Laura Bow 2 - The Dagger of Amon-Ra

Year 1992, Sierra On-Line, a museum full of Egyptian artifacts and corpses piling up faster than clues. Laura Bow 2 managed to keep me glued to the monitor well past midnight back then — and this was despite knowing Dad had an early shift and I couldn't skip school.

You play as Laura Bow, a fresh graduate trying to make it as a journalist in 1920s New York. The newspaper sends her to investigate a stolen Egyptian artifact — the Dagger of Amon-Ra — and the investigation leads her to the local museum, where things start happening that newspapers prefer not to print. The combination of noir detective work, historical setting, and a closed museum space full of suspicious characters worked brilliantly then and holds up surprisingly well even today.

The game runs on the SCI engine, which Sierra had polished to perfection by then — fully voiced dialogue (in the voice version), detailed backgrounds, animations that looked almost lavish in 1992. The controls are point-and-click, no command typing. You move through the museum, collect objects, talk to characters, and gradually piece together who's behind everything. The puzzle logic is mostly fair, though Sierra still hadn't shaken its habit of hiding one crucial click somewhere no reasonable person would think to look.

What sets the game apart from generic adventures of the era is its atmosphere. A museum at night, Egyptian artifacts casting shadows, disappearing characters, and a rising body count — Laura Bow 2 isn't afraid to go dark. Plus, it plays with time: certain events only happen if you're in the right place at the right moment. That adds tension, but it's also the source of the biggest frustration when you realize you walked past a crucial door an hour ago while something important was happening behind it. Saving before every move is classic Sierra hygiene.

Today, the game appeals mainly to those who love detective adventures with a solid story, historical flavor, and the patience to thoroughly explore the environment. It's not quick entertainment and a few moments require retro-style thinking — the mindset of "try everything on everything." But if you let it pull you in, you'll leave feeling like you spent time with something that had real substance. You can run it today in your browser via DOSBox without any hassle, and if you find the voice version, definitely go for that.