Probe's "Die Hard Trilogy" was one of 1996's best games for
the PSX, and at it's time of release one of it's most
expensive (I paid $64.95 + tax for it...wow!). The chance
to play three different types of games for the (back in the
dark days of 1996, before the N64 and PSX budget line-ups)
price of one was an enticing proposition, not to mention
that each game was loads of fun. Now "DHT" is part of the
"PSX Best" line-up, which means brand-new copies can be
found for between $19 and $24 and that a whole new audience
of gamers will be exposed to this oldie but goodie. Does
it still play like it once did two years ago? Is it still
worth pulling every once in a while from the shelf for a
quick round of viscious mayhem (this game ain't rated 'M'
for anything!)? In other words, is it worth twenty
pictures of George Washington is you've never played it
before?
For those of you who got here late (like the Phantom
usually says): "Die Hard Trilogy" features three different
types of games, each wrapped inside the main plot element
of one of the blockbuster movies that have propelled Bruce
Willis into worldwide stardom. "Die Hard" features a
behind-the-character view as you control John McClain
through several levels of the Nakatomi Tower in Los
Angeles, shooting bad guys, collecting ammo/health and
saving hostages (think "Loaded" or "Machine Hunter"). "Die
Harder" is like Sega's "Virtua Cop" taken to a ridiculously
high level of gore and mayhem, in which McClain still has
to kill terrorists and spare the lives of dumb passersby
that stick their neck where it don't belong. And "Die Hard
with a Vengeance" takes you and your Samuel L. Jackson
sound-alike through several levels set in New York City,
where you have to drive a taxi/school bus/patrol car from
bomb to bomb, detonating them by coliding against the
objects hiding the explosives (you detonate a bomb to save
people?); think of "Twisted Metal 2" on steroids, but
instead of shooting other vehicles you run over pedestrians
in order to get fastest to the next bomb (it makes no sense
to spare civilian lives in the first two games only to run
over them in the final one, but you have to play it to
understand that killing hostages DOES NOT AFFECT YOU...
license to spread ammo, yahoo!). Bruce Willis, like
Michael Jordan, is too expensive a property to be in this
videogame (that's Activision's headache), so don't look for
him or his voice anywhere in this videogame... just the
essence of his presence in the form of corpses rotting and
exploding left and right. "12 Monkeys" this ain't!
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: A-
The main gripe with all three games is their reliance on
digital controls, which were fine for their time but which
will seem a little stiff for those of us spoiled by the
sweet analog control of "Crash Bandicoot 2" or "Super Mario
64". But each game inside "DHT", although not as good as a
stand-alone game in their respective genre (they are just
too short), is loads of gruesome and sick fun. My favorite
is "Die Hard with a Trilogy", where the driving takes a
backseat over the sweaty anticipation of trying to ram an
opponent (ala "Chase H.Q.") or reaching the bomb through a
street full of vehicles hell-bent on blocking your path
while the clock on the corner mercilessly ticks down to
Armagedon-time; wiping the guts and blood off your
windshield with your vehicle's wipers and hitting a booster
that will send you flying through the air are the game's
highlights.
"Die Harder" is a neat exercise in "Virtua Cop"-style game
mechanics, and although this type of game hasn't evolved
much since the days of "Duck Hunt" it can still be
extremely fun provided you use one of the many third-party
light-gun peripherals (the control pad works, but it isn't
accurate or calibrated-enough); the highlight of this one
is the extreme damage you can cause on the backgrounds
Þ(virtually ANYTHING in the game can be punctured with
holes). And although it has been done better in other
games, the portion of "Die Hard" is an excellent shooter in
which you control McClain as he goes through the tower,
shooting bad guys and avoiding gun fire as you set to
detonate a bomb in every floor before moving to the next
one; not only must you be quick to avoid damage and set
traps where you can kill as many terrorists at once as
possible (use a grenade in a packed room), but memorizing
the layout of the floor will help you move around and find
the quickest way back to the elevator when the countdown of
the final bomb begins. A radar screen will help you
navigate your surroundings (same for "D.W.A.Vengeance"), so
getting lost is not an option... shoot, drive through, or
shoot again if you want to get out in one piece.
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B
By today's standards, the graphics are messy and look like
the cream of first-generation PSX games (you should look at
how bad this PSX code looks on the Probe port of "DHT" for
the Saturn... ugh!), with plenty of eye-catching lens-flare
effects and explosions right out of "ID4" (the movie, not
the crappy game). Shame that every human being in this
game looks like disjointed cardboards with a face attached
to them, and walk like a hunchback puppet being handled by
an epileptic puppeteer (that's a nice image). The
vehicles, buildings and surrounding levels on all three
games are blocky and squarish, and the low-resolution makes
them look quite dated by today's standards. On the
positive side, all three games run at a constant 20-24
frames-per-second with only an occassional dip when there
is a flood of bad guys or vehicles aiming at you. "Die
Hard" uses a cool effect that "fades" the walls around you
when you walk/run by them, and "D.H.W.A.Vengeance" uses all
the corners and avenues of a city setting to mask and
disguise any pop-up; only "D.Harder" has a severe problem
when McClain is outside the Washington D.C. Airport, and
the surroundings just appear out of the black, "Daytona
U.S.A."-style (for the Sega Saturn). Not the prettiest
game you have ever seen, but for 1996 standards it was OK.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B+
This game's McClain sound-alike has the one-liners down
pat, and they mostly come at the right time. Your
on-screen persona will scream "Ouch!" and "Sorry!" when
getting hit by enemy fire, or when accidentally killing
innocent bystanders; my favorite is the ever-present "I
need an aspirine", but unfortunately this ain't "Gex" so
there are only so many times you can hear the same line
before it bores you silly ("Die Hard with a Vengeance" at
least has the Samuel L. Jackson sound-alike to add variety
to the lines... "why me, what does this has to do with me?"
and "are you aiming for this people?" will be stuck in your
head the first time you play this section of the game).
The sound effects are much better than the graphics, but
unfortunately aren't innovative or ground-breaking; they
are clear and come across as the sound effects of the
action movies they seek to emulate, but lack sparkle (the
HUGE explossion bass, however, rocks the house). Shame
that the music in the game SUCKS harder than Monica
Lewinsky when she is high on Nyquil (ouch!); generic
hip-hop, muzark keyboard compositions for action scenes,
tense military drums for an airport confrontation... yawn!
Not a memorable tune in the whole CD, just lots of bullet
sounds and beefy explosions. Hey, how many of you remember
the music in "Predator" and "Striking Distance"? Exactly!
OVERALL: B+
Rent it to be on the safe side, but rest-assured this puppy
didn't become a "PSX Best" title by sitting on the shelf
collecting dust. This game has action, blood, guts and
glory (like the lady in the 777-FILM commercial :-P), and
what it lacks in music and graphics it more than makes up
in old-fashioned gameplay. "Smash TV" and "N.A.R.C." move
over, tough-talking N.Y. detective John McClain is here to
make the bad guys cringe at the sight of his unshaven mug,
his hangover look, and his sharp tongue. Just be sure to
buy a paperback book to read during a couple of "Loading"
screens when switching from game to game... may I suggest
Howard Kurtz' "Spin Cycle: the White House Communication
Office versus the Press"?
