Reviewer: Rehan Ali
Return to Discworld
I've been a Discworld fan for many years now. I love Terry Pratchett's
vision of a world that is completely bananas*, and
chock'o'block of many richly textured characters such as Death (and his rat),
Captain Vimes and Rincewind the inept wizard (with the latter known to become
exceedingly well textured from time to time). However, even Terry Pratchett
cannot escape modern-day buzzwords such as "multimedia",
"interactive entertainment" and "money". And as a result,
adventure games based upon his books have popped out from the lair inhabited by
the minions of Perfect Entertainment at regular intervals, to satisfy our
(and no doubt his) cravings. Discworld Noir is the third such game to be
produced, but veterans of the first two will be surprised to learn that this has
little in common with the others.
This is where it all starts...your office. Suitably equipped with the latest
Ankh'o'matic Coffee-substitute** Machine to keep you going.
Discworld Noir is based around a whole new character - Private
Detective Lewton, one out of the many wretched souls in the city of Ankh-Morpork
seeking salvation and (strangely enough) money. One such opportunity arises
rather conveniently*** in the opening title cutscene, when a
lovely young lady who goes by the name of Carlotta asks you to find her lost
boyfriend. And so the game is afoot, and the adventure begins.
Smudged Artwork
Discworld Noir, as the name suggests, draws heavily from the theme of
the '50s film noirs. It is a departure from the lighter prequels and has
a dark and gloomy edge to it. One thing you'll notice is that it is always
raining. Another is that this series has now made the jump to 3D. However it's
still not true 3D though as there are no flexible/isometric camera angles or
first person perspectives. Rather, the characters are rendered in 3D polygons
(in the style of the front cover artwork from the books), but are superimposed
on static backgrounds.
Rain. In this game, it follows you wherever you go. Get used to it.
Personally, I'm not a fan of this approach. and I hark back for the days now
long gone when 2D ruled the roost (the Monkey Island series are still
amongst my favourite games of all time). And whilst some of the backdrops and
cutscenes are stunning, the characters are blocky, act very jerkily and are
sometimes very hard to make out amongst all the rain (you can easily change the
gamma settings, but this eliminates the 'moody' feel and defeats the whole point
of the exercise). The fact that the game is stuck in 640x480 really does not
help either. But on the other hand, the style of the artwork is lovely
and captures the essence of the books, although some characters just don't look
like what you'd expect them to be, and this will always be a problem when
converting from a book.
An example of the great graphics (left) and the not-so-great (right)
Similarly, as Paula mentioned in her review, the music is excellent, with a
full repertoire of jazz and blues played with sensitivity and elan. And the
voice acting also deserves praise. Lewton sounds suitably gritty and
hard-boiled, whilst Carlotta sounds suitably seductive, the token wizard sounds
suitably geeky and Nobby sounds...well, suitably dopey.
Dig a Little Deeper
The core of the game is in conversation and clues. Lots of conversation, and
loads of clues. The dialogue is full of subtle references that Discworld
fans will immediately pick up on, and the wit is as sharp as ever (although
Lewton does tend to go a little over-the-top when in full-blown sarcastic mode,
which isn't necessary. We are grown ups, after all!). Paula said that all the
talk soon became tedious. On the other hand I found it totally absorbing, and
didn't have a problem with it at all.
Each encounter will yield clues which propel the story forward. Thankfully
you don't need a good memory as these are automatically scribbled into Lewton's
notebook. You can read through these at your leisure, and a simple user
interface allows you to make associations between them. This really does feel
like bona fide detective work, as you're trying to make heads and tails of the
numerous inter-weaving story line threads. It's brilliant fun.
As you'd expect from a film noir-style game, there is more to all
this than meets the eye. And as you'd expect from a Terry Pratchett game,
there'll be a big twist to it all. You'll meet old flames, come face
to...err...groin with big dumb trolls, groin to face with axe-wielding dwarves
(I'm not sure which is more worrying)... and this is just the first half, before
the game takes a distinct turn for the surreal in the final two acts. Oh, and
you start off dead in the intro. I think I've said enough.
This is what happens when you arrive an hour late for your date.
Quibbles? A few. Lewton can sometimes get stuck in the scenery (doh!), and
there is a bug early on in the game where prematurely exiting a cutscene means
the game doesn't unveil the next location - and thus you can't carry on with the
game. Oh, and whilst we're on the subject of cutscenes, I agree wholeheartedly
with Paula in that there really needs to be a way of replaying these. Nothing is
more frustrating than being interrupted in the middle of one, and having to
restore an older savegame to review it.
Discworld Noir gets a big thumbs up from me. I still reserve my
doubts as to whether the adventure game genre is truly suited to 3D, but that
aside Discworld Noir fares well, and in fact breaks new ground for the
series by introducing a great new lead character, whom I hope soon becomes
incorporated into the books. This game can be considered a very good buy for any
Discworld fan.
* At this point a faint, vaguely simian voice floats in
the background. It sounds rather like someone is trying to say "Oook."
** Substituted with something vaguely resembling
battery acid or residue from the River Ankh, if Lewton's reaction is anything to
go by.
*** Convenient for you and I, the gamer, that is. I'd
imagine that wondering aimlessly around Ankh-Morpork would be rather dull. But
then again, with places like the Shades to explore, maybe not... hmm. How about
that as an idea for the next one - Discworld 4, the Thief-style 3D shooter?