DISCWORLD NOIR

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

First things first - I am hampered in life by not finding Terry
Pratchett funny. Other people do not understand this handicap and
maintain that he is an author who regularly has them laughing out
loud. Having struggled (and I mean struggled) to read some of the
Discworld novels I still don't know what the fuss is about.

The first two Discworld games didn't change my opinion. They were
both too long and the first especially was ridiculously obscure.
I'm still not clear what attracts a moth to a sleeping body if one
puts a carrot in the body's mouth.  Despite this they sold well
enough for us to be treated to a third in the series.  And so to
Noir.

Firstly this isn't a true Discworld type game. It's primarily a
private eye adventure, which happens to be set in Discworld. It
could have been set anywhere where trolls, goblins and elves are
found, as there is very little reference to the unique places on
this planet. It is however relatively funny - even I laughed out
loud once or twice. However for at least half the game I really
thought I was going to hate it - there were few if any puzzles but
a great deal of walking back and forth with progress being made by
asking the right person the right question at the right time. As
it was never obvious who was going to come up with the goods this
invariably meant asking every character about everything. Tedious?
You better believe it!

My CD ROM driver being unable to read the second disc delayed me
in finishing the game. I still don't know why but as an upgrade
was in order anyway this proved the time to do it.  AND - for
whatever reason the second half of the game proved much more
enjoyable. Whether it's because your character is changed into a
werewolf with a number of new skills that add some depth to the
adventuring I'm not sure; I admit getting stuck once or twice but
the reasons were always not being observant enough or forgetting
to visit one crucial character, not because of an obscure or
illogical puzzle.

As an adventure I would class it as one of the easiest I've ever
played. The 3D graphics are gorgeous. Although a serious murder
enquiry it is very funny in places. It's also not ridiculously
long. The game is on 3 CDs but I think the third is for
installation only as I finished the game without reference to it.
There's also a nice music score.AND - you never get killed!!
(Except as part of the plot).

Which leads to the downside. The game is full of every clich‚ from
every Hollywood film noir you can think of. You'll recognise
characters from "Casablanca", "The Big Sleep", "The Maltese
Falcon", "Farewell My Lovely" and no doubt many more. There's even
a Lara Croft lookalike (although this sequence is one of the
funnier in the game). Loading is very slow and only equalled by
the incredible long time it takes for the character to traverse
the screen. Also although use is made of an overhead map allowing
quick access to certain locations this could definitely have been
improved further - e.g.  to visit one location you have to climb a
wall using your grappling iron. Once one has figured this out
could it not have been possible to have a short cut to this area
on the map?

I think if this had been at budget price it would have been fair
value for money. Whether it's worth paying full price for an
adventure that should not take the experienced gamer more than 2
or 3 days to complete is something you'll have to decide for
yourself. I think overall that I liked it.











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