Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

The Good
I have been a Sierra adventure game fan for 15 years, since the release of the original Kings Quest. I have purchased and played every game they have put out. In recent years I had moved out to other companies due to Sierra's (uh-hum) lack of quality. But with the third release in the GK series Sierra has reclaimed the crown (or at least showed that it still remembers how to put out a good game when it wants too).

Gabriel Knight 3 is a revolution for adventure games. While modern machines have far surpassed the traditional adventure game layout the genre has stagnated, urging many to claim that the end was finally near for adventure games (I think this argument started about the time that Kings Quest 2 came out). The game has taken what was best about adventure games, added in the brilliant writing of series creator Jane Jensen, and mixed with a new graphics engine that is close to the one used in Kings Quest 8 but moved beyong just killing everything that moved.

The world is fully 3D and the control of the game is based on a camera system. While I have seen this approach fail miserably in other games Gabriel Knight finally uses it not only well but exceptionally. The puzzles reqire intelligent use of the camera and rethinking of the traditional adventure game approach (pick up everything that is sharper in the background, indicating that it is important). The interface is quick to learn and once learned is very easy to navigate and use.

The graphics are also wonderful. Scaled to adjust to your machine automatically upon startup, the game graphics played beautifully on my Pentium 233 with a voodoo 2 card. On a higher end machine they are even more stunning (Pentium 2, 450 at work).

But even with the graphic and interface this game would be nothing without gameplay. It has that in abundance. The Gabriel Knight series has been the thinking man's adventure game for years and this installment only reinforces that. In addition, Jensen appears to have really had her time to develop the story as it is more detailed and rewarding than the first two games (which is saying a lot).

The Bad
Nothing. Not a thing. Other than it eventually ended.

The Bottom Line
Sierra seems set on recasting their image. With the release of both HalfLife and Homeworld they have demonstrated that they can still make games worth playing. This game is Sierra's demonstration that they can still make adventure games. If you ever were an adventure game fan, this is worth your time. If you ever wondered what the fuss was about, this is your game. If you played Mist (God help you) and wanted more, this is your game. Basically, if you are a computer game player you should check this game out. You will be seeing more just like it over the next few years and will probably hear enough about it to justify a good play through.

The Good
I'm a big fan of the Gabriel Knight series. I admire Jane Jensen, the creative talent behind them, and all the designers and programmers who managed to turn deep and complex stories into engrossing and fascinating games.

Gabriel Knight 3 is no exception. The two previous games did wonders in combining the natural and the supernatural, or, better to say, in making the supernatural look completely natural, feeding the player information on history, religions, philosophy, and occult sciences without becoming boring. In the third game, the story goes even deeper, into the heart of Judaism and Christianity, and shocks you with unconventional ideas about their origins and historical development. If you are, like myself, interested in this kind of stuff, you will be amazed at what Jane Jensen has achieved in this story. Of course, she didn't invent the most shocking revelations; she took them from the same sources Dan Brown later did for his poorly written and overrated Da Vinci Code. The alternate history of Christianity and speculations about apocryphal biographies of Jesus are not new; but it is commendable that Jane Jensen was not afraid of treating such stuff in a video game narrative.

What's more, she treats the material much better than Brown; she doesn't engage in cheap and badly motivated attacks on the Catholic church, or presents fictional accounts of Gnostic philosophy which anyone who has some knowledge about the matter will immediately deem ridiculous. She also adds some cool plot twists which are most probably fruits of her own fantasy. For what it's worth, Gabriel Knight 3 is a great and rare example of a very ambitious narrative that actually passes the test for credibility.

But don't think the story is all about Jesus and the Masons. As much as the historical part of the game is interesting, there are also plenty of more "earthy" moments, mostly involving the relationship between Gabriel and Grace. The new supporting cast is perhaps more interesting than in both previous games; but for the sake of nostalgia, you also meet an old pal from first game's New Orleans.

The gameplay is for the most part even deeper and more varied than it was in the previous games. The game lets you perform many actions which are not necessary to complete it. In fact, it is possible to finish the game and miss a good deal of non-vital, but interesting information. You can really play the detective in this game, spy on everybody, lurk at places that you know will be visited by somebody, take pictures and fingerprints, work with data on your laptop, and so on. The amount of pure adventuring here is huge, from tricky inventory-based puzzles to logical detective work and clue-gathering. Many puzzles need to be solved with the help of your special computer, using all the data you managed to gather. Some puzzles are extremely tough and are sure to give you a headache, but most are fascinating and unusual - such as, for example, connecting particular locations on the map to create a hexagram.

The game is divided into small time periods, that will end and begin according to the actions you performed in order to trigger this change. Although it is not real-time in sense of Last Express, it is quite refreshing and makes the game more realistic.

