It was discontinued later that year, only to be revived in December 6, 2011 (developed by Reloaded Productions and published by GamersFirst) as a free-to-play re-brand known as APB: Reloaded.Created by the developers of Crackdown, APB pits players in two factions (the vigilante Enforcers and the anarchistic Criminals) against each-other in the fictional modern-day urban city of San Paro. It focuses on PVP team-based action in an open-world environment, as players from one faction are dispatched to stop the other faction from completing their objectives.Rather than a traditional persistent experience point system of most MMO games (alongside standard "fetch quests", Skill Points, and Classes), players instead earn money for participating in each mission and purchase upgrades for their weapons and vehicles. Players are also ranked based on their Prestige level (for the Enforcer players) or their Notoriety level (for the Criminal players), which can rise and fall based on the actions those players take.Along with standard customizable characters, the game is known for its robust creation tools for character outfit designs, vehicle paint jobs, and musical player-specific themes. Players can also sell these custom items via an auction house for in-game currency. Prior to the game's free-to-play re-brand, players could also sell the items to earn special "RTW" points that were used for extending game time in the Action Districts.The re-branded version was later ported by The Workshop (and published digitally by Ravenscourt) to the Xbox One on June 3, 2016 and the PlayStation 4 on March 31, 2017.Factions Designed around the common 'cops vs. robbers' theme, APB features only 2 factions - Enforcers and Criminals. Each faction have multiple organizations that players may choose to align themselves with.Enforcers Not your typical policeman, Enforcers are deputized mercenaries tasked with cleaning up the city of San-Paro. Given a gun and a badge, they have the freedom to enforce the law however they see fit, but reckless use of lethal force carries consequences.Fresh-faced recruits have the option of aligning themselves with one of two enforcer organizations, the Praetorians or the Prentiss Tigers. Each featuring their own unique chain of command, players are able to work their way up the ranks of their chosen organization by accepting missions from NPC contacts. As the player progresses, the will receive missions from increasingly higher ranking contactsEnforcers are incentivised to adhere to a code of conduct that prohibits such things as harming innocent NPC bystanders or dangerous driving and rewards using non-lethal force whenever possible. That however is not to say Enforcers must be squeaky clean, with infractions often able to be overlooked by bribing a contact within your organization.Criminals Thug, gang-banger or just an all round bad guy. Whatever you call them, Criminals are motivated by two things - money and power. Not unlike their badged counterparts, wannabe bad dudes are able to join one of the two major criminal organizations (aka gangs) in San-Paro, the Blood Roses or the G-Kings.Once under the wing of their chosen gang, budding criminals are able to bring death and destruction to San-Paro by picking up missions and bounties from gang leaders or simply by causing indiscriminate chaos on the streets. This type of activity doesn't stay unopposed for long however, as patrolling enforcers are able to report any witnessed criminal activity resulting in the immediate dispatch of other rank-matched enforcers. LocationSet in the fictional west-coast metropolis of San Paro, APB divides the city into three distinct districts. Two of which, the Financial District and the Waterfront District serve as the main staging areas for APB’s combat heavy gameplay, while the Social District focuses on friends, clans and customization as well as having an increased population cap.Financial District With its numerous skyscrapers and narrow alleyways, the Financial District encourages players to leave their vehicles behind and take to the streets to engage in intense fire fights. The types of missions players can expect to experience include bomb planting/defusing, graffiti tagging/clean-up and evidence gathering/destroying. Financial District instances currently have a population cap of 100 and occupy the space of roughly 40 city blocks. Waterfront District While similar in size and scope to the Financial district (roughly 40 city blocks and a population cap of 100), the Waterfront Distinct carries its own unique look and feel. With wide roads and a coastline that stretches the entire length of the map, car chases and massive shootouts