As an erstwhile Spectrum and C64 owner, the name Impossible Mission sends all sorts of chills up and down my spine. I can well remember countless days and nights spent searching rooms in a secret underground bunker, looking tor the missing parts of a puzzle that would allow me to enter the hidden room and kill the mad professor who is trying to take over the world. "Destroy him my robots," cried the voice of said sanity-challenged intellectual. Digitised speech on a C64! It was incredible.
But that was ten years ago, and now MicroProse have seen fit to bring us the 32-bit 1994 edition of the game that rewrote the rules. However, I can't help but feel a little disappointed by the improved design. In the good old days, when you only had a few colours to play with, and a maximum of 64K, most of the programming time was spent on getting the playability of the game perfect. Nowadays, the actual level of gameplay is allowed to slip a little if it means you can make the graphics nicer, or add some more music to the game.
MISSION IN ACTION
The presentation has been updated, but the actual game remains much the same. You have to search every object in each location for the parts of a puzzle, which must be solved to open the exit for the location. As items are searched, various other objects can be found, such as single shot guns, jet packs, mines and all manner of other toys and freezes. As you run around the enormous scrolling levels, you'll also find computer terminals dotted about, which when activated will either supply you with an inventory list, a shoot 'em up, a Simon-style music memory game or a terminal location program that will show you where all the other computers are. At the end of the level you'll find the computer that is used to sort the puzzle, which takes the form of a very difficult sliding block puzzle, difficult only because you have to build a circuit board with absolutely no way of checking which way the pieces fit together.
So what improvements have been made over the original? Well, you now have three different characters to choose from instead of the original one. The rooms have been broken down into levels and expanded to a hundred times their original size. Described by someone at MicroProse as. "the thinking man's platform game*. Impossible Mission 2025 is surprising low on action by comparison to most platform games, but then again it does require a considerable amount of thought.
MISSION THE POINT
After playing the game for a few nights, I have to admit I feel a little disappointed. By trying to combine a puzzle game with a platform title. MicroProse seems to have fallen between two stools. This game just doesn't have the charm or excitement of the original, but perhaps fond memories have clouded my view.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad game, it just gets tedious after a few goes. It may have been souped up for the nineties, but it belongs in the eighties.
Next generation of the famous Impossible Mission game, which was a big hit on the C64. The 2025 edition features three characters, many new futuristic levels with detailed graphics and good music. You can also launch the Classical Impossible Mission, it's integrated into the game.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
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