Combat is worse than driving. You can mow down people with all sorts of weapons and military vehicles, but the game's choppiness means you'll often get killed before you can even get a shot off. At least dying isn't the end; instead, you awaken in a hospital, minus some money and inventory items.
When looked at up close, Boiling Point's graphics appear pretty weak, with ugly textures and animations, sparsely decorated rooms, and dull lighting. Then again, since the game runs so poorly, it was impossible for us to know how much better it might look with graphics cranked up. The developers went to the trouble of modeling Myers after actor Arnold Vosloo, perhaps best known as the villain from The Mummy, but this doesn't add anything to the game except making you wonder, haven't I seen that guy somewhere before?
The audio is iffy, too. Myers is voiced without much conviction or genuine emotion, and many characters have dubious accents. A lot of dialogue in the game lacks cohesion, with people's moods shifting wildly for no reason. Weapons fire often sounds tinny and underpowered, but at least the game's dynamic and quirky musical score helps add some excitement to the combat.
In a fit of desperation, we ultimately tried the latest patch for the U.S. version of the game, which seems to offer only partial help with the bugs. There's an even bigger patch out now for the European version of the game, one that's supposed to fix a whopping list of problems. And while it seemed to install properly with our version, bugs and glitches remain, as do the performance issues: load times are still glacial, and gameplay still stutters horribly, making movement and combat very hard. There may yet be a good game inside Boiling Point, but not with the patches released to date.
Despite all its problems, Boiling Point manages to create a reasonably involving atmosphere by concentrating on memorable details. You'll pass rickety old buses on winding dirt roads, as well as hunched old peasants slowly ambling along. If you're unlucky enough to get stranded on foot in the jungle, you might meet up with a ravenous jaguar -- keep a shotgun handy on those night jaunts. Just outside town, you'll find open-air markets and ramshackle gas stations. In town, you'll find strung-out druggies and see political graffiti sprayed on walls.
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. If you absolutely feel the need to pick it up, treat the minimum system requirements as a cruel joke and aim for at least the recommended requirements: 3 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, and a 256 MB video card. Then download the latest patch and pray hard. It's a shame that an ambitious game with as much potential as Boiling Point was released before it was properly finished and polished. As it stands, Boiling Point can be summed up in one word: undercooked.
