It's Christmas Party time at the Nakatomi Corporation's new office block. Employers and staff make merry together on the 32nd floor of their high-rise headquarters, eating, drinking and dancing the night away, little knowing that a terrorist organisation has evaded the building's security systems, locked the doors and is about to gatecrash the function, guns blazing. Led by one Hans Gruber, the terrorists are demanding the $600m worth of bearer bonds, held inside the company's seven vaults, otherwise a massacre will take place. The idea was flawless. Almost.
John McClane, an off-duty New York police officer is inside the building, visiting his estranged wife Holly. Carrying nothing save his regulation pistol, he ducks into the bathroom on the 32nd floor to weigh up the situation. And what a situation! The only way to save the hostages and foil the terrorists' plan is to deactivate the security seal which is locking the door leading to the roof. Once on the roof, he must swing to a building opposite, then from that building crash through the window to level 33 of the Nakatomi offices, negotiating the Board Room to reach level 34, then back to the roof before climbing down to a tower floor to tackle head honcho, Hans.
Throughout the building are terrorists which need to be eliminated, both to stop them from killing McClane and to collect the weapons and other useful objects which they possess. A vertical bar represents McClane's energy level, which decreases when shot or punched by a terrorist.
Extra energy can be gained by using the first aid kit on level 32, or by eating the food carried by some of the enemy. On reaching Gruber, McClane finds that the evil-doer is holding Holly at gunpoint - precise pistol packing is the order of the day if Hans is to get his just desserts.
The most striking aspect of what could have been a fairly average arcade adventure is the amazing 3D graphics system implemented in Die Hard. Each room is littered with tables, chairs and other office furniture and, although these items are only there as adornment and cannot be interacted with, they add atmosphere and realism to the game. Frame update is very fast, even on slower PCs than the 26MHz one which we have in the office, and your character is quick to respond to joystick to keyboard movements. As bullets are in limited supply, McClane has the ability to fight unarmed which, while useful when against non-gun-toting terrorists, makes life harder when confronting an Uzi-packing bad guy, so strategic elements also feature in Die Hard, insofar as deciding whether to boot the baddies, risking loss of energy, or simply to fire off a few rounds in the hope that you'll find more ammo later in the game.
The PC has seen something of a surge of quality releases lately, across a wide range of genres. What with last month's awe-inspiring Indy 500 and now the graphically excellent, not to mention highly playable Die Hard to name but two. PC owners are in for a very happy New Year and beyond. It's just a pity that the main sprite and, indeed, the bloke on the box, looks nothing like Bruce Willis at all! [Surely that's no disadvantage? - Ed]
1st February 1990