Being a die-hard fan of both the movies and the games, I knew I had to play this game. It took me a while to adjust myself to the graphics, being so used to “Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza”, but this game wasn’t that much of a disappointment for me.
Looking at the game for what it was back in 1992, you can’t expect it to be a graphics wonderland, but the quality of the backgrounds and characters are quite nice for being such an older title.
The game is a side-scroller where you have to aim the bad guys and shoot them before they shoot you. Pretty straight forward. Now, I don’t know if anyone else had a difficult time aiming, but there were times where I didn’t feel my keyboard was cooperating with me. Could’ve just been me; after all, I had trouble with “Torin’s Passage”, and that’s a point-and-click game.
The story was both true and false to the movie’s plot at the same time. True in the sense that there were instances where you were in an airport, and false in the sense that there were more instances where you were not in an airport; you were in a sort of town, and I don’t remember
that being in the movie. But, it is a movie-to-game thing, and they had to add something t spices it up. The gameplay on this, though, seemed to borrow a lot from the old “Punisher” game from the SNES, I believe was the console, and truth be told, I preferred that game over this. To be honest, I much liked the “Die Hard Trilogy” game over this, but as I said, being a die-hard fan, I have to give this its due.
The sounds in the game were on par with just about every other game of this type that was out at the same time, so there was really nothing spectacularly new and original here. Some very nice gunshot effects and death sounds here and there, along with some nice music, but that's about it. While it may seem that the game is being trashed beyond all comparison here, I did like it. It was definitely a fun and entertaining game, especially to anyone who likes the source material. However, if you play this expecting it to be Doom III, I’m sorry to say you’re going to be very unhappy, but if you play it as a “Die Hard” fan, like I did, then it is definitely sure to please.
