Retrospective: Discworld Noir

By John Walker Published 11 September, 2011

Dark humour.

Here's the thing with the whole Discworld universe: I want to like it less than I do, which is less than I feel like the world is telling me to.

Terry Pratchett is obviously a funny guy, and for a few books I was totally into the whole "this absurd pretend thing is a bit like that real thing you're familiar with" schtick.

Then, as I grew out of any interest in observation comedy, I guess the novels went with it. I no more need Michael Mcintyre to tell me how infrequently a bus comes than I need Pratchett to wryly point out that films have a tendency to do that thing they do. Then I find myself working in the same industry as his daughter and it feels like I shouldn't say anything negative at all, lest she beat me up.

The witch novels - that's safer territory. Gone is the "this is a bit like that", replaced with instead just fun storytelling and embellished fairytale. There he has me. And there's more common ground - we can all agree that the first two Discworld games were bloody awful.

Oh God, we can't, can we? Even the inclusion of the nasal misery of Eric Idle's "LOOK AT ME!!!" tedium somehow isn't enough to put people off what were two of the hardest, most poorly thought through popular adventures of the Nineties.

But then, three years later, came Discworld Noir, from the same developer but with a very different attitude. Being 1999 it was obligatory for the game to offer some nod to 3D, but fortunately the developer had the sense to keep the backgrounds 2D. But more than that, gone was the cartoony tweeness, and in was a - well, you could probably work it out - noir style.

'Retrospective: Discworld Noir' Screenshot 1

A vampire that sings a song. Your Calls Of Duty don't offer that, do they?

Parodying detective fiction, which let's face it is hardly the most original of ideas, at least gives rise to some simple spoofery. However, this is combined with some genuinely decent writing - and with the whole effort not screaming about how hard it was trying to be funny the whole time, Discworld: Noir actually manages to be quite funny.

It's interesting to look at the cast. At the time, in the tail end of the 90s, I was aware who Nigel Planer was. He was Neil in the Young Ones, if any ghastly young people are reading. And I was obviously very familiar with Robert "Kryten" Llewellyn. Kate Robbins I knew from her eternally background existence on television. But playing the main character, PI Lewton, and indeed Death, Nobby Nobbs, and many others, was some guy called Rob Brydon.

Now it's impossible not to try to hear the faint Welsh lilt in his American accent for narrating Lewton, rather than concentrate on what he's saying. Which is quite distracting already, since his "American" accent sounds extraordinarily like Terry Wogan, making the whole game feel a lot like an episode of Stop It & Tidy Up. (I think I'll start talking about Janet Ellis on Jigsaw next, just to ensure anyone under the age of 30 feels entirely alienated.)

But no matter how all over the place his voice may be, the delivery is spot on. And it's packed with jokes, most of them hidden for when looking at background incidentals.

There's one particular line I distinctly remember from playing this through in the decade before last, and it still works now:

"The river Ankh - probably the only river in the universe on which you could chalk the outline of a corpse."

Works for me.

Unlike a lot of Discworld Noir. Just getting this working on a modern machine was quite the trial, eventually finally loading in a virtual machine running Windows 2000, with a registry hack, and forced to play it in a tiny window. But less literally, the game itself is surprisingly poorly structured despite its pleasant turns.

The game features so few puzzles, instead opting for you to trudge about, chatting to people based on the increasing numbers of clues on the pages of your notepad.

Ask about one subject to the right person and it'll unlock a new conversation option to ask of someone else. But worse, doing this will occasionally trigger something to change elsewhere, with no connection.

For instance, you'll need to read a note from a client in order to progress at one point, which requires you to guess that you need to head back to your office, and then notice the few pixels that had changed on the screen since the last time you were there.

And that's pretty much how it trundles along. In the first chapter you solve literally two puzzles, each so simplistic that a passing bee completed them for me. The rest of the game is spent having a chat.

'Retrospective: Discworld Noir' Screenshot 2

It's a surprisingly impressive merge of 2 and 3D, for the time.

But it's a good chat! And that's why, despite itself, I still find a fondness for Discworld Noir. It avoids so much of the grating knowing tweeness that haunts the previous games, while remaining very silly and offering lots of Pratchett's pleasing turnings of phrases.

