Impossible Mission 2025 - The Special Edition

 Amiga 1200, Impossible Mission 2025 - The Special Edition (1994) game

Upon checking what contemporary Amiga magazines had rated this game I was shocked to discover how highly it had scored! My own experience with it back in the Nineties as a young gamer was failing miserably to get anywhere and not having the inspiration to keep trying - in fairness, I don't remember playing the original upon which it was based (and came as part of the package), very much either, so I don't think my lack of interest came from comparison with that. I just always remembered finding it a boring game that wasn't as accessible as most of the platform games I played then. Having enjoyed the original this year I fully intended to have a crack at this one, even with memories of my former disengagement with it, so I wasn't surprised to find a host of problems with the remake after the tight, bright, clean design and colour of that enjoyable original. First impression is how ugly it looks, dull browns and greys, a far cry from the majority of the platform genre, but I don't think it was limited to the era in which this was made that the mistaken belief that dark, gloomy visuals made a game more edgy and grown-up (see any Mario game for refutation details), was common, while in actual fact it just made them miserable and ugly.

It's not merely the look that put me off, however, it's the overhauling of the entire style on which it was based: no longer are you confined to one room at a time, you're thrown into a large environment full of instant death drops, the playing view (one of its biggest issues), is zoomed in too much, unlike the original where each room was all there neatly laid out on the screen, a puzzle to be solved. Now the environment was too open, and because your view was so close in you can't see around your character enough, making the job a lot harder: you can't see much above you without jumping, and you can't see below at all, with no way to move the camera in that direction without taking a leap of faith and jumping or dropping off a platform, a heinous crime in a platformer! But most annoying is that Atombender's robots (it's still the same guy all these years later, so either this isn't set in the same 'world' as the original where you caught him at the end, or he's escaped prison - they didn't care as much about in-game timelines and having ongoing continuity back then!), suddenly appear at the edge of the screen, and you have little time to react. Even worse, and this is where the unfair gameplay comes in, Maintenance Droids can appear from nowhere, you can go to the edge of a platform, move back so the edge is off screen, and they'll come charging along out of nowhere, plus they can change speed and direction, so you may not be safe even if you've dispatched all robots in the vicinity!

It's not like you have beautifully implemented controls, either, as your man (or woman, or robot - three characters to choose from, but I'm not sure why, there's no incentive to replay levels with a different character and no alternate ending!), jogs along and leaps in such an arc that you can easily misjudge it and find yourself colliding with a robot, sending you off to the last computer screen you entered (if you fall off the bottom of the level it puts you back at the beginning). This was another area which annoyed: instead of the multitude of easily reachable computer terminals in each room of the first game, there are a smattering of consoles across each large level, with specific functions - here's where the criticism of unnecessary complication comes in: as in the original you search objects which then reveal something. It used to be one of three things, either a puzzle piece, Snooze code to send robots to sleep, or a Lift Reset to put all the lifts in a room back to their original positions. Now there are far more things to collect - it could be a gun which fires one shot to destroy a robot, or a temporary invulnerability. It could be a lift reset or a magnet to draw one lift towards you. There are a number of these Power-Ups, though the most important item, the one you're searching for, is one of nine pieces of circuit board which, when combined in a particular terminal, will enable you to get the code to allow you to take the lift up to the next level (or Subsection, each Level being divided into three of these).

It's not even as simple as that sounds, for when you have all the circuit boards you have to arrange them in a tile puzzle to find the correct picture, which can take some time since the picture of the circuit board is not easy to distinguish its correct layout as if they're deliberately making it frustrating! Saying that, I actually found that part to be the most enjoyable early on, but even that enjoyment can be cut short if you find the tile solution 'Auto Solve' Power-Up which does the hard work for you, so even the best thing I found in the game could be nullified. That's before you even earn circuit clues or a Power-Up of your choice by playing one of two games Atombender's left around in terminals on each level: a basic shoot'em-up, unvarying in its waves other than a few slightly different patterns, and a simple memory test similar to the original's game rooms, but less nicely laid out, where you input the correct sequence of shapes in the musical order they appeared. These give you a choice of either a Power-Up (though you're limited in what you can choose, and if you want the better ones you have to play through a number of times), or the circuit clue which I believe starts off one piece of the circuit board in its correct placing in the tile puzzle. And just like the original game you don't have lives or health, you're afforded a certain amount of time and have to complete a level within it, losing a few minutes every time you die, either by contact with a robot or falling off the screen - as before you can fall any distance to land without penalty.

I wasn't thrilled with all these new rules and additions, the look, or the sound (the music wasn't bad, other than the third or fourth level which really grated, but the sound effects weren't as perfectly judged as before, though they were fine), or anything else about it, but I persevered, and if there is one saving grace about it, it's the password save at the end of each Subsection, ensuring a certain level of accessibility. If I'd have had to complete those early levels every time to get to a later one the experience would soon have palled, but at least with passwords there's a sense of achievement and progression that helped me to keep going. The second level in The Office was an improvement in most ways - it looked better than the Carpark and I was getting into the rhythm of the gameplay so that by the time I was on the third level, Industrial Zone, I was actively looking forward to having another go at it - I'd build up a map of a level in my head and think about where I might have missed something or how to get to another area and so the puzzle aspect became more enjoyable. It remained annoying it wasn't possible to control everything from the Joystick alone as you could in the original, forced to cycle through the Power-Ups (with a limitation of carrying only three at a time!), then hitting space to activate them (although you could do it by pressing down and hitting fire, but if mistimed you'd end up doing an inadvertent jump which could cause great irritation).

