Die Hard Trilogy

aka: Jungla de Cristal: La Trilogía
Moby ID: 672

[ All ] [ PlayStation ] [ SEGA Saturn ] [ Windows ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 77% (based on 36 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 77 ratings with 6 reviews)

Awesome!

The Good
Well, this game is really great. Actually it's more like 3 games, one for each movie. Each one plays differently as well. Die Hard is a chase-view shooter through Nakatomi plaza. The graphics here are fairly nice, although the characters a pretty blocky. Die Hard II plays like the Time Crisis games and is very entertaining. You get lots of weapons, tons of explosions and very good action with this mode, although it's pretty darn hard. Lastly, Die Hard with a Vengeance takes you to the streets of L.A. which look and sound great- you can see for miles down the street as you tear through a distressed city. It's funny when you hit people while in 1st person view in this mode!

The Bad
Some bad AI by the enemies, blocky graphics in some parts. Some of the voice-quotes are annoying.

The Bottom Line
Cool! Definitely worth your money. You can't beat the value of 3 games in one. If you liked the movie you'll probably like the game too, but not as much.

PlayStation · by Ben Fahy (92) · 2001

Mediocre 3-in-1 Game

The Good
I was going to start off by saying that I love the Die Hard films, but honestly if you've played Die Hard Trilogy for the PS1 then you're most likely already a fan and know about the films, so I'll just get into the game.

Die Hard Trilogy lets you play as John McClane as he navigates his way through pint-sized version of the first three films. The first game mode, a.k.a. Die Hard, is a top-view 3D shooter (much like Loaded) where you navigate through the Nakatomi Tower, blowing away enemies, finding hostages, and busting through crates to find health and weapon pick-ups. This is a pretty fast paced game mode, and is pretty entertaining for the most part. The graphics in this mode are pretty decent, however character models are very chunky and not very detailed, though the environments look nice and are relatively well designed.

The second mode, a.k.a. Die Harder, is a rail shooter (much like House of the Dead) where you shoot your way through an airport filled with a bunch of bad guys. I think this is my probably my favorite game mode in the trilogy. The shooting is pretty addicting and I enjoy how it has a heavy arcade feel to it. In my opinion, Die Harder has the best graphics out of the three games. Seeing as it's a rail shooter, the environments have a lot more detail to them, character models look a bit smoother here than in Die Hard, and the action feels a lot more lively as well.

The third and last game mode, a.k.a. Die Hard With a Vengeance, has the player driving around New York City racing to diffuse bombs set to blow all around the neighborhood. Honestly I don't have many good things to say about this mode. Driving around and exploring the mini New York City that is presented here is pretty interesting but that's about it.

The Bad
Here are some of the problems that I had with this game.

Firstly, I've encountered lots of glitches in Die Hard. I've gone through many walls, got stuck inside the ceiling (probably a rare occurrence, but is game breaking nonetheless), and trying to race towards the exit at the end of each stage can be a real headache as the environments are nice, but are often repetitious and it's hard to tell which room is which. What really made me mad was getting stuck inside walls and the ceiling. There's no way out of it; I couldn't escape by killing myself or moving around, I was simply stuck and my only option was to restart the entire level. It sounds simple enough, but these levels are pretty lengthy as you have to find several hostages, clear out all enemies, and sometimes find keycards. It's quite frustrating being finished with a level and then getting caught on a wall and having to restart an entire level. This is what really bothered me with this game mode.

Die Harder is pretty good for the most part. As I said earlier, gunning down enemies in an airport and essentially recreating the movie was lots of fun, but the shooting can become a bit monotonous and mindless at times. It gets a little boring after some time, but is a total blast at first.

Die Hard With a Vengeance is the worst game in the trilogy, I feel. The gameplay isn't as great as it sounds. The car is a bit annoying to steer, the graphics in this game look the worst as a lot of cars are just big blocks with chunky wheels, and the environments are unsightly. On top of all this, the gameplay itself is also a bit difficult as I can never seem to keep up with the time. There aren't any checkpoints, saves, nothing. Once you run out of time, you have to start all over. It's very frustrating.

