Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza (2002 Video Game)
7/10
Puts you right in the movie
7 May 2004
There's a lot to like and a lot to dislike in this game. First of all it sticks very closely to the way Nakatomi Plaza looks and sounds so you feel like you really are there. The music is a lot like that in the movie and adds atmosphere. But there are only like 2 tracks! The blood splatter effects are quite cool but shooting a bad guy is the only way to kill him. In this sense the game is VERY linear. There is absolutely no freedom. You HAVE to do what the game wants you to do. Which is really stupid considering the effort that has obviously went into crafting each and every floor of Nakatomi Plaza.

There are a lot more than just 12 terrorists here. Obviously the game has to be beefed up to about 300 to make it more exciting and a few new scenarios are added (And some stuff, like the media attention of the siege, totally ignored). It was also very annoying to see the FBI Chopper STILL flying around after the roof has blown up. I guess this was just a cheap way to avoid a cinematic.

The voice acting is also rather poor. It makes the cinematics hard to watch sometimes. And what's the point of having a CB radio (a cunning excuse to plug a certain product) when it is only used during cinematics and NEVER when you want.

In the ancient Die Hard Trilogy you got lots of weapons. But in this all you get is the ordinary gun, some flash grenades and 4 machine guns. The best of which are sparsely featured in the later levels. You can't even get into fist fights. So the fight with Karl is non-existent. All you do is shoot him. Wow!

And chances for really cool stuff have been ignored. How cool would it be to chuck bad guys thru the windows or off the roof or down the lift shafts? Doesn't happen. Even you jump off the roof yourself it just cuts to 'game over'.

But the worst thing is the ending. It's nothing like the movie, boring and dull. It takes a lot of patience to get thru and then...nothing happens. A cheap, tiny cinematic follows and the game returns to the title screen. Come on! That's it?

By only if you are a fan of the movie. For the casual gamer this is dated stuff.
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