Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma

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Tags: Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews

Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Jan 26th, 2004

Title Players
Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma (title page) 1
Developer Publisher Genre Online
Action No


I’ve been a Mission: Impossible fan for as long as I can remember. I initially learned who Leonard Nimoy and Martin Landau were (two big names in genre geek entertainment) through the original television series. I even watched the revival of the show in the late 1980’s.

One of the halmarks of the series was the teamwork, each person had their area of expertise, the the team worked together. The show regularly showcased the talents or abilites of an individual or two during an episode, but it was a team, led by Jim Phelps that got the job done.



When the first Mission: Impossible film came out, I was appaled. By turning Phelps into a traitor and making the focus more on an individual agent, especially in the sequel (Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt) much of what made Mission: Impossible different was taken away.

Enter the videogames.

Aas an extension of the film franchise which has taken Mission: Impossible in a new direction, it works. Where the problem with that however is that Tom Cruise refuses to let his likeness be in the game, so what we get is a second rate Ethan Hunt, starring in what is essentially a solo mission.


The opportunity was here for Atari and developer Paradigm had the opportunity here to create not “just another spy game” but actually create a game worthy of carrying the Mission: Impossible name. We take what we can get, but unfortunately, what we get shouldn’t be labeled as Mission: Impossible.

The plot is rather convoluted, involving both biotoxins and computer viruses, a small country somewhere broken off of the former Soviet Union, revenge for a deceased father, and in the end, a love ending that everybody sees coming a mile away.


The game is supposed to give the player a feeling of freedom to choose how best to handle any given situation. Unfortunately, Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma is so heavily scripted, that it’s virtually… er, impossible to actually execute that freedom. Players must take Ethan from point A to point B, execute move C to enter a certain door to progress.

There is also far too much gunplay, especially towards the latter portion of the game. Mission: Impossible is supposed to be more about the gadgets and infiltration and trickery with the occasional shot fired. This takes away from the feeling of suspense that should be generated by the game. The heavy scripting also hurts any suspense that could be generated as well.


Perhaps the worst offender however, is the camera. It is of the “free floating” variety, and not fixed. It often feels as if the camera operator is trying to make an Itallion expressionist film while addicted to crack. Yes – there are some problems with the camera. Particularly towards the end of the game during the two skydiving portions. For the apt description, I defer to Ford Prefect, as quoted in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: “Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow.”


And the graphics aren’t up to speed – this game was defenitely created using the “lowest common denominator” as standard. There doesn’t seem to be any enahancements for the Xbox. Even for a PS2 game, there seems to be some low-end graphics.

The audio fares much better however. Decent voice acting can’t save the game from the rest of the problems, but it does help make the game playable. Having Ving Rhames allow his likeness and voice doesn’t quite make up for the fact that Tom Cruise should have been there, but does help to extend the license and keep the player involved with the characters and franchise.


There are of course the requisiste gadgets, the sonic goggles to see through doors, the rope gun to access hig places, binoculars with a camera, electronic lock bypass thingies, etc. The most annoying of these however, is the WASP, a remote controlled flying camera that has a tazer attatched to it. It’s highly likely that Ethan Hunt will wind up getting accidentally zapped at some point during your mission, due to close quarters when hiding behind crates and launching the device. And it flies only slightly better than Etahn Free-falls.

There are some massive problems with Mission: Impossible – Operation Surma, but that doesn’t mean it is necessarily a bad game. It’s just not well executed. The game deserves to be a franchise, but certain things need to happen. Here’s my list:

Fix the camera.
Make the game more about the team, with Ethan Hunt leading.
Convince Tom Cuise that it’s to his (and the franchise’s) benefit for him to participate.
If you have doors, they should be able to be opened.
A little bit more open ended style of gameplay would be nice – let the player decide how to best infiltrate an area (through the back door, front door, window, etc.).
No more skydiving. Ever!


Maybe I’m being too hard on the game. It’s not a bad game really, it’s just not terribly good. It’s easy to focus on the problems with a game when they are very prevelant, and could have been avoided to make the game something, well, this could have been a great game. As it is, it’s just dissapointingly average.

What Works Score
Stealth sections work well, such as hiding in the shadows
Different types of gameplay incorporated to keep players on their toes 		6.0
What Doesn't
The final boss battle is anti-climactic
Graphics
Skydiving
The game is too heavily scripted
Not enough "team play"
Under the Shrink-wrap
It's a Tom Cruise vehicle, but without Tom Cruise.
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