become a much more common sight. Missions available in this district include vehicle escort/ambush, property raiding/defending and time limited deliveries. Social District Removing itself of all combat, instead the Social District focuses on player interaction, clan organization/recruiting and APB’s extensive customization features, including character and vehicle design as well as music creation. All Social District instances have an increased population cap of 250 however the map size is significantly smaller due to the absence of vehicles. The district also acts as a way to reward the best players by displaying posters and billboards featuring their character. Other mechanics unique to the Social District include jukeboxes that play custom music to all players in its immediate vicinity and cinemas screening mission replays. Customization As one of the most heavily promoted aspects of the game, APB features an array of utilities that allow for the in-game customization of your character, vehicles and even music.Character Similar to most other MMO's, APB allows the player to choose their initial physical appearance such as gender, race and hair style. While many of these things can be changed at a later date, the prohibitively high cost of doing so suggests that care should be taken during initial creation. All newly created characters spawn with default clothing which can then be highly customized using various pre-made items or create your own using the in-game design tools. Vehicle Similar to the character creator, players are able to customize virtually every aspect of their vehicle. Beginning with paint jobs and liveries, you are able to recreate any artwork on your car such as gang tags, enforcer badges or even a personalized license plate. Further on, players may choose to upgrade various other parts of the car such as spoilers, steering wheels and car seats.As players progress through the game, rewards such as new artwork and customization categories will be made available via their chosen organization. Music While it may not rival some professional solutions, APB contains a feature packed music studio that allows players to create, mix and edit their own signature themes to accompany them in-game. Once created, players are able to deploy themes so they can be heard during various parts of the PvP based mission structure (such as arresting other players, winning a mission, etc...). In addition to this, you can create songs, which are longer variants of themes that can be played from a players vehicle, or from the social district music performance points. VoIPAPB uses Vivox voice technology for voice chat. In addition to standard group voice chat functionality, Realtime Worlds also implemented 3D positional voice chat that accounts for position of the speaker and relative distance.ControversyRealtime Worlds implemented a controversial audio advertising system in APB for VoIP users. Under the default VoIP plan, players will hear a five to fifteen second audio advertisement while switching between districts. According to Realtime Worlds, the ads will play no more than once every three hours.Users can also choose to completely disable audio advertisements by purchasing VoIP premium passes that remove all audio advertisements for 30, 60, 90, or 180 days in exchange for a fee.Payment Models Included with the game is unlimited access to the Social District and 50 hours of playtime in the action districts (Financial and Waterfront). Once the 50 hours is up, players can choose between three different payment methods.Unlimited AccessPay-As-You-GoRTW PointsUnlimited gameplay for 30 daysPay monthly (.99/£7.99/€8.99)20 Hours of game time (never expires) in the action districts.99/£5.59/€6.29Exchange in-game currency for gameplay timeEarn points only by selling your creations on the market place to other playersRegardless of payment method, players will always have access to the Social District (even when their game time expires).System RequirementsThese are based on requirements for beta testing, noted as of 24th February 2010.MinimumRecommendedOS: Windows XPProcessor: Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz or equivalentMemory: 2GM RAMVideo: NVidia GeForce 7800 256MBHard Drive: 15GBSound: DirectX 9Internet: Broadband connection required to install and play OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 (recommend a 64-bit operating system)Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad or equivalentMemory: 4GB RAMVideo: NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 512MB or equivalentHard Drive: 15GBSound: DirectX 9Internet: Broadband connection required to install and play Soundtrack