Sierra's Lost Gem - The Dagger of Amon Ra

hey everyone pushing up roses here and let's talk about the dagger of Oman raw again now I know it may seem like I already did a million videos on this game I did one that focus on the game death scenes I did one about Laura bow the protagonist and I did a full on let's play but has occurred to me that I haven't done a comprehensive video of this title as a whole as many of you know this is one of my favourite adventure games and I'm going to tell you exactly why that is first a little background this game's predecessor the Colonel's bequest was designed by Jacqueline Austen and written by Roberta Williams so since the game's release there has been some speculation about how involved Williams actually was regardless the Colonel's bequest was produced by an entirely different team than the dagger of almond rock the game boasts Roberta Williams is Laura Beau and the dagger of Amon raw meaning that the game uses her character but it's mainly the product of Bruce Balfour who directed produced and designed it also notes the change in gameplay mechanic the Colonel's bequest is controlled via command prompt whereas dagger is a point-and-click but even though the most glaring disparity between these titles are the graphics I think the biggest changes are in tone and the fact that dagger is a more traditional adventure game currency Quest is appropriately dour it's very much an Agatha Christie novel with melodramatic kerfuffles and straightforward murder scenes it's also heavier on finding events and listening to conversations as opposed to having an inventory object puzzle design Laura herself likes any kind of discernable character though it's implied that she's a very astute young woman who is dedicated to her studies at the prestigious Tulane University in New Orleans dagger Vaman rah goes off the rails soars into the air at high velocity and explodes into the horizon we it's incredibly zany laura is portrayed much differently as an overly optimistic southern belle Matt destiny away nothing can stop me now and the murder scenes are let's just call them unrealistic something I really like about dagger that I wish you could do in the colonel's bequest is use your notebook when you talk to people depending on the subject you open up new dialogue options that get listed in it this is your main method of communication I like that you can use your notes as a gameplay mechanic where is in the Colonel's request you do get a notebook but you can't use it the most you get is the ability to review your notes at the very end of the game despite this jarring change in atmosphere and humor and characters who are much less dramatic and way more farcical let's say you join Salvation Army then I give you unclaimed laundry ha ha ha the game remains tense and I thought as scary as a kid this is mostly because the first act has you going around 1920s New York is a plucky reporter call me naive but I thought this game was about figuring out a burglary maybe I forgot about the graphic images on the box can you blame me I was too busy admiring the beauty of the front of the box I mean the game is very unassuming until Laura goes to the Leyendecker museum to interview people about a burglary a priceless artifact the dagger of a man raw which was dug up by this stuffy guys been stolen and laura is given the case who could have stolen it the stool pigeon with the twitchy eye this French minx with a sexual agenda this guy who kind of got shafted out of being given a personality maybe it's the rich countess or perhaps an angered Egyptian curator who believes the dagger belongs in its native country or perhaps it was Pippin Carter himself after mentioned stuffy guy who found the artifact in the first place [Music] nope not him I cannot express how scary I thought this was as a young person I went from eavesdropping interrogating characters and gathering clues to finding a corpse and an empty sarcophagus by the way I think this is a fine time to bring up that fifth character is supposed to be the relative of famed archaeologist Howard Carter or was at least one of the characters is a detective so you'd think he could do something to make all the characters feel safe and develop a plan but after taking some statements everyone is just free to explore the museum while the murderer is on the loose dagger uses the same time mechanic that the Colonel's bequest does only this time there's things to help you along when the clock goes off that means an important event is about to happen some clues can help you figure out where you need to be and when so there's less chance that you might miss something important for example I borrowed a notebook I found in Tiffin Carter's jacket he had some meeting times on it so I was able to be at the right place at the right time because of that 10:15 Egyptian mean Harrington you see nothing it's no ears open I don't want to say the game is easy because you can miss things that affect your game later on and there are some pesky unwinnable x' you can find yourself in but the main story is doable if you pay attention something people seem to have trouble with my assumption is that if you are playing a murder mystery game where you take on the role of a detective you want the gameplay to involve piecing together evidence interrogation exploration observation prestidigitation all the ation and that's what this title gives you the chance to test your gumshoe skills one of the very first things you do when you get to the museum is steal a drinking glass so you can each drop on people's private conversation this glass is the most important thing in your purse right next to this raw piece of meat I'll explain its significance later on my favorite thing about this game is the cast of silly characters and their interpersonal relationships Yvette is a saucy sexually mature woman who's involved with detective O'Reilly an Irish drunk cop stereotype I'm sowing my nuf I should have known better you'll have to show me how sorry our kiss me yeah and she's also involved with Ernie the museum's custodian everyone is really a parody of