Play The Colonel’s Bequest Online

The Colonel's Bequest is a detective and mystery adventure game released in 1989 for MS-DOS. Developed and published by Sierra On-Line, Inc., it is a third-person point and click adventure. The story is set in 1925 and follows Laura Bow, a Tulane University student and aspiring journalist, who is invited by her friend Lillian to a weekend at a secluded island plantation owned by Colonel Henri Dijon.

Players control Laura as she explores the mansion, its gardens, and surrounding structures on the island. Interaction is primarily through a text parser where players type verb and object commands, such as "look window" or "talk to butler," with some common actions having keyboard shortcuts. The core gameplay involves exploration and conversation, as Laura talks to the various family members and guests to uncover old feuds and hidden motives. The game world is largely open from the start, with only a few areas initially locked. Time progresses in fifteen-minute increments when Laura performs plot-relevant actions, and non-player characters follow their own schedules, allowing players to gather clues by observing their behavior.

The narrative unfolds as strange accidents and murders begin to occur during the weekend. Laura's objective is to investigate these events and identify the culprit. While there is an inventory system and some puzzles, they are less central than in many other contemporary adventures. The plot remains largely in the background and can be pieced together through dialogue, often by discussing other characters. It is possible to finish the game without uncovering the full story or even correctly solving the mystery. Upon completion, players receive a detective ranking and are informed about story branches or elements they may have missed, though there is no traditional scoring system during play.