Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

one of the best FMV detective games ive played... works well on my computer ( acer laptop with vista, onboard graphics, dual core 2ghz chip and 3 gig ram ) If you like point and click and FMV games you cant go wrong with this one

I'd pay double the price it is currently! Let's hope the new Gabriel Knight 4 Petition is gonna work!

Pros: Engaging story, good atmosphere, very interesting historical elements, nice music Cons: Extremely uneven acting quality, pixel hunting, unclear objectives, FMV limits the puzzles Overall this is a very enjoyable game that I found myself excited to fire up. The FMV aspect hasn't aged well though - the game presents more as a standout artifact of its time rather than a truly excellent point-and-click. The muddy FMV textures makes for some very frustrating pixel hunts and can make navigation (knowing where rooms are located) unfun. I kept thinking how much better this story would have been served by a traditional graphical adventure format. The acting is very uneven. Unfortunately, the worst acting comes from Grace/Gabriel, which is problematic. Von Glower and others are actually done quite well. A good, but flawed product of its time. A great little timecapsule that is worth dusting off every 10 years or so.

Though even back then this gem was a little clunky and rough around the edges, it will forever hold a special place in my heart. Very good story, good enough point-and-click gameplay, and the innovative technical way it was presented in makes "Beast within" an all time classic. The ingame atmosphere is (was?) awesome !! As a German myself I laughed my a$$ off because of the way germans, or more specifically, bavarian people were portraited here. Must find the time to buy and play it again soon !

I love FMV. Pixelated video and real photographed backgrounds are much more engaging than any kind of a modern bland and empty 3D CGI graphics companies like Telltale are doing. Also, I think Dean Erickson was better Gabriel than Tim Curry. The story is not as good as in the first and the third games. It has a lot of potential, but I just can't get myself interested in animal trafficking, Ludwig II or Wagner's operas. The whole werewolf thing also ends up being quite light. Fortunately the actors are really good and give just enough enthusiasm to their characters to make it all enjoyable. The general atmosphere is really good too. The puzzles are pretty simple with a few tougher exceptions. If there would be an option to give 3½ stars, I'd give it that. But as there isn't, I think 3 stars would be a bit too low, so I'm giving it four stars. I'd really love to see a new Gabriel Knight game with Dean Erickson as Gabriel.