The Bottom Line
Being a die hard fan of Die Hard (ha!) I really wanted to enjoy this game a lot more than I do. It's just not that great of a game. While the first two games are fun at the start, they both become repetitious because they lack a lot of differentiation within themselves. The third game is atrocious any way you slice it.

Though this isn't a compilation of great games, it's as close to movie-games as we'll probably ever get, and that alone is what I appreciate about Die Hard Trilogy. You can tell that this game was crafted with appreciation for the films in mind as the menus, which feature signature landmarks from each film, are neatly designed (and even somewhat campy) and includes lots of lines from the films. Check this game out if you like any of the first three Die Hard films, otherwise you may just want to pass and play a better shoot em' up like Doom, Loaded, or even Smash TV.

PlayStation · by blancmange (52) · 2015

"Three maximum adventures, one explosive package!"

The Good
DIE HARD
The Good:
+ Addictive gameplay
+ Great soundtrack
+ Great controls

DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER
The Good:
+ Great soundtrack
+ A sheer of action on-screen, complete with excellent explosions

DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE
The Good:
+ Quick handbrake turns work well
+ Decent soundtrack


The Bad
DIE HARD
The Bad:
- Can get repetitive
- Minor oddities

DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER
The Bad:
- Aiming with the D-Pad is unfriendly and adds fake challenge
- Some items are hard to shoot with the D-Pad

DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE
The Bad:
- The time given on some bombs can be too strict
- Normal steering is ineffective and rather slow

The Bottom Line
DIE HARD
Graphics: 80/100
The graphics would look crude and simplistic by today's standards, but they do look nice. The environments are 3-dimensional, with plenty of lighting and lots of transparencies. In order to prevent the camera from zooming in, the walls near the edges of the screen will turn transparent. It may seem weird looking at first, considering that you can see what's in the rooms on the sides, but it makes the gameplay smoother. The character models are okay, they somewhat resemble 2D sprites illusioned to look 3D, which does work, but it can look quirky at times. The framerate is decent, but later on, the game can slow down when there are a sheer amount of enemies onscreen.

Audio: 93/100
The soundtrack is well done and the enemies sound decent. John McClane is voiced by an imitator which sounds surprisingly almost like Bruce Willis.

Controls: 90/100
The controls are smooth and are slightly slippery. L1 and R1 strafes, L2 and R2 does evasive rolls, X fires your gun, Circle switches grenades, Square throws a grenade and Triangle jumps. Moving in this game works well and doesn't have the "invisible walls" issue. The only issue with the controls is that McClane cannot move forward or backward and strafe simultaneously, and he move and turns in a slightly slippery speed, but these two problems are very minor nitpicks.

Difficulty: Challenging but manageable
Die Hard has a decent challenge, even when the AI has its faults. The terrorists will fire upon you just fine, but they won't bat an eye when they see a hostage escaping. The amount of damage you take depends on the gun the terrorist is using.

Gameplay: 90/100
Die Hard is an early example of a third-person shooter. Third-person shooters weren't common back then, but Die Hard pulls it off quite well. You can move anywhere, shoot at the bad guys, rescue hostages and even save hostages from being executed, which grants you an extra life. Getting extra lives are important as they extend your health. Unlike most games, the lives combine your health, therefore making it one long life. Die Hard is an arcade-type of game, which means that it keeps score. You can gain millions of points in this game, but it doesn't penalise you so much for killing a hostage; all you get is a small drop of points. Die Hard is pretty violent with lots of blood sprays, throw a grenade into a group of bad guys and they'll literally dissolve into a rain of blood.

Score: 90/100

<hr />

DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER
Graphics: 80/100
The graphics are the same as Die Hard, but now the characters are seen even closer, because the perspective is through McClane's eyes, as this is an on-rails shooter. Like in Die Hard, the environment is in 3D, with 2D-looking sprites illusioned. Unfortunately, the closer perspective reveals the quirky animations of the terrorists and hostages.

