Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

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.

Game is great. However, his acting is ...well...I hope he has another type of career. The facial grimacing and general fidgeting he does is quite annoying.

I played this straight after the first Gabriel Knight game, and perhaps that's why I didn't like it nearly as much as the first game, since 'Sins of the Fathers' set the bar pretty high and I was in the mood for 'more of the same'. The drastic visual change from the colorful cartoon style to a bland FMV is really grating, all the charm is lost. Most cutscenes are too long and boring, and I was itching not to skip them; if I did, I would miss half the story. No more global topics, now just click on the next line until you exhausted your options. It's a shame though, because the story itself is quite interesting, it's actually two seemingly separate stories that eventually converge in the final chapter and they are told alternately from Gabriel's and Grace's point of view. I have to say I really hated Gabriel's chapters--I wanted to punch him every time he opened his mouth--plus there were many inconsistencies making it harder to solve some puzzles and follow what's happening. For example, Gabriel complains all the time that he can't even read the German newspapers or talk to random people, but for some mysterious reasons some conversations or correspondence between two Germans are conveniently in English, just because Gabriel has no-one around to translate it for him; other times he has to get someone to translate. So after a while I gave up trying to use my brain and just clicked on everything until something happened. I really miss Gabriel from the first game. Still, I give it 3 stars because it's saving grace is actually... Grace. If it weren't for Grace, I probably would drop the game like a hot potato. Grace's chapters were like an entirely different game, and a very enjoyable one at that. It actually included some wonderful character development for her and overall was much more coherent, logical and easy to follow. She's easily one of the best female characters in games, so it's worth playing once just for that alone.