Time seems to have flown by since I last spent some time with this blog, but it’s been a pretty hectic 12 months to say the least and procrastination runs deep with this writer…

However, there are still lots of video gaming musings I would like to share with you, and so without any further hesitation let’s plunge straight into having a look back at Fox Interactive’s Die Hard Trilogy.

Most of us have probably had the benefit of wearing “rose-tinted glasses” from time-to-time. Looking back on a game we haven’t played for years with much fondness and then getting the urge to track it down again to relive the experience we thought we had all those years ago.

I remember buying Die Hard Trilogy over the Christmas period of 1996 for the Sony PlayStation, and I’m sure I recall enjoying the first two episodes of the game. Fast forward 20 years, and I’m pretty certain I should have left those memories as they were – memories.

Die Hard Trilogy, as the name suggests, is based on the first three Die Hard movies (Die Hard 4 was a long way off happening back in 1996), and is correspondingly split into three separate games which you’re free to tackle in any order you choose.

The Die Hard game is a run-and-gun 3D shooter; Die Hard 2: Die Harder is a shooting game in the mould of Virtua Cop / Lethal Enforcers; and Die Hard With a Vengeance is a driving game.

The first part of the Trilogy has you running round Nakatomi Plaza, killing bad guys, rescuing hostages and trying to stay alive. You’re armed with a hand-gun with unlimited ammo, but you can pick up various machine guns and shot guns (all with limited ammunition) as you go around the levels.

Each level is populated with X-number of terrorists, and you do not progress until they are all eliminated. There is no time-limit to this, but once the floor is cleared of bad guys you only have 30 seconds to make it to the elevator for the next floor before a bomb goes off.

You have a life gauge, shown as McClane’s police shield and a terrorist and ammo counter along with a map of the game area showing the location of terrorists (red dots) and hostages (blue dots).

The map is very useful. Each floor is pretty large and the terrorists are generally well spread out. In addition the draw distance for the graphics is very short (one assumes due to hardware limitations) so your view is restricted to  your immediate location. Terrorists do not usually fire on you until they’re pretty close, but for your own survival strategy the viewpoint can be a hinderance at times.

There’s plenty of action to be had, each floor has a more than healthy supply of goons to dispatch, and some of the scenery can be shot and destroyed for added effect. However, the control system is cumbersome, health items are few and far between and McClane will only take a few shots before being carried out in a body-bag.

Weapon power-ups are also in short supply, which is annoying as most of your enemies carry automatic weapons. Grenades are fairly easy to come by, but you need to be careful where you throw one, as you’ll die if you get caught in the blast. As each level is covered in tight corridors, this mistake can be easily made, and, repeated.

So, to the second game on the disc – Die Hard 2. This plays as a straight forward rails-shooter like Virtua Cop. This is about as generic as it gets, if you’ve played any of Virtua Cop, Area 51, Time Crisis etc, the gameplay will be instantly familiar, and sadly as this segment offers nothing new to the genre, it’s rather forgettable.

As per the film, the game is based in and around Dulles International Airport, with you, as John McClane, taking out terrorists while trying to avoid innocent people. Along the way you can pick up temporary power-ups like machine guns, pick up health packs, and add additional rockets and grenades to your arsenal.

On the PlayStation Die Hard 2 can be played either with the controller or PlayStation Mouse, but, the Saturn version not only supports the controller and mouse, but also the Saturn light-gun used for the Virtua Cop ports. The game is not particularly playable with a pad controller, but works okay with a mouse to move the aiming reticule. Unfortunately, as of writing, I have been unable to play Die Hard 2 with a light-gun, however, I doubt that this would elevate the game much beyond mediocre.

Last, but by no means least, we have Die Hard 3. Once more we move genres, and this time to a driving game. The last game in the “Trilogy” is an arcade style driving game in a rather crude vien to Sega’s Crazy Taxi. You have a set time limit to get from point A to the location of a bomb at point B. If you don’t get there in time the bomb goes off and you lose a life.

The final segment is probably the best of the three in terms of presentation (not surprising as it’s rumoured that the whole game was supposed to be Die Hard 3 before Fox decided to tack on the first two films to broaden the package). However, the time limits are really strict, there’s no map (just a compass that gives you a vague notification of which direction to head in), and there are lots of obstacles to slow you down. Right down.

You have a limited number of turbos available as well, but I’m really not sure if they’re a help or a hinderance. Even with a few Chase HQ elements thrown in and different vehicles to drive as you progress, it feel like a chore to play.

This final chapter courted a little controversy back in the day as you could, if you wanted, mow down innocent pedestrians Grand Theft Auto style. The visuals are so basic by today’s standards that you wonder what all the fuss was about… it’s hardly graphic violence. The time limits will also prevent you from going on any mass execution sprees if that’s your thing.

So there you have it, three games in one package and all the John McClane action you may ever need. Unfortunately, this game is more Dynasty than Die Hard.

Across the entire trilogy, a major annoyance is the lack of an auto-save feature. None of the games have continues, so, get to the last level and lose your last life and it’s straight back to the very beginning if you haven’t been saving regularly. Strangely there is no extra-life feature either. You get three lives, and that’s it.

The length of all three games is commendable, if you’ve got the patience to play through all three segments then you’ll be happily tied up with Die Hard Trilogy for some time.

Die Hard Trilogy is definitely a game that hasn’t quite stood the test of time either in gameplay or graphics (well, certainly not the graphics). I could forgive the aging graphics if there weren’t so many annoying gameplay flaws.

Aiming in the first game requires you to be in front of the terrorist to get a hit, but the controls are so clunky they don’t allow for precision. The levels are large, but full of rooms and obstacles which are too easy to get caught and trapped on – this can be hugely annoying when you’re trying to get to the elevator before the bomb goes off and you don’t make it because a door held you up.

The second game is useless playing with a control pad, and not that much more satisfying with a mouse. Why there was no light-gun support for PlayStation is anyones guess.

The third game is so unforgiving it’s irritating. The difficulty curve is far too steep; which is a general issue with the whole game given the size of each individual game within the Trilogy.

I do think it would be interesting to see a remake of the title on current gen hardware backed by a reputable programmer. So long as they get someone who doesn’t sound like Garfield doing a Bruce Willis impression. Could be a lot of fun…

Overall, the original Die Hard Trilogy is one Die Hard game to which this writer is saying “Yippee-ki-nay“.

Die Hard Trilogy
Version tested: Sega Saturn
Also available on: Sony PlayStation / PC