23-Nov-2004 No, wait, don't turn the page yet - it's not another Far Cry clone. Really! OK, so admittedly the story in Boiling Point (formerly Xenus) yields little in the way of originality - you play Saul Meyer, formerly of the foreign legion (naturally), who's investigating the disappearance of his journalist daughter in South America. Surprisingly though, the "investigation" doesn't take the typical FPS form of a linear set of gunfights based around suspiciously corridor-like forests, but actually leaves it to you to decide how to proceed. "Our main purpose is to put all the choices of how to play in the player's hands," explains producer Thomas Schaefer. "We want the player to have complete freedom, but every decision you make will have consequences."
Developer Deep Shadows hopes to achieve this with a dynamic similar to GTA - you can basically pick and choose which missions to follow and when to carry them out. As well as missions that will progress the main story, there are objectives that will earn you cash to buy weapons or equipment. You can earn a crust by doing anything from being a bus driver, hunter or hitman.
Whether or not you follow the main story (or one of the many promised sub-plots), you're going to need cash to gain a licence for one of the game's 25 vehicles, as the map is huge. Alternatively, you can (with the aid of a sizeable weapon) relieve one of the locals of their transportation by force. The consequences referred to by Schaefer are that your actions can affect your standing with one of six dangerous factions populating the area. With many of the missions and activities having some bearing on one faction or another, chances are that you won't end up pleasing everybody.
Although Boiling Point still has a few months left in development, the code we saw was surprisingly impressive. We spent ages simply exploring the game's 625 square kilometre world, busying ourselves with bailing out of helicopters and landing in piranha-infested rivers, then having to deal with water snakes on the shore. Later on, we discovered the joys of taking out a doctor with a pot of jam to the head, then standing back to watch him being finished off by the swarm of angry flies it attracted.
Steaming Into Action While the engine is technically and aesthetically impressive - the environment dynamically loads as you move around - Boiling Point's success ultimately depends upon the strength and execution of its sprawling world. For example, we found the controls to be sometimes rather unfriendly and fiddly, particularly during combat. The feel of living, breathing cities isn't quite there yet either. However, Deep Shadows has until next spring to tighten things up, so there's still plenty of cause for excitement. More news soon.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
