Remember a couple of years ago when all of the Doom and Wolfenstein 3D clones came marching down the retail pipe? Well, no it's time to follow the Quake and Duke Nukem clones, fortunately, Eradicator does a pretty good job of measuring up to the standard set by Quake and Duke Nukem.Eradicator introduces a few new twists to the 3D shooter. First, you get to choose from three different characters, each with a weakness and specialty, so choose your character based on how you normally play these games. Dan Blaze is your standard miner who's not too happy about his home being under attack, Kamchak is a reptilian head basher, and Eleena is a speed demon looking for someone to pay for her ship. The best apart about the different characters is that they each have different objectives and missions. This gives Eradicator some great replay value that is missing in Quake.
The big difference between Eradticator and other 3D shooters is that it seems to play slow. No matter what's going on on screen, how fast you are running and shooting, everything seems to happen in slow motion. The game isn't jerky, or have any pauses in it, it's just not a high speed, need lot's of Dramamine to stay in the chair, run through the halls shooter. The pace feels more like a stalking game. the rest of the gameplay is excellent. There are plenty of places to hide and ambush opponents, and the dark mood set by Eradicator makes for an interesting premise for a game. I would like to see someone copy the Quake MLook and get it right though.. I tried dozens of keyboard ad mouse settings and couldn't find anything that was as comfortable Quake. Several options were good enough to win a game, but the MLook is a function that would really make the interface killer.
Some of the features I do like are the picture in picture view, and the Cd music. The picture in picture camera view is great when using guided weapons, something every game needs for those guys that like to run around corners and think they are safe. Simply release a Spider Mine and watch it walk right over to the crowd of hapless victims and make squishy juice out of them. As for the Cd music, it's the only thing that saves the sound in this game. When you start up your first time, head straight to the options menu and select the Cd music over the normal music. The standard music played in the game sounds horrible. Almost as if it's trying to overdrive the speakers and sound card in an attempt to play loud.
Overall Eradicator is a good shooter. With the different characters to choose from, and the new levels each one gives you, there is plenty of replay value in this game.
--- Steve Gerencser
--- krell@psyber.com
