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Reviewer: Chris McMullen


Pratchett


Cue 'Lethal Weapon 3' sequence..

Death - the grim reaper. The ultimate equaliser. A farewell to the flesh. The end of existence, or merely the next dark step on a journey of mystery? I haven't got a flipping clue, and I'm in no hurry to find out. You could say that Death comes to everyone,and on the Discworld, this is pretty much the case. Until that is, Death goes missing, and things start to go awry. With no-one to give the departed a hefty skeletal boot into the afterlife, they start hanging in a way that isn't particularly convenient to the living. After all, it's all very well having the spirit of a dear departed one floating around your house, but when you find five ghosts, three zombies and a poltergeist in your kitchen, nicking the choc-chip cookies, someone has to do something. And that someone is Rincewind; inept wizzard, part-time coward, and general dogs body. Not that he's entirely innocent, it was his handling of a Lethal Weapon 3 style donkey cart-park bomb that was responsible for Death's disappearance. Still, what can you do?

Perfect


The annual meeting of the Noel Edmonds Fan Club.

Well, quite a lot; while the above plot could come from any of Terry Pratchett'sDiscworld books, it is in fact the premise behind Discworld 2: Missing, presumed...? or Mortality Bytes as its known in the US.Perfect Entertainment are responsible for this digital foray into the Discworld universe, having been behind the particularly good Discworld 1, and having gained a bearded thumbs up from Mr Pratchett himself. Discworld 2 is a point and click adventure, like the previous game, although there have been a number of improvements to the game engine. The most obvious change is that the graphics are now in glorious SVGA, and have a distinctly cartoony feel that means they wouldn't be out of place in a full length animation. There have been other tweaks and changes here and there, although the easy-to-use interface that was pioneered in Discworld1 remains in place.

But the


The Incredible Hulk takes up cross- dressing.

But enough about the mechanics of the thing. This is after all a Discworld game, and Perfect seem to have done their best to do the license justice. Many of the Discworld characters are there; Rincewind is the chief protagonist and the character whose actions you control, but you'll also be able to swap tales, chinwag, and generally have your boots stolen by the likes of Dibbler, the Arch- Chancellor, the Librarian, and a host of other characters who I won't list here for fear of getting RSI. All ofthem come across exactly as you'd expect them to, having read any of the Discworld books. Though I was a little puzzled as to why the Patrician would want to have... whoops, I don't want to give everything away.

Hedgehog


Try not to fall off the edge.

The game is split into four acts, and a short epilogue; the first three are pretty big, the third is a little smaller, and the epilogue takes just a few clicks to complete. Each act usually requires you to collect certain objects in order to progress. Sounds simple? You don't know the half of it. It's never that easy, at least not when Rincewind's involved. You won't find the objects you need just lying around; you'll have to complete a number of other object-related puzzles to get them. And then you'll have figure out a puzzle to get the items to complete the puzzle to get the questitems. And by 'puzzle', I don't mean some of the odd logic-related or weird sliding block puzzles you get in some games. The ones in Discworld 2 require you to really use your brain; how, for example, are you going to get the vampire to go to sleep, so you can nick his fangs? And while the puzzles in Discworld 2 aren't easy, they're never stupidly obscure, or frustrating. Once you've figured out a puzzle, you'll wonder why you didn't think of that earlier. Though if you're hopelessly stuck, there's a hint book available, and a web-page to turn to. Not that'd plug my own web pages or anything. Ahem.

Can never be


Suddenly, Bob realised he'd caught his underpants in the merry-go-round.

Each character in the game, as in Discworld 1 is voiced by various professional actors and actresses. Eric Idle provides the voice of Rincewind, Rob Brydon, Kate Robbins, and Nigel Planer provide the remaining voices, and they've done an excellent job bringing the characters to life. One of the characters, Mad Drongo, has been given the voice of Neil from The Young Ones, which is good for a few laughs. It's a shame that Tony Robinson and Jon Pertwee don't make an 'appearance',though given the latter's 'deceased' status, there would have been a few problems. Still, the characters sound just as I'd imagine them to, having read the books. If that makes any sense at all. Just take my word for it.

B******* at all


The wizards of Unseen University; old, bearded, and happily riding the waterslide of eccentricity.

One of the appeals of the Discworld books is that they're funny, and Discworld 2 has all the humour of the books, and a lot more besides. Perfect have been given a freer creative reign, as far as the script is concerned, and it shows.The game is packed with side-splitting observation, movie- references, and there's even a skit of the infamous 'Stoning Scene' from Monty Python's Life of Brian. You can complete the game, and come back and play it again, only to find something you missed. I defy even the recently-dead not to find something funny in this game, and Python or Discworld fans could well be in stitches.

Treacle Mine Road

I can't actually fault Discworld 2 at all. It's certainly a worthy purchase for both Discworld fans, and adventure gamers in general. Perfecthave managed to capture the essence of the Discworld books, and put it on two big flat silver spinning things. It's challenging, funny, and you should buy it really quite quickly. Oh, the hedgehog can never be bu..