Impossible Mission II

Kodoichi 2017-10-28
(8/10)
-Monk-: chill.
View all comments (387)

Colonel Kurtz 2017-02-15
(8/10)
How about a review dude?
View all comments (274)

-Monk- 2016-10-21
This definitely does NOT manage to keep any atmosphere or feel of any superior version 'intact' (I didn't know 'atmosphere' and 'feel' were things that can be sliced to smaller bits or shards).

Look at Turrican. Go ahead, look at it.

That's a perfect example of how to do a from C64 to Amiga-port. Yes, it existed for the Commodore 64 first, and was ported to Amiga afterwards.

Now, when you use that game as a yardstick, you can understand what I expect from these ports. Most ports from the eighties do not cut the mustard by this standard. Wizball, Netherworld, Impossible Mission II- all belong to the same trash bin of lousy, half-assed claptraps where almost nothing was improved, most parts were actually made worse, and what WAS tried to improve, actually just makes a reasonable human being groan out of sheer irritation.
View all comments (51)

-Monk- 2016-10-21
When I heard THIS game's version of the originally emotional, slightly-mad, perfectly 'hammy', a bit overacted Another Visitor!-speech, I was shocked. It's like they hired some random dude from the street, told him to just 'read these words' the way he'd read something for his children as bedtime story without ANY sort of voice acting or emotional content whatsoever, and then do his version of 'maniacal laugh' and kept the first take.

After all, they were in a hurry to cash-in with this piece of trash.
View all comments (51)

-Monk- 2016-10-21
To be clear; Impossible Mission is a timeless classic. One can play it any day, from 1984 to 20(whateveryear), and it's always going to be just as atmospheric, just as playable, just as much fun and just as gloriously beautiful (as long as you play with a real C64 and a bright CRT television).

The sequel is a lot like the Soul Calibur sequels; it feels like they tried to do the same, but just added 'more stuff' while keeping 'what they thought made it popular'. This kind of calculated cash-in is always going to be a disappointment. The familiar stuff feels boring, because we've already seen it. The new stuff feels boring, because it doesn't bring anything exciting or relevant, it's just 'trivial tweaks' instead of 'complete overhaul' (which might've been exciting).
View all comments (51)

-Monk- 2016-10-21
IM felt like 'exciting possibilities', and made you ponder the reality 'outside the screen' that you never see (but feel, because IM provokes your imagination).

IMII felt like 'exploitation of the first game's popularity', and that's _ALL_ it is.

No new speeches, no new animations for the agent, no new fullscreen graphic screens. Added 'isometry' (this always looks bad IMHO, from Chuckie Egg to Lode Runner, it makes graphics actually worse, and kills the imagination, plus makes things 'small' - when there's no isometry, you're free to imagine all kinds of distances and 'beyond-distances' - but with isometry, you see the exact measures, and your imagination is no longer involved. In Wizball, you 'imagine' the distance from the ground to the horizon to the stars, etc. In the 'animation that celebrates Wizball', the maker didn't have enough imagination for that, and he showed the Wizball ground as just small, thin, grey slabs of concrete - suddenly all magic was lost, and things became mundane - same happened with IMII) ruins whatever might be otherwise interesting.

And as some have pointed out, the color scheme in ALL versions of this turd is just horrific, awful, and worst of all; repetitive and dull. If every room was different color, like in IM, it might work a bit better. But the step towards 'more realistic graphics' actually kills the 'mystical, robotic atmosphere' and brings us just dullness, boredom and tedium.
View all comments (51)

-Monk- 2016-10-21
Every decision they made when rehashing this idea of a crazy Elvin and a lab-complex, was wrong. To keep the original sprite intact - wrong. A new sprite would've offerd something refreshing. Discarding the idea of completely new speeches without any of the old ones - wrong. The color scheme, especially it keeping so similar all the time - wrong. Bringing isometry into it - wrong.

I could go on, but one gets the picture.

Their worst mistake, however, was the decision to MAKE this pile of blue-n-pink turds.

The decision to port it to Amiga the way they did, was almost as bad.

If you MUST play this awful rehash, do yourself a favor and play the Commodore 64-version - it at least has GOOD speeches, LIVELY sound effects and a bit of an atmosphere still left (though not much). And its opening title music actually sounds exciting. The Amiga version sounds very tired, as if they wanted to make as boring and dead version of that song ever possible (where the C64 version changes instruments, for example, the Amiga version uses the same, tired, dead sample instru).

Even the title pic is more interesting on the C64, because it actually provokes your imagination, and feels way more 'fresh' (probably because it doesn't try to copy an existing pic and 'improve upon it').

Too Long; Didn't Read?

Impossible Mission's C64-version is good.

Impossible Mission II's C64-version is bad.

Impossible Mission II's Amiga-version is a sin against all existence.
View all comments (51)

yaztromo 2015-10-24
(8/10)
Manages to keep the atmosphere and feel of the C64 version intact. An impressive effort that is a joy to play. The save system is great addition. 8/10.
View all comments (135)

Spider 2012-09-24
(7/10)
At first feel there is no difference between C64 and Amiga. But if you
"stay for a while" you can hear, of course, better sounds. And the best
of all: YOU CAN SAVE ! Yes, there is "another visitor" - and I will come back tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow...ha, ha, ha !!!
View all comments (156)

ricky500 2011-08-04
Great follow up to the original classic. Thankfully someone at Epyx had the foresight to put a save and restore feature into this game - which makes it not so impossible and more enjoyable than the original.
View all comments (102)

phelit 2009-09-04
(10/10)
Another visitor.... Stay a while! STAY FOR EVER!!!! MUAHAHHAHHAAHAHA!!!

I loved this one!
View all comments (3)

petrucci 2009-03-13
(8/10)
The same game as the 8 bit version, nothing changes..maybe a bit slower (!), but the magic, the alone of mystery and the anxiety is identical.
View all comments (38)

Reynolds 2006-01-20
(10/10)
I simply love this game. It's so different from any other platformers. And I'm patriot, this is one of the first titles which released for the masses, not only in Hungary.
underrated
View all comments (7)

stooart 2005-11-28
(7/10)
Another ST port me thinks, remember laughing out loud at the title screen "music". Awful! Still, my bro played it a lot and it was fun to watch, especially blowing up the safes!
View all comments (524)

Ahmad Jaafar 2005-07-10
(7/10)
I don't know about the C64 version, but quite frankly on the Amiga version, it's quite a slow graphic. But still good game to play. But from my point of view, the first Impossible Mission game which is only on C64 is way better then the second Impossible Mission on the Amiga and perhaps on C64 as well because I think it's quite the same. But good sounds and good tunes.
View all comments (116)

Fizza 2005-05-03
(6/10)
Gross colour scheme made this too hard on the eyes, forget this and load up the original Impossible Mission on the C64.
View all comments (97)

Jams 2005-02-06
I have a strange association with sisters of mercy and this game
View all comments (93)

sys2074 2005-01-25
(9/10)
I liked this game alot! And yes I've played the first part on C64 before as well. Strangely I have an unforgetable association of Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices song to this game!
View all comments (51)

Trantor 2005-01-20
(4/10)
Boy was this game a dissapointment. Not only was there a lack of innovation in comparison with the original game, but the excessive use of neon pink and light blue really just ate away at the atmosphere. Too bad, this should have been one of the great gaming franchises of the 80s and 90s.
View all comments (245)

Haplo 2005-01-19
Overrated.
View all comments (142)