The Colonel's Bequest

The Colonel's Bequest
The Colonel's Bequest cover artwork.
Developer(s)	Sierra On-Line
Publisher(s)	Sierra On-Line
Designer(s)	Roberta Williams Jacqueline Austin
Engine	SCI0
Platform(s)	Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS
Release date(s)	October 1989 1993
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Media/distribution	5.25" Floppy disk (10) 3.5" Floppy disk (4)

The Colonel's Bequest is a computer game published by Sierra On-Line in 1989. This graphic adventure game was the first of the short-lived Laura Bow Mysteries series created by Roberta Williams and used many elements from the original Mystery House. It was created with SCI0. It uses 4-bit color (16 colors) and a typing interface. A sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, was released in 1992.

Story

The Colonel's Bequest is set in 1925, and the game employs a distinctive, Art Deco style.

The game's main character is Laura Bow, a Tulane University student, daughter of a detective and aspiring journalist. Laura is invited by her flapper friend Lillian to spend a weekend at the decaying sugar plantation of Colonel Dijon. When the reclusive, childless Colonel gathers his quarrelsome relatives for a reading of his will, tensions explode and the bickering leads to murder.

Throughout the game, Laura remains stranded on the island surrounded by suspects and potential victims in a classical Agatha Christie manner. Laura's task is to learn the family secrets, and, ultimately, who the murderer is. There is also an optional, secondary backplot concerning a hidden treasure.

The storyline advances by a quarter-hour when new plot elements are witnessed. Sometimes a quarter-hour can advance in a few real-time seconds, if Laura happens to be in the proper place.

Characters

As with classic murder stories, the plot revolves around characters, most of which are potential victims (and murderers). Most of the game characters are named after prominent figures of the time, such as Rudolph Valentino, W. C. Fields, Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, and Clarence Darrow. Most are heavily based on well-used archetypes.

• Laura Bow - Player character, journalism student and daughter of the detective John Bow.
• Lillian Prune - Laura's friend from Tulane. Her father died when she was young. She is also Ethel's daughter.
• Colonel Henri Dijon - A reclusive, rich, eccentric old man, who fought in the Spanish-American War and lives alone on an antebellum sugar plantation island.
• Ethel Prune - The alcoholic mother of Lillian and younger sister of the Colonel.
• Gertrude Dijon - The snobbish widow of the Colonel's brother, and the mother of Gloria and Rudy.
• Gloria Swansong - The daughter of Gertie and the sister of Rudy. She was a Hollywood actress, who'd gotten into some trouble, and was suffering from some sort of disease.
• Rudolph Dijon - The son of Gertie, the brother of Gloria. He's a slick womanizer and gambler.
• Clarence Sparrow - Henri's sneaky lawyer and a previous lover of Gloria.
• Dr. Wilbur C. Feels - The Colonel's long-time and questionable personal physician.
• Fifi - The sexy French maid that lives with and "serves" the Colonel (and secretly also Jeeves).
• Jeeves - Butler in the Colonel's house, who usually remains silent.
• Celie - Henri's cook from New Orleans, whose parents were slaves in the plantation. She is the only character who will befriend Laura.

Details

This is one of the few Sierra games which is more character-driven than puzzle-driven. Although solving puzzles is crucial for obtaining a high score, discovering information about the characters' backgrounds and their relationships with each other is more important to the game. In fact, it is possible to get to the end of the game without solving any puzzles. It is also possible to complete the game without discovering many important details about the characters—or even being certain of the identity of the murderer.

There is no obvious point system in the game, although some actions are recorded and scored at the end of the game. At the very end, the game will give the player some hints and things missed in order to achieve a higher score the next time, hinting that the game is intended to be replayed.

Characters make plans to be in certain places at certain times and may be followed. Characters may get annoyed with Laura if they catch her snooping on them or asking too many questions, although this is obvious only in dialogue, and the plot is not affected.

Although death lurks around every corner Laura Bow is almost never endangered by the mysterious villain because she is unrelated to the Dijon family. In typical Sierra adventure game fashion, most, but by no means all, deaths experienced by the player occur by accident or misadventure, such as falling off a balcony, being crushed by a falling chandelier, tripping down a dark staircase, or being attacked by alligators. The player may, however, be killed by the murderer in the later phases of the game. In two cases, the murderer's arm reaches out at specific locations and snatches Laura away. In another case, the murderer appears in the darkness and strangles Laura to her death. One of the more notable non-accidental deaths occurs when the player simply attempts to shower; the murderer stabs Laura in a reference to the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho.

The unusual title is due to Sierra's long-standing tradition at the time of including "Quest" in the title of nearly every graphical adventure they published (a bequest is a legacy or gift handed down to someone in a will). Other "quest" games include King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Quest for Glory (which was originally titled Hero's Quest), Conquests of Camelot and Conquests of the Longbow, and Goblins Quest 3 (originally titled Goblins 3).

Reception

Upon release, the game sold moderately well. Critics claimed the game was interesting, and displayed a large amount of effort in production and story. However, it was criticized as being slow-paced, disjointed and tedious as the player must visit several places repeatedly in order for an event to occur or not occur.^[1]

The game was reissued in 1993 to supplement the release of the sequel The Dagger of Amon Ra. This version corrects some errors with the special effects. Notably, the fireflies in the opening boat ride and around the dock are more visible and move less erratically.^[2]

Also

• Cozy mystery

References

1. ^ [1] - 1990 reviews for the Amiga version at Amiga Reviews.^{[dead link]}
2. ^ The Colonel's Bequest: 1989 edition, 1993 edition.

External links

• The Colonel's Bequest at MobyGames
• The Colonel's Bequest (1989) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Colonel's Bequest: A Laura Bow Mystery on the Sierra Chest