Published by Ocean of America
Reviewed by Boudicca on 7/27/00
PLAYSTATION: PAL UK

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First Impressions:

Graphics:

The Scenery is nice, albeit a bit dull (warehouses, underground passageways). I was surprised that the graphics were basically the same as the demo and thought that after 6 months more development time, they could have improved the graphics of the characters. They were still pixelly and blocky in the extreme. For example, the baddie in the Embassy level looked more like something out of planet of the Apes rather than the Glam Spy she should have been!

Sound/Music:

Dullsville. For most of the time, all you get is the "Mission Impossible" theme tune, which is nice in creating tension. But after an hour of "da da, da da, da da, da da, da da, da da da da, da da, doodle oo, doodle oo, doodle oo, doo doo," you get very sick of it, and turn the music off! The tune does vary a couple of times, but not enough to make it interesting. Other games of this genre use music as a tool, to frighten you, to create tension, to let you know that baddies are about, but they obviously thought you would rather be driven mad by " da, da, da, etc."

Gameplay:

The character is easy to control, and although there is a stealth button, there are not many places where this works, as there are usually baddies lurking about. Your best bet is just to keep running and hide behind something. The AI is not particularly high, so it is "out of sight, out of mind" with them, and they will soon loose interest if they cannot see you. Running and weaving will generally keep your health bar up.

There are a couple of interesting levels; for example, you attend an Embassy function where the goal is not to kill everyone is sight but to blend in, sabotage the air ducts, assume the identity of the Ambassador's aide and get to the underground passage. This takes a little bit of thought, but I found it really easy. It appears that you can get away with almost anything, e.g. there you are placing smoke bombs in the air ducts, and unless a guard is actually on screen with you, you get away with it. I read another review of this where someone was moaning that a fault of the game was that it had too many different types of gameplay: e.g. a sniper mode, shooting mode, puzzle modes, adventure modes. I disagree BIG time - more games with more varied levels say I.

There are two playability options: Mission Possible (easy) and Mission Impossible (normal). The Possible mode was dead easy, but when I completed the game in a weekend (feeling smug) I only got 49% (so I had been thinking that I was only half way through the game and felt a bit miffed to find it had finished!). So (sad person that I am) I rang the Technical Support Team who told me that in the Possible mode, there are more objectives to complete, and that is what bumps the percentage up. What's the betting that I finish the Impossible Mode just to find I STILL haven't got 100%? There are BOUND to be hidden levels/objectives...(or at least I hope so! - watch this space!)

Enjoyment:

Well yes, I did enjoy it; I can't deny it. It kept me glued to my TV for a weekend, and I have not enjoyed a game so much since Metal Gear (don't get me wrong this is nothing like in MGS's league!!), but I think we always enjoy a game we can "Do" without too much dying. They have got the balance right between making it too easy, which gives you that anti-climax feeling and making a game a darn right stinker, which causes you to trade it in without getting very far at all. Good gadgets: a facemaker, so that you can assume the identity of another person, dart guns, but nothing too startling.

Multiplayer:

N/A

Overall Impression:

There is nothing wrong with it as a game, it is not too difficult. It is nice to look at, and you get to run around, use gadgets and frustrate the bad guys. Aaaaah, innit nice! It is not a classic, but for what it is, it is OK. That is about all.

Replayability? Nah. Get to the end and trade it in.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

I did notice a couple of TV ads when the game came out, but I would not say they were aimed at anyone in particular. Once again it is a male character, with no option to play a female. With all of the females left either to be rescued or female baddies, I am sure I have heard all this before...