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Christmas comes but once a year they say, but for the staff of the Nakatomi Corporation Headquarters, 32 storeys up, there's a distinct lack of festive spirit. Hans Gruber, criminal mind of the most dangerous kind, is in town with his armed gang and they're holding the bank staff hostage while the seven locks on the bank vault are broken. The treasures inside? $600 million worth of bearer bonds. The otherwise deserted skyscraper has been sealed up, and the police have yet to be alerted.

But Gruber's plan has a flaw - namely off-duty cop John McClane (Bruce Willis), in town to visit his wife who's currently one of the hostages. McClane has luckily avoided capture, and is now taking on the baddies in a guerrilla war waged in the corridors and vents of the massive building. McClane starts off armed with his fists and a pistol (eight rounds). Eliminating a terrorist and a search of their body can reveal extra weapons, a radio (for listening in on the gang), keys for doors on other levels and several other objects to get past obstacles. Vents are rather handy for taking short cuts around the building but with only twenty minutes to go before Hans completes the crime of the century.

I thought the movie was pretty damn good and the idea of sneaking around a skyscraper, tackling an armed gang lends itself well to a computer game. The sprite of Bruce Willis is a podgy one and the rooms tend to look rather similar athough there are some nicely detailed furniture in places. I like the way progress is rewarded by digitized pictures of your successful actions, and the unfolding of the story with cuts to other events (a la the excellent Project Firestart.

It really makes you want to progress (although it won't be a game to play again once completed). Surviving the first few attacks can be tricky (running out of ammo is fatal!), also it's a bit fiddly when you're trying to swap between guns in a hurry!

Other than this, Die Hard is a pretty good arcade adventure which will keep you hooed if you can bear to part with the £20.

Die Hard is initially rather disappointing, disk-accessing is heavy and prolonged, while death comes quite quickly. The graphics aren't great and you freeze for a second after making a turn. However, the more you play, the better it gets.

Combat is unremarkable, but it's more of an exploration game. There's a good sense of moving around a skyscraper, with plenty of objects to find, including an Uzi and a tin of beans for energy.

While the rooms are usually a bit bland, there are special rooms such as the one with a giant fan, which make exploring exciting and realistic. In fact, the appeal of the game is largely in its sense of realism; it is like living the movie - especially as you 'hear' the terrorists chatting on the radio.

I also look forward to using the hose to swing down a couple of floors, and finding the explosives to blow up a floor or two, as these are all promised for later in the game.

In short, if you're a fan of the movie and have a fast-loader to speed disk access, give it a try. It's pricey but atmospheric and interesting.

Presentation 65%
Average quality graphic story presentation before the game. Quite heavy multi-load and strangely no Save/Load option.

Graphics 70%
Undistinguished main sprite with generally repetitive rooms. Good digitized pictures and object graphics.

Sound 34%
Poor intro tune, poor effects... poor all round.

Hookability 74%
The hook of the film attracts, and the idea of exploring a building, using stealth and objects is a strong one.

Lastability 70%
Slightly repetitive with similar look to the rooms but a large challenge and compulsion to explore together with digitised pictures helps.

Overall 70%
An atmospheric rendition of the film, if a tad overpriced.