Boiling Point: Road to Hell

The Good
Boiling Point features a huge, free world to explore at your own leisure, one which is very detailed, extremely stylized (South America!) and often quite dangerous. The weapons in the game are all upgradable, and there are a lot of them to choose from. The vehicles are fun to play around with and it's great that you're allowed to drive, fly and even learn to control a boat. The best part of the game is the dialogue and characters though. Some of the conversations are simply hilarious and most of them feature really good spoken dialogue. Boiling Point is one of the best sandbox games I've played in a long while, comparable to an odd mix of Deus Ex and Morrowind.

The Bad
When released, the game was so buggy it was nearly unplayable. The game stuttered horribly in towns, it corrupted save files with a scary frequency, the game kept crashing in the most inopportune moments and the physics were laughable. They fixed all that with the second patch though (200 MB!), and after the patch the game is absolutely great, apart from some of the quest givers feeling unfinished (Boatswain) and some minor script bugs (stuff not appearing correctly when it's supposed to etc).

The Bottom Line
A game that features a 25x25 kilometer large, freely explorable map, tons of weapons and vehicles, a great story with lots and lots and lots of side quests, an extensive character sheet and inventory, plenty of skills and perks and a beautiful South American setting just can't go wrong! You shoot your way through a very violent but warmly depicted fictional South American country, plagued by drug lords, the mafia, guerrillas and a corrupted government, as you work your way through Indian legends and a cast of memorable characters on your way to rescue your daughter. As a bonus, it's nice to be able to play as a 45+ year old hero with a personality and a believable history for once!