a short life: three lonely months. The subscriber count had been reported as high as 130,000, but for an MMO with a “progressive pay model”, atrocious sales and piss-poor critical reception, no one should be surprised to see this game get shut down so quickly. There’s rumours yet that APB might be saved from total damnation by Epic Games, but right now these are just dreams. Those committed few who shelled out $50 or more for APB at launch must feel pretty burned. As for the rest of us, there are greener pastures that need tending to and I’m off to dig into mine.

Final words from Realtime Worlds

The following is the message displayed via the North American APB launcher:

=== Farewells from the team ===
Here are some messages from the team:

APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone’s best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It’s been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome! From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support. The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye! – Ben ‘APBMonkey’ Bateman (Community Officer)

“I truly wish we had the chance to continue to craft APB into the vision we had for it. It has been a long & difficult journey but ultimately rewarding to have had the chance to try something bold and different. APB holds some great memories, from the last night of the beta, to the clans and individuals who amazed us with their creativity and sense of community. I am so sorry it had to end so quickly but hopefully the good memories will stay with us all for a long time. Thanks to all the team for the years of hard work, and to the players who contributed so much.” – Dave Jones

You can read more comments from the creators on the APB blog.