There's also some really splendid music. An excellent score is accompanied by songs. Songs! So few games have songs, and if they do they think they're a novelty for the closing credits. Today I take this platform to cry that more games must include incidental songs.

So, I guess I am saying that it's unDiscworldness is what makes me fond of this chat 'em up, and so I'll still incur the wrath of gentle, dedicated fans and one fierce daughter. And I feel I should add that I have a massive amount of respect for Pratchett, his dedication to writing, and his extraordinary work within the Alzheimer's community since his diagnosis.

Still, the first two games were crap, eh?

Picture of John.

About John Walker

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Walker archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • N-Al #1 5 months ago

    Really enjoyed this when it was originally released.

    Fun fact: Met Terry (and Rhianna) Pratchett at a friend's wedding reception once. Terry was wearing a cool hat.

  • Benjaminos #2 5 months ago

    If you mean that bloody ridiculous fedora, then no, he wasn't wearing a "cool" hat.

  • Cappy #3 5 months ago

    The PS1 version of Discworld Noir is an easier option if you just want the game working.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/11 @ 09:57

  • OnlyMe #4 5 months ago

    Indy wears a fedora. Indy is cool. Fedoras are thus cool.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/11 @ 18:18

  • 8brit #5 5 months ago

    I still have some songs from this on my itunes... I remember this game being close to impossible without at least some minor walkthrough assistance...

  • RedPanda #6 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • SteelPriest #7 5 months ago

    You're joking about the first two being crap yeah? Am i missing some kind of in-joke?

  • Dr_Salvador84 #8 5 months ago

    Ooook?

  • GooseUK #9 5 months ago

    I loved the first two Discworld games, they were brilliant.

    Hard games (esp. the first one) before the advent of GameFAQS. Loved that.

  • OnlyMe #10 5 months ago

    I was determined to complete Discworld 2 without a walkthrough or any kinds of hints, and I did it. However, it took ages from start to finish.

    I haven't finished the first game yet though, for some reason. It was just abandoned at some point, because I was distracted by other games. 2 is the only Discworld game I ever completed.

  • roz123 #11 5 months ago

    I got this working on vista a couple of years ago, had to run it in compatibilty mode then press alt enter a couple of times to sort out the crazy colours but sometimes the animation and sounds would go out of synch. It's probably my favourite discworld game. I loved the setting, story and dialogue

  • Kanjin #12 5 months ago

    I know what you mean about the observational humour, but I just do the same as I do anything that tries to ram a moral or idea down my throat which is to ignore it and pay attention to everything else.

  • A_Nonny #13 5 months ago

    I would snap up Discworld 2 in an instant if it ever got released on PSN. Loved that game.

  • LEDgar #14 5 months ago

    Always say I love the first two games until it comes to actually playing them again... "That doesn't work!"
    I'll remember the series for being probably the most bugged-out games I've played; I nearly reached the final Act of the first game (Playstation) but couldn't get any further. I looked up a guide to see what I needed to do, but I already did everything I was supposed to - I even double-checked everything in the guide to make sure I didn't miss some small detail. Nope! The game just wouldn't let me into the last act. Of course, I didn't screen every item from luggage onto every interactive item I could find- maybe that my my mistake? I only completed it years later when I bought the PC version. grrr.

    Discworld 2, I had the least problems with. Don't actually remember anything going wrong with this.

    Discworld Noir I bought cheap years after it's release for a version of Windows it wasn't designed for. Wasn't aware of DOSbox so had to figure how to get it to play properly. Every time I wanted to load a save point from the title screen, the game would crash, so I had to start a new game, sit through the intro, then wait for the lady to leave before loading my game save. Also had a particularly nasty bug that both revealed an important plot twist that hadn't yet happened* and subsequently (partly) ruined the game for me.

    *When you became the warewolf and could 'observe' the scents in your collection you'd hear a commentary of people killed throughout the game, including the main suspect Al-Khali... who hadn't even died yet.