The game's world is done entirely in 3D, with great graphics and a fantastic engine that allows you explore the world with the camera, and also move Gabriel around - so to say, a combination of first-person exploring and third-person navigation. This works really great, allowing more immersion into the game world and also more interesting gameplay possibilities, such as being able to examine from different distance and angles everything you see on the screen. I could never understand why adventure games kept stubbornly refusing to incorporate real-time 3D. Under a Killing Moon clearly showed the way, but only few followed it; this game is one of those few.

The Bad
The game's biggest weakness are its so-called "traditional" puzzles. The detective/spying work and all the stuff you could do with the computer was really cool. On such background, the few "classical" puzzles, taken directly out of old-fashioned comedy adventures, looked completely out of place. The obvious example is the infamous "cat mustache puzzle" - I won't give you the details for fear of spoiling you this product of mastermind puzzle design, but if you imagine a kind of a weird, illogical, and downright silly action you would normally avoid even in Day of the Tentacle, you'll get the idea. Now imagine you'll have to solve such a puzzle in a game with a highly serious, detailed narrative that deals with religion, mythology, horror, and vampires. This is the equivalent of being kicked out of the story for the duration of the exercise.

This is unfortunately not the only inappropriate puzzle in the game, though probably the most notorious one. There were some other tasks that just made me shrug my shoulders. On the other hand, some of the more clever, narrative-influenced puzzles were extremely hard. The work with the computer was fascinating, but often I was simply overwhelmed by the research possibilities, without always knowing exactly how to conduct this research.

The narrative has some problems with the pacing. Sometimes days pass before you are able to learn anything interesting; at another time, plot twists are thrown at you from all the sides. In particular, the final confrontation felt rushed and not fully satisfying.

The Bottom Line
Cat mustaches and other minor problems don't change the fact that this is an awesome game. Gabriel Knight 3 should have become a bright beacon for adventure games to come; unfortunately, the rapid decline of the genre's popularity brought the series - and the genre in general - to an undeserved demise.

The Good
Graphics and sound - what works

Gabriel Knight 3 has solid, well designed graphics in full, ‘real’ 3D. No slow-down whatsoever, the camera roams high and down ahead and back and rotates 360-degree as you wish all the time with no hiccups.

What’s most important, most of the people and things in the game still look cool 15 or more years after release. Takes little to appreciate what hard work went into the good looks of everything, from the characters to buildings and the various landscape.

Music and sound fxs are there doing their job too. Scary when it ought be scary, more emotional or straight fun when ought to be so, music keeps up helping the story’s whole atmosphere the whole of time.

In a nutshell, nice graphics and good sound add up to a game experience likable to the eye and thrilling.

Gameplay - what works

In a 3D world designers could hide secrets and caveats pretty much anywhere, which opens up the game for more quirks and things to do than your average 2D adventure maybe. The game interface works smooth and isn’t gonna bother you.

You control Gabriel Knight some days (chapters), and his female buddy Grace Nakimura the rest of time. She kind of steals the game. Makes the game feel up-to-date with today’s equality ideas and is a nice touch, too bad you have to control Gabe in the final.

High fun factor overall, specially thanks to many of the puzzles are not too hard, so they won’t make any players feel they want to leave the game b4 they finish it. Also, the in-game help feature is a fine touch and in 1999 meant designers where keeping in step with the times.

Plot and replay value - what works

Well, you have a quite long thriller story full of things to do and surprises. Many interesting characters and locales too. It’s at least 20 hours of playing, maybe 30. Replay value is OK, as you’re gonna miss some hidden things in your first playthrough, and the score system provides the grounds for trying again and get everything.

The Bad
Graphics and sound - what doesn’t work

Quite everything is perfectly ok with the graphics and sound, but some of the art sucks, the voices are campy, low-res textures were applied across large areas.
Anyway, you still get into the game.

Gameplay - what doesn’t work

A big issue is the infamous cat mustache puzzle. This puzzle, as other reviewers said, is difficult not because its clever but because your simply left stumped by the idiotic kind of solution. Issues with some puzzles, so tough some of you may quit and leave the game. Even the research material into Grace’s SYDNEY computer can confuse some people. In-game hints are available only sometimes, so maybe go straight to a FAQ whenever you get stuck.

Plot and replay value - what doesn't work

To say it bluntly, nothing’s wrong with the plot and replay value. Anyway you don’t have achievements to collect, and they should be there IMHO.

The Bottom Line
After great experiences with GK1 and GK2, I was quite looking forward to playing the third game and in no way it let me down.

In a nutshell, what you gonna get with Gabriel Knight 3 is around 20 hours of pretty decent, streamlined, fleshed-out adventure gameplay for $6. That’s a fine deal. The game is often on sale, which sure makes it a bargain nobody wants to miss.