Laura Bow in: The Dagger of Amon Ra

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The Diagnosis of Amun-Ra

TDoAR is a deep game, but I'd call it interesting more than good. Part of that is era-typical Sierra BS; the pixel hunts and inane "puzzle" solutions and dead-man-walking scenarios. But also, the mystery in this mystery game is both obtuse and simple.

It's simple in that almost all the murders were committed by one guy, who also arranged for the titular dagger to be stolen. And covering up that plan is the reason that almost all the murders were committed.

(There's a mostly-unrelated art heist going on, but discovering or missing that doesn't actually affect the ending. Also the one surviving art-heister simply explains the whole scheme as an alibi for why they couldn't have murdered a previously-murdered heister.)

But figuring out that one mystery is far from trivial, especially since the wrap-up suggests the museum might have multiple unrelated murderers.

For instance, the first murder victim has four pieces of potential evidence, pointing to four different suspects. (Well, one of them could point to two different characters—maybe three if you count Laura, but you're playing her—one of whom is implicated by a second piece of evidence. But the real killer is only implicated by one piece of evidence, and it's not the strongest piece.) So you can't really solve that murder unless you A. solve the other murders and B. conclude that the same murderer murdered the first victim too.

And that's not the most muddled murder. There's a crucial character whose existence you can only learn by finding a police file hidden behind a confusing clue and a pixel hunt, who is never implied to be important, except by how well that file is hidden. And also one conversation which A. is inaccessible due to when you find the item that triggers it and B. would also just make one person explain their entire plan.

Oh, also there's a cult to Amon Ra in the museum basement. Yeah, both of the named Egyptian characters are members, even though Egyptians have worshiped the God of Abraham since Emperor Theodosius. They try to sacrifice Laura, but then she answers a couple of riddles. It's dumb and kinda orientalist. They don't really matter, they're just an obstacle in the endgame.

...

So if I was remaking the game, I'd want to do two things. The first, which is admittedly both obvious and vague, is to balance out the mystery a bit. Remove the scenes where one character confesses their entire scheme and motive, remove unexplained red herrings, add more clues that the player can use to deduce the identity of the perps.

But also, I'd complicate the situation. Multiple people are murdering each other for unrelated reasons. These murders disrupt other criminal plots, including two or three separate schemes to steal the Dagger of Amon Ra. And the people planning those schemes all think their scheme was the one behind its very public disappearance, thanks to a combination of misunderstandings and deceptions.

My Dagger of Amun-Ra Pitch

There's a lot I haven't bothered to figure out, since I'm not actually planning to remake The Dagger of Amon Ra. But I have a few ideas.

First: The game opens basically the same as the original. The only difference casual fans would notice is that some of the puzzles are updated to match modern game design standards. Laura is assigned to write a story about the Dagger, she chats with some people around town, hangs out at the party, and finds a body in the sarcophagus.

But that first victim isn't Dr. Carter, it's...someone else! I think Dr. Ptahsheptut would be the most striking contrast, but the important thing is that players seeing the pale corpse are as shocked as Laura. The game is already off the rails!

Second, time is a more critical factor in my Dagger. In the original, time would sometimes pass if you faffed about, but mostly it passed when you reached certain story triggers. In my Dagger, the latter is consistent. Finding a body, searching certain locations for evidence, and other important tasks all cause time to pass.

Of course, your time is limited. If you run out of time before finding any important clues, or if you found a bunch of disconnected clues without focusing on any specific mystery, you won't be able to solve any mysteries. Getting the good ending doesn't just require understanding the mystery; it requires understanding the museum and the evidence at hand well enough to collect all the evidence you need before running out of time.

And you won't have enough time to solve every crime. The best ending requires picking some offenses to overlook and some shady characters to ignore.

Next and least important: A cult to Amon Ra still exists, and its high priest is still the museum's accountant, Rameses Najeer. However, the cult is mostly composed of white New Yorkers who use the cult's rituals as an excuse to drink and party. They appointed Najeer as their high priest because he's the only Egyptian they know.

Najeer acts fanatical about Amon Ra, the way he and Dr. Ptahsheptut did in the original game. Two important differences: Ptahsheptut (the Egyptologist) thinks Najeer is being ridiculous, and says as much at the party. Also, if you investigate the cult properly and talk to Najeer, it's ambiguous whether he buys into the Amon Ra stuff or whether he just likes when white people treat him as a peer.

Anyways, if you spend enough time investigating the shady Egyptian to discover all of this, you won't have much time left over to investigate murders or dagger heists. Which the cult is completely uninvolved in, despite having access to the museum basement. The only death the cult is connected to is one member who drank way more than he should have, and the dagger they use in their ceremonies is a replica Najeer picked up from the gift shop.

Yeah, the museum gift shop sells replicas of a priceless Egyptian dagger that look identical to the original and are viable murder weapons. It makes more sense than the pterosaur murder.

Alright, onto the heists.

The Countess's art heist proceeds mostly as expected, with two small caveats. The Countess has Watney kill and replace the museum's new president before he reaches new York, and uses this access to take several paintings and replace them with forgeries. The two big differences are that she also wants Watney to give her the dagger and replace it with a replica, and that Watney never actually makes it to New York.

No, Archibald Carrington III got the upper hand on Watney and disposed of his body in the same beetle box Carrington's body was dropped in in the original game. He's playing along with the painting heist so Detective O'Riley can catch the Countess red-handed! But this plan is interrupted by murder investigations, so the Countess assumes Watney is going to give her the dagger.

At the same time, others have designs on the dagger. Wolf Heimlich's plan is the simplest; one night, when he's the only person in the museum, he simply took the dagger out of its case. Laura can discover this plot relatively easily, as long as she avoids Wolf's watchful eye (and itchy trigger finger). But just as easily, she can identify the dagger as a fake; it says "Made In Pittsburgh" on the handle!

Dr. Pippin Carter is worried that the Egyptians might be able to coerce the Museum into repatriating the artifacts he looted discovered in Egypt, especially the priceless dagger. So he had an associate swap the real Dagger with a fake. And then something happened to it, but I haven't worked out the details.

And some of the thieves stole from other thieves. Maybe Wolf's (fake) dagger isn't in his office at all, because Olympia knew he was stealing it and re-stole it from his office. Figuring out where the real Dagger is requires untangling this web of burglary.

One (somewhat silly) possibility I've thought of is that the most successful schemer is Lo Fat, the fake-Chinese man running a laundry business that serves almost everyone at the museum. This possibility has Steve Dorian as either a willing minion or unwitting stooge of Lo Fat, sent to the party to pick up a package for Lo. But acknowledging the existence of Lo Fat more than necessary, or including him in the game at all, might be a mistake.

Anyways, most of the murders result from one plan or another breaking down. Not all—maybe O'Riley still murders Yvette for sleeping with men other than him—but most. Luckily, this means there's a lot of overlapping evidence for various murders and the Dagger theft.

This game wouldn't have several discrete "endings," but it would have ending slides that change based on which crimes you solved and what murderers got away. The "golden ending" requires solving all the murders and finding the Dagger and collecting enough evidence to prove that the perps did it.