Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Although I'm not a big fan of mystery or horror, the first Gabriel Knight tells a satisfyingly complex story and develops a richly detailed world of voodoo, shadow hunters, mystics, and beignets. The graphics are clean and on par with other Sierra titles of the time. The varied soundtrack creates an appropriate sense of peacefulness, tension, mystery, or danger on every screen. The game takes place over a series of days, and you spend most of the game revisiting the same dozen places each day. There are mandatory tasks to accomplish before each day will end (so, no unwinnable scenarios), but it's often unclear what needs to be solved today when you won't see the significance until tomorrow. Feedback on specific actions is good; general guidance is poor. Constant backtracking is bad enough without being unsure what you're looking for, but a couple puzzles (eg, the clock) require MAJOR leaps of logic that can hold up the game. There are also too many interaction icons (pick up, move, operate, AND open?) that are inconsistently interchangeable, making some obvious solutions confusingly precise. The voice acting adds to the experience (though I did turn off the voiced narration immediately—good voice, but not for a narrator), but some of the characterizations are questionable. Gabriel continually sexually harasses Grace, but we're meant to excuse it as funny banter. Her deep concern for him later on seemingly comes out of nowhere, as does the romance between Gabriel and another character. Of all the corpses Gabriel encounters and reacts to, the person he knew best affects him the least. As good as the rest of the writing is, these are serious turn-offs. If you're looking for a more forgiving Police Quest with Cajun flavor and a supernatural twist, give Gabriel Knight a try. Just take the critical acclaim with a grain of salt. NOTE: GOG download doesn't offer the graphic novel that came with the game. The game contains adult language, some nudity, and graphic gore.

I didn't play this game when it first came out (I've always been more of a Lucasfilm guy), but now that I've finished it, I can definitely see the praise it's got was well deserved. The story is really engaging, one of the best among all adventures I've played (and I've played a lot). It peeks on many common tropes but it always puts its own twist on them. There are tons of lines of dialogues for you to dive in, if you're into that kind of stuff, and they're never obvious, always giving up small clues or simply adding depth to the story. The puzzles have been more of a mixed bag to me: many are clever but some are just unfair. Some clues are really far-fetched and there is always something to prevent you from brute-force you out of the empasse. Moreover, it's not unusual to have to go pixel-hunting. I can see that some jokes are very sexist, especially by today's standards, but the game is ultimately a product of its time, plus it never takes itself too seriously, so people should take it easy or just pass.

It's hard to believe it's been almost 17 years since this sublime work of interactive fiction was released. I was all of 12 years old when I first played it and I'm happy to say, it ruined me for all other games of this style. Not even The Longest Journey, which I consider to be a masterpiece, quite measures up to it in my book. The mix of Tim Curry's exaggerated yet perfect New Orleans drawl, the gripping story, the colorful art, and the music, oh my god, THE MUSIC in this game leaves me breathless even after all this time. Even as I approach my 30s, I have yet to find this game's equal in my heart.

I think that this is the first 'serious' adventure game I played. I was just finding my feet with the adventure genre and was lucky enough to start with this and beneath a steel sky, along with the monkey island's. I loved the intense atmosphere, the narration from the jamaican? sounding lady and the dark plot that unfolds. A true classic of it's time. I also remember the little twinkle you get rewarded with when you do something right...brill.

The script is outstanding and the atmosphere actually made me feel involved in the plot, which was also brilliant. If you like point & click adventures you shouldn't miss this game.