C:\ArsGames We love games here at the Ars Orbiting HQ, from modern to ancient and all points in between. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with the folks at GOG.com to create a store page featuring a curated list of some of our favorites from GOG’s catalog. At the end of every month, we’ll rotate a couple of titles off the list and add a few new ones; altogether, we have a list of about 50 games to set in front of you. Twice a month, we’ll publish a personal retrospective like this one, where we’ll feature one of the games from the list—perhaps a retro game you’ve heard of, perhaps a modern title you missed. Regardless, GOG will have a DRM-free version of the game ready to go. Be sure to check out the earlier pieces in the series!
Even in my youth, I always loved the idea of point-and-click adventure games more than I did the reality. I appreciated how they transported me to other worlds, each with its own rules, histories, and interesting characters. However, like many people, I often ran up against the harsh reality of solving bizarre and obtuse puzzles in a time before Internet walkthroughs.
I almost never actually finished point-and-click adventure games for that reason—but there is one major exception: I completed Roberta Williams’ The Colonel’s Bequest several times.
One of the last Sierra adventure games to still use a text parser, The Colonel’s Bequest follows a young woman named Laura Bow as she visits a mansion in the Southern US belonging to her college friend’s grandfather, Colonel Henri Dijon. While she’s there, a dispute breaks out over the colonel’s will, and it becomes clear a murderer is on the loose.
The player spends a couple of in-game days at the plantation, finding clues and eavesdropping on conversations to piece everything together and potentially uncover the truth while escaping alive.
This was the first game to introduce me to the idea of NPCs being at different places at different times on the clock, and that’s a premise that instantly endears me to a game to this day. But mostly, it was great to play a game with the vibe of a Sierra adventure game, but without the frustrating puzzles.
GOG This was one of the last Sierra games to use a text parser. This was one of the last Sierra games to use a text parser. GOG GOG You could eavesdrop on conversations if you showed up at the right times. You could eavesdrop on conversations if you showed up at the right times. GOG This was one of the last Sierra games to use a text parser. GOG You could eavesdrop on conversations if you showed up at the right times. GOG
In The Colonel’s Bequest, you can even make it to the end without solving the murder, and there are multiple possible endings, so you’re incentivized to give it another run after your first go—that’s why I replayed it several times.
I also appreciated this game in part because it was something I shared with family.
A family affair
A lot of people have stories about playing games with their dads when they were kids, but despite the fact that my dad is a huge computer geek (he was a software engineer by trade), he wasn’t that into computer games when I was growing up. I rarely saw him play them, and it wasn’t until I introduced him to the Age of Empires-like real-time strategy game Rise of Nations when I was in college that I ever saw him get into a game. (He still plays RoN to this day.)