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Wednesday 1 March 2017

NOIR: A SHADOWY THRILLER


Cyberdreams continuing ethos of publishing games with the clear voice of a named artist behind them was an admirable - if short-lived - one. In their fifth and final game released in 1996 a director by the name of Jeff Blyth joined the development crew of TSi to create Noir: A Shadowy Thriller. While his work isn't as well-known as H.R.Giger's alien landscapes or Harlan Ellison's sci-fi stories, he has had an interesting and rather unorthodox film career.

I very much doubt many will know off-hand Blyth's contributions to cinema, and I don't blame you. His sole feature film was a 1989 effort called Cheetah distributed by Disney. It bombed badly, taking only $8 million at the US box office but it at least gave us the first utterance of Hakuna Matata in a Disney film five years before The Lion King.

If his cinematic achievements in cinema were somewhat underwhelming, it's his work in the Walt Disney theme parks that will be his true legacy. His short films made for the CircleVision 360° cinema attractions allowed guests to the 'Happiest Place on Earth' travel somewhere else for a bit. With Wonders of China, Portrait of Canada and - my favourite - From Time to Time, Blyth became something of a respected figure in the niche medium.

You may not know who he is, but this background in attractions give him a unique perspective this type of adventure games. He knows how to take you to another world and Noir's meticulous re-creation of Hollywood in the 1940s is nothing short of stunning. Every location, prop and character could be ripped from the minds and sets of Raymond Chandler or John Houston. The decision for the entire game to be presented in black and white only serves the film-noir theme.

You play as an unnamed Private Eye whose good friend a business partner, Jack Slayton, goes missing. Marjorie, his receptionist, has called you in to investigate. Jack has six unsolved cases for you to work through, each one offering new clues to his possible whereabouts. You can play them in any order and if you're stumped, you can begin working on another and come back to it later. Sometimes this is even required to progress. Each scenario plays like a classic whodunit, and will keep you guessing like a good Agatha Christie novel. The usual noir tropes are present and accounted for but they never feel tired or over-used. Everything was written by Jeff Blyth himself and his love for classic cinema certainly shines through. He also directs the cinematic cut-scenes which stars some talented unknown actors that have unfortunately remained unknown (and Wo-Jan the Wonder Dog).

These FMV scenes are single shots from your character's point-of-view. It's a shame your character doesn't speak though as it makes interviewing a suspect rather one-sided. There are no dialogue trees here like other adventure games. Instead you're presented with monologues of various lengths that may or may not be dense with important information. Don't worry if you forget anything. Back in Jack's office, a handy notebook sits in the bottom left-hand drawer of his desk that keeps track of everything that's happened. It would be better if you could take it with you, but it's there at least. Beware, though. If you get mugged, you (and your notebook) will forget some things, ticking the amnesia box of all things noir.

As well as scrapping dialogue trees, the game does away with an inventory also. Everything you pick up - and there are a lot of items - will automatically be used at the correct moment. Same with any other clues or codes you come across like the number to the safe. There's no need to write down this four-digit code as it will automatically be entered. I'm in two minds at this decision. On the one hand, puzzles appear to be non-existent. The only grey matter needed for this game is on the screen, not in your brain. On the other hand, it keeps you focussed on the investigation and story at hand. The game does not rely on items or logic puzzles but instead your investigative and observation skills. Do you find that literal needle in a haystack that could prove the murder of a prized race-horse? Does that document you had left unread give a motive? It's an interesting concept that's not entirely successful. I would even say it's been done a lot better in many other games in execution if not in style. Despite the six investigations at your disposal from the outset, it's also a rather linear game. There are no alternative endings to mix things up - you cannot falsely accuse someone for example - and the game can be completed by simply making sure you click on everything you come across.

Locations are displayed in some nicely detailed stills. Each photograph is absorbing in its own right, but there's little going on that it makes the world feels incredibly lifeless. The only real movement happens during the cinematics. Navigating your surroundings also takes some getting used to. The points of movement are not the obvious choices which make exploring even a small location like Jack's office a disorienting one. For example, not long after you start the game, a buzzer keeps going off. At first, I thought it was the phone on the desk, but after clicking on it several times, I found it not to be the case. It took me ages to realise it was an old intercom-type system located behind the desk, which requires a maze-like number of movements to reach. This is the most complex room in the game - it does hold all of your investigative gizmos after all - so once explored, I was fine.

Once you get past the quirks, you're in for a fairly decent if easy adventure. I say this not because of its overall design, its puzzles or the way it looks, but primarily for the story - something I prize above all else. But more than anything, Noir: Shadowy Thriller, like those CircleVision 360° films, is an experience. Whether or not it sounds like a good one is up to you.


To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses DOSBox running Microsoft Windows 3.1 to get the game working on modern systems. Manual included. Tested on Windows 10.
    04.03.2017 - Version 2 - Fixed multi-CD error

File Size: 1.1 Gb.  Install Size: 1.5Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download


Noir: A Shadowy Thriller is © Cyberdreams
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

Like this? Try These...

