Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Just my all time favourite game <3

Superb adventure game with strong storytelling and quite interesting gameplay, that hasn't aged very much. Im my honest opinion in terms of art design this version is far superior to the 20th anniversary edition. It's more coherent and immersive. All in all, if you had play only one adventure game - make it Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.

Gabriel Knight is a passable adventure game. While it should be commended for striking a tone different from its Lucas Arts contemporaries, by telling a grounded horror story in a real world setting, the flaws in its execution stop it from being truly great. Gabriel himself is a bit too much of dick to be all that endearing as a main character, which is a problem when you have to spend so long with him. Tim Curry's voice acting doesn't help things - his New Orleans accent is awful and inconsistent, he hams it up in all the wrong places, is especially wooden when having to emote and Gabriel just ends up a lech rather than a lovable cad. The writing for his burgeoning relationship with one of the secondary characters is a particularly odious burr on an otherwise solid story. Perhaps the most curious thing about Gabriel, who we're told is a writer but is never really shown writing anything, is that he's edged out of his story somewhat. The game has an omniscient third person narration (which is SO slow), which makes Gabriel a passenger in the narrative. Tell Gabriel to look at an object and it's rarely his impression you get, but the narrator telling you what he sees. It's oddly distancing and seems exceptionally weird for an author, removing a significant part of his voice. Gameplay-wise, GK is obtuse and fussy. The interface is clunky and unresponsive - you really have to click hard to switch between actions - while puzzles require you noticing almost imperceptible parts of the environment to interact with and examine. As a Sierra game, it's also possible to die and get stuck in a dead end, which always feels unfair and requires frequent saving. There's one section with instant death that is ridiculously hard in particular. On top of this, there are serious bugs from emulation in DOSBox, including one game-breaking one. The sound levels are out of whack, with the music drowning out speech, regardless of how it's set, and always turning itself back on when you reload.

This is an amazing game. Tim Curry, Worf, Mark Hamill, actress from The King of Queens. The story captures the setting, puzzle are well balanced. Way ahead of its time.

After playing GK2, I simply had to play part 1. I kind of disliked the tomb scene at the end of the game. Also, a huge hellish crevice at the finale seemed a bit too much. But most of the game really had me hooked. Liked part 2 better though ;)