Mission: Impossible (1998)

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Mission: Impossible

The game wasn't kidding when the title clearly says Impossible... twice!
Genre(s): Action
Adventure
Platform(s): Nintendo 64
PlayStation
Release Date: Nintendo 64
NA: July 18, 1998
EU: September 25, 1998
PlayStation
EU: October 1, 1999
NA: November 23, 1999
Developer(s): Infogrames
X-ample Architectures (PS1)
Publisher(s): Ocean Software (N64)
Infogrames (PS1)
Country: France
Germany
Series: Mission: Impossible
Predecessor: Mission: Impossible (1991)
Successor: Mission: Impossible: Operation Surma

Mission: Impossible[1] is a 1998 action-adventure video game based on the 1996 film of the same name. Developed by Infogrames[2] and published by Ocean Software for the Nintendo 64. The game was later published by Infogrames for the PlayStation in 1999.

Bad Qualities

  1. The game is designed to expand its length by using the outdated trial and error, as it's being loaded with beginner traps that immediately make you fail the mission you are playing, which cause you to restart the entire mission as there is no checkpoint.
  2. There are no pickups in the game that restore your health.
  3. The shooting segments of the game have very stiff controls and are difficult to maneuver.
  4. The movement controls in the game make you move at half the correct speed if you don't move directly forward, left, or right.
  5. There's several missions can be frustrating for no reasons:
    • The second CIA mission has you wandering around the level with enemies that put you under arrest when you go close to them and don't knock them out quickly enough around corners which make it impossible to detect them before you get caught the first time. Also since the mission is taking place on three floors you may fall off a bridge and fail the mission due to suddenly being put under arrest by a person you didn't see before you fell down.
    • Another mission in the game has you plant explosive gum, and there are two paths you can take to the left and right which are supposed to lead to the same place. Taking the left path causes the gum to explode making three guards run to and kill you. Taking the right path breaks the game, the gum does not explode, and you cannot complete the mission as it makes you go through a hallway with one of the guards who arrest you that you cannot react to and take down, thus failing the mission.
    • The mission where you have to shoot down Max's goons is broken. Ethan's movements are random, enemies and their movements are random, and as massive obstructions block your line of sight some enemies will spawn in places where you cannot even hit them, thus giving them free hits to Ethan. When this happens the only thing that you can do is wait until Ethan manages to run away and lure them to a place so you can shoot them, but since Ethan stands still when he is being fired at this doesn't even work most of the time.
    • One of the missions gives you false instructions on how to complete it. The mission instructs you to get information about the mole from Max. However, you must actually kill her in a certain way to complete the mission, which will prevent you from getting information from her as she is dead.
    • The absolute final mission has stiff controls with the turret where the turret turns very slowly and enemies can target you too quickly.
      • After completing a mission when the next mission starts your health is not fully restored, however you can restore your health by exiting the mission and restarting the mission from the beginning.
  6. Very convoluted and nonsensical plot. Early in the game where Ethan is suddenly suspected to be Max's mole in the CIA after you complete the Embassy Mission as they claim that the mission that they paid him to do was impossible without assistance from the other side. This is the first time Max was even referred to in the game and you don't get any information about her until a later mission. Later Candice orders Ethan to steal a list of American assets from an American agency. Near the end of the game, the person who framed Ethan reveals that he knew that he was not the mole and knew who the real mole was, and framed him to motivate him to track down the real mole. It's worth noting the game does generally follow the plot of the first film, but with so many scenes cut out that it's impossible to follow the plot without having seen the movie.
  7. The ammunition is very scarce and the only way to save ammo efficiently is taking headshots. However, due to the sluggish aiming controls, it can be tedious and you can get a lot of damage while doing this.
  8. False advertising: The box of the game says it has interchangeable first and third person view points, but third person is the only camera angle available and it just zooms a bit when you aim with your weapon.
  9. Terrible and inconsistent voice acting, when Ethan says "Way to go", he sounds like an old man.
  10. Ethan's face in the title screen looks so off-putting that it borders on the "uncanny valley".

Good Qualities

  1. The PlayStation version has improvements, featuring more polishes, better cutscenes, better music, a lot more voice acting (though it is mediocre), better aiming, better controls (although still feeling a bit stiff with movement), and a quick-save feature that allows you to save checkpoints within missions.
  2. Decent graphics for it's time.
  3. Good soundtrack.
  4. Cool cover art that is faithful to the movie.
  5. At least some level are faithful to the source material of the film, but still doesn't good.
  6. Some missions can be fun and exciting to play.

Reception

"What were they thinking?"
The Shit Scale
Games that are debatably bad High level of shit contamination The very high category The severe zone Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Major code red
👆
This product belongs to the "High Level of Shit Contamination" category of the AVGN's Shit Scale.

Mission: Impossible was considered a commercial success according to Infogrames chairman Bruno Bonnell; 1.13 million copies had been sold as of February 1999. In the US market, 550,000 copies had been sold as of October 1998. Mission: Impossible received generally mixed reviews from critics and was frequently compared to GoldenEye 007. But some review criticized the poor controls and horrible collision detection.

The Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed it as a "Horrible game" despite most review saying it's an average game.

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References

  1. ↑ Also known as Mission: Impossible – Expect the Impossible
  2. ↑ The developer of the Nintendo 64 version. The PlayStation version was ported by German studio X-ample Architectures.

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