    Still, they each have their moments and I have the first game to thank for introducing me to the point n' click genre, without which I wouldn't have experienced the joys of Broken Sword, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Simon the Sorcerer, Blazing Dragons (yes) and so many of my absolute favourite games. They're why I stopped playing other game genres for the longest time and why I now suck at them.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/11 @ 12:57

  • butler` #15 5 months ago

    I played Simon the Sorcer 2 the other year actually. Still remarkably playable. GoG ftw.

  • Lemming81 #16 5 months ago

    I found the first two much more fun to get into than the third, actually. I'd also say Pratchett's deserves more credit than calling it 'observational comedy'.

  • slackarse #17 5 months ago

    Songs? Songs! Play Sam & Max. Ahh, the war song.

  • Mr_Git #18 5 months ago

    I have fond memories of all 3 of the Discworld games, suppose it helps being quite a Pratchett fan. I still haven't met anyone who finished the first Discworld game. Back before instant internet help and walkthroughs, you used to have to contact the developers for help. Brilliant, can't imagine that happening now.

  • Stoatboy #19 5 months ago

    Stoppit and TidyUp was ace. Also, Janet Ellis. Esp. if after having watched her first on Blue Peter you then saw her in an episode of The Sweeney, in bed with Regan wearing a German soldiers helmet. That changes your perceptions, I can tell you.

  • dagas #20 5 months ago

    I played the demo of Discworld 2 on PS1 a lot. I could not afford to buy many games back then so most PS1 titles I think "oh yeah I played that game, as a demo".

  • MarketZero #21 5 months ago

    Call me dim but I don't get that River Ankh, 'joke'. Any help?

  • Adman #22 5 months ago

    @MarketZero

    The river is renowned for being so thick that you can treat it like a solid surface, something that Pratchett likes to point out regularly in the books.
    Edited by 3 at 11/09/11 @ 17:57

  • Ferral #23 5 months ago

    I have the origional of this sitting in my drawer, I kind of got it working on Vista shortly after that OS was released. Tried to get it running on 7 but it just wont go at all unfortunately.

    The devs never patched it up and the main release was really buggy, something to do with the notepad which stopped progression. There was a community fix done to resolve this issue but it really needed a proper patch from the devs, think this is why we have difficulty running it on todays systems. Shame really as it is a fun game if you can get it going. It didnt even work properly on Windows 98 at the time!

    Might dig it out later tonight and see if I can actually get it running, havnt played it in years. I did like the first 2 games but thought Noir was the best of the 3. Loved the whole seedy 30's style detective atmosphere

  • Mister-Wario #24 5 months ago

    There is a PS1 version!?

    Thank you, Cappy.

  • joelstinton #25 5 months ago

    This is one of the few ps1 games i still actually have :D

    The City of Ankh Morpork, would make a great setting on todays consoles. With the graphics, and detail that today consoles offers, it sad not to see a new discworld game for the modern consoles. I guess the discworld series is too niche to generate sales? A cracking RPG is there to be made. It already got a great setting/characters. So many sidequests to be had with all the guilds, missions for the nightwatch, selling dodgey wares with cut me own thorat dibbler, bar brawls in the broken drum, getting lost in the library... it justs need to be done.
    Edited by 2 at 11/09/11 @ 18:26

  • Ferral #26 5 months ago

    A modern RPG styled game would be awesome. Have the city guard as the main characters (including the golem from Feet of Clay and not forgetting the Dwarven War Bread as a weapon), then tie a few of the books stories into one huge game (edge of the world, Ankh Morpork & the movie set to name a few areas). This way it would cover vast areas of the Discworld and would make a cracking RPG adventure type game, think something in the vein of Neverwinter Nights for playstyle, storytelling and the view used in the action RPG's.

  • MarketZero #27 5 months ago

    @Adman Thanks.

  • Antaios #28 5 months ago

    No, the first two games weren't crap, just like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis isn't crap. Damn it man, what's wrong with you?

  • Grayvern #29 5 months ago

    No the First two books are crap, in fact anything with Rincewind, the rest of his books are great though, they aren't just about observational humor or they wouldn't work as novels which is why any comparison to Mcintyre is heinous.

    Besides when people say they don't like observational comedy what they mostly mean is they don't like banal observational comedy.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/11 @ 20:40

  • Laythe_AD #30 5 months ago

    I actually liked the first two games.

