Introduction
Ah, Gabriel Knight. Probably the most "important" game series when it comes to "shaping me" as a human being. It is a trilogy of point and click adventure games, starting during the boom of the genre in the early 90s, and capping off at the very end of the genre's life span just as 1999 closed its doors.
I was a very young, non-English speaking boy when I first played through this series, and the Gabriel Knight trilogy is a big, big reason why I'm writing this to you right now, in English, since it taught me so much. The trilogy is written and designed by Jane Jensen, a very talented writer, excellent at crafting characters and dialogue. Not without flaws, and we'll get to them, but all in all, a person who's work it's generally a pleasure to go through. She's been involved in other projects, as well, but Gabriel Knight is definitely my favorite series from her.
Alongside Jane, her husband Robert Holmes composed the music. I'm sure it helped to have the music composer being someone so close to the story writer, since I'm sure they were in tune with what they wanted the atmosphere of the series to be - and it shows.
Gabriel Knight follows the story of the name protagonist, a down on his luck, womanizing bookshop owner, who is lead on a path of witch hunting and heartache, due to unique and unforeseen circumstances. Gabriel, voiced by Tim Curry, remains one of the most charismatic video game protagonists of all time.
At the time, there were two big names in the point and click adventure genre: Sierra and Lucasarts, with Gabriel Knight being published by the former.
Lucasarts was known for its comedic, cartoon style adventure games, where humor took the front seat, and the games were such that they could easily be enjoyed by younger kids.
With Gabriel Knight, Sierra took a step to a more adult oriented storytelling, which was quite revolutionary at the time. It was graphic - as graphic as you could be with 1993 limitations - it was direct, it didn't insult your intelligence, or beat stuff around the bush. It was truly a different game, and it's something that may go unnoticed from today's perspective.
Why is this particular series so important to me that I almost get emotional talking about it sometimes? I'll try my best to convey it to you.
Plot
The first few minutes of Gabriel Knight do a terrific job at introducing the player to the premise of the story: our hero wakes up at the back of his apartment/bookstore in New Orelans, after a night of nightmares, which have been a reoccurring nuisance for him, is noted by his employee Grace that a one night stand wants to talk to him, but he insists that she comes up with an excuse for him. Grace then tells the woman on the phone "I'm sorry, Gabriel is a lout. I mean, he's out."
This sarcastic back and forth between Gabriel and Grace would continue as a strong theme of the game, as well as the entire series, going forward.
So, at the very beginning of the game, its made clear to the player that he's playing as Gabriel Knight, a handsome business owner with good hair who sleeps with women and doesn't call them back. And has a hot secretary working for him. What could be better!
But it's not all fun and games for ole Gabe. Business hasn't been good, and Gabriel has been tormented by these weird nightmares for a long time now, causing sleep deprivation and a high addiction to caffeine.
To hopefully turn business around, Gabriel is working a new book, based on real life events of a series of voodoo themed murders that have recently been happening in New Orleans.
Luckily for Gabe, his best friend, Franklin Mosely, is a police officer, so Gabe gets to be a special guest on the crime scenes. This leads to Gabriel running around New Orleans asking people, in what has since become a running joke, "What can you tell me about Voodoo?" It is a question Gabriel asks almost every character in the game, and Tim Curry delivers the line an almost sexual way with a pseudo-New Orleans accent. It's great.
His investigation into the voodoo murders leads Gabriel on a journey that will forever change his life, revealing who and what he is, and what the truth about his family is. See, unbeknownst to Gabriel, he is more than just a simple bookstore keeper, but the truth about his destiny is something that the player will uncover alongside Gabriel.
The story, just like all Jane Jensen stories, is very well written, and includes a lot of facts mixed in with the fiction. Jensen has done a ton of research into the history of New Orleans and Voodoo. The game includes so much information that the player's own research within the game becomes a game in and of itself. A lot the fiction that's thrown in between the facts is stuff that the player can buy as it makes sense. Nothing is ever too far out, and even though the game flirts with supernatural elements, and downright features them towards the end, the pacing is so good that even the ridiculous stuff feels natural.
