3 solid Die Hard games in a single game is a superb and fun deal that Movie fans can really appreciate.
Game Title: Die Hard Trilogy
Platform: PlayStation
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Publisher: Fox Interactive
Genre: Action
Age Rating: ELSPA: 18+
Release Date: August 31st 1996 (North America), November 1996 (Europe), December 13th 1996 (Japan)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Score: 8.0/10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summery:
3 solid Die Hard games in a single game is a superb and fun deal that Movie fans can really appreciate.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Movie licensed video games are just complete rubbish cash-ins which attempt to make a quick buck but however very rarely there is a licensed game that is actually good. One of those kind of games is Die Hard Trilogy. This game is a 3 in 1 compilation which fans of the movies will not be disappointed about. Believe it or not unlike many other movie licenses this package is actually great to play.
Die Hard Trilogy consists of 3 different games which all have different perspectives. You have Die Hard 1 which plays as a simple 3rd person shooter, Die Hard 2: Die Harder which is a On-Rails Shoot-em-up and finally Die Hard: With a Vengeance is a driving game. All 3 of these games are very faithful and also resemble many of the locations seen in the movie.
I look at Die Hard 1 first and it's a Third person shooter where the camera the behind the player and your goal is to run around a closed building one floor at a time and then shoot down the terrorists while rescuing Hostages. Each level has a set number of enemies and hostages to be sorted out before you need to find the elevator with a bomb to defuse and take you to the next level. You control John McClane with the D-pad and using X to shoot, Circle cycles through your other available weapons, Triangle jumps, L1 and R1 strafe and L2 and R2 buttons do a side roll. You'll also find different weapons lying around inside crates or large boxes and also some enemies will drop them such as Grenades, rifles, machine guns and armor to protect you from damage.
While enjoyable the game does surprise you with a bomb sequence where if you think you've finally finished a stage you'll have a 30 second timer to find that elevator before the bomb explodes which delivers some heart pounding moments that you don't want the building to blow up. Whenever you fail at reaching the bomb you'll lose a Life and you have to restart the whole stage again.
Sometimes you'll be faced with loads of enemies which can damage you easily so the best idea is to wait for one guy to come to you so that you can pick them off easier. Always watch out for Hostages cause shooting one will cause you lose points. Die Hard 1 is fun but it just gets more harder and harder that you'll be desperate for extra lives. There are only some by the way.
On to Die Hard 2: Die Harder which is a On-Rails shooter much like Virtua Cop and also it's compatible with the Light Guns that are the HyperBlaster on the PlayStation version but it's unfortunate that the game does not support Namco's G-Con 45 controller. You can also use the standard controller or the PlayStation compatible Mouse. I mostly played this with the Light Gun. When bad guys show up they will have a crosshair on them to tell you to shoot them and they have arrows which go anti-clockwise while the screen zooms in at the target and when it's finished reaching the centre then the enemy shoots you. You have about 6 Lives and if you get shot with no lives left then you die. You have to aim carefully at the bad guys cause some guys can use hostages as baits to get you to shoot down the hostages causing you to lose points. There are about 8 stages and unlike the first game you get additional points for stage success and you do unlock secrets by perfect shots and avoiding to shot civilians.
The 2 main issues I have are: one the camera in which when I shot one guy the camera can immediately shift to another guy when I'm about to another guy instead killing a civilian by accident. The second problem is that you cannot calibrate the Light Gun controller which means you'll most likely have problems aiming more efficiently. Dispute these issues it's fun to blast through waves of enemies in an On-Rails fashion and there are plenty of destructive power ups and your main weapon can be instantly swapped permanently for a better weapon as a reward.
Die Hard: With a Vengeance is a driving game where your goal is to drive around streets, warehouses or the seaside to locate and destroy the target bombs within the time limit. With each bomb you catch the time limit increases but however should the timer go out, they city is blown up and you'll restart at the last checkpoint. You'll occasionally find a few power ups such as Extra Time, Bonus Points, Turbo Boosts and Rarely you'll get an Extra Life. After each stage you'll enter a subway stage where you challenge a truck racer who is nearly faster then you but I managed to win against the big truck every time.
It's aright but however the driving controls are very awkwardly set up on the controller and takes a while to get used to. Some chases with bomb cars can be annoying when they try to delay you from bashing right into them. You'll might spend a lot more time running over civilians by accident.
Die Hard's graphics are quite good, the environment details from the movie are rendered nicely and the models while facial features are rough are quite good. The amount of destruction you can do in the games are impressive as each area can be damaged or blown up. Each explosion causes the screen to shake and also in Die Hard 2, the screen does a warp effect each time you are shot and you are given a white flash effect when you die. During the results screen you'll enjoy watching people burn to death and watching people people mess around at the results screen while it's amusing for each character to hold up letters for you to select.
The game's soundtrack is impressive if not relatable with the movie, the voice clips are detailed nicely but the phrase "Yippy ki yay" has the F part edited out.
All three games in this package are amazingly enjoyable and a superb and fun deal that Movie fans can really appreciate. If must movie licenses where that bad before this one and also Goldeneye on N64 then maybe it's time for most game developers to encourage themselves in watching the movie first before even deciding to make one. Of the available versions of the game then I recommend the PlayStation it does feature Light Gun support and also the graphics are way better to look at.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------