Adventure Gamers - Forums

What do you get if you mix the stories from the three most classical Humphrey Bogart movies, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and Casablanca, add a bit of an American Werewolf in London, throw in a typical mad scientist wizard, season with a truckload of .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and have it all take place on a world carried by four elephants standing on the back of the Great A’Tuin?

What you get is of course Discworld Noir!

The reason I have chosen it for this weeks Midweek puzzle, is however not because of the great story or the supreme humour, but instead because it also had a lot of innovation in the gameplay department.

One of the key features of the game is Lewton’s notebook, where a lot of different topics and information will be added.

But this notebook is not just a standard notebook, where you can see your objectives or whatever clues you may have found, you can also use it actively during conversations. On top of having standard dialogue options, you can also ask people about the many different topics or clues that you have in your notebook.

It is however not just your notebook that you can use during the conversations, you can also open the inventory and then ask about what they know about any of the items you are carrying.

But there is more to it than just that, the real genius here is that you can also access the notebook outside of conversations, and then use a topic on a physical item in the world. Lets say for example that you have a clue written in your notebook, you find something new that might be related to that clue, you can then simply drag your clue from the notebook onto the item you have found, and Lewton might conclude that they are indeed connected and conclude something from that.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, then there is also another feature in the game, where you can enter a different mode, which allows you to see the world differently and notice things that you otherwise wouldn’t.

Add all of this together, and I think it is safe to say that Discworld Noir is one of the most innovative adventure games ever made, and one of the best when it comes to the puzzle department.