Die Hard Trilogy

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

"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

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

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

[ 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.