Boiling Point: Road to Hell PC Review 7/10 "Arnold Vosloo Kicks Ass Once More" 🚛💥 @playziggurat #IndieGame #GameDev

In quite a few of my reviews covering beloved (by me, at least) yet shonky games – usually open-world RPGs from the mid 2000’s – Boiling Point often crops up, alongside Xenus 2: White Gold (an oddly-named sequel to Boiling Point: Road to Hell), Precursers, and Hard Truck Apocalypse (which has AMAZING music).

The first two of which come from the same developer, Deep Shadows, a company that seem to have moved into hidden object and mobile titles, which is a shame, as they have real character and craft. If each game mentioned here had more time and money invested, they would be classics still talked of today.

The story of of Boiling Point: Road to Hell is that Saul Myers (portrayed in-game by Arnold Vosloo)  is an ex-member of the Foreign legion who has been dropped in the fictional South American country of Realia to rescue a damsel in distress, however, this isn’t a straight ‘shoot everyone in your way, and get the girl’ effort (well, it can be, if you play that way!) but instead involves managing your reputation between the six available factions that run the country, as you build up your skill levels and equipment.

Realia is truly an open-world environment, and one of the main hallmarks of Deep Shadows games is that they enjoy plonking you down in their universe and just...well, leaving you to it. There’s a real joy in just making your way around, finding hidden caches and side missions, assisting the locals, whilst getting involved in skirmishes with drug lords, bandits and militia, as well as dealing with the uncaring wildlife. It feels like a FarCry game if it really didn’t give a shit what you got up to, and had no intention of bailing you out if you messed thing up too much. 

As much as I personally adore Deep Shadows games, there’s a reason this doesn’t have a higher score, even at it’s incredibly fair price point, and that is tied to the very thing that gives them their personality – the bugs, quirks and foibles that result from overreaching, so it’s certainly a good idea to keep this in mind during your time with the game – and save relatively often.

SUMMARY

Publisher Ziggurat get a long distance high five from me for their business model of polishing up earthy gems and giving them a new lease of life, as these artefacts really do deserve to be rediscovered and played by modern gamers, with Deep Shadows titles especially being perfect examples of games that have incredibly lofty ambitions and fall painstakingly short of realising them, all the while creating unique experiences in their wake – and at the current price of £8.50 on Steam, there’s no excuse why anyone with a passion for the history of open-world RPG/shooters shouldn’t dive in to the world of Saul Myers and get stuck into the South American stylings of Realia, what more do you want? It’s got Arnold Vosloo in it, for god’s sake!