The Dame Was Loaded is a decent adventure game and a particularly nice example of FMV done right. What we have here is a classic hard-boiled detective story filled with wisecracking mooks and dames in snappy dress with even snappier comebacks. If you're thinking Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe, you're on the right track in terms of what The Dame Was Loaded is going for. And to that end it's pretty effective! In terms of the bar set by most FMV games from this era, the acting in this title is actually quite good! This isn't to say that we're dealing with any Oscar winning performances either, but for the most part the actors here perform well enough. The dialogue is also well written and snappy which goes a long way towards triaging any occasionally middling delivery. In reading up on this game, I've seen several sources citing it as the 'largest multimedia project produced in Australia' at the time of its release. I'm not entirely certain of the original source of this rather vague statistic, and equally I'm not certain what metric was applied to conclude that it was in fact 'the largest' (By budget? By volume of content? Number of cast and crew? Size on disc? … this reviewer has questions). Unfortunately the sources I've seen never seem to explain it any further than that. But despite some fuzzy data collection, I suppose that this is noteworthy trivia about the game, especially considering the number of sources which seem to cite it as a statistic. So this is a point & click adventure game of the sort that was very common among games from this era which utilized FMV for the explicit purpose of interactive fiction. Although where many FMV games from this era utilized QTEs as means of (or perhaps as a replacement for) pacing, The Dame Was Loaded really does owe more of its gameplay to classic point & click games (albeit first person in this particular case). So having a keen eye for on-screen details, prudent inventory management, and clever usage of items (occasionally in combination with other items) will all serve you well here. As you progress further along in this convoluted case of missing persons by way of a diamond heist gone wrong you may even find it prudent to take some notes, another hallmark from the golden age of adventure games. In terms of modern 'quality of life' improvements this game might have benefited from an automatic memo pad tracking any pertinent details of the case you've encountered. You'll find that in your various interactions with people you'll only be able to ask about any given topic/person of interest once, unless further discoveries are made in the meantime at which point the interviewee will respond with information about the more recent discoveries rather than repeating any of the previous details they may have revealed. As the case grows more convoluted, I'd say that having case notes on hand will be extremely beneficial. Sometimes your protagonist (Scott Anger) will make connections explicitly by way of spoken inner monologue, "… didn't <so-and-so> mention a brown jacket like this?", but often it will be up to you the player to connect the dots in order to truly crack the case. So if you're on top of your investigations, most aspects of the game should be fairly straight forward. That's not to say the game isn't without some elements of moon logic though, and I'll freely admit that I looked up clues in a couple of instances. I'm sure I missed some things along the way, but bottom line, don't expect this game to always serve up easily identifiable solutions. The obtuse nature of the case is somewhat compounded by an arbitrary time limit set at the beginning of the game in which you're given a certain number of days to solve the case. At one point in the game this timeframe gets extended a bit, but it continues to be mentioned and loom like a shadow over the proceedings. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I'm sure it's intended as a means of establishing replay value (as well as increasing tension), but on the other hand and more crucially for me, "Hurry up and explore!" is just such a weird directive to have in an adventure game. It's entirely possible to miss a lot of the flavor text and fun little additions when you're rushing to meet this looming deadline. I find that some of the fun in adventure games is experimenting with the environment and environmental parameters, but this requires a more relaxed approach to gameplay. Still, any quibbles I can find with The Dame Was Loaded are fairly minor. I didn't have a lot of high expectations from this era of FMV gaming, but The Dame Was Loaded exceeded them in most regards. Recommended for adventure game fanatics; especially so if you have love for this classic era of detective stories as torn from the pages of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
The Colonel's Bequest wears its murder mystery inspirations on its sleeve. This is a 'murder mystery in a mansion' that plays it fairly straight as an homage to the works of Agatha Christie most prominently. The heroine detective, the time period, and the menagerie of possible suspects are all very reminiscent of the trappings you might find in a Christie novel. I also detected some Nancy Drew DNA running through The Colonel's Bequest insofar as the protagonist is a young 'all American girl' out doin' detective stuff. Finally there's a pretty strong Clue (the board game) vibe running through the whole thing. I mean the titular Colonel in The Colonel's Bequest is Colonel [i]Dijon[/i], an obvious riff on the Colonel [i]Mustard[/i] character from Clue. I'd go so far as to say that most of the characters in Clue have similar allegories to characters in The Colonel's Bequest. I suppose this makes sense due to the fact that Clue was similarly inspired by an Agatha Christie 'murder mystery in a mansion' framework, but it's slightly problematic in terms of The Colonel's Bequest. It muddies the waters in terms of inspiration and makes the game feel a bit uninspired and dare I say … derivative. It would be like forming a Led Zeppelin cover band in which a large part of the inspiration was drawn from … an earlier Led Zeppelin cover band. If you're looking for a thought provoking or even subversive take on the classic murder mystery formula, you won't find that here. If you're looking for a fun Sierra styled adventure romp through bog standard genre tropes, you're in luck. Like most Sierra games from this era, The Colonel's Bequest utilizes a familiar combination of text parser plus point & click interface. The text parser is required for most contextual actions in the game as well as all conversational dialogue, but the mouse can be used for navigation and cursory inspection of most objects. I'll be honest, text parser games live or die based on the sophistication of the parser itself. An overly strict parser rapidly devolves into a meta-game of searching for the [i]exact[/i] necessary wording to carry out your desired actions. Luckily The Colonel's Bequest is fairly lenient in this regard. I did encounter a couple of situations in which the parser suddenly wanted more precise wording (i.e. 'put key in control' worked whereas 'use key on control' did not), but for the most part those situations were notable only for their infrequency. I've made mention of the characters being slightly derivative, but it's worth pointing out the ways in which they make the game unique. Based on my experience I'd say that The Colonel's Bequest contains more dialogue than the large majority of the Sierra library. Exploring a myriad of conversational choices with each character often reveals interesting interrelations between characters. I [i]suspect[/i] that many of these conversations are merely decorative in terms end-game completion percentage, but they definitely add a richness of texture to the plot and characterization. Roberta Williams has always had a knack for well written flavor text, and The Colonel's Bequest is no exception in this regard. Despite some interesting ways in which The Colonel's Bequest differentiates itself from other games in the Sierra playbook, there were only a few moments in which I felt like it captured the same magic as other widely heralded Sierra classics. Its use of secret passages as a means of spying on other characters in the house is rather inspired, and although the puzzles are somewhat scarce they're still quite satisfying. [i]Still[/i] ... I'm not sure that The Colonel's Bequest ever quite rises to the high water mark found in the best of the Quest for Glory or King's Quest series. All the same, a middling Sierra game means that it's still better than most adventure games from this time period. I'd definitely recommend The Colonel's Bequest for murder mystery buffs or players seeking to explore the entirety of the Sierra catalog. Apprentice adventure gamers might be better advised exploring the classics before investigating the darkened corners of the Colonel's estate.