All Gabriel Knight games have inspired me to do my own research into the subject matters of each game in the trilogy. So, whenever someone tells you that videogames are a waste of time and not educational, tell them about Gabriel Knight. Jane Jensen is a reader, and she clearly expects the player to be, too. And you really need to read and pay attention if you plan on finishing Gabriel Knight, since as far as adventure games go, it's one of the hardest ones. One of my proudest achievements in life was finishing Gabriel Knight without the use of a walkthrough guide, while not being a native speaker of the language. I'm not sure how old I was, but I think I was around nine or ten, perhaps.
Gabriel is also a normal human being; even though he's a macho man, when faced with things that are clearly from another world, he is scared and fears for his life, just like any person would. He's a hero, but not a Hollywood action hero. On the surface, Gabriel is a sarcastic bad boy that can feel shallow and devoid of nuances, but once the player gets familiar with him, he learns to appreciate the different dimensions Gabriel has to his character - and especially his humanity.
All other characters are well written, as well. Grace, the secretary/assistant of Gabriel's, who is a side - yet important - character in the first game, but would develop into a full fledged playable character later on in the series, is an intellectual, as well as sarcastic, match to Gabriel who feels that Gabriel is an overly chauvinistic ass, but knows that somewhere, deep down there is something resembling a good heart, sometimes. Gabriel's best friend Mosely is the opposite of the handsome Gabriel; a balding cop with a gut, and the two engage in a back and forth every time they interact with each other, but it's heart warming to see how they are there for each other when it matters. The antagonists of the story are also interesting, and even surprising. It's impossible to talk about them without spoiling anything, but they are not clear from the start, and it becomes satisfying, yet bittersweet, to take them down in the end.
The story of Gabriel Knight offers variety to keep the player engaged, and is a thrill ride from start to end. A criticism could be that the antagonists could have been fleshed out a bit more, but they are very good as they are, as well.
The story and dialogue are the most important thing in an adventure game, and Gabriel Knight delivers in both departments. The story of Gabriel Knight, mixed in with the music which I'll talk more about in a sec, has this weird, almost beautiful undercurrent to it all the time. It's present in every installation of the Gabriel Knight series, and it's hard to put into words or comprehend, but it's a story that really makes me think about the characters, feel for them. I haven't cared about any videogame characters as much as I have cared about the characters in the Gabriel Knight series.
I feel the writing, top to bottom, is so magnificent and awe-inspiringly beautiful. It's not in your face, beating you in the head with it, either, the innate beauty of the story just kind of is there for you to see, if you so choose. It's hard to describe.
I will give it some criticism, though, for the fact that every once in a while, the game does seem to suffer from a bit of an identity crisis. It's not always sure, whether it wants to be serious or funny, and at times balancing the two falls on its face. It's a minor nitpick, though, but I feel it has to be here.
GRADE: A
Graphics
The game was released in 1993, and it shows. The graphics have not aged well at all. So, if rank eye candy high when it comes to your gaming, you may have to skip this one. At least this version of the game, a remake has been made, but I will be talking about that at a later date.
To the game's credit, conversations between characters are done with nice close ups with well drawn faces of the characters conversing.
Other than that, there's no way to tell the characters' faces, or things of that nature, in the actual game screen.
The game takes place in New Orleans, and as someone who's actually been to New Orleans, the milieu is being represented pretty well. It's nothing too special because of the graphical limitations of 1993, as stated earlier, but it definitely has a New Orleans feel to it, which is nice. Actually, different parts of the world have always been represented in Gabriel Knight games, and it's been a big part of its charm that it's been able to present them in a faithful manner.
The game was impressive when it first came out in 1993, as far as graphics go, but Jane Jensen herself has said that they weren't able to do everything they wanted to when the game was first being developed. They wanted to give it an even more New Orleans type of a feel, but it had to wait until the 20th anniversary remake.
Despite being old in terms of graphics, the game does succeed in being scary at a couple of points, even in 2016.
I would also like to note that the graphics by no means destroy the experience. They are there, they do their job, and that's that. It'd be nice to have a bit more detail, and some of the items that need to picked up in order to advance the plot can be easy to miss, but the game is definitely playable the way it is.
I will judge the graphics by today's standards.
GRADE: D+
Sound
Unlike graphics, sound doesn't age as fast, if at all.
And my God, the sound and music department is where the entire Gabriel Knight series shines.