Audio: 92/100
Die Hard 2 uses the same sound bytes as Die Hard, with only a little more lines to add. The soundtrack is still great, with each level having their own tracks.

Controls: 70/100
Die Hard 2 is meant for a lightgun and a PlayStation mouse. I own none of those, so I have to deal with using a controller. The button controls are fine, but moving the cursor with the D-Pad is a pain. There are instances where I'm trying to shoot a box that's far away, but I can't because one tap on the D-Pad seems to only move it so far. Also the framerate will occasionally drop, screwing up your aim even further. The sensitivity can be controlled, but the digital D-Pad doesn't seem to make the changes very effective. However there is a manual button that speeds up the cursor, which is ideal if the sensitivity is low.

Difficulty: Somewhat tough
While shooting the bad guys are simple, aiming them is simply more of a challenge. Also there are lots of hostages running around, which sometimes doesn't make sense; for example, why are there so many hostages in an airport runway? A hostage would sometimes end up being in your line of sight, which leads to shooting them by accident. Whenever you get shot, a "SAFE" indicator appears, which serves as temporary invincibility, like in Super Mario Brothers whenever you get touched. There are also powerups, such as shields, health, weapon pick-ups and more.

Gameplay: 85/100
Die Hard 2 is an on-rails shooter, meaning your movement is predetermined and you can aim your crosshair anywhere on screen. The idea is like in Die Hard; you shoot terrorists and try not to shoot hostages. This game also keeps score and it works the same way. This game is incredibly violent, as shooting terrorists will cause lots of blood sprays, and using rockets can turn a terrorist into a skeleton.

Score: 80/100

<hr />

DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE
Graphics: 80/100
The graphics are well done with large sizes of New York being on each level and the pedestrians are decently animated. Since this is a driving game, you'll be seeing lots of cars on screen. The cars look decent, but the physics can be a bit quirky.

Audio: 90/100
The soundtrack is great with music matching well for each district, such as Harlem with rap music. John McClane still sounds great, but what I'm disappointed is that Zeus doesn't sound like Samuel L. Jackson.

Controls: 78/100
Die Hard With a Vengeance is the typical driving controls, but what I like about the controls are the quick handbrake turns, L2 and R2, which allows you to instantly make 90° turns; if you let go of the gas and press one of the handbrake buttons, you'll make a 180° turn instead, which can come in handy. The flaws with the controls is that the steering is rather slow and ineffective for sharp turns and crashing into objects can bounce you back, which can get annoying, especially when you have little time left, getting you killed.

Difficulty: Very challenging but gets frustrating much later
Die Hard With A Vengeance is a tough game. While it gives you a reasonable difficulty at the start, some bombs are given too little time, either due to the car or the lack of time pick-ups.

Gameplay: 87/100
As obvious, this is a driving game, like in the movie, there's a whole lot of driving. The idea is that you are suppose to disable bombs, which can be found on your radar as a red arrow; the blue arrows lead you to switch cars, such as switching from a taxi cab to a police car. There's also a time limit on each bomb, and if you don't get to the bomb on time, New York will go up in flames and you lose a life. How do you disable the bombs? Have you ever tried crashing into them, having them explode and counting it as disabling them? Illogical, but still fun. While not as violent as Die Hard 1 and 2, Die Hard With a Vengeance has its fair share of extreme violence, such as how you can run over a pedestrian at will; if you run over them in first-person view, you'll end seeing a red sea of blood on the windshield, complete with McClane automatically using the windshield wipers to wipe out the blood stains. But no matter how many times you run them over, they can't permanently die.

Score: 80/100

<hr />

Die Hard Trilogy:
Overall: 92/100
Movie-based games are notorious for being lukewarm to bad, but Die Hard Trilogy isn't one of them. Die Hard Trilogy is like what it says, "Three maximum adventures, one explosive package!" While they probably won't go as well as stand-alone titles, but combining them somehow makes it greater than the sum of its parts. This trilogy-in-one pack is one of the most memorable games for the PlayStation, also considering that the game was released back in 1996, when the PlayStation was still a new console. This game is a definite must-have, especially as a Christmas gift.

