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
- ××ר×××: ×××ר×× ×ת ×פ××× - Hebrew spelling
- çŠéçäşş - Simplified Chinese spelling
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Credits (DOS version)
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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)
One of the seven wonders of gaming
The Good
"The flesh is weak, Johnny. Only the soul is immortal." (You know what I'm talking about, right?)
The Bad
"I got a thing about chickens" :-P
The Bottom Line
It was the time when Sierraâs classic series had started to lose their splendor and brightness. Lacking the necessary originality and innovation, they somehow repeated themselves without offering something progressive. It was then that Jane Jensen, already an employee of the company, was given the chance to make her designing debut. The result was âGabriel Knightâ, an adventure that took the world of gaming by surprise and arguably is the genreâs finest hour.
The game casts us as Gabriel Knight, an unsuccessful writer who lives in his bookshop in the French Quarter of New Orleans, striving for a breakthrough in his career. He is not the kind of person who takes life very seriously. Also, he often displays laziness, bad manners and a bit of eccentricity. But he definitely has a charming personality to save him. His assistant, Grace, is the exact opposite of him. She is serious, organized and methodical. Very often their strong personalities come to disagreement, but undoubtedly there is an interesting chemistry between them. One of Gabrielâs few and greatest concerns are the inexplicable and horrible nightmares that haunt him and deeply depress him. He is currently working on a book inspired by the so-called âVoodoo Murdersâ that are taking place in the city during the recent weeks. His best friend, Police Detective Mosely, provides him with some useful âinside-informationâ. In the coming days, Gabriel will meet his destiny. Day by day, a chain of supernatural events will change him forever. The scenario draws elements from the âneo-gothicâ lore. It is dark, mysterious, erotic, thrilling and dramatic. It could as well be the script of an actual film.
âGabriel Knightâ is a âpseudo-3dâ adventure that utilizes the icon-based system. Specifically, it makes a new approach to this system. First of all, the game introduces a new way of making conversations with other people. Except for the âTALKâ one, we now have the âASKâ icon. The first is used for interactions of a more open and general nature. Now the second one brings us in the âinterrogation modeâ. There, between the portraits of Gabriel and of the interviewed person, is a list of subjects for discussion. Most of them apply to all the people we interact with, but there are some that solely concern certain individuals. Talking will usually lead to other subjects that will arise. The immensity and the depth of this procedure are simply remarkable. Apart from giving us clues on how to continue our investigation, it nicely outlines the richly designed personalities of the characters we interact with. We can later hear all the dialogues through the âRECORDERâ option. The typical âHANDâ icon is here divided in four different ones. There are the âPICK UPâ, âOPEN/CLOSEâ, âOPERATEâ and âMOVEâ icons. This separation makes for more demanding playing, as the player must have a clear idea of what he needs to do rather than randomly clicking on things.
Visually, the title reaches excellence. It is not only that its graphics are brilliantly designed. Above all, it is how successfully they fit its environment. Their dark style, coloring and shading strongly grasp the âfilm-noirâ concept. There are many places to visit. All of them are designed in great detail and with a certain âdimâ effect that makes them mystifying and enigmatic. That âdark detailâ is present everywhere, in the sprites, in the character-portraits, in the foregrounds and the backgrounds. In some places, like the cemetery, we constantly have the feeling that something unexpected is about to suddenly take place. The graphics include several superb cut-scenes. There are two kinds of them, the first are the ones that appear every night, during Gabrielâs tormenting dreams. They consist of series of still images that succeed each other very fast, radiating a terrifying and sometimes paranoid feeling. The other ones take place during the actual playing time. They are made of small graphical strips that emerge from the left of the screen moving to the right, in a comics-like fashion.
The sound aspect of the game is also superior. The musical score is simply an outstanding classic. It contains distinctive themes for every location and occasion of the game, all wisely chosen to amplify the impact and the sensation. Relaxed pieces of music and more powerful ones appropriately. Also, several high-quality sound effects support the experience.
There are all kinds of puzzles in this adventure. Some of them require the correct use of items. Others are about being in the right place in the right moment. A few are based on close observation of factors. And finally there are those of a larger scale that involve more than one location. They are all based on logic and reason and are made with respect and care for the player and his entertainment. During playing we will also encounter several, full of agony, time-sequences* where swift moving and acting is essential. The game is generally of high difficulty and lasts for many intriguing hours.
Some months after its release in floppy disks, the game became available in CD format. The CD version has two major updates compared with the diskettes one. Firstly, it has full speech support for every person in the game. All the voices are convincing and sound right in terms of acting performance. The voice-cast even includes two quite known actors, Tim Curry and Mark Hamill as Gabriel and Detective Mosely respectively. Tim Curry satisfactorily captures the accent and the mentality of the stereotyped Southerner, overdoing it only in a couple of instances. The second important improvement is that, thanks to the CDâs capacity, the cut-scenes of the dreams now have animation that makes them much more fluid. Needless to say, anyone who wants to play this game is encouraged to prefer the enhanced CD edition.
âGabriel Knightâ had two great sequels. Each one had drastic changes in the technology and method it used. But both of them are inferior to their predecessor. It seems that they could not reach the unrepeatable atmosphere and feel of it. This timeless masterpiece is unlike anything we have ever seen. Recommended to every self-respecting gamer âGabriel Knightâ is, especially for us passionate adventurers, an experience of a lifetime.
- In the sixth day of the game, the use of a slow-down utility (e.g. Turbo) is needed for passing the time-sequence in the police station.
DOS · by Iron Lord (40) · 2016
Deep into the heart of the mystery.
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.
DOS · by MAT (240793) · 2012
One of the Few Great Gaming Stories
The Good
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father introduced anew level of story-telling to video games. For the first time, a game could have an elaborate, detail, adult storyline including a deeply trouble protagonist.
The cutscenes are amazing. Stylistically, they hold up even today. Presented in a quasi-comicbook mode, they truly moved the story along. Also, the fully animated cutscenes were similarly fantastic. And the video-captured moment where Gabe gets on his motorcycle -- in '93 this had me going!
The Bad
The windows 3.x version had a few nasty lock-up bugs. Patches became available.
Some of the conversations were long-winded. I recall the dialogues with Gabe's grandmother (while discussing family history) being a little much.
The Bottom Line
Gabriel Knight should be played by all adventure game fans. The game truly was the birthplace of artful storytelling in the video game world.
Windows 3.x · by Game22 (35) · 2004
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Gabriel Knight Multimedia CD-ROM | Edwin Drost (9385) | 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 (47496) | 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, youâre 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, youâll get the message âThere'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 â 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) â Adventure Game of the Year (together with Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) â #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.
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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 | ăŤăżăăš.
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.