Developer: Bits Studio Publisher: Sierra Release: 11/08/02 Genre: FPS
The resilience of Die Hard needs to be studied. Despite the games being awful they remain incredibly popular for some god forsaken reason. Die Hard Trilogy was a PlayStation best seller and despite featuring three gameplay styles each was mediocre at best. The reception to the sequel was not as good as people came to their senses. But they would give it another shot on consoles with Die Hard Vendetta. This is a much more ambitious game than your typical first person shooter. And while it attempts many things it does none of them exceptionally well.
Die Hard Vendetta is a direct sequel to Die Hard with a Vengeance and takes place five years after that film. John McClane is at home watching the unveiling of a painting from a South American expedition by Piet Gruber, the son of Hans Gruber. But the exhibition is interrupted by robbers and his daughter Lucy is caught in the crossfire. McClane rushes to the scene to save his daughter and is drawn in to a conspiracy that is much bigger than a simple art heist.
The story is not just simple introductory fluff. There are cutscenes after every level and conversations during each mission that further the plot. Although the story is nothing new it is at least entertaining, primarily because they nail John McClane’s personality. McClane is a cocky bastard, quick to taunt bad guys with wise cracks but also sympathetic to innocent bystanders if necessary. The script is heavy on the profanity; they do not hold back. Sometimes it is a bit juvenile but I will take this over some of the dry pap out there. Bruce Willis does not reprise the role but his stand in (Dave Wittenberg) does an excellent job regardless and along with Reginald Vel Johnson lends the game an air of authenticity.
Unlike its predecessors on the PlayStation and Saturn Die Hard Vendetta is a first person shooter rather than a multi genre mash up. However with the rise of games like Half Life and Halo mechanically it is more varied than your average fps. The extensive training in the first level introduces all of its mechanics, including stealth, bomb defusing, and taking hostages. Stealth is one of the key components of the game as almost every mission tasks you with rescuing any hostages in the vicinity. Often times you will find someone held at gunpoint and if you go in guns blazing they will be executed. However sneaking up so they do not hear you and snatching one of their comrades will force the rest to drop their weapons.
Before you get any ides of tapping walls or crawling under desks stealth is simple and stupid in practice. At the touch of a button you will hold your weapon up and will no longer produce sound. With this you can often literally walk in front of an enemy’s face and nothing will happen. This stupidity applies to many of the game’s mechanics and what makes it frustrating and less than it could be. There is a trial and error to these situations and unfortunately failure means restarting from a checkpoint. There are other puzzle elements sprinkled throughout the game but it does not do a good job guiding you. Most times I was not aware I could perform certain actions and would blunder in to it after stumbling about. I will say this: when it works it is fun. When it does not you wish the game were better.
The basic gun play is solid for the most part. The game has an aggressive auto aim feature that is on by default. The moment you enter a room the cursor will automatically target the nearest enemy and quickly cycles to the next. If you are terrible at fps this is a god send. But it does rob the game of some of its challenge. Turning it off will leave you with a game that will challenge you at every turn. Enemies are reasonably accurate and often attack in great enough numbers that med pack management becomes a valuable skill. There is a decent selection of weapons and while the feel of combat never reaches the heights of say Halo or Timesplitters 2 it is solid nonetheless.
The mission design suffers from execution problems. I like that they are rarely if ever straightforward and that they try to incorporate various activities such as bomb defusal, stealth, and platforming. But there are issues with nearly every one of these aspects. Die Hard Vendetta was before Metroid Prime demonstrated how to do platforming in first person and it is awful here. The game has auto jumping but it is terrible and barely works. The various hostage scenarios should be thrilling but are often frustrating as you can fail immediately without realizing what happened. I will say this however. When all of the game’s constituent parts are working it is fun. The missions and scenarios are varied and the plot is at least entertaining. You feel like John McClane, from his snappy one liners to the reverence people have for this character. I just wish it were better.
In Closing
Die Hard Vendetta does not come together as well as it should. I applaud the developers for giving the player options and not creating another brainless first person shooter. But most of its elements could use more work and end up frustrating rather than entertaining. I do not regret playing through the campaign but cannot in good conscience recommend it. Good ideas with bad execution describes this one to a tee.