"Yippee-ki-yay motherf_ _ _er!"

Score: 92/100

PlayStation · by StickFigures (167) · 2017

"Eat lead Yankee!"

The Good
When I was younger I had a Sega Saturn and a Sony Playstation so I had the best of both worlds. I did however, only have Die Hard Trilogy for the Playstation and not the Sega Saturn. I remember sitting for hours dropping terrorists in Nakatomi Plaza, blazing through Dulles Airport and rampaging around Manhattan and Central Park in a cab.

Being older now I can appreciate how much effort Fox Interactive put into their first forays into the world of licensed gaming and gaming in general. Alien Trilogy is one of the best FPS titles on either system and of course, there is Die Hard Trilogy. When I became a rabid collector I became aware of the Saturn port of the game and hunted it down like a man possessed for my favourite system. What I found was an interesting, but all to familiar experience in terms of multi-platform ports between the Playstation and Saturn.

Die Hard Trilogy is similar to Alien Trilogy in so far as the game seeks to condense the entirety of three films into a single video game experience. Whereas Alien Trilogy had Ripley going from location to location from the Alien films in an entirely FPS style Die Hard Trilogy eschews one particular style for three very distinctive ones. The game boots to a nice little menu on a spinning CD that lets you decide which game you want to play; Die Hard, Die Hard 2 or Die Hard with a Vengeance. The first is an almost top down shooter where McClane is tasked with freeing hostages and blowing away terrorists while climbing ever so gradually to the top of Nakatomi Tower. The second game is a light gun shooter using the same engine that is similar to Virtua Cop. The third game is more about arcade driving wherein you must race around New York city trying to dispose of bombs.

The three distinctive play styles of each game was, and still is pretty ingenious. While being a cohesive package each of the three "games" included on the Die Hard Trilogy disk could have easily been released on separate discs. They each stand out so well from one another and are so polished that this seems like a sort of greatest hits 3 pack of different games.

Die Hard appeals to the more visceral, action orientated player. You get McClane, an allotted amount of terrorists that must be killed to move on and a bomb that must be reached before it explodes and you die. The abject simplicity of this format is what appeals to me so much. It isn't convoluted, there is no unnecessary clutter, you simply shoot bad guys and save the day. While the simplicity could have been a disadvantage it keeps a furious pace up and despite the straight forward nature of the gameplay environment are packed with incidental detail like explosions and shattering panes of glass. The graphics in this section of the game are well rendered and feature interesting character models built from individual 2D images. It's a little strange at first but carves the game a humble aesthetic niche. McClane's "sound-a-like" dialogue in this portion of the game is fairly well acted and the background music is a collection of electronic compositions that don't come off as too abrasive.

Die Hard 2 (or Die Harder depending on what you like to call it) is, as mentioned before, purely a light gun game. If you don't have a light gun or are playing on a projection or LCD Television the digital controller does a good enough job of making the gameplay as pain free as possible. You, as McClane must fight your way through the Airport, tunnels, the church and even the famous snow mobile fight while racking up points and avoiding civilians. There are alternate routes to take, weapon power-ups like an explosive shotgun and rockets and grenades to through at your enemies. This portion of the game is far shorter than Die Hard, but is a lot longer than your typical light gun shooter, it also offers more variety in the way it is played.

Finally, Die Hard with a Vengeance. Personally, this is my least favourite part of the whole experience, but is the most technically accomplished of all 3 games. You are tasked with hunting down bombs in New York city. The relatively free form nature of the driving is pretty impressive considering when this game was developed and the level of detail in the buildings and hilarious blood splatters of rammed pedestrians give Vengeance its own particular charm. The music is a little cheesy in retrospect featuring some really cringe worthy hip hop stereotypes of the mid-90's ("Yeeeeah Booooi") but that and the random exclamations uttered by McClane add to that charm I mentioned earlier. You don't just rampage around New York City either, you also get to drive recklessly around Central Park, underground and in a dockyard. The variety of the levels and the clever design therein lends to Vengeance being a pretty addictive portion of the game. The graphical competency of this portion of the game cannot be denied and it goes to show how a little effort on the Saturn can turn out graphics that can match and in some cases exceed that of the Playstation.

