[Terramax]

Discworld Noir

I've played and own many adventure games, most particularly the comedy ones (Grim Fandango, Broken Sword, Monkey Island, Sam and Max, etc) however; my personal favourite is none of these but the highly underrated 'Disc World Noir'. Technically not the sequel the cartoon comedy prequels based on the famous (or infamous) complaining wizard Rincewind but still based on writer Terry Pratchett’s Disc World – Noir breaks away as a far more mature adventure starring and all new character but heightens the wit factor to the top of the meter. The ‘noir’ element goes back to the deriving of the word that was used to describe the dark but romantic detective movies of the 1950’s era. And as Pratchett has described himself, this game pays homage to the genre.

STORY


You play as Lewton, a failing, pessimistic private investigator in the Discworld’s most notorious city of Ankh Morpork, who we later find out he was the member of the city’s watch (the police force of Ankh) but is kicked out for darker reasons. His first case in the profession is a mysterious but dangerously beautiful woman approaching him offering a “simple” case to track down a man named Mundy who has gone missing on mysterious circumstances. However, throughout the course of the game it becomes apparent that the simple case is far from simple but is part of an overblown plan and a plausible yet equally ludicrous plot that could spell the end of the city if not the entire Discworld.
The game also provides a few small number of sub plots to understand the characters more detail for both fans and newcomers of Pratchett’s work. New characters but a few of the old famous of ‘The Watch’ Discworld book series are evident including Nobby Knobbs and Vimes. The game also has quirky homage’s to popular films (a love interest with remarkable similarities and quotes to 'Casablanca' along with possible others like 'Basic Instinct's dangerous femme fatale theme). It's true that these can be blatant rip offs but it becomes so absurd and funny at times that you really just don't care.
The characters that you meet are the real selling point of this game. I have yet to play another game with as bold, quick senses of sarcasm and no remorse. 'Grim Fandango' comes close but Terry Pratchett' just can't be beaten. This game is a machinegun of quick tongue-and-cheek lines of very British humour. There are plenty of things to ask and say to characters and whenever a new happening occurs in the storyline, new questions arise to be asked and old ones altered - thanks to Lewton's trust note pad.

MECHANICS

And this brings us to the inventory. With your standard items inventory simply brought up by clicking on Lewton, any object sparks a humorous comment from the protagonist. The second is the notepad, which when in conversation mode can be opened and flicked between pages with endless questions to ask anyone. There is also a third later on when Lewton goes through… changes, but I won’t spoil that for you. This is a standard point and click just like that other Discworld games and the likes of ‘Monkey Island’ and etc.

GRAPHICS

Set against the cartoonish graphics of the two previous instalments, ‘Noir’ is an all new change in scenery where the bright and sunny outside locations are replaced by dark, dank and dirty back alleys and the indoors from cold, medieval wooden structures replaced by warmer but darkly lit, shady graphics.
The character animations change from 3D to 2D depending of the statue of play. When walking around, characters are 3D yet when in conversation modes where the camera is closer to the character’s faces they are replaced by realistically drawn 2D modals. In fact it was quite a matter of time before I noticed this. The locations themselves are hand draw Pre-rendered. Be prepared to turn the gamma up and down a bit at first as things can get very dark in various scenes. The camera angles are constantly changed the make the game feel more cinematic like the films it is inspired from, which is a great change from various adventures that seem to have the same mid level shots (including the first Discworld which featured a number of head level featured shots). The shades and tones of the locations give the sense of warmth and surprisingly, despite the comical value of the game, makes it feel far more realist and mature than most if not any other comical adventures.
Yet this is also the games major problem for some. It maybe inaccessible to some that the game is always set at night, in the dark, and always raining outside. However, when indoors the glowing yellow really gives you that feel of warmth, which contradicts which may be fine.

SOUND

The Discworld games have all taken pride in providing some the of the best dialog and ‘Noir’ is no exception. The voice actors have really brought the characters to life. Those who like realism out there may find the odd character a little outrageous but nothing in my eyes that will get in the way of the over game play. The music is the one element of the game I could see people getting annoyed at. Although most of the tunes play nice with various wind instruments, some may find a few of the tunes a little bleak and simple. And although I can’t explain it, there is something about it that sounds a little unconventional. The majority of it doesn’t sound much like the ‘Noir films’ although the main theme tune played by piano and brass instruments and a few others do feel like something straight out of a Bogart movie.

PUZZLES

One of the elements that made the first Discworld game hated by a few was its notoriously obscure puzzles. Surprisingly then is that the puzzles are surprisingly very well fitted into the storyline, mainly because of the murder mystery scenarios. However some do provide a lot of thinking and combining objects and notes from your notebook together on the odd occasion (without the indication that you could combine notes together).

OVERALL

I may be slightly biased as this is my all-time-fav but I do insist that everyone check this game out. Today I still see the odd copy sold brand new for ÂŁ5 which, whether and adventure game fan or not every ought to try. Of course, if you REALLY don't like Terry Pratchett' books then there is not much here to maintain your interest although the homage to films may still bring you into it. However, if you've never read of his books then you may enjoy this game more, as the game gives much insight to the world without going into too much detail.

[Jake]

Geez I really need to play Discworld Noir...

(And the Neverhood, and finish the Last Express... and Broken Sword 1.... sigghhh!)

[The Tingler]

It is a great game, although using the Notepad to advance your investigation does take some getting used to. Got me stuck plenty of times. The animation of characters are a bit feeble too, but these are just minor quibbles. Everything Terramax said is true - a great game, and can be still picked fairly easily from places like GAME.

[samIamsad]

Liked it. No cookie cutter pick-up-everything-and-combine-everything-with-everything crap here. And that was years ago.....

Well. Short question: I sold my PC copy years ago and recently borrowed the PSX copy from my bro to play it with my emulator. Is it just me (or the emulator, for that matter), or are the music tracks seriously broken in this version? It's all just a short loop repeating like forever. The fact that the PSX version consists of a single disc struck me as rather odd, too...

[the gnome]

Great game. Very nice review. But the graphics are still cartoony and beautiful, and the femme fatale theme is much older than the horrible (dispicable, hated, boring) Basic Instinct...

[samIamsad]

Worst (well, definitely amongst the worst) animations I've seen in a late 90s video game, though. It's basically the same 5 frames of animation looping over and over again, which makes everything feel a bit weird during the lengthy conversations. Especially considering that characters are usually shown in close-ups.

[Terramax]

To answer your question of the music in the PSX version, it's the same in the PC version, the music is looped. I think when you meant 'broken', an unsubtle jitter of a loop as the music goes to the start again is what you mean?

As for the animation, I admit it's very basic. However, I guess this is partially my biasedness as this is my favourite game of all time. But the animation problems are nothing which has never distracted me from the game.

One thing that I loved most was one of my friend's reaction to this game. He's a massive Army and Resident Evil games fan, never likes comical or 'none mature' games.

However, when I played this game with him (almost forcing him really) I was amazed to find him almost wetting himself with the appearence of the Grim Squeaker in the sewer.

I almost had a heart attack when he told me he contemplated buying it. which he would have if he could find the PSX version in the stores.

[samIamsad]

...except that in the PSX version, each track seems to consist of a 5-10 second loop. It sounds very awkward that way. I don't remember it being that way in my PC copy. Real tracks and such. Either it's the emulator or... well, as I said, it's only one disc, while the PC version comes on 3 AFAIKR. Odd, that.

[Terramax]

Sorry, I might be wrong. I too haven't played the PSX version in years.

EDIT: I was pretty sure it was 2 discs too?