Clue  Dark Seed  Ripley's Believe it or Not - The Riddle of Master Lu

22 comments:

  1. Ctrl F4 does not work to access disk 2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK. I thought I tested this - it shouldn't ask for disc 2. Obviously not enough. I'll have a look and re-upload if necessary. Keep the HDD folder and copy that over to the new install for your saved game.

      Delete
    2. All updated. I gave up on the disc merging (I thought I had it sussed). It makes the installer a fair bit larger as files are duplicated between the 2 CDs, but at least it's
      working.

      Thanks for letting me know!

      Delete
    3. The update works fine but i had to reinstall the game to make it work.
      I also had to add # to the last 2 lines in dosbox.conf to give the necessary
      time to the mouse driver to load
      (# win c:\runexit\runexit c:\NOIR\NOIR.EXE
      # exit)

      Delete
    4. That doesn't seem to happen for me - the mouse driver works fine on my machine. It could be caused by the differences between the PCs we're running it on (mine's fairly beefy) although if it didn't happen in the last version I don't know what could be the cause. All that's changed is replacing my FUBARed merged cd with the two unedited originals in bin/cue format. Maybe changing the "output=ddraw" to "output=overlay" would help.

      The last 2 lines are there to automatically start the game and close the emulated Windows 3.1 and DOSBox as soon as you click to exit. All of my Windows 3.1 games use this method. Without it, you'll have to navigate through the emulated Windows 3.1 OS to both play and exit. If you're not bothered by that and it makes the game play better on your machine, go for it.

      Saying that, you'd probably want to reactivate the line that reads "#windows\win /b" by deleting #. You may find that your keyboard won't work within the game if you don't.

      Delete
  2. Thx for your fast answer

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  3. Thanks again, I really apprechiate your work

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  4. Well... I'm using V2 here.
    I have a beefy PC too but I have two problems :
    1 : my image has a shift. ican't see the right part of the image, ONLY in videos (introduction.. i can't progress) !!
    2 : my mouse will disappear right from the beginning of the game.
    if i click, i can only change the photos, nothing else... i can't save eutiher, since you need to select the right box...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That to me sounds like it perhaps didn't install correctly. Try re-installing it outside of Program Files and running the game as admin.

      Delete
    2. Just passing by... i found a solution to my problems.
      I've checked the FAQ and I changed two things :

      1 If you find the image is zoomed in when in fullscreen, this is due to your systems' DPI settings. Right-click on Run.exe (or the equivalent) and go to the Compatibility tab. Select 'Change high DPI settings' and tick the boxes for 'Program DPI' and 'High DPI scaling override'.

      2 Try running the game as administrator.

      It's perfectly working !! If it can help anyone in needs.....
      Thanks again for the nice FAQ.... :-)

      Delete
    3. Good to hear! My recent packages take into account the DPI settings and removes Program Files as the default installation folder. I wish I had the time to update all the old ones, but the FAQ is the next best thing.

      Delete
  5. There is a game call "Philip Marlowe: Private Eye" from 1998 of Infogrames/Simon & Schuster/Brooklyn Multimedia/Erbe Software... maybe you want to check it out... and uploaded too ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard of it, though I've not played it. I've added it to my (very large) request list.

      Delete
  6. Thank you for uploading this!
    It's one of my favourite game of old, and the reason I got fascinated in Noir movies and L.A., which prompted me to visit it and love.

    I wanted to replay this since a long time (still own the original CD!) but couldn't do it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The game is asking me for CD 2, even though I am using the V2 installer, the game is installed in C: and I'm running it as an admin. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Press CTRL-F4 to change CDs. Read the FAQ for more info

      Delete
    2. Thank you very much, I realised I never did say anything!

      Delete
  8. Love that you've brought this back. I still have the original game, box, manual and disks. I installed your port and it ran once yesterday, but today when I launch via the Windows 10 shortcut all I get are can't copy file errors saying the disk is full. Clicking OK through those eventually lands me back on my desktop. Any ideas?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This sounds like an admin issue. Install outside of Program Files or run as admin. See the FAQ for more info.

      Delete
  9. All the Collection Chamber games work fine on Mac OS with Wine installed, identical to Windows. Here though, on the startup, the screen of a 50's office with a large window in the background, loads really very slowly and takes ages before I can open the File menu and continue the game. Is there any way I can arrest this loading (stop the hourglass) and go straight to the File menu? Any help much appreciated. Thanks, Simon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, I'm sorry I'm unable to assist when playing it on Wine. I don't have a Mac so wouldn't know the ins and outs of it. My only thought is that if it's running slow, it doesn't have anough resources to play.

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  10. Pressing Ctrl-F4 does nothing. Game keeps asking for disc 2. I am stuck at the book shop, going round in circles....endlessly. Loved this game on disc. Still have it. .

    ReplyDelete