Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (DOS)

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Description

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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "狩魔猎人" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "גבריאל: זיכרונות אפלים" -- Hebrew spelling
• "Gabriel: Zikhronot Afelim" -- Israeli title
• "Gabriel Knight: Pecados dos Pais" -- Brazilian title
• "Gabriel Knight: Lucha Contra Las Fuerzas Sobrenaturales" -- Spanish title
• "Gabriel Knight: Les péchés des ancêtres" -- French title
• "Gabriel Knight I" -- Informal post-sequel title
• "Gabriel Knight: Die Sünden der Väter" -- German title

Part of the Following Groups

• Gabriel Knight series
• Game Engine: Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI)
• Games made into books
• Games made into comics
• Physical Bonus Content: Comic
• Setting: Church / Monastery
• Setting: City - New Orleans

User Reviews

Nobody does voodoo like you do	Unicorn Lynx (181391)
One of the seven wonders of gaming	Iron Lord (44)
This review is brought to you by the letter V... for voodoo	Katakis | カタキス (43217)
Gabriel Knight is proof that computer games can be an artform.	Ray Soderlund (3576)
You got what it takes to become a Schattenjäger?	Stijn Daneels (85)
A shadow lurks on New Orleans...	Depth Lord (1003)
Guybrush Threepwood gone detective!	Indra was here (20839)
Once in a while, Sierra manages to get everything right.	Eurythmic (2694)
Deep into the heart of the mystery.	MAT (235303)
Flawless. Simply flawless.	_Oracle (25)

Critic Reviews

HonestGamers (Staff reviews only)	Oct 28, 2010	10 out of 10	100
Quandary	Jul 21, 1997		100
Tilt	Jan, 1994	92 out of 100	92
Gamesmania.de	1996	90 out of 100	90
Freak	Mar, 1994	84 out of 100	84
The Retro Spirit	Aug 20, 2006	5 out of 6	83
Svenska Hemdatornytt	Jul, 1994	80 out of 100	80
PC Joker	Feb, 1994	75 out of 100	75
Power Play	Feb, 1994	72 out of 100	72
High Score	Feb, 1994	3 out of 5	60

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Gabriel Knight Multimedia CD-ROM	1	Edwin Drost (5368) Feb 04, 2017
The game gets stuck at day 5	8	Nowhere Girl (8580) Apr 28, 2016
A GK remake and no one's talking about it	8	Indra was here (20839) Nov 11, 2014
I really dislike the narrator	7	Daniel Saner (3423) Feb 08, 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

Related Web Sites

• 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).)
• 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. )
• GK1 Walkthroughs (Links to several strategy guides)
• 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.)