In Eliminator, you assume the role of an escaping
prisoner who is fed up with being used as a military guinea pig.
The military is forcing you to fly new prototype ships, the only
catch is you must complete missions with your life at stake. You
must destroy hordes of robotic monsters in order to complete each
mission. The last catch to your testing is the addition of a time
bomb placed on your ship, if you do not complete the mission in
under a set time, you die.
Direct3D is the display driver of choice for Eliminator,
and my TNT card held up rather well running in 800x600.
Unfortunately, Eliminator?s graphic engine didn?t put much strain
on my TNT, due to the scanty graphics. Sporadically, I would
notice a good special effect here and there, but for the most part
Eliminator looks like something pulled out of ?94-95. Eliminator is
viewed via a chase cam behind the craft, and for the most part
works very well with the game. The individual space ships are
well done and don?t have any rough edges. However, that?s not
saying too much, considering how unoriginal the spaceships are,
ranging from a flying Frisbee to a fork shaped craft. Weapon
effects are just about as poor as they come. Vulcan cannon gun
shots are represented by triangular orange polygons, not too
flashy. Rocket effects are ok, they emit a white trail of smoke when
fired. I cannot say the same for explosion special effects, they
consist of a few flat polygons colored orange with rough edges
around them. The game tries to create a futuristic world feel to it,
but doesn?t quite make me feel as though I am in a futuristic world.
Grim backgrounds and drab colors are used to create more of an
atmosphere, but don?t really help. If you?re after mind blowing D3D
graphics, look elsewhere.
Controlling your craft is either done via joystick or
keyboard. Personally I would have opted for mouse support, but
Psygnosis did not include it. Attempting to play Eliminator on the
keyboard can be a rather hellish task. Since several buttons are
needed in order to accurately control the ship. After many
configurations, I opted to bust out the old Gravis gamepad.
Controls consist of accelerate, brake, raise targeting system up or
down, primary weapons, and secondary weapons. One feature
that really annoyed me about the game, was the fact that I had to
slowly raise my targeting system up or down in order to destroy my
enemies. By the time I raised the targeting system up, the enemy
would be back on the ground again. An auto targeting system
should be used, instead of having to do it manually. I also wound
up doing a lot of accelerating and breaking, due to mines placed
in straight-aways. For the most part control is average, I didn?t
have many problems piloting my ship around corners or through
twisting speed ways. Sound effects consist of a few rocket noises,
some blips, and more cheesy blips and bloops. The sound effects
definitely did not do it for me and I would expect sound effects like
this from a 3rd rate company, but not from Pysgnosis.
The basic idea of the game is simple, blast the hell out
of the robotic monsters. In order to advance to different places in
the level you must destroy all the monsters in that area. A task that
proves itself rather simple time after time. Off the box you are
given a story, however, once you get into the game there is
absolutely no story to be followed, just arcade action. The robotic
creatures are pretty boring as well, they consist of mechs, spiders,
flying diamond shaped purple things (technical terms), and other
weird shaped creatures. Monster AI consists of running away then
turning around and shooting or simple dive bomb attacks and
flying away. To assist you various power-ups have been included
in the levels. They consist of primary gun power-ups, rockets, dual
rockets, time bonus?s, and health power-ups. The lack of weapon
variety and originality is a real deterrent to replay value. If you're
looking for a new multiplayer experience, look elsewhere. If
Eliminator had more weapons, arena style deathmatches would
have been at least somewhat amusing. TCP/IP and IPX
connections are supported, with three entire deathmatch levels,
this should grab your attention for about five minutes!
Anyone looking to cure a bit of that winter boredom
should look elsewhere. Eliminator is nothing more that recycled
garbage from the early nineties. Eliminator will be one of those
games that passes silently into the night without an ounce of
recognition from the gaming society.
Good: Honestly can?t think of anything positive to say about
Eliminator
Bad: Dated graphics, inferior AI, bad multiplayer, bad targeting
system, no originality, bland weapons, and poor
environments.
8/20
4/15
13/30
5/20
2/5
4/10