Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

This game is simply superb and I cannot recommend it enough. The story is magnificent, the music and ambiance are to notch and is full of historic references. So much, in fact, that it "made" me go to southern Bavaria for a summer holiday... and I kept going for another two! If there is a game that really marked both my gaming and personal life, this is it! Buy it, buy it, buy it, and now you can even play it without swapping the whole 5 original CD's!

GK2: The Beast Within is one of the few FMV games (along with the Tex Murphy series) that stands firmly as a "true" hardcore adventure game that doesn't become an interactive movie in the bad sense (="click to see the next video"). Tim Curry is missed as the voice of Gabriel Knight but the cast is adequate and the puzzles are as good as you can expect from any other classic adventure game. Getting this 6 CD-ROM adventure for $5.99 is a great deal. Thanks, GOG!

Let me first say this, I hate, HATE, Full Motion Video (FMV) Games. Perhaps it is because they were the death knell for my beloved adventure genre or maybe it was the god-awful acting but I have for these and many others avoided them. However, Gabriel Knight 2, despite my disdain for the media was an extremely enjoyable game. I took a pass on this game a decade ago because I dislike FMV and am not a fan of the horror genre. I remember seeing the box in the computer shop and thinking "definitely not for me." Back then, I had not played "Gabriel Knight I: Sins of the Fathers" but after buying it from here and playing it I really liked it and wanted to play the next instalment. When the game started, I was annoyed. All the things I hate about FMV were there: Firstly, the actor who plays Gabriel Knight is cheesy, his (put-on) accent is annoying, and he has a pseudo-handsome soap opera actor face (though, after googling him, it seems it it just that the game does not do him justice). In addition, one has to watch ALL of a video clip to get the clues from an action and if you accidentally click the mouse you've lost it and probably cannot re-watch it. Though once I settled in and the style and trained myself to keep my hands off the mouse the game ceased to bother me as much. Eventually, I got sucked into the story which is very compelling. It makes a lot of references to the first game and I recommend playing it before this game. (besides it is good). Since other reviewers have already given a summary of the plot I will just mention what I really liked. Even though I don't like horror, the werewolf theme didn't bother me at all. A majority of the game is not macabre or dark, but rather investigative. Like the first game it is more a detective story with some supernatural elements rather than a horror tale. While playing as Grace, (another nice touch) you look into history, notably ("Mad") King Ludwig II. The writers blend their plot into the very real king's life, including his mental illness and internal torture over his sexual orientation without terribly obscuring the historical truth. Then, while playing as Gabriel you investigate the present, interrogating and tracking the suspects. Since I am a language nerd, I liked that since it was taking place in Bavaria there actually was a lot of German spoken and that there were a few situations where your characters face a language barrier. There are a few instances of "unrealistic English" but for the most part it feels German. Then, there is an Opera in the style of Wagner that was commissioned specially for the game. It's hard to imagine a game today doing such a thing. Despite my initial reservations and a few drawbacks, this game was very enjoyable. If you, like I was, are on the fence about getting it, go ahead and do it. You won't regret it.

There is only one bad thing about this game: once it ends you have to deal with the depressing fact that you may never play another game like it again. The FMV advanture genre died because most of those games seemed to have been made by people who figured that if they have FMV they don't have to put much effort into the the whole "game" part of the game. The authors of this game were the other kind of people and they created a true gem. The gameplay is great: point-and-cick, the way that an adventure is ment to be played, with many creative puzzles. The story is great: it starts slowly and graduately picks up pace so that the grand finale really feels like the most exciting moment of the game. It has some nice scares (thanks to great directing), many good laughs (mostly thanks to the great acting) and fantastic music score that follows the tone of the story. But my favorite part of this game and the thing that makes this game unique in my eyes are the two main characters and the actors who play them. These are the most complex protagonists that I have ever seen in the game and I will try to explain why. Gabriel and Grace are two of the most unpleasent people that I ever saw in a game or a movie and that is what makes them great. When I say "unpleasent" I don't mean the standard "he is a rogue but his heart is in the right place because deep inside he is a valiant knight" nor "she seems rude but once you get to know her she is a wonderfull strong woman" - NO! Gabriel is an ignorant, self-centered bafoon and Grace starts every conversation like she is trying to pick a fight (this applies but is not limited to her conversation with a ticket seller in a museum). For me it were these character flaws that made them believable and, as a result, made me care what happens to them. I would hate to spend any amount of time with them in real life but I love playing them and sharing this adventure. This game is a piece of art and well worth the $6 price tag.