APB sports over a 160 song soundtrack list. Mad World - Tears for FearsFavourite Jeans - Bertie BlackmanRational Gaze - MeshuggahBeautiful Tomorrow - Beth RowleyRiot Act - ExodusJohnny Got A Boom Boom - Imelda MayHeat - RecordkingzSo Fine - TelepatheDeath - White LiesZero - Yeah Yeah YeahsCourage - Alien Ant FarmGimme That Punk - Audio BullysLava Lava - Boys NoizeMercury - ClutchProgenies of the Great Apocalypse - Dimmu BorgirCentral Park - Division of Laura LeeBright Lights - The Ghost of A ThousandCome Clarity - In Flames Hermaploitation 74 - Herma PumaThe Shape Of Punk To Come - RefusUnder The Knife - Rise AgainstJohn Q Public - Anomie Belle The Truth - Bulletproof MessengerFang - Druu Silhouette - Fono Battle Front - RareformZookeeper - Honey ClawsBrotherhood of the Drum - KJ SawkaChildren Of Neon Lights - La Fleur FataleHawk Eyes - Leopold And His Fiction Viva La Revolucion - Love in OctoberA Lot Of Us (Feat. Ray Frazier) - Mic Crenshaw Adolescent Plague - NiftersBlock 4 Block Featuring Rasco (Cali Agents) - Paulie Rhyme & DeedotThirty - Peter Mulvey4pm - pH10The Shadow - QuantDress Down Day - The Band of the EyeShe, Robot - The CellsGet Out - The ShackeltonsDark Scanner - Tim BesamuscaTroubled Times - WhoibeWe'll Bring You Down - WinterpillsNumbers - ZelazowaSheets - AbrogateThe Sleepless Crusade - Atlas&iDrozer - Benjamin TillmanSick Of Ants - You Already KnowHome - The Boy Who Trapped The SunAPB - ChapteroneCoke And Trees - Colin McShanepain(T) - DevotionMedicinal - DisownM.J. Union Dub - DJon$"A Life In Ashes - DragnerveHealthy Illness - FarfletchedKnow Thyself - Fire In The Eyes Of The City Someone Set Your Voicemail - Freighter Aramis - FuturoMutate - GnomeatticKoishikunaru (Constant Spinning) - HotelsinusThe Wrath of the Lambs - illuminatusHit it out the park, son - J ack ButlerRaven Black - Kains Island IDK - KingbastardRewind - Make SparksMusic - MALAKAIWhere Ya At Now - ModifydTerrorize - Moses ClevelandBreak Before I Bend - Mr TwistStare Into Oblivion - Panic Cell Ground Zero - Peter Mazeb*tch plz - popErotiqThe Sound of That - RedaeLApropos - ReporterThe Fight Song - River City RansomHave No Tyrant - SGXCan't Disroot - Stardown The End of the Parade - The DepartedThis Is Not The End - The BraveryThe Ballad of the Silver Gun - The Sweet RevengeClean Cut - The Theory of FunkativityLet It Go - TriphobiaThe Phresh - Vega TekniqueAs Gorgeous As - We Love to Party Let's go to the distro - You Me and the Atom BombWAR (Light and Darkness) - E TEN Akseov Alexey V Metropolis - Bitplane Aporia - Forever Never Swampwalker - Jaakko TakaloRide of the Valkyries - Richard Wagner Brindisi - Giuseppe VerdiNight on Bald Mountain - Modest Petrovich MussorgskyMars - Gustav HolstFlower Duet - Léo DelibesLes Torreador - Georges BizetSymphony No.5 - Ludwig van BeethovenCranes - Abe VigodaThe Night We Nearly Got Busted - Alabama 3 ATX" ArtistName - Alberta Cross Champagne Glass - AlphastatesCarbon Kid (Radio Edit) - AlpinestarsDart For My Sweetheart - Archie Bronson OutfitWhat If - Bombay Bicycle Club If You Could Read Your Mind - Clinic Everything Is Under Control - Coldcut Pack It Up - Spiderbait Pump My Pumps - Dan Black Criss Cross - Shy ChildBeautiful - Good Shoes Cities Burning Down - Howling Bells Don't Stop - InnerpartysystemParallel Lines - Junior BoysBasement - Just JackDump o stinksion - dLUDEdBorstal Breakout - Sham 69 When You Walk in the Room - Fyfe DangerfieldDeathbox - MnemicBlue Lining, White Trenchcoat - Mando DiaoYour Heart Is As Black As Night - Melody GardotChains - Mercury RevGold Guns Girls - MetricThe Sun Smells Too Loud - MogwaiPure Pleasure Seeker - MolokoGained The World - MorcheebaConstant Static - New Found GloryHeaven Alive - Oceansize Turn It Up - Pixie LottThe Fountain - Echo & The Bunnymen 1901 - PhoenixColossal Insight - Roots ManuvaSpellbound - Siouxsie And The BansheesGod Complex - Inside Your Frontal LobeIntermission - T he Death SetSale Of The Century - The Futureheads Tick Tick Boom - The HivesNo Time - The Juan MacLeanAbout Your Dress - The MacCabeesKnock You Down - Life Since DeathNot The Only Person - The Rumble StripsGet a Rise - Killa KelaWe Want War - These New PuritansThe Betrayal - KassidyMake Up Your Mind - The VacationRage Against The Tantrum - Thomas TantrumNorth Carolina - Lee And Willbee Hustle - Urban D Ex - AMOOf Our Lives - AvosettaNow Sigh On, Scion - Loki's MotifWK - Negative pHFeeling - Wake UpYou're So Cool - Japanese VoyeursMountain Man - Crash KingsDesensitized Generation - Death WarrantCounterpoint - DelphicInnocence - Guy Valarino17 Horses - Cortney TidwellYour Own Fireworks - Toy FightShowdown - PendulumNo Brakes / Hands - Little BootsGoin' Back - Devendra Banhart