  • ShiroBen #31 5 months ago

    Multiple exclamation marks. Sure sign of a diseased mind.

  • ssmulders #32 5 months ago

    I'm a huge Discworld fan as well, having played 2 first which got me into the books!

    Recently I discovered the Discworld MUD. MUDs can be dau ting at first in this day and age. I never played a MUD before (think of it as a text basedl MMORPG), but after getting the basics and a lot of help from the community (which is awesome and friendly all around) it's like having your own personal interactive Pratchett novel!

    If you enjoy the books, definitely check this out;

    [link url=http://discworld.atuin.ne t/
    ]http://discworld.atuin.ne t/
    [/link]

  • Soul_man #33 5 months ago

    No puzzles? How about combining clues in your notebook to make "mental connections" that bring up new subjects? Using the notebook as a kind of inventory is something I wish more (detective) games would do.

    Unless it was crap and my memory just playing tricks on me... definitely possible.

  • kaerber #34 5 months ago

    >>I think I'll start talking about Janet Ellis on Jigsaw next, just to ensure anyone under the age of 30 feels entirely alienated.

    Or any reader of any age from any country but yours...

  • Peregrin #35 5 months ago

    Noir was one of my favourite games of the period. Adventure games were fading out of fashion, so I suspect most people ran out of patience; but I thought the ambiance of the game more than made up for the obscurity of the puzzle solving.

    It also had a decent, developing storyline, unlike most of its contemporaries.

    I can't remember much about the first two games but I do remember enjoying them hugely. Were they really crap? Why?

  • abigsmurf #36 5 months ago

    First two weren't rubbish, they were quite fun. The first did suffer from obscenely difficult puzzles though.

    Pratchett's work always teeters between observational comedy and parody and they're just fine because of that. He's still fully capable of telling good and original stories. Anyhow, been a lifelong fan of his books, its so cruel that his mind's going to be destroyed by his disease.

    Wonder whatever happened to the Wee Free Men Hollywood adaptation that was going to happen? The Sky adaptations have been a mixed bag:

    Hogfather: decent, perfect casting (except for the Wizards who were the weakest part of it)
    Colour of Magic : Poor. Awful casting (save Tim Curry) and they skipped over some of the best parts of the books
    Going Postal : great, easily the best one so far.

  • gav082 #37 5 months ago

    Loved those games, just bought this [link url=http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91312/discworl d-ankh-morpork
    ]http://bo ardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91312...[/link]
    last week which is also great

  • Wayne #38 5 months ago

    I'm surprised there was no comparison to a very recent game. A lot of L.A. Noire felt directly lifted from Discworld Noir.

  • guvnor_p #39 5 months ago

    Discworld Noir was the first game I properly worked on many moons ago. As I regularly get asked about the soundtrack I've put up a copy (including the songs) here: <a href="http://www .earcom.net/files/dwnoir_ost.zip
    ">http://www .earcom.net/files/dwnoir_ost.zip
    </a>

    Edited by 1 at 13/09/11 @ 01:00

  • Alestes #40 5 months ago

    Discworld Noir is one of my favorite games, sure wish there was a "ScummVM" for it. Would be quite awesome to get rid of the bugs, disc swapping and have it ported to other platforms (like a phone).

  • littlewilly91 #41 5 months ago

    Pratchett has really reached a higher level of writing in his last couple of books. I Shall Wear Midnight is a real journeyman's masterwork. His stuff has always been a great escape, very entertaining and inspiring, particularly engaging when he moved on from parodying Lord Of The Ring imitations at the same time as inevitably becoming one, but I Shall Wear Midnight is finally the literature he always strived for and believed in but never had the confidence or know-how to pull off. It makes you feel mortal and vulnerable so that when you finally put it down the world is a bigger place. You need feel no shame in sitting back with your wadge of paper and ink as the world outside slips by, because you are Facing Things. Just as these last couple of years I've discovered great literature, so Terry Pratchett, savior of my reading youth, has run to keep up.

  • Marshall2008 #42 5 months ago

    Loved these games (including Eric Idle). They should re-release them on the iPad its great for point and click stuff. Played through Monkey Island 1 & 2 and Broken Sword again.