All Points Bulletin Gets PvP Arresting, Maybe Stealth

Crackdown developers Realtime Worlds are still making progress on their Grand Theft Auto-esque cops-vs-robbers MMO All Points Bulletin, or APB (PC, 360), and the game is set to soon leave alpha status.

The game has a system where players with law enforcement characters can arrest criminal characters. A game newsletter, reproduced on Kotaku, explains:

Enforcers have an arrest system available to them which serves to take out a criminal player until they are freed or the arrest timer expires and they must respawn as if killed. This can reduce the criminal force for longer periods of time than killing them would unless freed by their criminal group-mates.

In addition, the team at Realtime Worlds are working on a stealth system, though it's unknown if stealth will find its way into the final game. Interestingly, the game will come without a class system like most MMOs, instead creating a unique class tailored to each player based on their individual style.

The newsletter reports that the game will soon complete its alpha phase of internal testing, which means the beta phase will soon follow. Part of the beta testing will be open to the public, giving gamers a chance to go fully online with the work of Grand Theft Auto series creator David Jones, though a timeline for a public beta is still unknown.