Discworld 2
Developer - Perfect Entertainment
Publisher - Psygnosis
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card, Mouse
The bit on the box
"In this second incredible Discworld adventure, Death
has gone missing and a hero is needed to bring him back. But there's only
Rincewind, incompetent wizard and highly-trained coward. You won't catch
Rincewind running away. He's too fast. Unfortunately, he's all there is
that stands between people and the horrible prospect of immortality. And
no one wants that, do they?"
Graphics
If you have ever played the original Discworld
game on PlayStation, then you will find the graphics in this sequel heavily
revamped. In fact the engine appears to have been completely restructured
for a sharper, more cartoony look than it's predecessor. It comes across
nicely except for the constant disc accessing, which slows down the animation
when there is alot going on on-screen. A pre-loading system such as that
used in Broken Sword 2 would have been a better idea for a game
of this type. The other major problem I had was that unless you have a
large screen television parts of the game area can be cut off, so now and
then the player may miss an exit on the side of the screen or an item in
a similar place. There is a feature in the options menu that can adjust
the screen left and right in case this happens, but why should you have
to?
Sounds
The sound effects tend to stay with the cartoon feel of
the game, with boinks and bonks and burps being commonplace, whereas the
music is just the usual standard fare for this type of point and click
adventure game (it runs in the background and doesn't really try to effect
the atmosphere much at all). The best part of the sound in Discworld
2 is the voice acting. Rincewind's voice is done by Eric Idle and as
a result the whole game comes across as a very Monty Python-esque experience.
The dialogue is well worked and the script is genuinely funny, and makes
fun of both itself as a game and of computing in general, as well as the
normal jokes about Trolls and ducks, common to Pratchett humour.
Gameplay
Well what can I say? If you've played any graphic point
and click adventures in the past then you should be right at home with
the control system Discworld 2 offers. It uses pop-up inventory
windows and a simple look/operate interface, so even the novice player
can get started in no time at all. The biggest problem with the gameplay
of the Discworld games are the puzzles, which at times are so far
illogical that the solutions are just downright silly, and are discovered
more from experimentation and luck than skillful thinking. This isn't so
bad in this sequel but is still apparent, especially later in the game,
although many hints are given by various characters that you meet along
the way, and so it is advisable to listen to them even if they do tend
to rabbit on forever.
I feel a verdict coming on
Quite an easy verdict this one, if you like graphics adventures,
you'll love this. If you don't then you won't. If you like Terry Pratchett's
books, you'll love this. If you don't then you won't. If you like Monty
Python...well you get the point. As far as adventures go this is definitely
one of the funniest around, and offers a good amount of gameplay before
you finish it. It does support the PlayStation mouse which is a plus for
those who own them, but I found it wasn't really a necessary peripheral
to have while playing the game (the controller works just as well if not
better). If there'd been a little less disc accessing I may have given
Discworld 2 a higher score, but as it stands it is a good but flawed
adventure game.
Review by D.R.T.Barrett
|
