PC games: The Colonel's Bequest

Channel:

Erifellen

Subscribers:

65

Published on September 20, 2021 4:13:27 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W_cpd2q5pk

Game:

The Colonel's Bequest (1989)

Duration: 23:57

8 views

1

One of the more unconventional adventure games from Sierra, The Colonel's Bequest stars amateur detective Laura Bow as she attempts to solve a murder mystery set in 1925 at a creepy run-down plantation. With every survivor (except Laura and the colonel himself) standing to inherit equal shares of Colonel Dijon's fortune, and no small amount of grudges and dangerous secrets about, everyone has ample motive. But can Laura discover the truth before her snooping makes her the next victim?

Instead of having a running score and a plot driven by the protagonist solving puzzles, as in most adventure games, the actions of the other characters drive the plot in The Colonel's Bequest, and you get a rating only at the very end of the game, based on the contents of Laura's notebook. The more you discover, the more will be filled in, and the missing or incomplete entries serve as clues to doing better next time.

I was always quite fond of the setting, with the creepy old mansion and its numerous secrets. The characters, not quite as much. They're fairly one-dimensional, built on stereotypes (and often loosely named after famous people), which is understandable given that there's a cast of a dozen and your focus is meant to be more on the mystery, but it leaves them feeling fairly hollow. Laura's own personality doesn't get much of a chance to show itself, either.

The game does has a sequel, though, The Dagger of Amon Ra, in which Laura gets a job as a journalist in the big city, and has more presence as a character of her own. The first chapter follows a more traditional protagonist-driven adventure game setup, with Laura needing to secure access to and appropriate clothing for the event she's been assigned to cover. Once she's there, though, it's soon back to investigating and snooping on everyone else, as the titular dagger goes missing and people start turning up dead. Later in the game, there's even an intense chase sequence when the murderer comes after Laura directly. Featuring a fully point-and-click interface, VGA graphics, and voiced lines, it's also significantly more polished from a technical standpoint.

And, to be honest about how recording this went, I scrapped several attempts before getting a reasonably good feel for what I wanted to include and how to make it happen, had to fight back my perfectionist streak in order to accept this take, and even with that felt like I needed to tack on a supplementary clip at the end. Getting a decent result for an adventure game, particularly one that's fairly plot-heavy like this is, takes a lot more planning and forethought than jumping into an action game and letting things happen! Doing a trial run (or several) in advance will be something to keep in mind for future videos, even for rompier action games, except when the experience of a natural playthrough is the point.

In any case, I mentioned The Colonel's Bequest having something of a twist ending, so...

Ending spoilers below!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Despite the numerous obvious motives for murder, from barely-masked personal feuds, to secrets that some people might take drastic measures to keep secret, to the obvious financial incentive of having fewer heirs to split the fortune between, none of the unpreventable murders turn out to have anything to do with any of that.

Laura's friend Lillian is ultimately responsible for all eight deaths (including her own), not for money or to ensure anyone's silence, but because she had been convinced that she was the colonel's special favorite, and imagines that the others (except for Laura and the cook Celie, whom she considers friends) have conspired to turn him against her. Combined with a history of being rather unstable to begin with, that's enough for her to go full yandere and start killing them off. It's also why Laura herself is rarely in any immediate danger: Lillian doesn't consider her the enemy and won't attack her unless she's in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, by the time she attempts to kill Rudy, he's caught on that something's not right. As a result, he's wary enough that she fails to take him by surprise, and he overpowers and kills her in self-defense. Unfortunately, he's also a garbage human being and sees this as the perfect opportunity to off the colonel without any blame landing on him, so he can walk away with a hefty sum of money to pay off his gambling debts. The colonel, though, is considerably more sprightly than he appears, and puts up enough of a fight for Laura to interfere and shoot Rudy with the gun that killed Lillian.

With Rudy off to prison and the other beneficiaries all dead, Colonel Dijon recognizes Celie's loyalty by leaving his entire fortune to her, provided that she cares for his animals. Also, if you found the lost treasure hidden on the estate by the Crouton family who lived there during the Civil War, he allows Laura to keep it as a reward for saving his life.

Other Statistics