Developer: Infogrames Publisher: Ocean Release: 08/14/98 Genre: Action-Adventure
Mission Impossible was one of the earliest Nintendo 64 games announced. There were lofty promises made as it would attempt to capture the essence of being a spy in 3d for the first time. Things looked promising as the early target renders looked incredible. But the developer’s goals would get the best of them and they would delay it over a year. Unfortunately in that time both Goldeneye and Metal Gear Solid would be on the market, leaving Mission Impossible an ambitious but flawed mess.
The game is only loosely based on the film of the same name. You still play as Ethan Hunt and it has many of the same story beats. You would think this would be an easy slam dunk as the movie has many set pieces that seem almost tailor made for a video game. Indeed in the moments the game apes the film it is at its best. But when it goes in its own direction the effort is clumsy at best and downright embarrassing most of the time.
The general gameplay and framework should be familiar to anyone who has played a spy game in the last thirty years. Each mission begins with a briefing giving you some idea of what to expect as well as a list of objectives. Some missions give you the necessary tools to complete the job. Most will have you procure them in the field. Mission Impossible’s greatest strength is its mission variety. Throughout the course of its twenty or so missions objectives are varied and complex. No two are ever the same and sometimes they evolve as you progress. The missions are not the game’s problem however; it is their execution that brings the game down.
At its best moments Mission Impossible makes you feel like a secret agent. One of its best missions sees you dressed as a waiter at a party to steal a foreign ambassador’s identity to access a restricted area. The series of steps has you get sleeping powder to spike a drink, give his favorite musical score to the pianist to get him to join the festivities and slip him the drink to force him to run to the bathroom where you can knock him out and make the switch. This follows a logical pattern and is the game at its best. The missions that focus on straight action are also good even with the slow aiming controls. Running through the train murking fools is a nice follow-up to the sniper mission beforehand and leads to a chase on top of the same train. More of this would have been welcome.
Unfortunately most missions have you wandering through foggy maps looking for vague objectives and inevitably triggering a fail state. The process of trial and error does not feel fun as it almost feels arbitrary when you fail. As the missions become longer replaying the same sequence of events to fix your mistakes becomes tedious rather than satisfying for a number of reasons. The camera is awful in doors and obscures your view frequently. The game does a poor job of guiding you and pointing out key items as they blend in to the background constantly. The inconsistent controls limit your actions or are not explained very well. Dodging the lasers to hack the CIA computer is the moment in the film. Here it is the most aggravating level and one they should have scrapped. Most of these issues on their own hamper most games. Here altogether they ruin it.
It is hard not to compare Mission Impossible to Goldeneye but the comparison is unavoidable. That game does everything Mission Impossible attempts and makes it look easy. Perhaps the first person view makes it easier but that is not it completely. Goldeneye is very clear and concise with its mission objectives and does a great job of leading the player. Rarely did I ever question where to go or what I was looking for. Though far from perfect it was close. There is a reason players would spend hours replaying missions to shave seconds off their completion times to unlock bonuses and such. The same cannot be said of this game. Even once you figure out the correct sequence of events the clumsy controls and sloppy level design do their best to dissuade you from ever feeling like replaying the game.
In Closing
Mission Impossible is ultimately disappointing and mediocre. The game has promise and during its best moments you can see what they were going for. You might even have a little fun. But those moments are sandwiched between an endless amount of frustration. Maybe we would have been more forgiving if it would have released in 1997 as planned but I doubt it. The flaws would still be there. The later PlayStation version has a host of improvements but I doubt they make the underlying game better. Mission Impossible is the poster child for good ideas, bad execution.
