MI: Operation Surma

Agent Ethan Hunt returns to the world of consoles in Atari's new action adventure. But with no Tom Cruise involvement and no link to an actual movie, can this game show enough character of its own to succeed? This review will self destruct in five seconds, four, three, two, one...

Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma is Infogrames/Atari's entry into the growing stealth action/adventure game genre. The game is inspired by the two recent Mission: Impossible movies that in turn were based on a TV show of yesteryear. In the movies, Tom Cruise played the lead character, Ethan Hunt. Sorry, ladies, Mr. Cruise does not lend his likeness or talent to the game. The only cast member reprising his role for the game is Ving Rhames as the communications specialist, Luther.

The game does not try to recreate either Mission: Impossible movie but rather uses characters and situations inspired by the movies in a new story. In Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma an evil international conglomerate named Surma has come into possession of the Ice Worm computer virus. This virus will allow them to break into any computer in the world. Of course, Ethan Hunt and the rest of his Impossible Missions Force team must stop them.

The Mission: Impossible TV series has always been the king of gadgets used in amazing ways to accomplish the missions the team was sent on. To accomplish missions in Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma the IMF team is equally well equipped. Gadgets and their use are a high point for the game. The gadgets are really cool, work well and logically, and can be used in a variety of ways to accomplish missions. Practicing with the various gadgets, and realizing when to employ them and how, is the key to success. Luckily, the game has a nice teaching feature that coaches the player on how to use gadgets the first time a situation needing a particular device presents itself. This feature can be turned off should it grow tiresome.

The Mission: Impossible TV series has always been the king of gadgets used in amazing ways to accomplish the missions the team was sent on. To accomplish missions in Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma the IMF team is equally well equipped. Gadgets and their use are a high point for the game. The gadgets are really cool, work well and logically, and can be used in a variety of ways to accomplish missions. Practicing with the various gadgets, and realizing when to employ them and how, is the key to success. Luckily, the game has a nice teaching feature that coaches the player on how to use gadgets the first time a situation needing a particular device presents itself. This feature can be turned off should it grow tiresome.

Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma can be a touch frustrating as sometimes much trial and error play is required to get past certain points in the game. The feeling of pride at getting past a particularly tricky spot is worth it though.



Sound is more than adequate to set the feeling for the game as well as impart clues to the player. The voice talent is pretty good overall and the addition of Ving Rhames reprising his movie role gives it a nice air of the authentic Mission: Impossible movie experience.

Graphics are also very good. The characters are well detailed and animated. The environments are full of shadowy areas that give the player ample places to hide out of sight of guards. As a matter of fact, all environmental lighting details are well executed. Cut scenes are good quality and truly add to the gaming experience.



Okay, Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma is not quite as fresh as it would have been if Splinter Cell were not already out there, but it is a very solid game in the stealth genre and a really outstanding use of a movie license that just begged for this kind of game. It is amazing in itself that "outstanding use of a movie license" can actually be said in connection with video games with anything like a straight face. If you are a Mission: Impossible fan or a fan of this type of game, it is definitely worth a look.