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

Gabriel Knight III was the best adventure game I've ever played. Well thought out, required research, it got me hooked up on Templar stories. I've never played the previous installments until this remake. And while this is a great story, great storytelling, and a very good remake altogether, it does have flaws. The greatest is the one thing I do hate in adventure games: arcade mini-games. I never understood, why are those included. And GK1 has one, unfortunately. The second flaw is the hint wait time: each time you reveal a hint, the game makes you wait until you can reveal the next one. The problem is, the game does not check what you've already done, so when you get stuck, you usually are past the first hints, so it's just an unnecessary wait to get the the point where you actually need help. If not for those two flaws, it would be a five star rating.

The original game has its advantages, but the low resolution makes it barely playable for me. The remake has some rough edges, but it's still a very good game that you can play on modern devices without hurting your eyes. The voice actors are not perfect but very similar to the original. It runs perfectly on Win10 for me.

The original game belongs among my long-time favourites. The fact I was overall pleased with this remake should be an indication of its adequacy. One major change I wasn't entirely on board with was the new voice for the protagonist. Namely, I don't think this actor can pull off the suave tone well enough, he made the character sound annoying at times. I didn't have the same problem with the original, but it's entirely subjective and I have to acknowledge the possibility of my being blinded to the original's faults by nostalgia. Hence, that's not the infuriating change I mentioned in the title of my review. The change is to one of the puzzles. Namely, how you get the money for an animal mask. This time, you have to go to the cemetery, to your family tomb. You have to say hello to every member of your family interred there (by "talking to" the nameplates of the tomb), at which point a rat will knock over a nearby vase/urn, revealing a banknote inside. It sounds like a perfect example of the arbitrary non-logic that turns some people off adventure games. It's an unnecessary and, quite frankly, idiotic change from the original.

I had a lot of hopes on that game but that will be my first and last GK. I was a Lucasarts player when a kid and never took the time to test a Sierra. I played the Leisure Suite Larry as a young adult and loved it. So my review is not influenced by any nostalgia ... What did i like in GK Sins of the Father. The story was ok. I did not find it great, but I wanted to know the end, so at least that is something. The rest, sorry for the fans, but I found that it sucked. First, I hate the GK character. His face, his behaviour and his awful voice made me want to hit him all along the game. The graphics/background were very cold, the characters (except Dr John and Willy which I liked) felt extremely unpersonal. No atmosphere. I hated the music which i found very annoying. I did not buy the love story. The worst was what is extremely important to me : the riddles ! The game is very long, but is is due to the storytelling through the dialogues and not the good riddles. I rapidly get fed up with the dialogues, and most of the games was about clicking endlessly on the dialogue boxes. The riddles were incredibly easy except a small number of them which were pixel hunting or due to issues in the gameplay (think if the riddle in day 1 in Jackson Square). I just had played Toonstruck before and GK riddles were absolutely ridiculous compared to that game. Some of the mechanics in the game were making the game slow for actions of zero interest. In summary, i found that the game was incredibly boring and annoying. I know many of you will think that i am an idiot who did not understand anything, but that's my player's experience.

The Gabriel Knight series had been on my radar since the early 90s but somehow I never got around to playing the games, even though decades later I bought all 3 and the 20th Anniversary Edition of GK1 on GOG. Eventually the time came, and since I had the 20th Anniversary Edition I decided to go with that. Just wow. This game is amazing. I have to admit it started a bit rough for me. Had to get used to the game, its locale, plot, style and gameplay. It was not what I was expecting. By the end of Day 1, I was hooked. The game is just amazing. The Plot is engaging. The puzzles intuitive. I was hooked playing for hours every day until I completed it. What a ride! Highly recommended. Cannot wait to play the rest of the series. Hope it holds up to this!