The Colonel's Bequest (DOS, 1989)

_{Sierra News Magazine, Autumn 1989}

The Colonel's Bequest, while perhaps somewhat less well known than some of Sierra's other releases, is a graphics adventure game of a somewhat similar style to the King's Quest series. It was released in 1989 for DOS based computers and then ported to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990. Compared to other Sierra/Roberta Williams adventure games, this one is a little less puzzle oriented.

Another, at least somewhat unique, aspect of the game is that it is not fantasy based. I know it's always seemed to me like most adventure or RPG games are fantasy based...maybe 99 percent...with perhaps another 0.9% being sci-fi based. This game falls into that 0.1 percent "other" category with this particular one being a murder mystery set in the present day.

Like most other Sierra adventure games, this one is part of a series, albeit a short-lived one. The sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, was released in 1992 for MS-DOS and Windows computers along with a re-release of The Colonel's Bequest. It features the same protagonist, Laura Bow, as the first game. Also, while not a technically sequel, The Colonel's Bequest has many game play elements from a much earlier Roberta Williams game called Mystery House which was released in 1980 for the Apple II.

For those who are a fan of this style of game from this era, then there is no reason not to try this one. It does not have as high of a difficulty level as other Sierra games and I guess that may be a plus or a minus depending on how hard core you are. In any case, it maintains pretty much the same level of quality as other Robert Williams games. If you do want to give it a try, versions of both The Colonel's Bequest and The Dagger of Amon Ra that will run on modern versions of Windows can be found on gog.com for a few bucks.

Screenshots above are from the DOS version of the game.