Noir Games

darklite_x

Hi all, I've got a bit of a dilemna. Lately I've been jonesing for some Noir games a la Max Payne. I was reading the thread about Hotel Dusk, and that looked intriguing, so I figure maybe you all could recommend some noir style games for the PC. Genre isn't an issue, just style. Any help would be appreciated.

Food

Grim Fandango. NOW.

Pata

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_Noir

:?:

ToadTheMushroom

Max Payne?

MP2 is better than the first.

Der Waffle Mous

ToadTheMushroom wrote:

Max Payne?

MP2 is better than the first.

Raggie

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. :^:

Mordrack

Rise of the Dragon.

Rookie

Two words amigo:

Tex Murphy

Cilla Black

Food wrote:

Grim Fandango. NOW.

While it definitely has a lot of noir feeling, I don't think it's exactly what he's looking for. Grim Fandango is fantastic, but far and away from being in the same vein as Max Payne. Gently on the plain. I'm sure he's also not looking for the king of Spain......

I'm sorry.

Anyway, Max Payne is serious while Grim Fandango is.....well, serious but not at the same time.

Mordrack

Rookie wrote:

Two words amigo:

Tex Murphy

I wasn't going to mention Tex, due to them being parody. They are worth playing, though.

MarvellousM

cj iwakura

I didn't know Rise of the Dragon was on PC... I thought it was Sega Cd only. Coolness.

Not quite noir, but good nonetheless.

Fear Effect 1 reminds me of Rise of the Dragon in a lot of ways, but it's not really noir either.

I haven't played either Max Payne, but since I love noir(<3 Dark City), I guess I ought to.

rayofash

Rise of the Dragon was frikkin hard, but awesome.

Also, what's Noir?

Edit: ah.

Mordrack

rayofash wrote:

Also, what's Noir?

Crime thriller's with a gritty rough feel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Rookie

MarvellousM wrote:

This is a great game.

Cilla Black

Noir is probably best personified by a Detective in a black and white film giving a personal narrative of whats going on/has been going on to the audience while roaming the streets of some big city looking for trouble. He'll have a cigarette in his mouth. It doesn't have to be a Detective to be noir though, but once you picture what I'm talking about you can pretty easily identify anything with a noir feeling.

Sin City had a shitton of noir in it, and most of the games here did as well.

cj iwakura

How about Indigo Prophecy?

For like the first half of the game, at least. It kind of has that feel to it, especially the detective side.

Mordrack

cj iwakura wrote:

I didn't know Rise of the Dragon was on PC... I thought it was Sega Cd only. Coolness.

Not quite noir, but good nonetheless.

I can't speak for the SegaCD version but playing the PC version, how is it not? It's a great example of Sci-Fi noir, just like Blade Runner.

darklite_x

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm getting a little bored with the Burning Crusade, so I'm probably going to reinstall Max Payne 2 on my sytem and hit that up this weekend. In any case, it looks like it's time to hit eBay.

Thello

cj iwakura wrote:

How about Indigo Prophecy?

For like the first half of the game, at least. It kind of has that feel to it, especially the detective side.

That'd be a real stretch for noir, really. Plus the last third of the game is the most ridiculous shit ever written.

OP, what kind of noir are you looking for? If you're looking for straight-up gritty, down-on-his-luck detective stories, the Max Payne and Tex Murphy series are solid choices.

Discworld Noir is a comedic detective tale, very loosely based on the series of books by Terry Pratchett.

Grim Fandango is definitely noir, though it's certainly a twist on the usual tale. Taking place in the Land of the Dead, you're an ex-repear searching for a damsel in distress. It features a fantastic light, jazzy soundtrack that matches the atmosphere perfectly.

Blade Runner, loosely tied to the movie, is definitely worth a look if you're into sci-fi noir.

Snatcher is a stretch, but it's a great little adventure game by the creator of Metal Gear Solid. Think Blade Runner meets The Terminator and you might get the idea. You'll need a Sega CD emulator to run it.

flamebroiledchicken

Zilla84 wrote:

Food wrote:

Grim Fandango. NOW.

While it definitely has a lot of noir feeling, I don't think it's exactly what he's looking for. Grim Fandango is fantastic, but far and away from being in the same vein as Max Payne. Gently on the plain. I'm sure he's also not looking for the king of Spain......

I'm sorry.

Anyway, Max Payne is serious while Grim Fandango is.....well, serious but not at the same time.

Yeah, I mean Year Two is pretty noir, but the rest I don't really know about. According to Wikipedia, Tim Schafer said his inspiration for the plot of the game came from Double Indemnity, which is pretty noir. I mean, I'd play the game regardless because it is awesome, and I guess an argument can be made for a noir vibe.

Cilla Black

flamebroiledchicken wrote:

Zilla84 wrote:

Food wrote:

Grim Fandango. NOW.

While it definitely has a lot of noir feeling, I don't think it's exactly what he's looking for. Grim Fandango is fantastic, but far and away from being in the same vein as Max Payne. Gently on the plain. I'm sure he's also not looking for the king of Spain......

I'm sorry.

Anyway, Max Payne is serious while Grim Fandango is.....well, serious but not at the same time.

