Die Hard Trilogy

aka: Jungla de Cristal: La Trilogía
Moby ID: 672
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Die Hard Trilogy lets players guide New York cop John McClane through three arcade-style games based on each of the three Die Hard movies. Each movie is represented through a totally different style, making this a "3 games in 1" style package.

Die Hard is a third person action/adventure through thirty floors of the Nakatomi Tower high-rise. Terrorists have interrupted the company's Christmas party and taken hostages. As McClane, the player must search for hostages through computer, construction, maintenance, and executive levels. McClane's default pistol holds infinite ammo, and the player can collect limited-ammo machine guns and grenades inside the levels. Walls turn transparent when they intersect the camera, allowing players to follow McClane through hallways and rooms with ease. After all the hostages on a level have been rescued, the player has 30 seconds to locate a bomb sent down by elevator, then use that elevator to move to the next level.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder is a first-person arcade gun game, nearly identical to Virtua Cop. Terrorists have attacked Washington/Dulles Airport. The player automatically moves through the airport and surrounding areas "on rails," shooting bad guys that appear from behind the scenery. Weapon upgrade icons can be shot to be collected, and either use limited ammo, or are retained until the player is hit (identical to Lethal Enforcers). Players can also destroy parts of the environment by shooting it, which can be used to take out nearby terrorists (with explosions, or by shooting overhead items to drop on them). This game supports pad controls, or any of the PlayStation's gun controllers.

Die Hard With A Vengeance has players racing through New York City streets in a variety of vehicles, trying to locate bombs before they explode. A strict timer ticks off the next explosion, and the player is guided only by a direction arrow and the vocal suggestions of their co-driver. Bombs are hidden inside everyday objects (like phone booths and benches) and are defused by ramming them, which activates the timer on the next bomb. Occasional "bomb cars" must be chased and rammed until their life bar is depleted. Powerups can be collected by running over icons in the streets, and include extra time, turbo boosts, and jumps to rocket over obstacles.

All three games are exaggeratedly bloody (players can run over pedestrians in Die Hard 3 and wipe the blood away with windshield wipers). Each of the three games also uses a combination of textured polygons and sprites to generate their worlds, resulting in warping textures and some quirky "paper doll" effects.

Spellings

  • ダイハード・トリロジー - Japanese spelling
  • 纽约大劫案三部曲 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

56 People (53 developers, 3 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 36 ratings)

Players

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

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

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

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

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Controls

The PlayStation version of this game has an undocumented feature: plug a Namco NeGcon controller into the system while the game is running. It will detect the controller and automatically select Die Hard With A Vengeance, allowing the player to use the controller for this game. The driving sequences are much easier as the pad's twist control feature is used to steer the car.

German index

On June 28, 1997, Die Hard Trilogy was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. More information about this topic can be found in the game group.

Toilets

The game manual credits Guy Mills for drawing the toilets in the game.

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
  • March 1997 (Issue 92) - Action Game of the Year (PlayStation version)

Information also contributed by Foxhack and Xoleras.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Benjamin Tucker.

SEGA Saturn added by skl. PlayStation added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: Alaka, ケヴィン, CaesarZX, DreinIX, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Karsa Orlong, Victor Vance.

Game added January 5, 2000. Last modified January 19, 2024.