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If you are a fan of classic point-and-click games, you may be happy to learn that Gabriel Knight 3 is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week!

Released in 1999 and the final game in the trilogy, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned featured some great voice acting, 3D graphics, and to this day tells one of the more grandiose stories in gaming. Let’s take a moment to look back at the series and some of the things that made Gabriel Knight 3 so unique.



Gabriel Knight is a classic point-and-click series from the 90s
The series originated way back in 1993 with the release of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers - also a point-and-click adventure title. The story and game were created by Jane Jensen, who also worked on King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. You play as Gabriel Knight, a writer and bookstore owner who takes his craft seriously. More than that, he finds out he is a Schattenjäger, or Shadow Hunter, and uses that new responsibility to solve mysteries and other-worldly issues.

The first game has Gabriel solving mystery and murder in New Orleans and featured such voice actors as Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, and Leah Remini.

The second title, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (originally called The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery), followed and was released in 1995. This title updated the graphics from standard-for-the-time pixelated scenes, The Beast Within utilized full motion video (FMV) throughout the game. It also saw the replacement of many of the voice actors, including Gabriel himself. In 1996, the magazine Computer Gaming World named it their Game of the Year.



Now, onto Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Gabriel Knight 3 further expanded on the world Jane Jensen had created, and like past titles, it involved solving mysteries both natural and supernatural. Unlike the first one, which took place in New Orleans and the second one in Germany, Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned leads Gabriel to a small, mysterious town in France.

It also saw the return of Tim Curry as the voice of Gabriel and the introduction of some other well-known cast members. Rene Auberjonois (Odo of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation) both join on to lend their voices to characters in the game.

Gabriel Knight 3 was also the first title in the series to use 3D graphics, opening up the world to more possibilities for players. That was one thing that helped define the Gabriel Knight series, which was the developer’s willingness to adapt to the latest tech and gaming trends. One of those possibilities was for the player to be able to move the camera around a room or scene as they saw fit. They were not limited by Gabriel Knight’s location on the screen.

The game featured many amazing puzzles (and one involving tape and a cat…) and an in-depth story but suffered from the unfortunate release date. You see, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game#Decline_(2000%E2%80%932010)]1999 was around the time[/url] the adventure game industry saw a huge drop in sales and interest, due in part to the many new games that were starting to release in full, interactive 3D. Jane Jensen commented on that very issue in an interview with Game Informer, saying: We were the last dinosaur on the block. We had until the game shipped, and then it would be over.



Give Gabriel a chance
If you are a fan of point'n'click games, fantastical stories, musical scores, and unique puzzles, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is a great game to dive into. The worldbuilding and characters present by Jane Jensen and Sierra Studios make this a must-try series for adventure game lovers, or anyone who loves vampires, werewolves, voodoo, the Knights Templar, and more.

A few years back, the first game in the series received an amazing 20th-anniversary edition remaster with HD graphics and additional scenes and it would be great to see something happen to the rest of the games in this series. Fingers crossed!

Did you ever play the Gabriel Knight series? Plan on it? Let us know in the comments below!
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wasp08: I loved the Gabriel Knight games. Inventive, great atmosphere etc.

This one also has possibly the most surreal solution to a puzzle in Sierra's history!
I'm glad the article made a point of mentioning the cat/tape puzzle because that was rightfully lambasted at the time as The End of Adventure Games (on Old Man Murray, I think?)
Hmm, the only Gabriel that I haven't played. I think back then I didn't have a system that could run the 3D worlds. Boy did I miss on some great ones. Not long ago I played Grim Fandango for the first time. Bumping this up the soon to play list!
unfortunately it's not officially supported past Win7, but maybe there are unofficial fixes available
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tfishell: unfortunately it's not officially supported past Win7, but maybe there are unofficial fixes available
I second this. I tried running the game on windows 10 and it was unplayable (ultra fast camera movement and graphical glitches). Users of windows 10 should first be warned before buying!
By the way, I remember trying an unofficial fix but to no avail. Did anyone ever manage to get it working properly?
For me it was just ok, especially when compared to the first two (these are masterpieces). Ugly 3D models, empty and ugly locations and passable plot. And yeah, that cat/tape puzzle
GK1 was my first video game, well I was maybe barely 7 years old and I watched my father playing it, then I just had to try.
I didn't finish it on my own until a few years later though, after GK2 release...