I could go on and on about how much I love the music, the voice acting, the sounds, the atmosphere, everything that has to do with stuff I use my ears for in Gabriel Knight. Starting with the music, it's fantastic. Composed by Robert Holmes, Gabriel Knight includes one of the most memorable videogame soundtracks to date. Every song in the game has its purpose, nothing gets old, and tons of tracks are such that I can listen to them even outside of the game. The themes do a great job in creating this world that is cheerful on the surface, but has a dark, depressive secret beneath the surface. It's New Orleans and happy when it needs to be, its murderous and scary when it needs to. It can be sexual and seducing when required to. And everything in between.
The music paints such a world that it's easy to forgive the game's graphical limitations.
I'm not sure about this, but I think Gabriel knight might have been the first videogame to feature voice acting. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
The allstar voice acting cast features the aforementioned Tim Curry as Gabriel Knight, Mark Hamill as Franklin Mosely, Leah Remini as Grace Nakimura, Michael Dorn as Dr. John.
And more.
Everybody does a fantastic job. From Tim Curry's charismatic and masculine portrayal of Gabriel, to Mark Hamill's bumbling Franklin Mosely, the voice actors know their characters and bring them to life in a way that is quite extraordinary, considering this was one of the first, if not the first, games to feature voice acting.
Especially Tim Curry as Gabriel Knight is one my favorite voice acting performances ever, in any game. Tim really owns this character, understands, and most importantly clearly has fun doing it.
The voice acting, along with the music, gives the game a lot of longevity, despite the fact that it's quite ugly to look at in modern times. You easily forget about the graphics when you get lost in the fantastic sound world of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
I'd recommend Gabriel Knight to people just based on the soundtrack alone.
GRADE: A
Gameplay
Gabriel Knight is a point and click adventure game, which means that you go around the areas, conversing with people, picking up items and trying to figure out how to use the found items in the game world.
Sins of the Fathers has a couple of really hard to figure out puzzles, but nothing too impossible. Like I said earlier, it's one of the harder ones, but it's very rewarding to advance the plot without googling a walkthrough. It does suffer from not being linear enough, in the sense that it's possible to start plot lines before you're really able to advance them in any way, and this can lead to confusion. The story is split into several days, with each day having a set of plot points to accomplish before the story can be furthered into the next day. So, when you accidentally start a plot point in Day 2, that can only be finished in Day 4, it can waste a lot of time trying to figure out a way to solve the puzzle in Day 2.
Other than that, it's your basic point and click. The interface is quick and easy to use, nothing's a hassle, which is nice. A good user interface in an adventure game, to me, is one that you don't notice. And that's exactly what it's like in Gabriel Knight, I have little to even say about it because it's there, it exists, and that's that. And that's all you could ever ask for.
Unlike in Lucasarts adventure games, it's actually possible to die in Gabriel Knight, on a few spots, so be wary of that. It can catch you by surprise if you're used to the Lucasarts brand of adventuring.
GRADE: B
TL;DR
Gabriel Knight remains one of my all time favorite games, and the series is my all time favorite trilogy of games.
The story, the characters, the voice acting, the important aspects, outside of the aged graphics, are so well and so professionally made that I've replayed the game on numerous occasions. Even though I know the story and I know the game by heart, it still never fails to offer me value. Point and click games are notorious for lacking replay value, but there's something about Gabriel Knight that still pulls me in.
It's like an old friend that I still need to visit every now and again.
A must have for adventure game fans. Maybe a tough one for adventure game "noobs", since it can be pretty difficult, but I'd still recommend it to anyone who is a fan of great storytelling and intriguing characters.
https://www.gog.com sells Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers at $5.90
FINAL GRADE: WORTH IT
BONUS: 20th Anniversary Remake
I also own the 20th anniversary remake of the game that was released a while back, to, obviously, celebrate its impressive anniversary.
The remake is fantastic in its visuals, in capturing the feel of the original game, and it offers a few new areas and new puzzles to solve, and does its job very well, but unfortunately, for me, it lacks the original voice cast.
And that's simply a deal breaker for me. As much as I enjoy the improved visuals, and pretty much everything else about it, it's the lack of the original voice cast that constantly puts me off, and I'm inclinded to play the original over the remake.
But that's just me, it's a perspective of someone who grew up with the original. If you've never experienced Gabriel Knight, and are perhaps interested in giving solving voodoo murders a shot, maybe the remake is for you. Especially if the aged graphics of the original scare you.
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