This is an incomplete review, simply because I didn't get far into the game. Not even to the first crime scene; my total playtime is roughly 30/40 mins, maybe even less. First of all, the only game I played in the Gabriel Knight series was the Beast Within, which I absolutely loved and enjoyed immensely, despite the hammy acting at times. That game was very immersive, and is the direct sequel to this game. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is a 3D game but doesn't contain the horrendous 3D backgrounds that Gabriel Knight 3 utilizes. Its backdrops are beautiful, well drawn and the characters themselves including their animations are done quite well. Normally I dislike 3D point n click games, but here it was at least done well. Once I started playing, the alarm bells started ringing straight away. The dialogue system is quite bad and inconsistent. Various topics that pop up can be clicked on twice with poor delivery by Gabriel, and no actual effort put into it to form complete conversations. It really feels like the devs/writers cut down on the dialogue because of the original voice cast for Gabriel (Tim Curry) and his very likely high price tag for each word uttered. As a result, npc conversations don't feel like conversations at all but badly formed questions. Yet it wasn't the dialogue that frustrated me or made me give up on the game. It was the very first 'puzzle'. Note: Spoiler ahead, so don't read on if you don't want to know the details. The first puzzle involves finding out the where the crime scene is. After heading to the back, it became obvious of what I must do; distract the cop to get access to his police radio. Unfortunately, the method of distracting the cop involves leading a Mime to him. Sounds easy, right? But either through a glitch or the fact its 3D and awkward as hell, the Mime will get 'distracted' with patrolling bystanders whose job it is to lead the Mime away from you. After repeated attempts... I gave up. 2/5 Stars
