The Colonel's Bequest: Difference between revisions
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During the eighties and early nineties, the world of [[Adventure Game|Adventure Games]] belonged to [[Sierra]]. Games series like ''[[King's Quest]]'', ''[[Space Quest]]'', ''[[Police Quest]]'', and ''[[Quest for Glory]]'', established the company's love of quests, and in 1989 there was ''
''The Colonel's Bequest'' used a traditional text parser and 16 color graphics, much like Sierra's other games of the time. The plot, which took place in 1925, involved protagonist Laura Bow, a graduate of Tulane University, being invited by her friend Lillian to her uncle's New Orleans plantation home, where relatives and employees have gathered for the reading of the old Colonel's will. Secrets and deceptions abound as the guests quickly start to disappear, and it is up to Laura to find out what is going on and solve the mystery before it is too late. [[Broken Aesop|Turns out she can't]]: almost everybody will die regardless of what you do, and none of the secrets and deceptions are at all related to the murderer.
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The second and last in the series, ''The Dagger of Amon Ra'' (1992), used 8 bit colors and a point-and-click interface. It takes place a year after the first game, in New York, where Laura, now a newspaper reporter, is charged to write a story about the dissapearance of an antique dagger from a local museum. Attending a benefit at the museum, she meets the various suspects, who quickly begin to die off one by one. This game had a similar time system but involved more straight-forward, item-based puzzles than the previous game. Like its predecessor, it also required the player to make their own conclusions in order to solve the murders. The identity of the murderer is not revealed at the end of the game, and instead the player is asked a series of questions in order to determine who the culprit is based on evidence collected.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acquitted Too Late]]{{context}}
* [[Anachronism Stew]]: Pre-internet research makes the 1920s setting a little thin in places.
** Laura and Fifi have ''very'' modern underwear in the first game.
** In the second game, an FBI wanted notice for Al Capone can be found in the New York police station. Since the game takes place in 1926, Capone could be under investigation, but they'd hardly have difficulty finding him, let alone have anything to arrest him for.
** In the second game's ending, Laura's father brags about having taught her "criminology", a field which barely existed when she was a child, and is still in its infancy in the 1920s.
* [[Amateur Sleuth]]
* [[Always Murder]]{{context}}
* [[Asshole Victim]]{{context}}
* [[Big Applesauce]]: ''Dagger of Amon Ra''
* [[Big Secret]]:
* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]:
* [[Bookcase Passage]]{{context}}
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: No one ''ever'' believes Laura when she warns them about the murders.
* [[Curtain Camouflage]]{{context}}
* [[Darkness Equals Death]]: don't go down that dark staircase without a light!
** If Laura goes through any of the secret passageway tunnels in the sequel without either lighting the lamp before she enters or while inside, she will be attacked by bats, which is odd when [[Fridge Logic|these tunnels have no critter or any other danger whatsoever when lit]]. Subverted in the last tunnels near the end of the game as while you don't immediately get killed for entering in the dark, you can't do anything productive without lighting your lamp and you can still get killed.
* [[Dead Man's Chest]]{{context}}
* [[Dead Person Impersonation]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Archibald Carrington}} in the second game.
* [[Dirty Old Man]]: Doctor Wilbur B. [[Punny Name|Feels]] of the first game.
* [[Dramatis Personae]]: The first game is presented as if it is a stage play, introducing the cast this way before the start of act one.
* [[Drop in Nemesis]]: various things Laura did could cause the murderer to appear out of nowhere in the first game, including taking a shower, in an homage to Psycho, complete with a snarky [[Have a Nice Death]].
* [[Dysfunction Junction]]{{context}}
* [[Evidence Scavenger Hunt]]{{context}}
* [[Everyone Is a Suspect]]
* [[Everyone Looks Sexier If French]]: Both [[The Vamp|French people]] are ''massive'' flirts, and the first one is actually a [[Meido|French Maid]], ... ooh la la..
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* [[Hidden in Plain Sight]]: After the Dagger is stolen in the second game, the thief tries to stash it among the replicas in the gift shop.
* [[Hidden Villain]]: {{spoiler|Lilian}}, who you do not find out as the murderer unless you search very hard.
* [[Homage]]: the aforementioned shower scene.
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: As with many an adventure game protagonist, the tiny Laura can hold a wide variety of evidence and tools at once without issue. The second game takes this to the point of self parody, with Laura explicitly sticking every item in her tiny bag that is often smaller than the item being picked up. The only thing that the game claims will ''not'' fit is a "portable" typewriter that weighs "50 pounds" which, while funny, is inaccurate <ref>Even a full sized typewriter of the 1920s would be closer to twenty-seven pounds in weight, and a "portable" one a mere seven pounds.</ref>
* [[It's a Wonderful Failure]]
* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: Laura in the second game.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Adventure Game]]
[[Category:Laura Bow]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:The Colonel's Bequest]]
[[Category:Sierra Entertainment]]
[[Category:Amiga]]
[[Category:Atari ST]]
[[Category:DOS]]
[[Category:Sierra Entertainment]]
[[Category:GOG.com]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonel's Bequest, The}}
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