Eliminator Review

The game simply doesn't provide a compelling reason to keep on playing.

Psygnosis' Eliminator takes place in a future we all know very well at this point: a dark one, where enemies of the state compete to give viewing pleasure to the masses. The masses are starved for entertainment, you know, as you will be if you pick up or rent this game.

Eliminator is sort of a mutt. It takes a lot of elements of traditional 2D shooters and brings them into an environment that appears to be much like the tracks of Interplay's Red Asphalt. You view your ship - four of which are available to choose from at the game's start - from a third-person perspective and roam around the evil futuristic environments blowing away turrets, other flying ships, and mech-like vehicles; gathering weapon power-ups and time bonuses; and figuring out basic puzzles (such as shooting a group of targets in the correct order before the walls close in on you).

Your control over your ship is responsive and pretty good overall, save for when you must raise your target sites to fire at flying enemies - it makes you feel as if you're twisting your hands into a pretzel. The graphics and sound get average and decent scores, respectively, for showing up and not being too much of an embarrassment. The multiplayer mode has some nice random elements to it, but since you're limited to two players, it remains a split-screen game of tag.

The main problem with Eliminator is that it's just dull. The game simply doesn't provide a compelling reason to keep on playing, not even out of pure stubbornness. Mixing genres sometimes works very well, but in this case, neither the traditional shooter nor the vehicular combat game is well represented. There's just not much here, folks. Let's hope the future will keep evolving.

The Good

  • N/A

The Bad

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