Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

I really liked this game but I would have preferred more overt references to the previous game. As it is, there isn't anything to do with voodoo whatsoever. Having said that, I do like the setting in Germany and this game is as well researched as the last. I particularly liked everything to do with Ludwig II. The setting was fantastic in this regard and I nearly felt as though I'd visited the area myself. There were times where I felt the characters were unlike their portrayal in the first game, though. That's to be expected a little since this game is using FMV but I think a lot of it has to do with the setting change. Gabriel is a fish out of water in Germany and it shows. At times I really missed the New Orleans setting as much as I enjoyed certain aspects as mentioned above. I also think Grace was a little too vindictive early on in the game. The puzzles were pretty good but several of them were entirely unintuitive. Still, the odd logic and bizarre things people will do in adventure games is part of the fun. As an aside, the Ludwig II museum crashed several times but everything else ran very smoothly. Since this is an FMV, I have to say that I thought the acting was pretty good. I thought they made great choices for the characters. The only other thing is that I was a little disappointed in the ending of the game. That's entirely subjective though and I can see why other people might like it. All in all, I would recommend the game. I had a lot of fun with it and the story was great; I had to know what happened next from start to finish!

The game is one for best adventure of old-school. I think awesome FMV-game ever. However, it's a pity, that this one doesn't have the subtitles patch from the box.

Thomas, Herr Doktor Klingman here..Show our wolves to Mr Knight. Bought this in 1997...Has to have been one of the greatest adventures i have ever played... Highly recommended

I know FMV is not really popular, but I really love this game. The story is really good and the atmosphere very intense!

The game has the most realistic feel of the series, and it's not just the FMV. In addition to the story, your interactions with the characters and environment make you truly feel like a tourist in Germany. It feels real. The puzzles are mostly logical and are built into your surroundings, so nothing feels out of place. The exception being a awkward sequence at the end. It's too bad that the windows version doesn't seem to get along well with modern versions of Windows (though I understand the issue is more with Quicktime than windows). The DOS version works fine through DOSBox for the most part, but if I remember right, the image and sound quality is a bit better under the windows version.