Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Description official descriptions
Gabriel Knight is a wise-cracking bookstore owner and would-be author. He is the last in a long line of Shadow Hunters, those fated to fight supernatural forces of evil. Tormented by terrifying nightmares, he must spend every waking moment scouring the side streets and back alleys of New Orleans for the key to his dark past. One day, a blood-chilling murder shocks the inhabitants of the city. The police detective assigned to investigate the crime is Gabriel's friend. In the beginning Gabriel collects evidence in hope of using the material for his new novel; but soon he finds himself personally involved in the investigation, and plunges deeper into the world of secret societies and murderous cults.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is a third-person puzzle-solving adventure game. Created by Jane Jensen, the game differs from Sierra's Quest games (e.g. Space Quest) by having a realistic setting and focusing (despite its supernatural elements and humor) on mature themes and detective work. In this way it is more similar to the company's earlier Laura Bow games.
The game's icon-based interface is the same as in Sierra's previous titles, with verb commands that allow interaction with the game world and its inhabitants. Though the game still has plenty of inventory-based puzzles characteristic for classic adventure, its gameplay is heavily inclined towards dialogue. Typically, Gabriel will have to interrogate other characters, choosing conversation topics and thus gradually finding clues and advancing towards the mystery's solution.
The game's locations are done in hand-painted style. The CD version of the game adds full voice-overs to the dialogues, as well as narrator's voice to text descriptions.
Spellings
- גבריאל: זיכרונות אפלים - Hebrew spelling
- 狩魔猎人 - Simplified Chinese spelling
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Credits (DOS version)
99 People (91 developers, 8 thanks) · View all
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 86% (based on 33 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 307 ratings with 18 reviews)
The Good
The voice acting! Simply incredible! Tim Curry as Gabriel, Leah Remini as Grace, Mark Hamill as Mosely, Michael Dorn as the voodoo master(sorry, forgot his name)
The music! The music for the CD-version is simply superb! It sticks in your mind and won't let go - to get midi samples you can go to Quest Studios.
The drama! Family cursed with duty to stop evil - and a Romeo and Juliet romance develops!
The intrigue! All around you the eyes are watching - and you don't know who to trust!
The Bad
It was too short! Aaargh! I finished it!
The Bottom Line
Go. Buy this. It will show you what TRUE adventure gaming is.
DOS · by P Ray (7) · 2003
Yet another redefining game by Sierra, and the first from Jane Jensen
The Good
The story, the story, the story, I can't say it enough, Jane Jensen did a marvelous job of constructing a complex, and riveting story, at the same time developing it into an excellent game. This title was a boost in the adventure genre's arm, telling a good story in a modern environment, that was not only chilling, but frightening realistic!
The research into the subject matter is deep and thorough, this becomes clear as you progress into the game. The story is what kept me playing, but the puzzles were also top notch and imaginative, there are a few that take are abstarct, but they don't take from the game. The dialogue is also great Tim Curry does a top notch job as do the other voice acters.
The Bad
Nothing really, this is the ideal adventure game, perfectly blending a deep story, with excellent gameplay.
The Bottom Line
Buy it, Buy it NOW!
DOS · by Jonathon Howard (114) · 2000
Gabriel is the best adventure game series ever.
The Good
The voice acting was wonderful-Tim Curry was not as bad as some people say he was. The plot just grabs you by the seat of your pants and never lets go-you can't go to sleep at night due to the images and wondering what would happen next.
Another thing is the opening sequence. Boy. That just glued my eyes to the screen-scared, but not willing to take my eyes off the screen in fear of missing the next plot twist.
I think voodoo is a great topic for adventure games, and also New Orleans lends itself as a location. Plus I really liked the characters.
The graphics just blew my mind, and this game shows why I LOVE graphic adventures.
The Bad
It was buggy. That German bug made me almost smash my moniter, but I got over it. Also, the puzzle in the catcombs in which you had 2 milliseconds to respond was unbelievibly stupid. Also, I got stuck a LOT.