Anyway, I wouldn't know how to express how much I love this series, not a year goes by without me playing the trilogy in a row. Badaway, this year is the 20th year that I am waiting for GK4, as a proper ending... I don't expect anything from Activision, current so called 'owner' of the licence, yet I can't help it, somewhere I foolishly hope they will make one decent move for a change, either fund the GK4 Jane Jansen want to write, or sell it to a publisher who will...
Speaking of which...
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GOG.com: A few years back, the first game in the series received an amazing 20th-anniversary edition remaster with HD graphics and additional scenes and it would be great to see something happen to the rest of the games in this series. Fingers crossed!
No, sorry but I can't agree with that, if the series has a other chance at a come back, it should be with the last missing episode and not yet some further remasters or remakes. GK1 remake is the only game I ever bought before it's release, and it was only in the foolish hope that Activision would fund GK4 down the line. I played the remake once, then went back to the original.
Hell I love this series so much that I would buy these remakes too with the same hopeless hope, but I woudn't believe in it too much...
And that's because it's GK, I am not such a easy lay with other games.
I love this game so much. I think GK3 is the only adventure game i can tgink of where they made the move to 3D graphics and the design of the game actually changed to take advantage of the new possibilities. Where you could manouver, interact and investigate the environment like never before. They didnt just throw in a bunch of box puzzles like with Broken Swlord 3 and they didnt just make a 2D adventure game in 3D like Monkey Island 4.

I do really wish rather than simply remaking the original game a few years ago they had actually made a Gabriel Knight 4 which wrapped up the open ending this game had. I still hold out hope though, if Tex Murphy can receive a long awaited final chapter i think Gabriel Knight deserves the same
I backed the kickstarter, and hopes for GK4 came up all the time in relation to the 'mystery game' that turned out to be the GK1 remake. if I recall rightly, there were issues about what could be done partly because the Gabriel Knight IP is owned by one of the large companies (Activision?).
Does the game has 4K and widescreen mod?
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Panaias: Users of windows 10 should first be warned before buying!
With a few simple tweaks (see the GOG game specific forum), it ran perfectly fine (1024x768). I finished the game this year, on Windows 10 x64 v1809.
Post edited November 20, 2019 by teceem
I never played any point-and-clicks as a kid, but a couple of years ago I got the GK1 remake as a giveaway at some GOG sale and soon completed it having great fun. I played GK2 after that, but GK3 refused to cooperate with my Windows 10 machine or Wine-ed Mac. I haven't tried any Win10 workarounds yet, but guess I will soonish.
Currently playing through the trilogy. I'm on Beast Within, but the game keeps crashing in the museum simulator part of the 4th Chapter. Hopefully GK3 runs better since it is the only one of the three that I haven't completed yet.
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GOG.com: Did you ever play the Gabriel Knight series? Plan on it? Let us know in the comments below!
I have played and beaten the first and 3rd games(the differing voices and FMV style put me a bit off of the second game till now, though I might someday try to finish it), and loved them both.
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GOG.com: A few years back, the first game in the series received an amazing 20th-anniversary edition remaster with HD graphics and additional scenes and it would be great to see something happen to the rest of the games in this series. Fingers crossed!
Bah, I hope not. I saw the intro for the remaster(where they cut/changed the amazing music and changed the graphics entirely) and was like "Ok then....guess they don't want my money". To me, the fact they changed it so much to sell some "new vision" for the game just pissed me off to no end......when companies remaster old games they should not mess that much with the game itself(Monkey Island 1/2 remasters did it right....they just updated the graphics slightly and still allowed one to switch between versions as needed) & just make quality of life improvements, imo.
I've played GK1 and GK2, but not three. I should give it a go someday.
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llamas: Hopefully GK3 runs better since it is the only one of the three that I haven't completed yet.
Just use dgVoodoo2, and you'll be fine!