Yeah, I mean Year Two is pretty noir, but the rest I don't really know about. According to Wikipedia, Tim Schafer said his inspiration for the plot of the game came from Double Indemnity, which is pretty noir. I mean, I'd play the game regardless because it is awesome, and I guess an argument can be made for a noir vibe.

Oh yeah, shit, the game is has some of the best overall writing ever and is completely awesome to boot (controls frankly suck though). Everyone should play it.

In fact, I'm not sure why I raised a point in the first place. By all means find the game on ebay and play it man!

ToadTheMushroom

Discworld Noir?

Mortality Bites is better than Noir.

Fact.


Get both.

Variable

Mordrack wrote:

rayofash wrote:

Also, what's Noir?

Crime thriller's with a gritty rough feel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

there's technically more to it than that, probably covered in the wiki.

darklite_x

Thello wrote:

OP, what kind of noir are you looking for? If you're looking for straight-up gritty, down-on-his-luck detective stories, the Max Payne and Tex Murphy series are solid choices.

Personally this is my favorite style of noir, but you know any style of noir is great as long as the story is good. I really think this is a genre that needs more attention. Enough w/ the WWII shooters and fantasy RPGs, let's get some gritty, story-driven games out there. MP2 was short, but if they had more games like that (read: with style) then I'd be set. I'll definitely be taking a look into the Tex Murphy series, and I've heard nothing but good things about Grim Fandango and Blade Runner.

LockeCole

Mordrack wrote:

Rise of the Dragon.

Oh god, this game was awesome, but I could never get very far into it.

Ginsane

Not Noir at all but Police Quest 4 was damn good detective game. Darker than the others.

BubbaT

flamebroiledchicken wrote:

Zilla84 wrote:

Food wrote:

Grim Fandango. NOW.

While it definitely has a lot of noir feeling, I don't think it's exactly what he's looking for. Grim Fandango is fantastic, but far and away from being in the same vein as Max Payne. Gently on the plain. I'm sure he's also not looking for the king of Spain......

I'm sorry.

Anyway, Max Payne is serious while Grim Fandango is.....well, serious but not at the same time.

Yeah, I mean Year Two is pretty noir, but the rest I don't really know about. According to Wikipedia, Tim Schafer said his inspiration for the plot of the game came from Double Indemnity, which is pretty noir. I mean, I'd play the game regardless because it is awesome, and I guess an argument can be made for a noir vibe.

Do you mean this?

Tim Schaefer wrote:

With Grim, I wanted to do film noir, but film noir had been kind of done in games, like Killing Moon, and others. But people has only explored this one side, which I thought of as a very superficial take on noir—Sam Spade, sitting on the desk, the bottle of whiskey, the gorgeous dame walking in the office. And there are so many more examples of film noire. The one I really like is Double Indemnity, which was about an insurance salesman, you know what I mean?
...
And, I mean, there's nothing exciting about that, and yet it's one of the greatest movies of all time. That's what inspired me to make the main character in Grim Fandango a travel agent. This is another angle on noire—the story where a regular Joe makes one mistake, or some small error in judgement, or tries to take the short way out, and gets involved in a spiraling world of crime and corruption that they have to claw their way back out of.

http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/pearce/

Also, Rockstar has announced a project named "LA Noire."

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire

YardGnome

BubbaT wrote:

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire

I was fixing to say this. This looks really good, and its a Rockstar game, which is a near guarantee of quality.

UndefinedMonkey

This one might be a little out there, but how about Thief? It's dark, seedy, and has great voice-over narrations by Garrett.

Neo Rasa

Manhunter...

cooljammer00

Mordrack wrote:

Rookie wrote:

Two words amigo:

Tex Murphy

I wasn't going to mention Tex, due to them being parody. They are worth playing, though.

parody like...they're funny?

Houk

something about that 'e' at the end of 'noire' really bugs me. i dunno why...it just does.

Drez

Mordrack wrote:

Rise of the Dragon.

YES.

I love you.

Mordrack

cooljammer00 wrote:

Mordrack wrote:

Rookie wrote:

Two words amigo:

Tex Murphy

I wasn't going to mention Tex, due to them being parody. They are worth playing, though.

parody like...they're funny?

I don't know about the last two in the series, but the first three certainly are.

ElJeffe

Thello wrote:

Snatcher is a stretch, but it's a great little adventure game by the creator of Metal Gear Solid. Think Blade Runner meets The Terminator and you might get the idea. You'll need a Sega CD emulator to run it.

I know Snatcher was on Turbo CD, and I thought it was on PC as well. Could be mistaken about the latter.

Mordrack

ElJeffe wrote:

Thello wrote:

Snatcher is a stretch, but it's a great little adventure game by the creator of Metal Gear Solid. Think Blade Runner meets The Terminator and you might get the idea. You'll need a Sega CD emulator to run it.

I know Snatcher was on Turbo CD, and I thought it was on PC as well. Could be mistaken about the latter.

The only PC version that I'm aware of is SDSnatcher. And it's an MSX game. The other systems it's on are the PC8801, PS1, and Saturn.

Xagarath

Pata Hikari wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_Noir

:?: