Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza Preview

The Nakatomi Tower helicopter pad is just one of the areas in the game.

When Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza was first shown, FPS fans and fans of the original Die Hard film had reason to be dubious, as the trailer showed very little promise for the upcoming game. By E3, the developer--Piranha Games--surprised visitors to the Sierra booth with a version of the game that looked surprisingly better than the one displayed in the video, piquing the interest of those fans who might have already dismissed the game. At a recent Sierra press event, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza was once again on display, and it looks as though the game is steadily progressing and shaping up to be a respectable first-person shooter with a couple of interesting gameplay elements. However, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza still has some rough edges, but the development team hopes to smooth out any problems before the game's release later this year.

As you might have guessed from the title, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza is based on the first film in the Die Hard series in which a cop named John McClane tries to save hostages--and his wife--from a group of terrorists attempting to break into the Nakatomi vault. There are some slight differences between what you see in the movie and what you see in the game. In fact, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza is only based on a portion of the movie because the development team wanted to show what was happening to John McClane when the camera wasn't on him. The result is a mix of the old floors seen in the movie with new floors completely devised and constructed by Piranha Games, and though they've taken some liberty with what appears on those new floors--everyone involved with the project likes to consider Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza the director's cut of the original Die Hard film.

Many of the levels feature destructable objects, such as glass windows.

Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza has 40 levels to match the number of floors of the Nakatomi Tower from the movie, and as John McClane, you progress through each floor in a linear fashion, so you can't jump from the second floor to the eighth floor whenever you want. While that may not seem true to the movie, Piranha Games wanted to design a game that would appeal to fans of the movie as well as casual fans who may not know or remember which floors John McClane went to in the movie. This design choice is obvious in other aspects of the game: For example, you can use a radio to stay in constant contact with police officer Powell on the outside of the building. He gives you indirect hints that you can use in case it isn't clear what you're suppose to do in a particular area. Fans of the movie probably won't have to use this feature as much since many of the puzzles are actually stripped from the film, but Piranha feels that it's a necessary tool for an audience that may not know the film quite as well.