Die Hard: Vendetta

"Great film, oft-wasted license - is that the wind of change? Or the breeze of unwelcome familiarity?"

Backgorund

You are John McClane, Century City PD officer, tough guy, and semi-outlaw. Your daughter Lucy is beginning her first assignment as a cop; you're at home watching TV. But you won't get to finish your breakfast.

Breakdown

DH:V is one of those games that is perfectly playable. Once you get the hang of the controls (which won't take too long thanks to an extensive training mode), it's fairly easy to pick up and play through the first few levels.

The gameplay is standard FPS fare. Shoot the bad guys, save the good guys, collect things and get to places. There are a couple of interesting innovations in the way you achieve these, but overall nothing too spectacular.

Environment Watch

The levels themselves are suitably large, and the loading times are minimal. A checkpoint system makes sure a death near the end isn't too disastrous, and there is a smattering of medkits on the easier settings.

Challenge

Which is where the first gripe comes in. In certain sections, the game is hideously unfair. The learning curve is shockingly steep (the CCPD level being the start of the increase in challenge), and it gets so much you may well want to give up.

This makes it a real strain to get through to the later levels, which is a shame, because they're very well done. When it's not throwing wave after wave of fire at you, the game is a very rewarding one to play. The satisfaction of creeping up and using the fantastic option of grabbing the gang leader and using him as a hostage is beautiful. The character interaction is also very well done, and the detail on the levels is a nice distraction from what you're supposed to be doing.

Presentation

Graphically, it's nice looking, if a little grainy. The character animation is nicely done, and the designers have clearly had some fun with the various characters you encounter. Unlike the human-shaped targets of previous generation shooters, these guys are significantly more alive. Until you shoot them, of course.

The sound is adequate. Things go bang, people go 'Aargh!', nothing new. The voice acting is, for some reason, highly comical in places. Something seems very surreal about the speech, but I can't for the life of me figure it out. Answers on a postcard.

Features

The story mode, three difficulty settings. A training level - everything you'd expect, really. One thing stands out, though - the lack of a multi-player mode. This is astonishing. Ever since GoldenEye, a deathmatch has been a prerequisite of shooting games. Crazy.

The Competition

The overlying problem with this one is the fact that it inevitably comes up against TimeSplitters 2. While DH:V has advantages for those who want a more realistic, story-driven, single player shooter, when it comes down to it TS2 is simply a superior game.

Final Verdict

My advice if you're looking for a shooter is to get TS2, and rent this. It's just harder to enjoy than its counterpart, and appeals to a narrower audience. If you like it, you can always buy it to see the rest of the levels. Otherwise it could leave you feeling a little empty.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/03