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..