This classic adventure game choses to introduce itself with a stage play roll call of the ‘actors’, of a murder mystery set in 1920s Louisiana. As the player, you take on the role of student and aspiring journalist Laura Bow.
Laura’s university peer and flapper friend Lillian casually asks to be accompanied to a family gathering taking place in an old mansion on an island planation. Lillian’s favourite and childless uncle, colonel Henri Dijon, has invited his attorney, his doctor, and several relatives to hear the reading of his will due to his ailing health. On the night of the gathering, the colonel stresses, if any inheritors to his fortune are to die before he does, the deceased’s shares will be distributed evenly among the remaining inheritors. It’s not long into the night before a guest’s body is stumbled upon by Laura, and in quick succession, other guests fall one by one. However, Laura, being the daughter of a detective, is well equipped with the knowledge to take on this whodunit.
The gameplay is straight forward. The game’s murder mystery is contained within a single night and a new ‘act’ commences with the passing of every in-game hour, trigged by the actions you take. As point-and-click, you’re graded by your sleuthing skills upon completion, but a final score doesn’t effect the ending you get; there are indeed specific actions that drive you to particular endings. There are game secrets hiding that only the most persistent, investigative players will come across.
Text parsing is at the core of the gameplay; both a great source of fun and of frustration. It’s fun to read reactions to actions that I wasn’t expecting to be executed. Only words the programmers expect the player to use will be recognised by the program. Strangely, when questioning characters about other people, you’ll have to refer to characters by given name, and not family name, which feels odd, with so many characters mentioning each other by family name given their emotional distance with one another.
There are plenty of humorous and even gory fates that Laura can meet while casually exploring the plantation's mansion and grounds, and for the more nosey and cerebral player, you’ll see further strange and violent ends throughout the night. You will have to go out of your way to see some bizarre game overs. The deaths did not feel frustrating given that you have the option to save at any time.
Since the game involves a lot of observation, it is slower paced. The game gives characters their own timetable to keep to during the night, for example, you can tail the colonel’s butler, Jeeves, as he does his evening tasks about the mansion before retiring to his room for the night. This adds a sense of realism to the interactive story.
While the visuals are limited to a palette of only 16 colours, a lot of dithering is used to create shadows, and thus the impression of additional colours, and a real depth to the two-dimensional environment drawings. Form is given three dimensions through use of light, and I was impressed with the with rays of moonlight filtered through windows, and the shadows of trees cast outdoors. The era the story is set leads to the interior design reflecting the Art Deco movement, and the lonely atmosphere and sad state of the plantation are very well communicated. I enjoyed most the screens that had fewer colours at work.
I’d recommend this game to those who enjoy a slower, casual adventure PC game, and of course, fans of period murder mysteries. This games’ setting specifically owes some of its story structure to Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”. Don’t let the limited visual presentation of games from this era deter you; it’s got charm, and just as important, skill put into it.
Laura’s university peer and flapper friend Lillian casually asks to be accompanied to a family gathering taking place in an old mansion on an island planation. Lillian’s favourite and childless uncle, colonel Henri Dijon, has invited his attorney, his doctor, and several relatives to hear the reading of his will due to his ailing health. On the night of the gathering, the colonel stresses, if any inheritors to his fortune are to die before he does, the deceased’s shares will be distributed evenly among the remaining inheritors. It’s not long into the night before a guest’s body is stumbled upon by Laura, and in quick succession, other guests fall one by one. However, Laura, being the daughter of a detective, is well equipped with the knowledge to take on this whodunit.
The gameplay is straight forward. The game’s murder mystery is contained within a single night and a new ‘act’ commences with the passing of every in-game hour, trigged by the actions you take. As point-and-click, you’re graded by your sleuthing skills upon completion, but a final score doesn’t effect the ending you get; there are indeed specific actions that drive you to particular endings. There are game secrets hiding that only the most persistent, investigative players will come across.
Text parsing is at the core of the gameplay; both a great source of fun and of frustration. It’s fun to read reactions to actions that I wasn’t expecting to be executed. Only words the programmers expect the player to use will be recognised by the program. Strangely, when questioning characters about other people, you’ll have to refer to characters by given name, and not family name, which feels odd, with so many characters mentioning each other by family name given their emotional distance with one another.
There are plenty of humorous and even gory fates that Laura can meet while casually exploring the plantation's mansion and grounds, and for the more nosey and cerebral player, you’ll see further strange and violent ends throughout the night. You will have to go out of your way to see some bizarre game overs. The deaths did not feel frustrating given that you have the option to save at any time.
Since the game involves a lot of observation, it is slower paced. The game gives characters their own timetable to keep to during the night, for example, you can tail the colonel’s butler, Jeeves, as he does his evening tasks about the mansion before retiring to his room for the night. This adds a sense of realism to the interactive story.
While the visuals are limited to a palette of only 16 colours, a lot of dithering is used to create shadows, and thus the impression of additional colours, and a real depth to the two-dimensional environment drawings. Form is given three dimensions through use of light, and I was impressed with the with rays of moonlight filtered through windows, and the shadows of trees cast outdoors. The era the story is set leads to the interior design reflecting the Art Deco movement, and the lonely atmosphere and sad state of the plantation are very well communicated. I enjoyed most the screens that had fewer colours at work.
I’d recommend this game to those who enjoy a slower, casual adventure PC game, and of course, fans of period murder mysteries. This games’ setting specifically owes some of its story structure to Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”. Don’t let the limited visual presentation of games from this era deter you; it’s got charm, and just as important, skill put into it.