I came to understand the idea of the Power-Ups, when to use them, which ones were most valuable and what it was best to carry depending on what part of the level you were on - there might be automatic gun turrets which need to be shot or destroyed by grenade to get past, there could be a lift to an upper part of the level that required a magnet to bring it down to you, but best of all is locating the Holy Grail: in this case a Jet-Pac that allowed you to fly anywhere in a level with the side benefit of unlimited laser ammo. At first this seemed merely a boon to allow you to get through a level quicker, and much like the Auto Solve something that took away the point of playing the game, but as things progressed I learned it was essential to reach certain parts of levels and would be increasingly difficult to find so that when you did you felt a level of elation from the empowerment. Even then things weren't solved as you were given limited fuel, and once it's gone, it's gone. A heretofore unrealised tactical element came into the game where you in fact needed specific items at certain points to progress, and then you had to keep track of the location of Inventory terminals (or Locator terminals which would show you where the other computers were), in case you need an essential Power-Up, so I no longer resented all these different terminals and Power-Ups, they became integral to the experience.

My rating, which I was seriously considering awarding one star early on, had gone up to two and I was even considering three stars, except what I assumed would be the final Level, Computer Centre (because how many other departments could there be - I was forgetting it's not a logical place, so Construction is right at the top where I was expecting maybe one level of a penthouse!), was typical of final levels in games in that it was less fun to play, and more of a headache, but I was surprised that I was actively enjoying the game which had initially seemed like a slog compared with the streamlined neatness of the original. Taken as something different, ignoring what it was based on, brought it out as a very different experience with only rudimentary similarities. Even the physical side of it, having to anticipate Maintenance Droids appearing from the edge of the screen, or the different types of robot you encounter, became a test of skill rather than an annoyance at lack of vision (and you could use the flaw in your favour - if you wanted rid of those Droids you could usually run away so they were off-screen and that could make them disappear). It remained a touch unfair when you had to drop down to a lower platform you couldn't see, but even dying became a part of the tactics - a way to get back to the start of the level, or to jump back to the last terminal (sometimes I might not enter a new terminal to ensure I'd be put back higher in a level upon death, all part of the tactics). Unconventional, and a generally frowned upon way of doing things, circumventing the usual rules of avoiding death at all costs, but this isn't a typical platform game and I came to see that.

Atombender's warped abilities clearly didn't extend to the quality of his shoot'em-up 'SPPAM' ('Synchro Punk Patrol: Alien Menace'), which had terrible slowdown when too many aliens appeared on screen at the same time, and this may have been a flaw in-game (actual game, not game within game!), but I took it as deliberate, a commentary on his personal failures in life and work. The fact I was adding lore to the game world in my own mind shows I had become invested in it, shockingly! I came to really enjoy 'SPPAM' and it became a useful tool in getting Jet-Pacs in later levels where either they weren't available or were tricky to find - it required a chunk of playing through the mini-game maybe six or seven times, but it was worth it for the time saved by access to the Jet-Pac. It became trickier each Level you played it on, but within that it was at the same difficulty so you could just keep replaying it, unlocking the less essential Power-Ups until you could get the Jet-Pac, and after that you could keep winning them. One of the last levels I needed three or four to have enough fuel to explore the upper regions. The Auto Solve wasn't necessary as I became used to the slightly abstract designs and it wouldn't take long to solve the tile puzzle, although there were still times when I got as far as the lift to the next level and then time ran out! The other game, the Holo-Sequencer, was much tougher (and in later levels with faster and longer sequences to keep track of), so I tended to stick to 'SPPAM.'

Some of those later levels were pretty demanding, though I always felt there was plenty of time in which to complete them (you're shown your game total at the start of each Subsection and my total at the beginning of Level 5, Subsection 3, the final 'proper' level, was 14 hours, 27 minutes, so I estimate the grand total at about 16 hours, not counting the many retries), it's really only the amount of time you die that causes time problems. That last level was a real challenge, mainly of patience as this part of the Construction Area is split into two halves, reached by only one central lift between them which takes an age to travel up to the top and back down to the bottom again, playing with your sense of urgency about the need to finish the level quickly, and if you fall or die you have to wait for it to come - most frustrating! An added wrinkle is no items to use, even though you have the option to play the two game terminals, as other than them and the code computer there aren't any others, meaning you can't select Power-Ups from an Inventory terminal or search out the level using the Locator terminal (a good way to explore the layout without actually travelling around). And the frequency of attack from the crosshair of doom is increased, so thoroughly nasty and a bit of a joke... But nonetheless a relief upon completion!

I haven't even mentioned the crosshair of doom: this was a small cross that appears on the screen and flies around until it either tracks you, going red and moving in for the kill, or travels across the screen getting lower and lower until you have to jump over it to avoid getting zapped. It's a thoroughly unwelcome visitor, especially if you're doing well in other aspects, a wildcard that suddenly appears at random to throw your plans into disarray. As if in revenge at this despicable and ignominious Sword of Damocles, you get to have your own crosshairs in the final final level, which is a brief and odd duel between you and Elvin dressed in a Mech suit where he flies around the screen and you have to keep shooting him (in first person). After that it's roll credits with a brief animation of the top of his skyscraper blowing up, but it was disappointing not to have any character-specific image, even if wasn't animated, as it doesn't give you that small incentive to replay (and annoying I didn't have time to take note of the total game time). Even so I was surprised that I ended up enjoying the overall experience, yet another classic Amiga game that I didn't get very far with in the old days that has now been conquered. It could certainly be a candidate for Surprise of The Year, a category I always award in my Retrogaming Review of The Year, simply because I don't remember a game where all the criticisms I had were turned around and which I came to accept, even relish some of them. (But I still prefer the original). Maybe I should have waited until next year to play it...

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