When all is said and done and you want to pack away your Saturn for the day you can save your game at any point (in any of the games) to your console memory. This is, of course, after inputting your name using the hilariously presented high score table full of cameos of burning bodies, skeletons and other poor souls blown up, driven over and just plain maimed during your exploits.

The Bad
There is a lot about Die Hard Trilogy I didn't remember upon booting the game up. The original copy I had for my Playstation was long since gone when I got my Saturn copy not long ago so I had no basis for comparison. All I had where my memories, and we all know how accurate childhood memories are.

The biggest issue I seemed to have pushed into the furthest recesses of my mind was that of the frame rate. The frame rate in Die Hard and Die Hard 2 is atrocious. It doesn't render the game unplayable however the frame rate will often dip to around 20-12fps depending on the level of activity on screen. I didn't remember this problem on the Playstation so I did a bit of research and surely enough I found some comparisons that showed the discrepancy in frame rates between the two versions of the game. It looked like Fox had done a quick and nasty port of the game to the Saturn, something the console seems to have somewhat of a reputation for. It shows in the lack of transparency effects, bogged down frame rate and lack of extra graphical treats that Playstation owners were given.

In Die Hard and Die Hard 2 the frame rate and awkward controls mean you'll often miss shots, get caught in cross fires or accidentally shoot hostages. The bonus stages in Die Hard are almost impossible due to your inability to get to hostages before they are killed and the necessity for a speedy cursor in a light gun shooter is rendered moot by the lethargic response of your reticule. Again, the games are NOT unplayable, they just don't have the same frenetic feel they had in the Playstation original.

The FMV sequences in this port of the game are decidedly pixelated and only fill a small portion of your screen.

The Bottom Line
If you haven't played Die Hard Trilogy before you're missing out on a game that gives hope to movie licenses. It exudes a level of creativity, charm and gameplay depth that so many others lack. The agreeable inclusion of 3 distinct styles of play, detailed graphics and rock solid gameplay lend to Die Hard Trilogy transcending perception of movie licenses as nothing more than cheap, badly coded cash-ins.

The issue is, the Saturn port just can't match the Playstation in many areas. This was obviously a cheap and nasty port and it doesn't use the Saturn hardware to produce a comparable experience. While it looks good the frame rate is atrocious and while it doesn't become unplayable the frenetic, exciting gameplay is compromised by the feeling of seeing everything through the eyes of a dope user. The imprecise shooting mechanics caused by trying to compromise for the sluggish frame rate puts you at a frustrating disadvantage.

Either way, if you've never played Die Hard Trilogy before you could do worse than grabbing a copy for the Sega Saturn. It's a port of the game that works and that's all I could have asked for.

SEGA Saturn · by AkibaTechno (238) · 2010

Bye-bye, bad guy

The Good
Die Hard Trilogy is a series of three games that are based on the movies of the same names. As expected, you play John McClane in each of them, as he tries to rescue hostages on each floor of the Nakatomi building (DH1), take on terrorists in Washington, DC (DH2), and drive over bombs before they explode (DH3).

With the except of DH2, there is also a bit of strategy involved in these games. Once you have killed every terrorists and saved all hostages in DH1, a bomb is triggered and you have to search the elevators in that floor for it before it explodes. Driving around and finding the bombs can take a bloody long time if you drive in the wrong direction. It took me two days just to find a bomb that is a fair distance away. DH1 always tricks you into thinking that you have killed nearly every terrorist on a floor in one go. But this is not the case as many as twenty extra terrorists will arrive in an elevator twice or thrice. Also in DH1, you really need to kill terrorists that are in close range to the hostages before they have a chance to kill them. Although I found these strategies frustrating, I am always up for a bit of the challenge.

