Murder Mysteries as Done by Sierra Pt. 1

Sierra Entertainment (rest its soul) was well known for its adventure games in the past. Each adventure game brought some interesting experiences to the player, whether you’re playing something mystical like King’s Quest VI, or you’re a smooth talking playboy in Leisure Suit Larry.

Most, if not all of their adventure games have a certain air of tension and fear about them. This either comes at the climax of the game, or it’s engrained in the atmosphere of the game itself.

This is where my first set of murder mysteries come in. The Laura Bow games thrive on the “whodunit” aspect of murder mysteries, since the one that is doing the killing is most likely one of the guests that’s present at the event. For this article, I’m going to talk specifically about Laura Bow: The Dagger of Amon Ra (which is the second Laura Bow game). Like Ecoquest, I also played this game as a kid, but not after watching my parents play through it first…and it terrified the living hell out of me.Laura Bow, a young woman whom is a budding reporter, is given the scoop of the decade (the game takes place in the 1920’s): the mysterious disappearance of the Dagger of Amon Ra from New York’s Leyendecker Museum. A benefit party is held at the museum commemorating the dagger’s arrival to the museum itself. However, as this gathering goes on, one of the guests goes missing, and this is where the game gets creepy.

It isn’t immediately apparent that one of the guests is missing, especially as you explore the museum during the benefit party. When you, as Laura, head into an Egyptian room with three sarcophagi in it, you notice something: A sarcophagus is bleeding. You go “The hell? Mummies don’t bleed” and thinking that it’s just the grapes that Laura ate playing tricks on you, you look away for a moment. When you look back…you see that there’s more blood…you look away again…and look back…more blood…it just keeps on flowing. You gather courage and open the sarcophagus…Congratulations, you are now STARING YOUR FIRST CORPSE IN THE FACE…oh…and they’re STARING BACK AT YOU!!!

You freak out, investigate his body for a bit, then get questioned by the local NYPD detective. And then…you’re locked…in…the …museum.

Locked in…with the killer…which could be ANY of the guests there…Have fun :3.

Oh, and if the killer isn’t something to worry about, keep in mind that anything and EVERYTHING will try to kill you (It’s a Sierra Game, whaddya expect?). Because of this, it adds a bit of paranoia to the game as well, as even something as innocuous as a piece of cheese isn’t safe (there’s a trick to it…but unless you know it…well…yeah :3).

This series keeps murder mysteries in the horror section by reminding the player of one movie by Alfred Hitchcock. If you don’t know which movie, consider yourself a psycho, you crazy person you.

And from these games, I leave you with two tidbits of wisdom:

1) NEVER TAKE A SHOWER IN A MURDER MYSTERY! (Reference to the 1^st Laura Bow)

2) Never venture into a dark place without a light. (Reference to both games)

--Choco Thunder (10/03/11)

BONUS BONUS: B Shoots; CLAY Jumps! did a Laura Bow entry in the countdown too! Talk about coincidence.