h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Discworld NOIR - A897906
Author: The Discworld's Pythonist - U198644

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My first reactions:

This seems a little skimpy. I think it would be better to give a little introduction about 'film noir' and point out some of the ways that this game pays homage to/skits at the cliches of the hard-boiled detective story. The cynical PI voice-over, the constant darkness and rain - the story references like Samael the piano-player, looking for Therma, etc etc. I don't think a list of characters matters much unless you are explaining something about them.

What about the story format? The four acts ending on a suprise twist? Can you mention the new abilities Lewton develops, without a spoiler? The Lovecraftian storyline in the last section?

To give people a flavour of the game, it would also be good to give some strengths and weaknesses of the game:

Strengths: good background music, interesting puzzles, lots of clever references in the dialogue

Weaknesses: a bit clunky - very slow to change scenes, some of the scenes too dark to make out details, extremely difficult to backtrack if a clue has been missed.

I'll try and give it a closer look at the weekend.


Azara

You could also mention that rob Brydon, of Marion and Geoff fame, also voices some characters.

I'LL GET TO IT EVENTUALLY!!!!!

You could make some reference to how much of a film noir patische it is. There's 'The Big Sleep', 'The Maltese Falcon', and 'Casablanca' all mixed up in there.

You might also mention some of the allusions and references in the game, since that is such a huge part of the Discworld as a whole. You mentioned Larado Cronk, but there's also the actor Priveteia (a play on Oliveia, I think) and Nylonapotep - the laddering horror.


Geggs

Sorry, it's Olivier (can't speel me) and Privetier in the game.

There's also the absolutely stereotypically noir way the game opens. The beautiful woman walks into the office of the run-down PI and drops a great big case in his lap.

Or there's some of the other references in the game, like the Imp Coffee Bean Machine (ICBM), or the inscription on the sword - Battries Not Included. Or the way the half-elf bar owner describes his pub "It's a retched hive of scum and villainy" A straight pull from Star Wars that line. Or then there's the scent of a woman.

You could also say that it's likely to remain the last ever Discworld game cus GT Interactive, who wrote all three games, have gone bust. OF course, there might be a new game eventually, but it's going to be a fair few years before anyone wants to touch it...


Geggs

GT DIDN'T DO THE FIRST TWO!!!

I /WAS/ TRYING TO GIVE AN INCITE INTO HOW THE GAME ACTS NOT GIVE EVERY FILM REFERENCE... I SORT OF DIDN'T WANT TO SPOIL ANYTHING!!!!!!

If you turn caps lock off we can take our fingers out of our ears, as it seems as if you are shouting at us.

This is the most playable of the games, although I missed the chaos of the first two, it's a lot of fun, and very atmospheric.

Doesn't the dog have a very big part in the game? It's been a few years since I played it.

NO GASPODE ONLY HAS A SMALL ROLE...

Small maybe, but fairly pivotal, I think.


Geggs

NOT REALLY IMPORTANT... LEWTON COULD FIGURE IT OUT HIMSELF... EVENTUALLY

Please stop shouting!

I'M NOT SHOUTING... I'M SPEAKING OUT OF BODY...




A815384

please return to your body and adjust the volume -- i'm having to type in all lowercase letters to compensate....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Hi Pythonist,

I haven't played any of the games, but have read all the books. Even so, I have to say that your review didn't really give me much of an idea of what the game was about.

"Eric Idle is gone, and therefore so is Rincewind." confused me for a while. I don't think that you should assume that everyone who reads the review has played the other games. Maybe have a quick rundown of the other games as well, to fill the rest of us in! (Ie. 'Rincewind, the inept wizard who starred in the previous game...' and maybe a bit about why Eric Idle isn't back?)

Maybe you could talk a bit more about how the game actually works? Is it animated, is it mainly text, what are the graphics like? etc

Also the lists of characters don't really work, unless you say something about them, as it is I skimmed over them.

Hope this helps!

Good luck
Clover

Hey there, Pythonist!

Any response to these comments? Any plans on working on this entry some more, maybe including some of the material from these comments, or answering some of the questions people have raised?

Okay, I'm going to sound a little less happy now.

If you want this entry to be in Peer Review, you really need to be willing to respond to the comments here, and work on the entry. People have made some helpful comments and suggestions here, which you *asked for* by submitting the entry to PR. You're clearly still active on h2g2, but just ignoring these Peer Review threads, which isn't incredibly polite.

If you don't want this entry to be in Peer Review, you need to click on the button to take it out of Peer Review.

I've been busy, sorry.

I can understand that you've been busy. But if you're not going to have time to respond to the comments here in Peer Review and work on this entry, then you really do need to remove the entry from PR. You can always resubmit it later when you're not so busy and have time to work on it again.

If you decide you want to remove the entry from PR, you can do it by clicking on this link:

<./>SubmitReviewForum?action=removethread&rfid=1&h2g2id=897906</.>