I always have a knack of accomplishing tasks at the last second. More often than not, I always found a bomb when the timer is about to reach zero. (Don't ask me how, but I have gotten good at these things.) The good thing about these games is the visual aids that sits in your interface. You can always find the next terrorist/hostage/bomb by just referring to it as you play.

The animation of the CD spinning around when you select any of the three games is rather neat. You can see the layout of the Nakatomi building, and how each of the floors are laid out as you walk around. The good thing about this is that you are not obstructed from view. If you are facing a wall up close, you can see what is on the other side, and because of this, you can find a safe way around to that area. You can shoot fragile objects such as curtains and glass windows to break them, making another path for you to get through.

One of the locales that you can explore in DH2 is Washington/Dulles Airport. I was impressed at how detailed the airport terminal is and how it is laid out. I don't know if the infrastructure is real since I haven't been to Dulles Airport yet. Out of all the games, DH3 is the best of the lot. You are free to drive around in your car and explore each section of the city fully without sticking to the one path that the game always directs you with, providing that you have enough time to do this. You can obtain certain pickups that will help you find that bomb, and best of all, you can change cars into ones that have better control and speed. The locales that you visit include Manhattan, Central Park, Chinatown, subways, aqueducts, and the docks.

The music in the game consists of CDDA tracks that are worth listening to while you play. The sound effects basically consists of shooting of your weapons, transport, hostages, and terrorists taunting McClane. (Their moaning when they are shot is a bit extreme.) When I heard McClane's voice in the background, I get the feeling that it is the actual voice of Bruce Willis. After all, he is the hero of the Die Hard movies.

The Bad
I don't approve of that gang-rap music that is played on the first level of DH3. This music is not my cup of tea.

The Bottom Line
Die Hard Trilogy is a series of three games that are based on the movie, and it was released for PlayStation, PC, and Saturn, but it is the PlayStation version that really stands out. In the games, McClane needs to accomplish certain tasks such as rescue hostages, kill terrorists, and deactivate bombs. Two of the games require some strategy in order to get through them. The graphics and sound are excellent, and the game lets you explore real-life locations that are based in Washington and New York. If you like action games that are movie licenses, as well as any of the Die Hard movies, then this game should keep you entertained for a while.

PlayStation · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2006

Not really worth the time.

The Good
It is interesting that they tried to make three completely separate games based on the Die Hard films. The third game, in which you drive a car through Manhattan rushing to stop time bombs, is by far the best. It actually reminds me of a primitive Midtown Madness. It is a short fun game.

The Bad
Although it was nice that they tried to make three completely separate games, the first two games have serious problems.

The third person shooter game based on the first film is practically unplayable. Graphics, sound and most importantly control are horrible. Your character moves like he is stuck in mud and you have to put eight bullets in guys for them to finally drop. It is just a really horrible game.

I don’t feel like I can fairly comment about the game based on the second film. It is designed to be played with a light gun which I don’t have. Light gun games always are horrible using the standard controller. From what I have played though, it does not seem very good. The graphics are poor and the action seems very repetitive.

Also, I feel obligated to note a disturbing scene. When you lose the third game (by not getting the car to the planted bomb in time), the game cuts to a scene of the New York skyline (including the World Trade Center). The skyline then suffers a massive explosion. Obviously the developers at the time had no idea of what the future would hold, but the scene can still be disturbing to some.

The Bottom Line
Die Hard Trilogy is made up of three completely separate games, one based on each of the Die Hard films. The first game is a third person shooter. The second is a light gun game. The third is a driving game.

Overall the games unfortunately show the low quality typical of a product based on a movie license. None of these games is good, but the driving game is by far the best of three.

SEGA Saturn · by Andrew Grasmeder (221) · 2004

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Big John WV, Scaryfun, Alsy, nyccrg, coenak, Alaka, Kohler 86, Jeanne, Patrick Bregger, firefang9212, mikewwm8, RhYnoECfnW, Tim Janssen, Apogee IV, Ryan DiGiorgi, Havoc Crow, Parf, qwertyuiop, Maner76, Wizo.