Livestream 12/15/2022 – Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza

Since Die Hard is definitely a Christmas movie, it seems natural to play a Die Hard game for one of the December livestreams. This time that landed on Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. An FPS that came out in 2002, developed by Pirahna Games, that tries to follow the events of the movie fairly closely.

Where it shines is seeing the events from the eyes of McClane where the movie might have cut away. I think it pulls this off to great effect putting you in the seat of the barefoot hero. A new perspective on a true action classic. However just following the events of the movie is not enough to fill out a full game experience players may be expecting. So they added additional things that didn’t happen (or at least were shown) in the movie. These parts may be the most boring aspects and can be almost considered “transport” between the good parts.

Sewer… level. Yep they added a sewer level with concrete, confusing hallways and tons and tons of enemies that appear out of nowhere. That part of the game sadly really felt like a slog. Weapons also lack a lot of punch and the moment to moment gameplay is unfortunately not very satisfying. They do what the can with the fabled Lithtech Engine (running games like No One Lives Forever, Blood 2 and SHOGO: Mobile Armor Division), but you soon run into limitations. I won’t spoil it too much but there were several portions of the game made harder by poor game design choices, and I’m sure problems with the engine.

That said the game overall is a fun, and interesting addition to the Die Hard mythos. Worth checking out but prepare for… I guess average? Take a look at the stream replay below!