Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?
A Discworld adventure to find Death on vacation.
In this 1996 point-and-click adventure, players guide the hapless wizard Rincewind, voiced again by Eric Idle, as he tries to track down Death and convince him to end his sudden retirement. The game draws from several Discworld novels, including Reaper Man and Moving Pictures. Developed by Perfect Entertainment and published by Psygnosis for PC, it later reached PlayStation and Saturn, with the Saturn version exclusive to Europe. Reviews were positive in Europe but less so in North America.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Perfect Entertainment
- Publisher
- Psygnosis (PC, PS); Sega (SS)
- Director
- Gregg Barnett
- Programmer
- David Johnston
- Artist
- Paul Mitchell; Nick Pratt
- Composer
- Rob Lord
- Series
- Discworld
- Platforms
- DOS
- Windows
- PlayStation
- Saturn
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
In this point-and-click adventure, players guide the wizard Rincewind through a story split into four acts. They explore locations, talk to characters, and solve puzzles by finding and using objects. Rincewind can only hold two items at a time, but his magical Luggage stores an unlimited number. Conversations offer four tones: greeting, sarcasm, questioning, and musing, with extra options sometimes appearing. Overhead maps let players travel around Ankh-Morpork and the countryside, unlocking new areas as the plot advances. Double-clicking adds items to the Luggage or quickly leaves a location.
Plot
One night while returning from a pub with The Librarian, Rincewind witnesses an assassin plant a cart bomb in the Fools' Guild and attempts to disarm it, but accidentally causes the bomb to detonate, destroying the guild and killing its occupants. The blast also catches Death while attending to his duties, ejecting him from his horse and causing him to disappear without trace. His absence leads to the souls of the departed remaining bound to their bodies and becoming undead. After Windle Poons suffers the same fate, the wizards of Unseen University suspect the cause and decide to invoke a ritual to summon Death, with the Archchancellor tasking Rincewind to collect needed items. The ritual summons Death briefly, but he reveals he is on indefinite vacation, disillusioned with the thanklessness of his task. The Archchancellor fails to reason with him, and assigns Rincewind to locate him and return him to his duties. Death refuses when found, agreeing only if he receives credit for his work. Rincewind arranges for him to become a star in his own film, employing Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler as director and securing props. The finished production is poorly received until Rincewind splices in footage of an Elf Queen that hypnotizes the crowd into loving the film.
Development
The adventure was released on two CD-ROMs, or one for consoles, with hand-painted backgrounds, animated sprites, full voice acting, and a straightforward point-and-click interface. While it will not run natively on Windows XP or later, modern players can use ScummVM or DOSBox to play it; ScummVM recreates the game using its own version of the Tinsel engine and the original data files. The voice cast shifted from the first Discworld game: Eric Idle returned as Rincewind, but Tony Robinson did not reprise his role, and Jon Pertwee had died before production began. Rob Brydon and Kate Robbins came back, while Nigel Planer joined the cast. The Death of Rats was voiced by Katharine the crocodile, and Brydon also supplied new voices for Dibbler, Windle Poons, and Havelock Vetinari.
Reception
Like its predecessor, Discworld II was a massive hit in Europe and the United Kingdom according to director Gregg Barnett, but was less successful in the United States. It scored an 80.5% average on GameRankings based on six reviews. Adventure Gamers ranked it 73rd on their list of the Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games in 2011, noting that while puzzles were not standout, they were more logical than those of the original, and the game held up better in modern times due to contemporary PCs handling its sophisticated cartoon graphics. The song That's Death, written and sung by Eric Idle and arranged by Tom Scott, was picked by PC Gamer as one of the best songs in PC gaming. Contemporary praise centered on its humour and voice acting, though some critics remarked that conversations are overlong. Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly described the game as constantly poking fun at itself and appealing to everyone with its mix of low-brow and high-brow humour. The cartoon-like animation impressed most critics. The primary criticism was that puzzles are so abstract they can drive players to trial-and-error, though Sega Saturn Magazine contended that most puzzles are just hard enough without being too obscure. PlayStation Magazine gave it a 7/10, recommending it only for Pratchett fans. Next Generation stated that non-fans would get frustrated by puzzles, while fans might not like how characters and landscapes are represented.
Frequently Asked Questions
What platforms is Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? available on?
Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? was released for DOS, Windows, PlayStation and Saturn.
Who composed the music for Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!??
The music for Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? was composed by Rob Lord.
Is Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? single-player or multiplayer?
Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? offers single-player play.
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