Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers – 20th Anniversary Edition

The original Gabriel Knight is probably, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. It had an excellent story, great gameplay and very memorable music, not to mention an amazing host of voice actors who all played their roles brilliantly. So the remake? It's really good. It does its best to take the 1993 hit and modernise it, and I'd say it succeeds. It's no easy task to recreate something which had 90s design philosophy in it. Many people criticised the Monkey Island remakes - but really they were no different from the originals. Anyway, the remake to me looks really nice. I like the backgrounds especially, they are beautiful, and with several new screens, New Orleans looks even prettier than before. The character models are decent enough, definitely an improvement over Moebius' characters. The animations are a little jerky at points though, which isn't a major issue but still noticeable. The voice acting - put simply - is not the original voice cast. Every character has been recast, and I can understand why. Curry in GK3 was not great at all, and that was only 6 years after GK1. It's clear he would never have been able to do the new voice well. On the other hand, the new Gabriel is fine. Sounds accurate to Curry's GK1 Gabe and in some areas actually sounds a lot more believable. Curry's voice in places was somewhat comical. I can't exactly say the same for the other voice actors. They're close enough to the originals, but they don't quite have the passion of the originals. This doesn't ruin the experience though. What else? Well the music is fantastic. Robert Holmes is still Robert Holmes. Other than that, I'd say this remake is certainly worthy of your time if you enjoy the original, despite its shortcomings. Besides, the flaws of this remake don't detract from the story at all. It's still an amazing, tense and awesome story and that has not changed at all. The puzzles are still great too. Definite recommendation from me.

Consider this: The original game is one of my personal Top 20 advnture games - perhaps even one of the Top 10. Of all time! Making a remake is always something very difficult: There are those who feel it has gone too far from the original and there are those who feel that it didn't go far enough. Finding the perfect balance is almost impossible. In a way I am thankful that a remake often means that new players will have less of a hurdle to give such an awesome game a chance. You know, pixels and such are apparently a huge obstacle to overcome. And the story of Sins of the Fathers is awesome. It deserves more people to experience it. However... Many design choices for this remake are - to me at least - disappointing. I really don't understand the reason why Jane Jensen did some of the things she did: The backgrounds - while essentially pretty nice - do not fit the story's atmosphere. Gone are the dark and cold (dare I say: brooding) hand painted graphic novel backgrounds. Now they are generic, pre-rendered, and bright with lots of bloom and color. The characters are now, of course, 3D models which went through some changes: Gabriel no longer has his wild red hair but looks like his Part 3 incarnation. I don't like most of the changed (Grace doesn't wear a skirt anymore, for example) but that is personal taste. The voice acting is not as good as in the original. Painfully so in case of Gabriel himself. And I loved the original narrator but I confess, that the new one is not quite as slow, which is nice. Still prefer the original one, though. And the music is great as it always was. Even though I confess, I enjoy the arrangements of the original a bit more. Again, that is personal taste. Gameplay has been slightly "dumbed down". It makes the game easier but renders Gabriels world a little less lively. It feels more episodic which, I think, doesn't fit the game very well. Honestly, I don't like the game engine Phoenix uses a lot. Play the original!

Few will deny that the original Gabriel Knight is a classic. Having played all three games in the series, I was pretty excited when I heard a remake of the first game was in the works, especially when it's success could potentially lead to GK4. And now having finished it, I'd call it a successful remake: faithful to the original while modernizing the more out-of-date aspects of it. However, it does have a few problems. But first, the good things. Everything that made the original great is here: a fantastic story, memorable characters, witty dialogue, and challenging (without being obtuse) puzzles. You feel like a real investigator in this game; exploring the city, interviewing people, and finding clues, with the occasional sneaky trick or two along the way. The story is just great, incorporating actual voudoun practices and mythology (with some twists, of course) with New Orleanian culture, and featuring some laughs and chills as well. But that describes the original just as well; what did the remake add? Well, the most obvious difference is the graphics: gone are the pixels and in there place are 3D models and digitized backgrounds. While this is an improvement, I feel it lacks a lot of the charm of the original graphics, but that's probably my bias towards pixel art showing through. The interface is much more simplified, all for the better. No more messing around with multiple icons; clicking on an object shows all the possible interactions with it, and dialogue options now disappear when they're exhausted. A few new puzzles were added, but they don't add much (kinda seem like a waste of time really), but one particular dumb puzzle in the original was replaced with something more straightforward, and therefore better. However, the fact that this remake was done on a tight budget clearly shows in the details, what with the awkward way dialogue is skipped on a click, and the sometimes strange movement of the character models. The new voice-actors are OK.

This review is mostly for fans of the original with an open mind. It seems no matter what kind of remake was made, some people are going to be nitpicky and unhappy no matter what. I replayed the original 2 days before this released. The bugs mentioned in the title refer to autosave issues. Some can break your game. The devs know this and are already patching. They have a few spots on their forum for manual saves spots for reference in case you run into any of these snags. I have NOT, but that doesn't mean you won't since several people complain about the same thing. I did have issues with freezing so I saved a lot. In the game the voices are different. Devs made an effort to deliver the same mood and tone as the original. Gabriel stood out as being most different. Not amazing nor terrible. Serviceable. The voices sounded mostly similar and around 90% of the lines are the exact same. There are small bits of new dialogue and the timeline is slightly different in minor plotpoints. Still the same story. As much as loved the original, pixel hunting was bad. In the remake you don't have this problem and you can hit spacebar to highlight hotspots on the screen. Makes the game easy though. There is an in-game hint system with zero punishment for using it. And there is a feature where you can see original designs for the screens and characters. That was a nice addition for fans. The music was very cool. The cutscenes are comic-like and are well done. Again, dialogue and actions being mostly the same. There is an incredibly well-drawn comic book that gives back story to Gabriel's ancestor and Tetulo. IMO this was obviously a love letter to the original by people who loved it just as much as you and me. We could be nitpicky but I understand why certain changes happened and they aren't all that bad. I liked the faces in the dialogue screen of the old one and some other minor things. But nothing worth bashing this remake over. Recommended for fans and newcomers alike.