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

I will preempt this by saying that I have not played any of the Gabriel Knights before this one. I am familiar with Sierra games, and how they pretty much pioneered the text and point-and-click adventure game genre. I've played most of the Leisure Suit Larry games, the first Police Quest, and a few of the King's Quest games. I never heard about Gabriel Knight until one passing mention in a Let's Play, but it sounded much like a gothic horror game just by the name Gabriel Knight alone. I must say, minus the gothic part, it didn't disappoint. I expected some of the puzzles to be a bit more moon logic-y than they really were, but there were no cheap deaths or baffling puzzles to be found. The story was incredibly engaging and gripping, and it does inspire me to pick up the rest of the series and hope that maybe this is a prelude to Jane Jensen perhaps making a fourth Gabriel Knight. Adventure games of this sort are bound for a resurgence, don't you agree? Of course, the game is not without its faults. I came to the conclusion on what I was SUPPOSED to do in specific parts, but the way I was meant to go about doing them sometimes required a seemingly redundant step. Maybe it's because I was moving one step further before I was supposed to, or in one particular instance, learning a huge plot point in the journals (which I did read; every page) before Gabriel was supposed to. Either way, get it. Once you strip away the grimdark atmosphere of Police Quest, the idealistic fantasy of King's Quest, the sadomasochistic satire of Leisure Suit Larry and the oddball goofiness of Space Quest, this is truly what a Sierra game is supposed to be about.

I never played the original one so this was my introduction to the GK series. Due to the many positive things I've heard about the games I finally had to give it a go. Unfortunately I have to say that the game did not meet my expectations. I enjoyed the game enough to make me wanna finish it, but my overall experience was spoiled by an unlikable protagonist, sometimes out of place music, and an annoying dialogue system. I simply couldn't get myself to like or understand GKs behavior and attitude, and how somebody like Grace (pretty much the only character beside Wolfgang I actually liked) would be willing to work for such a massive douchebag. The other issue I had with Gabriel was the way he talks. He sounds so exorbitantly smug you just feel like punching him in the face. Which also leads to the sentiment that the love story in the game was extremely unbelievable to me. The sometimes overly dramatic, cheesy 90s music was ok for the most part but from time to time I felt like it didn't fit the tone of what was going on in the game (except for the cut-scenes). For example, after a tense, time sensitive situation you end up in cave where you need to solve a puzzle again and can also talk to people, so no pressure at all. But the music doesn't change. This might have worked in the 90s but by today's standards it felt really out of place. You basically have the same dialogue options for all NPCs in the game (except for the character specific bits) and Gabriel asks every question in the same annoying tone. So you would just repeat the same questions over and over again. When Gabriel talks to his Grandmother in the same way like he's interrogating a stranger it just sounds oddly funny rather than authentic. What I liked about the game was the nice backgrounds and interesting locations, the puzzles for the most part were fair and not frustrating, and as mentioned at the beginning, the story in general was exciting enough to keep me playing and finish the game.

I love the game , actually that remaster is not that bad as people say. Original actors voices has been replaced , but story and atmosphere is really awesome. Second part is still my favorite but I love this one too. This GOG version have not achievements if someone's bother about.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is a classic and a must-play adventure game. The first GK game I played was GK2: The Beast Within back in 1995 and it became my favorite adventure game of all-time. I played GK3 four years later; it was not as good as GK2, but nevertheless still enjoyable. I've wanted to play GK1 for years but never got around to it until now. I decided to play the 20th Anniversary Edition first, then played the original afterwards. Here are my thoughts. First off, ignore the reviews saying "THIS IS A TERRIBLE REMAKE!" That's nostalgia talking. I can understand it, because if they did a GK2 remake, I'd have difficult accepting a new Von Glower in the same way the purists won't accept a new Gabe, but as someone who didn't play GK1 in the early 90's and who does not have the nostalgia fueled perspective, I was not disappointed at all. This is an all-time great whether you play the original or the remake. The remake is better in many ways than the original. Obviously, the graphics are far superior and you're no longer staring at bulky pixels like back in the early 90's. Sound quality and soundtrack are also far superior in the remake. IMO, the voice acting is slightly better, as well, however, it's more mixed. Some characters are done better (e.g. Mosely), some worse (Officer Frick), but most are about the same. And while I will infuriate the purists with this, I liked Jason Victor as Gabriel Knight. Now for the downsides. Glitches --- there seems to be a bug where some of the characters heads spin when Gabe exits a location. It's weird, but it shouldn't really hamper your enjoyment of the game much. Repetitive music --- in some locations, the repetitive soundtrack can get annoying, but overall, I find the soundtrack to be very good. That's about it. If you're new to GK1, I think you'll enjoy the 20th Anniversary Edition. If you played the original, you might not like the changes, but overall, the remake is well-done.

I played the original so long time ago that I only vaguely remember it. So playing this remake was almost like playing a new game. Original GK had an absolutely fantastic and very enjoyable story and nothing is changed in this regard. When you start playing you want to get to the end just because of the superb writing. The music has been remastered and modernized and still sounds great and fits fell with the scenes. The voice acting is kind a mixed bag. At first I could not stand Gabriel's voice at all - he sounds like a complete douche. I also did not like the narrator's voice. But actually they sound quite close to original and after couple of hours it was not bothering me that much. Graphics is obviously much improved. Though I would have preferred high-res hand drawn backgrounds to 3D. The original had a much darker atmosphere that suited the game better and 3D does not picture it as well. 3D character animation is sometimes also somewhat awkward and there's some minor glitches. Overall though, it looks very nice and there's clearly some improvements to many scenes. Also due to hi-res there's less pixel hunting. I remembered the original being much more difficult. Not sure if anything has changed in this regard but the game felt very straightforward and there were rarely moments when I felt stuck. Puzzles are logical and if you follow the story you get all the needed hints from dialogue. The game seemed to flow much better that the original. I might be imagining it. There's also some timed puzzles that will take some tries to get right. It's advised to save regularly as you can die during timed sequences. Overall this was very satisfying experience even though I had played the original long long time ago. Definitely recommended for anyone who cares about good story.