Die Hard Trilogy

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.