Eliminate Pro

Posted on November 8th, 2009. Written by Fabio.

In case you’ve been living under a rock that is under a large rock, you probably know a little something about Eliminate by ngmoco. Eliminate is a 3D first person shooter complete with online capabilities to battle strangers or friends in a variety of locations. Upgrade gear, buy weapons and armor, and more. But does this loaded feature list live up to the hype? Find out.

I’m just going to get to the point immediately- Eliminate is my favorite game for the iPhone, ever. I’ve never had such lasting fun with a game on the device, and I can see myself playing this well into the future. Hopefully this review will give you a little insight on why I like it so much, and the (few) things I dislike. This game is free of charge, too- but you’ll find out why later in the review.

As stated above, Eliminate is a 3D first person shooter that focuses heavily on online play. You can play with up to four people (including yourself) in a match in (as of writing this) five different maps. Now, four people and five maps may not seem like a lot, but surprisingly, four people is a perfect number and provides just enough chaos. And, the variety and overall great design of each map makes sure that you never get bored with playing the same map over and over again. For those of you still upset about the number of maps, I’ve gotten confirmation by ngmoco that more are coming.

The controls for Eliminate are fairly simple. Use a digital analog to move, drag your other thumb to aim, tap the top for a menu, the bottom to jump, the middle to zoom, and anywhere to shoot (unless auto-fire is enabled, which I’ll cover later). You can always go into the Options menu and change your sensitivity, flip the control scheme, etc. You can also enable a feature called ‘auto-fire’, which eliminates the need to tap to shoot.

The graphics are some of the best you’ll see on the iPhone. The textures are sharp, and everything flows together. The framerate is particularly impressive. The menus all look great as well. The sounds and music are all fantastic, too. Every sound effect, every piece of music fits well, all making the experience more seamless than it already is.

Now, to the beef of the review- the gameplay. Eliminate currently has one game mode; a standard death match- first person to 10 kills (or the one with the most at the end of an allotted time period) wins. You can play a friend match with your friends over the Plus+ network (which is fantastic and perfectly implemented into the game), search for a random match, or play against bots.

The matchmaking, for the most part, works well. I’m consistently getting matched up quickly and (most of the time) with players in my skill/level range. On occasion, I’m matched up with someone who is quite a few levels higher, but that happens rarely.

Eliminate features an ‘energy’ system. You can a set amount of energy, and each match costs you some energy. Once that energy runs out, you stop earning ‘credits’ (the game’s currency, which you use to buy weapons, items, armor, and upgrades), but you can still play in matches as you wish. Over time, you’ll receive free energy recharges, or, you can buy energy recharges using the game’s in-app purchasing system. This would be my one (small) gripe with the game.

Listen- these servers cost ngmoco lots of green to upkeep, so, I get it- people need to pay. But, I would’ve rather have seen a one time cost (I’d pay 20-30$ USD for this game, any day) or shorter energy recharge times. But, as the system is now, I don’t have much of a problem with it.

The more credits you earn, the more you level up. The more you level up, the better upgrades, weapons, items, and armor become available to you. It’s a great system with plenty to buy and upgrade along the way. There are six different weapons, all with very different properties and attributes that suit different play styles. There’s also nine different armor types that provide different bonuses and negatives to your character. On top of all of that, there are a large assortment of skins to purchase for your armor, all using the game’s credit system.

With the leveling system and all of the upgrades, armor types, weapons, and extras to buy, there’s a lot of incentive here to play- and play well. The competition in this game is obviously a large part of the draw, along with leaderboards that span from wins to kills, from global to your friends list.

In conclusion, Eliminate is one of the most complete games for the iDevice that I’ve ever seen- and one of the most fun. You’ll be playing this game long after the initial download, and you’ll still be having fun along the way. I congratulate ngmoco on the absolutely fantastic work they’ve done with this title- it truly is an accomplishment on the device that has risen the bar for all other developers. A must, MUST have.