Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

The Good
Having "The Beast Within" on my desk, it didn't take me too long for me to realize getting other GKs is about to be inevitable for me. That second installment of Gabriel Knight was really a masterpiece in everything, down from the story, acting, animations and details, all the way to the main point of every greatly developed game, sticking your a$$ near the computer until the very fine ending, and more, as long as the influence works.

Well, about just a month after, I got myself GK1 and GK3 (and I don't have to say original GK1 is not that easy to find nowadays, not the SEALED mint box, that is :) I plugged the game in and I was already awaited with the well known music theme up front. I cannot say I was amused by the animation quality, but I sure liked the macho crap from my character all the time, as well as 256 colors nicely painted backgrounds and everything else.

First of all, I'll mention this, I'm by no means fond of any of seen in Gabriel Knight series, not I like Voodoo topics (expect when it comes for Monkey Island), nor werewolves, and especially not vampires. However, Gabriel Knight by some means (especially the good plot, acting and atmosphere) allowed me to like the mentioned all the way to the end.

I have a CD version of this game, so I must admit that speech quality is one of the best ever seen. Same with GK3, and that Tim Curry (Gabriel Knight) has really great voice/accent to be used as main character. Only game that has better voices and speech quality (and I don't mean in technical way) is "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis". Variety of accents and talks in that game was awesome.

All in one, this is one helluva adventure game with a slight step towards mystical/occult forces and horror, great nevertheless. Of course, as it usually goes for some game series, all three games are heavily connected, so if you haven't played this one or any other GK game yet, this is where you should start.

Oh boy, I just loove that old 2d poin 'n' click adventure games with 256 colors or less, they're just marvelous. However, I have nothing against adventure games with more colors or nice effects and animations like "Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned", "Blackstone Chronicles: An Adventure in Terror", "Tex Murphy: Overseer", "Blade Runner" or others. Anyway, my personal favorite game genre is 'adventure' one, so it's to expect that I'll be more oriented on having such games, but hey, if I continue here, I'll literally go off-topic. This is one in a lifetime opportunity to experience really great story, no matter which GK you pick out of the series.

The Bad
One thing really got on my nerves while playing this game, and that is the witchy female voice that describes everything Gabriel looks or does. However, if you have a floppy version of a game, you'll be spared of that, but you'll also loose many addings.

The Bottom Line
I could never figure how many moves they make for a 2d character in this or such related adventure games, like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". Beside the usual walking and facing sides, oh, and yeah, shocking heads when talking (ckech Indy for that, lol), the characters also have some major actions they can do, like slipping, getting fired from the cannon, fighting, reading newspapers,... I mean, is that all in the character's level of actions, or separate aniamtion sequences, beats me. Anyway, something like that can really improve the final score in the game, as well as the sounds if well adjusted, and they are here, in this game.

Dialogues are made a bit different from the other adventure games, it's more like a new image appears with the two characters that talk and you have the stuff to ask/discuss about. Good thing is that you can set captioning while hearing it. I just love that option. Not many newer games have that things, sigh!

"Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers" can be a bit hard at some points, and illogical (not too sided) like "Monkey Island", but is mostly okay to play, with various of locations to visit and people to talk to. Beside your main place, New Orleans, you'll also visit Germany (more about that in TBW) and Africa. Yup, travellin's insurrance included. Try this game, and if you're any kinda adventurer, you'll ask for more and guess what, this time there really is 'more' and it stands in every sence of word, bigger, better, meaner, hehe, I sound like quoting the "Worms" now. Let me put it this way, there is absolutely nothing about this game to give you the slightest reason not to get it, unless you're a true hater to adventure games.

The Good
I don't think there's a whole bunch to not like about this game. For starters, Jane Jensen's masterful writing will keep you on your toes until the very end. This is backed up by great character design, a good MIDI score with lots of memorable themes, beautiful character portraits, and the best voice acting that I've ever heard in a computer game. Tim Curry absolutely makes the role of Gabriel Knight his own. The game also includes lots of other stars and people of note: Leah Remini (Grace Nakimura), Mark Hamill (Detective Mosely), Michael Dorn (Dr. John), and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr (Wolfgang Ritter). The ending is rewarding, the game drips with atmosphere, and the story will stick with you long after you've finished playing.

The Bad
In terms of pure gameplay, I can't think of anything bad to say aboout GK. There are a couple of rough spots as far as technology goes, though. There is a patch available for the game, and as I recall you do have to download and install the patch in order to be able to finish the game. Do it before you start playing, because once you run the patch you won't be able to use your old saved games. Unfortunately, the terrific voice acting wasn't always well recorded. There is much more clipping than there should be in a professional product. (Clipping is the digital version of analog recording's distortion; it means recording levels were set too high.) Also, sometimes the recording levels were set too low and you have to do some quick audio adjustment to hear what people are saying. The game will only allow subtitles OR speech, so you can't both read and hear what people are saying. However, it would take a lot more than this to have taken away from my enjoyment of the wonderful acting. This game is from an era where diskette versions of games were still shipped; in fact, they often shipped quite a long time before the CD-ROM versions were. Make sure you get the CD-ROM version. I still rated the game a 5 in every area - except for graphics. The comic-style cutscenes were a cool idea, and the high resolution character portraits (I believe these were only available in the Windows version of the CD-ROM game) easily rival, and often surpass the 3D graphics of today. However, the in-game 320x240 graphics could have been better.

The Bottom Line
If you're an adventure gamer and you haven't played Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, shame on you. Go out and buy it right now. :)

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!