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Boiling Point: Road to Hell

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7.7 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 21 critic reviews
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Based on 55 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Deep Shadows

Genre(s): First-Person Shooter, Action

Players: Multi

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: May 24, 2005

Summary

Boiling Point: Road to Hell combines intense armed combat with exploration and interaction with a vast and seamless open-ended gaming world. In Boiling Point: Road to Hell, gamers travel to the present day jungles of South America and battle competing factions in a brutal guerrilla war. Developer Deep Shadows' innovative game engine streams the beautifully rendered environment, creating a non-linear gameplay experience, with no loading times or separate levels, creating a continuous world spanning hundreds of miles. To make the most of the environment, a massive range of vehicles are at the disposal of the player, as well as a vast array of weapons. The wide open game world features an array of different AI factions with which the player can interact, and hundreds of diverse missions to create an original experience each time the game is played. Combined with the vast seamless gaming world, the result is gameplay freedom and replayability on an unprecedented scale. [Atari]

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What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

games(TM)

Such ambition hasn’t been seen on the PC in God knows how long and Atari has landed itself an absolute classic here. A must-have - no questions asked. [July 2005, p.100]

Jolt Online Gaming UK

Boiling Point is an amazing piece of work, but is like a piece of art that will never be finished. We wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it, despite its flaws, as it is the very definition of freeform adventuring.

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PC Format

Simultaneously fascinating and flawed, it's the definition of high maintenance. [July 2005, p.86]

Eurogamer

Put it like this: This is probably one of the most enjoyable piece of early-Beta code that I've ever played. You want to damn Atari for releasing it like this. However, you also want to hail them for spending money on something of Boiling Point's ambition rather than the safe option.

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AceGamez

There is no middle ground with Boiling Point: Road To Hell, you'll either look past it's flaws and love the expansive, open-ended adventure game beneath, or hate it because of its numerous technical faults, poor performance and general rushed feel.

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Inside Gamer Online

Raw and addictive, but lacks the polish to make it stand out in a niche market.

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Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

More ambitious than a junior MP, but buggier than a swarm of locusts. So long, gringo! [GamesMaster]

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IGN

If the driving model had gotten some more work, and the terrain gotten hit with a shrink ray, I could probably manage to have some fun. Instead, Boiling Point never gets beyond a simmer.

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Computer and Video Games

Right now it is compelling, but riddled with so many problems that if you part ways with your cash for it, you're entering into a pact that will give you as much frustration as entertainment. [PC Zone]

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3DAvenue

If you can put up with the technical issues, and don't mind downloading moderately sized patches to fix a so called retail game, then Boiling Point is worth a look, but I'm afraid many gamers probably won't be as forgiving as this.

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GameSpot

A great concept executed poorly. But if Deep Shadows puts some serious work into the upcoming patches (according to the company's Web site, version 2.0 is already in the works), this work-in-progress could evolve into one of the best shooters of 2005 and could become a real inspiration for shooter designers in the future.

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GameBiz

The basic storyline is good enough and the game does bring a few new aspects to the genre such as having to fill your car up with petrol. Unfortunately though this vision became lost during development and the game just feels unfinished.

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GameZone

The scope of the game, the heart-pumping music (when it worked) and the idea of a seriously tough guy taking matters into his own hand to save his child was such an affecting idea that the end game made me that much more disappointed.

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Xequted

The concept behind Boiling Point is a good one but it is perhaps a little too ambitious, leaving many parts of the game a little dry and particularly bug-ridden.

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Sydney Morning Herald

The world is enormous and devoid of loading screens, allowing the player to uncover its large amount of content without interruption. But this impressive detail comes at a price. Boiling Point is crawling with glitches in both the graphics engine and the game mechanics, so going online for the latest patch is a necessity if you're up to the challenge of testing the game's depths.

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GameSpy

It's clear that Boiling Point has some neat ideas and the potential for fun, but as tantalizing as the game can be, it can also feel more like slow torture than entertainment.

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Gamezilla!

Sure they pepper the play with lots of weapons and the ability to use vehicles, but I really couldn’t get past how badly the game was programmed.

