The Colonel's Bequest
Submitted Monday, September 5, 2005 - 1:16:49 AM by Klaitu

Ahh, vintage Sierra games. The smell, the texture, the EGA graphics! These were the days, when programmers toiled and produced nary a flop. Myself, I consider those days to be the golden age of computer games, and the king of the golden age was Sierra.

So, when Star Wars Galaxies got a little unplayable due to an absent-minded patch by Sony, I decided to dust off the old puppy and give it a whirl for old time's sake. It's been 12 or 13 years aince I completed the game, so it was pretty much brand new to me.. all over again!

Perhaps somewhat ironically, the setting is 1925 New Orleans. Laura Bow, a student at Tulane University is invited by her best friend to her family estate, where her Uncle.. the titular "Colonel" makes his "Bequest".

And so his family (and Laura Bow) assemble on the Colonel's creepy island plantation in the middle of the bayou, and he reveals that he will bequeath his millions of money on the members of his family equally in the event he should die. Of course, if everyone else were to die off first, the pie would get bigger for everyone else.

Your task: figure out whodunnit!

The entire game has one of those "Murder Mystery" vibes. You know, like that episode of Saved by the Bell where Zack puts all the pieces together?

What little I remembered was that the game was one of the more difficult Sierra games, and I remembered correctly. It's somewhat difficult to survive through the entire game, and very difficult to get a decent score by the end of the game. Finding the murderer proves to be one of the easier parts of the game, as by the time you are at the point to "guess the killer" most people have been killed off. There are 4 humans, 1 dog, and 1 horse left on the island at the end.. and you're one of the 4 humans.

The game took me about 5 hours. There's a lot of backtracking and rechecking where you've previously been, as the other people on the island are constantly moving around. Keeping tabs on them is a challenge.. there are also a lot of "right place at the right time" situations as well.

If you're a points junkie, you're not going to like this game.. lots of work, and lots of replays to collect all the points. If you're just looking to deduce the story, though, the game is quite enjoyable.

Overall Score: 7 of 10

If you're looking for this game, it's oft cited as Abandonware, even though it isn't. It's still protected copyright because Sierra (what's left of sierra) is a member of the ISDA. You could get a legitimate copy through the "Roberta Williams Collection" which appear on ebay from time to time.

Myself, I used the original diskettes. I know.. you're jealous.