The Bottom Line
Buy it, but be warned. This game will very possibly ruin your social life. But it's worth it.
DOS · by emerging_lurker (160) · 1999
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Gabriel Knight Multimedia CD-ROM | Edwin Drost (9474) | Feb 4, 2017 |
The game gets stuck at day 5 | Nowhere Girl (8680) | Apr 28, 2016 |
A GK remake and no one's talking about it | chirinea (47495) | Nov 11, 2014 |
I really dislike the narrator | SnubPollard (62) | Feb 8, 2013 |
Trivia
CD version
The CD version of the game includes a 20 minute behind the scenes avi file depicting the creation of Gabriel Knight. The file also included interviews with most of the cast, lead designer/writer Jane Jensen and others.
Covermount releases
- The full, original game on CD was bundled with the 1/2001 edition of Computer Gaming World magazine.
- The full, original game on CD was bundled with the July 1997 edition of CD-Rom Today, a Brazilian computer magazine.
German version
The German CD-ROM version has a major bug, which causes to crash the games at at least three points during the game. The program obviously hangs, because of a corrupted soundfile. Turn off voices & music in the crashing scenes and you can go on playing.
Leilani Jones
Leilani Jones (Malia Gedde) seems to like the Voodoo Priestess gig. She also plays one in LucasArts' Curse of Monkey Island.
Novel
Jane Jensen> has written a novelization of the game, first printed in February 1997, through Penguin's ROC imprint. The game's sequel was also given the novelization treatment.
References
- It could be a coincidence, but there is a real life blues musician from Lousiana, named Dr. John. Perhaps the character's name came from a fan.
- On day 3, you’re able to attend a (pretty boring) lecture at the Tulane university. Take a walk in the lecture hall and read the bulletin board. After looking at it a few times, you’ll get the message “There's a notice for a lecture on Investigative Reporting techniques to be given by octogenarian Pulitzer Prize winner Laura Bow Dorian." This refers to two game characters from the Laura Bow II – Dagger of Amon Ra adventure: Laura Bow en Steve Dorian. In the game, they fell in love. An octogenarian means someone between 80 and 90 in age, so this assumes the two of them got married in the end.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- June 1994 (Issue #119) – Adventure Game of the Year (together with Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #7 Best Way To Die In Computer Gaming (get the heart ripped out by a zombie)
Information also contributed by Alan Chan, chirinea, Chris Mikesell, Isdaron; Pseudo_Intellectual, Sciere and Zovni
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Related Sites +
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31 Day History of Horror Games: Gabriel Knight
An article by Jonathan Howard of On the Stick, a video game blog and podcast, providing a retrospective of Gabriel Knight as part of a series on horror games. The article has little in the way of personal opinion but rather attempts to provide a broad overview of the game (Oct. 2011). -
GK1 Walkthroughs
Links to several strategy guides -
Gabriel Knight 2000: Surviving the Third Millennium
An independent programmed setup file which installs the game perfectly on Win XP. -
Gabriel Knight omnipedia
A wiki encyclopedia/companion for all Gabriel Knight media. -
Hints for Gabriel Knight 1
Diane Griffiths' hints will help you solve the game -
Sins of the Fathers - FAQs & Guides
GameFaqs.com collection of walkthroughs and guides -
The Domain of Schattenjagers
All about the game and the blood !! -
The Patches Scrolls
Download site for the CD-Rom Patch -
Windows XP Set Up
Inferno explains how you can get this old game to run on Windows XP. Not perfect, but playable.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Eurythmic.
Windows added by Picard. Windows 3.x added by MAT. Macintosh added by Katakis | カタキス.
Additional contributors: MAT, Andrew Hartnett, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Daniel Saner, chirinea, Sciere, Xoleras, Boston Low, 1gnition, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger.
Game added May 13, 1999. Last modified March 31, 2024.