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eToychest

Boiling Point: Road To Hell is bound to sit in the annals of poor gaming history, next to "Trespasser," "Daikatana," and other games that were hyped more than they were worked on, and left the gaming populace hungry for real sustenance.

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PC Gamer

Unless it receives some extreme patching, don't bother with this game. [Sept 2005, p.64]

Pelaaja (Finland)

On paper Boiling Point has been designed as an expansive simulation and RPG with its complex weapon’s upgrading system. However, all the elements are very unpolished and most of them barely work. The game’s potential strengths such as the openly structured missions and the massive gameworld are rendered meaningless because of this. [July 2005, p.55]

Edge Magazine

It demolishes PC gaming’s dubious tradition of applauding technical ambition above all else with all the grace of a narcoleptic piling face first through a coffee table... A cold and flawed sandbox shooter, a rudimentary RPG and, for most, an almost unplayable experience. [July 2005, p.93]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 55 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mork B. gave it an8:
Simply put, if Atari hadn't rushed the game, its would have received review scores in the low 80's. The tech issues are what make it crappy.

Slack S. gave it a1:
One of the most spectacularly awful games I've ever played. Tries and fails to be too many different things. It just gets everything completely wrong. Let me give you a brief list. Clumsy shooter action, horrible vehicle control, half-baked RPG elements, laughable script/voice acting, extremely primitive character interaction/AI, awful graphics performance, rough sound effects, bad interface design... I could go on. This only scratches the surface of what's wrong with just the gameplay, if you could call it that. I haven't even mentioned the bugs yet. Despite not one but two patches, the game is still completely broken. I'm dumbfounded at some of the high review scores for this game. It's absolutely terrible. Avoid it at all costs.

Brad C. gave it a7:
A great concept, although the game is still buggy for me even after patch 2.0. I can't help but feel if they were to have used a pre-existing engine, most probably Far Cry, it would have been a more polished experience. As it is currently, I find the worst enemy to fight is the laggy engine. Hopefully the deloper is given the ability to make a sequel!

Sir Rasor gave it a10:
I've never seen a game like this before, very entertaining and fun to play :)

John gave it a9:
With the 2.0 patch all bugs are pretty much squashed. So get that patch, buy the game and have a great time for 100 hours or so!

John P. gave it a9:
I waited until the 2.0 patch came our before buying this game, and upgraded the game before even playing it for the first time! Therefore I have seen no bugs. Driving the car is a little awkward, but then my skill is low (I remember my first couple of Morrowind fights with rats and mudcrabs!!!) Overall though, I am loving this game! I like the digitized speech vs the text you normally get in games like this. The graphics are brilliant (I don't compare, I always just look at the graphics and say "are they good enough". I think they're up to Morrowind standard which to me is still great!. My most memorable moment so far is the first time driving through the jungle at night, picking up a radio message broadcast and then driving through the middle of a Government/Mafia battle on either side of the road with one guy "rolling" out of the way of my car - just! And with tracer fire all over the place! I had to swerve around a burning car that I presume had been caught up in the firefight! The jungle is very unforgiving if you're on foot at night, with snakes and pumas that will kill you real easy at the start of the game (no Morrowind build up here!) I have got around 15 hours under my belt and have already had a dozen missions with another dozen in my notepad. I am only 2 steps closer to getting my Daughter, and I think there's probably 100 to go! About the bad drivers: With 2.0 patch they seem okay to me. Sometimes there are accidents, but that seems to happen to make the gameworld more real rather than bad AI (as in GTA III series) The theme tune is very catchy, the intro is cheesy, but so is the game - in a good way! I'll give it 9.0 with the 2.0 patch.

Brad G. gave it an8:
I must point out that my "out-of-the-box" copy of Boiling Point runs quite smoothly on my modest system and I suffer none of the crashes and bugs people are complaining about (not that they don't exist). The game is everything I wanted Deus Ex Invisible War to be. An open ended adventure with a huge beautiful world, a wide variety of gadgets and firearms, a deep rpg element, and hours of fun. Games like this aren't very common and while it isn't quite as refined as Morrowind or GTA it is far better than Destroy all Humans or Universal Combat. And I don't care what the critics say, the vehicle handling is pretty good.

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Boiling Point: Road to Hell

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