I was introduced to Gabriel Knight through "The Beast Within", and I absolutely loved it. (I even fell in love with a Japanese-descendent girl a few years later, just because she looked like Grace! What a time that was! But I digress.) So to me, GK1 became like a prequel. The pixel art felt like a step back from the (fairly successful) Full Motion Video of GK2, but once I got into the story I found that I didn't really care about how it looked. The pixels made the clock puzzle difficult, since it was hard to see what the symbols were, but otherwise this might as well have been text-based. The remake feels less genuine, in a way. Not as soulful. Gabriel doesn't hug grandma anymore. The scene with Wolfgang does not nearly raise as much emotions as the original. And the voice acting is not as good. Many of the actors try to emulate or copy from the original, rather than doing it in their own style. Only Tim Curry can say "I really don't wanna die. Can we try that again?" with the same, slightly sarcastic, southern drawl. The changes that are there are mostly for the worse: silly puzzles added here and there. (But I do like the new Schloss Ritter scenes!) One should never go back to streets where one has lived, or revisit old love interests, and perhaps the same is true for computer games. If you are the kind of person who re-reads old books, why not give it a try. It's like a new edition with new shiny pictures, and it brings a bit of difference. Have you never played GK1? Do it, but you might as well play the original.
This game takes elements from several of my favorites: switching between the male and female protagonists as in Broken Sword and The Beast Within, different paths depending on moral choices as in some of the Tex Murphy games and a film noir ambiance as in Grim Fandango. Still, 1954 Alcatraz is not in the same league as any of those. The puzzles, in the form of combining things and use them later, are sometimes self-evident or sometimes longshots. Since the inventories, the number of people to talk to and the dialogue options are all very limited, one can try all options quickly. That makes the game very short. I got this in a weekend promo (80% off) and can't really complain. At full prize? There are better games to buy instead.
Great adventure games are all about an underlying story, event triggers that are not too ridiculous and puzzles that are neither trivial nor agonizingly difficult. The Broken Sword series, of which I have played parts 1 through 3, is not as good as my favourites Tex Murphy and Gabriel Knight, but not bad. But the first two are, in my mind, superior, despite the "old" graphics. Part 3 is, I think, an attempt to modernize the graphics that sacrificed the playability. Today, it does no longer look modern. Constantly having to change arrow keys when moving around depending on the point-of-view is frustrating. When looking for clues, there are an awful lot of locked doors that have to be tried. The physionomy of the female characters, including that of main protagonist Nico Collard, does little to change the perception that adventure gamers are pathetic little men who do not spend a lot of time outdoors. (The fact that the opening segment includes just such a man is a bit refreshing, though.) What I found most irritating, however, is the fact that as long as you ask everyone you meet about everything, the story moves forward. It's almost like watching a cartoon, except with a few keystrokes now and again. The puzzles are few and far between and not really challenging. The constant references to, in particular, Part 1 may be confusing to a player who starts with Part 3; it's hard to say. I played Part 2 first, and even the few references to the first episode it containted made me wonder if I was missing anything. I suppose it is the nature of the series, but all Broken Sword games I have played have the exact same story: mystical natural forces are about to be let loose by a secretive society, and you must stop them. In Parts 1 and 3 it is even (roughly) the same society. (That is not really a spoiler.) The main characters, George and Nico, could have been used in other settings, evolving the characters and their relationship. As it is, it's deja vú all over again.
I bought this game in '96 (I think) and ran it on my then brand new Pentium 166 MHz top-of-the-line PC. Still, it was sluggish at times. Full Motion Video was all the rage then, but it just doesn't feel right in this game. The story is predictable and the puzzles not very interesting. From what I gather, Sierra re-used part of this game's engine in the second installment of the Gabriel Knight saga: The Beast Within. There it worked much better, and was complemented with a much better story. Sins of the Fathers, the first GK-game, just came out on GOG. If you like FMV games, I'd recommend waiting for The Beast Within instead of playing Phantasmagoria.