the type of person they're supposed to be but my favorite is dr. Olympia miklós an extremely morbid woman who seems to have a preoccupation with death snakes and we'll find lick the German security officer oh I still love your scars Lucy they are your foot my other life oh wow danny is very nice also introduces a love interest for Laura named Steve Dorian who is a stevedore ha ha ha ha ha ha this is the very altered voice of Josh Mandel who played King Graham and King +5 closes bow my favorite part the slight romance angle was okay but we only see Steve once in the beginning of the game and then at the very end where he helps you to stop the killer from being eaten by a vicious t-rex display what the kind of love interest is this why isn't he going out of his way to stalk me and overcompensate with extreme friendliness like normal love interest also what the hell is this giving another woman an intimate massage just looking for back oh sure Steve and I just had this glass in my purse because I was thirsty for 1992 this is a gorgeous game made with Sierra's creative interpreter and the voice acting added 2d cd-rom version is mr. Heimlich told me at a call waiting on dr. Carrington telling me when I arrived in his office the time of day so I returned to the party well it becomes charming over time at one point the game sort of dives into survival horror mode where you're being chased by some asshole dressed up like the grim reaper and you have to continually hide or outsmart him this is the only point in the game where you can die by the murderers hand if you die before this your own damned fault or ally Shannon who wrote a design phantasmagoria to was responsible for the gory parts in this game remember that piece of meat I mentioned earlier this is why it's important if you don't give it to some flesh hungry dermestid beetles you will get eaten alive literally eaten alive for such a charming looking game you can meet your grisly end in a variety of ways including forgetting to look both ways to cross the street not just one way both ways there are no cause coming from this direction you can also out yourself as a nosy reporter and get yourself axed in front of a speakeasy which is easily one of my favorite settings in the game but what is with all of these weird black backgrounds are kind of strange-looking well the art style of this game is based on the works of JC Leyendecker home to Museum is named after you can see its influence here in this piece and here in this one the figure clearly inspired Laura Bo's Museum attire and overall appearance the dapper men in his illustrations are seen here in some of the east wrapping scenes this gorgeous illustration on the game's box is inspired by lion Decker's art for the March 18th 1905 issue of The Saturday Evening Post so we have established that this game has a lot of lovely traits but despite it being enjoyable the end of the game or act six gets ridiculous not only are you supposed to solve the murder case but you're also supposed to be exposing other crimes going on between these characters collecting evidence and finding the dagger of amun raw after you catch the murderer you're greeted by the coroner who will now grill you on what you've learned this test is just punishing even if you figured out some of the crimes if you don't have the correct evidence and your inventory to back up your answers you lose if you get too many questions wrong you lose if you weren't paying attention you really really lose I wasn't exactly expecting this many motives to choose from because even though I did figure out who the killer was I still had no idea what his motive was it could have been because he was having a bad day I don't know it's like studying for a huge science test and using a detailed outline your teacher gave you for reference and you think you have everything memorized and under control and then you see the test and there's answers you never even thought about so you just got a guess and hope for the best except in this situation you get murdered if you don't get the answers correct unlike the Colonel's request which grade you on how you played the game dagger expects you to be able to use what you've learned I like this idea but I don't like how stupidly hard this little murder quizzes the game is also not very cohesive like I said the first act is very unassuming then you spend an entire act eavesdropping then exploring then running away and now I'm being quiz it's a whirlwind of strange events but I can't help but love every second of it every time I play this game I find something new that I hadn't found before and I think the characters are truly memorable each with their own quirky personalities even though some of them Peter on being offensive haha with unique mechanics combined with bizarre humor and a fun setting to navigate this has become one of my favorite games I will leave you with this seductive scene where this flapper tries to entice Laura with her sultriness voiced by writer of Gabriel Knight Jane Jensen ah hi Adele thanks looking for a good time if your loss could I'll be right here and to change your mind oh yes cuts me again everyone thanks for watching my video on the dagger of Amon Ross I promise this will be my last video on this game but I might be crossing my fingers behind my back you can't prove a thing make sure to subscribe to my channel for more retro goodness and be sure to share this video with other Laura Bowl lovers all 12 of you thanks again and see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: PushingUpRoses

Views: 82,557

Rating: 4.9765549 out of 5

Keywords: pushinguproses, pushinguproses review, pushinguproses let's play, DOS, gameplay, walkthrough, game footage, video game review, review commentary, female game reviewer, female game reviews, female, gamer, female reviewer, PUR, dagger of amon ra, laura bow, pushinguproses laura bow, the colonel's bequest, sierra, dagger of amon ra review, dagger of amon ra game, Roberta Williams

Id: 0DukV02gDq8

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2017

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