"Yippie-ki-yay!" Boom, Boom! That's pretty much what Die Hard
Trilogy 2 promises. Back in 1996, a 3-part game based on the
blockbuster movies of the same name came out on the market. Of
course I wasn't as lucky to play it then, but I can pretty much figure
out what it was all about. Now you might think; "Wait a sec, how
can you make a sequel of a trilogy? Aren't sequels usually the 2nd
part of the trilogy?" Well, apparently the great marketing minds at
Fox Interactive have a different notion about sequels but even
then, how can you base a game on a non-existent movie trilogy?
There you go again, try to make sense out of it all, get it into your
thick skull; sequels sell! And besides, who of us wouldn't like to get
in the shoes of legendary hero John McClane and bust some
terrorist ass in Vegas no less? Oh my god, *gasp* is this videogame
heaven? Hardly.
I really don't want to rat on this game, I really don't, but I might as
well get the bad parts out of the way first. The most irritating part
about this (besides the ridiculous premise) are the graphics. Don't
get me wrong, it's not that I don't like big flashing targets, a la
Sega, in my games, it's just that... it's not 1996 anymore. Yeah,
hate to break it to ya, we've kinda reached the year 2000 and all,
and you see, those kind of graphics aren't that welcome anymore.
Of course, this being a Playstation port may have something to do
with the quality of the graphics, but I'm not playing this on Bleem,
I'm playing this on my Voodoo3 3500, which cost me more than a
Playstation. I'd want something extra. Then again, there are SOME
nice extras which I'm sure didn't make it into the Playstation
version such as dynamic lights, high quality textures and the usual
high-res are all part of the little improvements the PC version has.
What it's lacking is the regular low-poly count, and general
graphics complexity.
The control, on the other hand, is pretty good. I was happy to see a
very easy and complete configuration of input devices (keyboard,
mouse, joy/pad). It also supports Force Feedback Wheels and PC
Light guns (who of us don't have two of those lying around for our
PC?). In any case, it worked fine with my MS Sidewinder and
Thrustmaster Rage3D gamepads. As well, playing with the mouse
in the sharp shooting mode didn't seem that bad. I'd hate to
imagine how our PSX buddies struggle with their controller in this
mode (oh yeah, I forgot, they all have PSX Lightguns and/or PSX
mice). The control on the car was pretty arcade'ish (more than
NFS4) and reminded me of Driver in some parts. The 3rd person
shooter was more like 'The Fifth Element' (we all played that didn't
we?) than Tomb Raider (should that be considered a good thing?).
Overall, the control is acceptable.
The sound is nothing to brag about. Sound effects are there and
they're not bad, but then again they're not that spectacular either.
They do the job, let's put it that way. The inclusion of surround
sound was a nice touch. The only thing that kind of annoyed me
was the voice actor that thought he sounded like Bruce Willis.
Come on, I know you can't get Bruce to do the voices for you, but
voice recordings from the movie would have been a better choice.
The best part about the sound is undoubtedly the music, but there's
not a great deal after that.
If this game excels anywhere it would have to be gameplay. Die
Hard Trilogy 2 features three game modes - 3rd person shooter,
sharp shooting (a la Virtua Cop) and the driving mode. The 3rd
person part is, as I said before, less than spectacular. It reminds
me a lot of 'The Fifth Element' in terms of gameplay (there's a
reason you haven't heard of that game, because it had THIS type
of 3rd person gameplay). So I try to look away from the bad, and
enjoy the good. First off, the driving mode. You basically drive a
car (some of the cars include a Taxi, Ambulance, Hummer, etc.) in
a way that resembles the gameplay featured in Driver. In fact,
think Driver with simpler controls, relatively no physics and
repetitive gameplay. Not to say this is a bad thing. I actually
enjoyed blasting the crap out of road signs, cars, humans and
cows, not to mention the special appearance by The Transformers'
Optimus Prime at the beginning of the first arcade driving level -
awesome! The shooting part can easily be compared to Virtua Cop
2, with the addition of blood (not those 'sparks' Sega insists on
making us believe bullets produce when they hit human flesh).
The backgrounds are pretty diverse in this one, and it's refreshing
to see a game of this type on the PC (last one was House Of the
Dead, which was a Sega Saturn port - yuck!). Overall, being a
person that enjoys ridiculous arcade games that utilize only 2
buttons and are dangerously repetitive, I'd say I enjoyed this part
of the game a lot.
If you get excited by big flashy lights, targets, low polygonal
characters coming in masses on the screen and wish PC games
would be more like your local arcade / console games, you might
enjoy Die Hard Trilogy 2. If spending a good half an hour blasting
the same goon (okay, they're different guys just dressed the same)
over and over again and driving a car like a maniac (ie.
Driver, Midtown Madness, Taxi, Carmageddon) is the kind of gameplay you're
looking for, then Die Hard Trilogy 2 just might do the trick. If you don't
fall into any of these categories, be afraid, be very afraid.
Ratings:
[ 10/20 ] Graphics
[ 09/15 ] Sound
[ 22/30 ] Gameplay
[ 16/20 ] Fun Factor
[ 02/05 ] Storyline
[ 06/10 ] Overall Impression