Summary
Not much has changed...
The Good
The sequel to "Discworld" borrows heavily from the
original (the same characters, design and interface). However, this one has more impressive graphics and animation. The cartoon-like graphics are sharp and vibrant, and the characters are much better animated than in the first game. The humor is the same crazy stuff known from the first game, with some very witty moments, for example Death' show.
"Discworld II" improves over the original in terms of gameplay, but only slightly. At least there is no backtracking through the entire city here. The puzzles are somewhat less "scattered" than in the first game, items easier to spot, and the overall production values are better, with no noticeable bugs that plagued the first game.
Particularly impressive is the intro sequence with Death' song - a really entertaining and hilarious piece.
The overall idea of the game - people stop dying because Death refuses to do its job - is unusual enough to sustain the interest of the players and is well implemented, especially in the first part of the game.
The Bad
"Discworld II" corrects only some minor issues; in its core, it is once again a patience test, much like its predecessor.
An adventure has to have a story that would guide you, but there's hardly anything of this sort here, except the initial premise of bringing Death back. All story-related events quickly disintegrate into a mass of obscure puzzles and endless conversations. When something happens, it happens in such an artificial, unnatural way, that you would hardly call it story development.
Just like the first game, there is no connection between gameplay and story here. You spend all your time engaging in long and rather boring conversations, and solving irritating puzzles. All those activities have very little to do with the story line itself. After you managed to solve a puzzle, you don't feel you have advanced the story. You only know you'll have to do more of the same to get transported to a new location or something like this. There is no logical relation between what you do in the game and what the game considers as worthy of advancing the story lines.
The puzzles are awfully illogical in a bad way They are much too dependent on inventory. There is no other kind of puzzles in the game but item combinations. It quickly turns into a frustrating "use everything-with-everything" business. And just like in the first game, there are nearly no clues. You don't get even the most elementary reward for cracking those puzzles.
Alone this lack of feedback to the player might be enough to drive you mad. Add to this the endless conversations and you'll understand this game really pushes your nervous system to the limit. It is quite possible that you'll hate it.
And if you are not into the kind of humor Discworld has (I'm not), you are probably going to hate it even more.
The Bottom Line
+ Looks nice
+ Some funny stuff
- Story is buried under the bulk of puzzles
- Puzzles are illogical in a bad way
- Endless conversations
- Humor is questionable
"Discword II" looks nice. Occasionally, it is amusing. Unfortunately, it didn't correct the problems of the original. All the annoying stuff from the first "Discworld" comes back to haunt you. You won't experience a story here, because you won't notice it, overwhelmed by confusing puzzles and equally confusing dialogues.
For the record,
Discworld Noir is a totally different story. You can safely skip the first two Discworlds and go straight to play this much better game.
