Note: This review was written at the time of release for this game; therefore my writing style and references may be a bit off.

For movie lovers the Die Hard Trilogy can be looked at as a set of 3 good action movies. Each movie had Bruce Willis playing the part of John McClane, out to save the world from foreign terrorists. The Die Hard movies were crying out for a videogame conversion, and Probe answered those cries by releasing Die Hard Trilogy for the Saturn, PSX, and PC-CD-ROM. The Playstation version received a ton of critical acclaim, as it showed of the flashy graphics most PS titles are known for: lens flare, transparencies, and light sourcing. Of course Saturn owners, always looking for a good game were anticipating the port with bated breath. Four months later the port arrived, but was it worth the wait?

DHT is really 3 games in one, each game based on one of the movies. Most movie critics would agree the Die Hard 1 was a good action movie, and both Die Hard 2 and 3 were average. The game parallels the movies which it is based on. Die Hard 1 has you play the part of John McClane trying to defuse bombs in an office building in an effort to save the world all by himself. The game plays like shooter such as Loaded, but from an angle similar to that of say Tomb Raider, but a little bit higher of the ground. The graphics are nothing to write home about, as McClane and his terrorist friends are way too blocky looking. Conversion wise everything seems to be the same as the Playstation, except for a few transparency effects. The control aspects are solid, except when jumping or throwing a grenade. Sometimes it seems you can never get McClane to jump where you want him to, which makes things quite hairy when you are running away from 5 terrorists loaded with uzies. Be careful when throwing grenades around, unless you love to see yourself getting blown up by your own grenade. The game plays splendidly; as you need to mow down all the terrorists in the level in order to activate the bomb which you must then hunt down and defuse. You are armed with your standard hand gun, to the latest machine gun, it’s all there. You are also armed with a variety of hand grenades, ranging from the standard grenade that blows things up, to the more sneaky smoke bomb. Like all shooters, this one throws itself into a pattern, kill people, kill boss, defuse bomb, rinse and repeat. All this while rocking to some smashing techno tunes which those Brits seem to be keen on. About midway through the game everything becomes slightly tedious. The graphics all seem to looks the same after a while and the motivation to continue is gone. This a sign of an average shooter, which Die Hard 1 is. A little variety would of gone a long way to making the experience more enjoyable, then again I guess that is what the other parts of DHT are for.

Die Hard 2 was probably the most disappointing movie of the trilogy, and Die Hard 2 on Saturn is probably the most disappointing part of DHT, port wise. Gone are all the fancy affects which the PS one featured, here to stay are pixelly graphics with below par effects. Die Hard 2 just reeks of a rush job, and it’s quite sad, because a 100% conversion of this game would of made for one ass kicking gun game. Yes Die Hard 2 is a game made from the mold of Virtua Cop, and yes it supports the stunner 100%. Normal shots are fired with the trigger, grenades by the start button, and rocket launcher by pressing start and the trigger at the same time. The game plays like a dream with the stunner, and I am sure many die hard gun game fans might just buy DHT to have an other game that supports Sega's beast of a gun. Trying to play this part of the game with control pad, is like playing NiGHTS without the analog pad, you can do it, but why would you want to? It really is a shame this was not a 100% port, because this game actually adds something to the gun game genre; you can shoot everything and anything, and it will have an affect on the game screen, and the gameplay. You never played a gun game until you shoot down a TV monitor, that land and squishes a bad guy. This being said, the game looks like feces.

The final game in the DHT is a driving game, in the same vain of Chase HQ. John McClane and his sidekick, drive all around New York City in their quest to defuse bombs. In order to defuse a bomb simply run into it, unless it’s a bomb car; then you must hit the car a number of times until it blows up. The game does its best to give you some variety, you get to defuse bombs in three major locations: the city streets, central park, and the sewage system. At first you start of with a NY taxi, but if you can find switch cars, which to put it simply, allow you to switch to a different car. Just like Die Hard 2, Die Hard 3 has suffered in its translation. The lighting effects are gone, so is the lens flare, and everything is extremely blocky. The good graphics allowed Playstation reviewers to overlook the gameplay flaws, but not so on Saturn. This game has the worst collision detection and physics model of all time. I know this is suppose to be arcade gameplay, but there is no excuse for some of the stuff that goes on in this game. You can drive right through most posts and trees, and the way cars react when they crash is horrible. Cars bounce off you, and you bounce back, and stuff gets really weird. Sure this may have been done on purpose to increase the fun, but for me it increased the frustration, and decreased the enjoyment of the game.