Eliminator, featuring "vicious arena combat" according to the publisher, is a vehicle-shooter with timed missions and huge arenas. Four eliminator craft offer unique attributes such as speed, maneuverability, firepower, and weaponry. The eight arenas include a maze, an abandoned prison, an under-sea "cage," the tomb (prototype weapons testing facility), and the ultimate battleground, the fortress. Other environments include the icy monastery, a chasm, and the maniacal asylum.
The keyboard and number pad (or a joystick) provide control for the vehicles, weapons and camera angles, though aiming the sights while executing turns at high speed is just as frustrating here as in the game's PlayStation version. An option to use the mouse to aim and fire would have enhanced gameplay enormously, albeit the default keyboard controls can be changed.
Unfortunately, taking the time to weave your way through the huge arenas isn't always possible due to the inexorable and somewhat unnecessary time limit imposed by a time bomb strapped to your vehicle. More than 30 types of enemies, running the gamut from small to huge, try to eliminate you at every turn, and simply getting from one stage (level) of each arena to the next will tax even the most accomplished shooter.
A 3D-accelerator card is optional, but recommended, as it creates a smooth and flashy run through the nicely realized environments, but software mode is less pleasing. The storyline is contrived and serves as nothing more than a showcase for the action, much as the gladiators were showcased in Rome.
Futuristic death racing. One of the few genres that hasn't been totally played out. Wait, I must be thinking of something else. Eliminator is another death racing game that demonstrates what happens when a poor game company gets a hold of a copy of DirectX. By saying this I mean poor graphics, scratchy sound, sloppy control and an unoriginal premise.
In Eliminator you are in a futuristic arena filled with obstacles such as robots, land mines and gun turrets. You are required to reach the finish line under a certain amount of time. You collect time bonuses by blowing up your enemies. As you progress through a level you enter several different arenas where you must kill everything before you may proceed. It gets old really fast.
Graphics:
The graphics are 3d accelerated, but it is hard to tell. The enemies look like sprites, and your ship is very poorly modeled. Hostile projectiles are nothing more then translucent triangles or rectangles, and aren't very intimidating. The enemy models are also very poor and unoriginal. Most remember hovercrafts that have been seen in other games or the robots from Mechwarrior 2. The level design is uninspired and very repetitive. The textures are very boring, well drawn, but boring. It is possible to pick from several different resolutions. Overall the graphics are somewhat mushy and very unoriginal. I think that if a little bit more time had been spent on smoothing them out and livening up the projectiles and explosions this game would look a lot better.
Sound:
The sound is somewhat scratchy and very quiet. Music is played straight from the CD and it stutters often on my computer. The default music volume is very loud which makes it hard to hear the sound. After I turned it down, I played for five minutes and turned it back up. The sound is just more of the same. The same annoying laser cannon blast and crackling of machine guns that has been in every game since sound cards were introduced. Overall a poor job.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is like the sound: boring. As you race around the arena you collect new weapons and they, but always disappointing. The control is very poor and I think that this game has the first ever space ship that is able to circle-strafe. The enemy AI is very stupid causing this game to be very easy. The concept of fighting ships in an arena is pretty cool but it has been overdone and is poorly executed in this game. Overall I could find very little to say about the way this game plays due to its simplistic nature and lack of originality. Believe me, you've seen it all before.
Overall Impression:
This game is not fun, it is just repetitive. I expected slightly better things from this game due to the high quality of games like it that have been recently released (i.e DeathKarz). If you're looking for car fighting and high quality graphics, get DethKarz. If your looking to increase the number of titles in your Psygnosis collection, pick this one up.
People who downloaded Eliminator have also downloaded:
Ed Hunter, Enclave, Elite Forces: WWII Normandy, Evil Core: Fallen Cities, Echelon (a.k.a. Shtorm), Elf, Electro Man, Emerald Miner
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