Die Hard Review I

This arcade title is really three games in one - and they're based on the explosive Die Hard movies from 20th Century Fox. For some gamers, one game is never enough. But do you have what it takes for three games in one?

Give it your best shot, or at least die trying as Fox Interactive unleashes three explosive adventures in one amazing game with the DIE HARD TRILOGY for PlayStation. Fight and shoot your way through a high-rise that's wired to explode. Gun down terrorists in a hi-jacked airport. Drive above, below and through a crowded city besieged with hidden bombs.

You're at the centre of three totally different, thrill-packed adventures playing John McClane (a cop with a habit of being barefoot in the wrong place at the wrong time) as he takes on a highly trained team of international terrorists. The first adventure - DIE HARD - puts you inside Nakatomi Plaza, a Los Angeles skyscraper on the brink of obliteration, for an intense search and rescue mission.

The second adventure - DIE HARDER - takes you inside Washington/ Dulles Airport for a fast moving, first-person perspective, arcade-style action shooter. The third time's a charm in DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, a high-speed urban driving adventure. Get in, sit down, buckle up and hang on as you slam on the accelerator in a race against the clock. Each episode is like a self-contained game world, boasting many levels. There are shooting sections, Virtua Cop-style sections and even a frantic driving section. The graphics and soundtrack are just amazing too. As John McClane would say...Yippee Kay Ay!

Die Hard Review II - Part 1

The game starts out promising. Like Probe's original Die Hard Trilogy, DHT2 is really three games in one. There are third-person action levels, driving levels, and Virtua Cop-style shooting gallery levels. But where the first DHT paralleled the movie trilogy--the third person game was based on the original film, the sharp-shooting game was based on Die Harder, and the driving levels based on Die Hard with a Vengeance--DHT2 gives gamers a whole new story line.

Apparently, an old friend of McClane's has become the new warden of a prison near Las Vegas. At the gala celebration welcoming the new boss of the penitentiary (apparently nothing happens in Vegas without a big party), there's a prison uprising. Stuff hits the fan. Bullets fly. Hostages are taken. And McClane has to save the day. The story is decent enough, and it does sort of justify the segues between the different gaming styles.

You drive around to a place that you have to investigate third-person and then you find yourself shooting at dozens of bad guys that pop out at you jack-in-the-box-style. Nicely done cut scenes move the action along by introducing all sorts of plot twists and turns. For those who don't really care about the story, an arcade mode lets you plow through whichever type of level you want.

There's also a practice mode that lets you pick your favorite game type and then throws random levels at you. The problem with DHT2 is that none of the three games are very impressive. It sort of reminds me of that old joke about the two guys at a buffet. One guy says, "The food here is awful," and the other guy--all excited--goes, "Yeah, but there's so much of it." There's a lot to do in DHT2. It's just that it's not all that wonderful to be doing it. Each game seems to be a "lite" version of what it's supposed to be.

The third-person game doesn't really give you much flexibility in terms of movement. It's basically just running, opening doors, and blowing away everything that moves. A few challenging jumps or maybe some puzzle solving might have been a nice way to break up the action. Not being able to roll, crouch, or leap is kind of a drag. I mean, geez, why do you think God put so many buttons on the Dual Shock controller? The third-person game also suffers from a horrendous clipping problem.