By Kurt Kalata
Gabriel Knight is the creation of Jane Jensen, an aspiring author who eventually became an actual author after the death of golden age Sierra (officially bookended with the release of Gabriel Knight 3 in 2000.) Working her way through the ranks, she eventually assisted Roberta Williams with the story in Kings Quest VI, which is largely regarded as the reason why that entry is so remarkably better than the rest of the series. Given the chance to write and direct her own game, she created one of the deepest and most adult computer games ever developed.
Gabriel is the titular star of the series, an American author turned demon hunter. It neatly straddles the line somewhere between mystery and horror genres - its closest literary comparison would probably be Stephen King, but even that arguably sells the games short. Him and his partner, Grace Nakimura, investigate a series of crimes, each heavily intwining historical fact with mythological fiction.
There are three games in the series, each radically different from a technological standpoint. The first game is like most Sierra games - 2D, VGA graphics, with an icon-based parser - and covers Gabriel's investigations into several voodoo-related murders in New Orleans, as well as his own family's secret past. The second game heavily utilizies digitized photography and full motion video using live actors, and takes place in Germany, as Gabriel hunts down an apparent herd of werewolves. The third game is entirely 3D using polygonal graphics, and takes place in a small chateau in France, as Gabriel solves a mystery regarding vampires and the Holy Grail.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
The Beast Within
Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers - PC / Mac (1994)
Characters
The game is divided into ten "days", each day beginning with Gabriel getting a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper, keeping up on current events. From there, you can access a map to ride around New Orleans - both the famous French Quarter, including Jackson Square, and the surrounding areas, including Tulane University and Bayou St. John.
The interface utilizes more icons than the standard Sierra game - in addition to "walk" and "look", the standard "use" icon has also been broken down to "push" and "operate". You can also choose to "talk" to people for brief dialogues, or "interrogate" for more in depth questioning. In some ways, the extra verbs make it feel like an earlier Lucasarts games, but all it really does is overcomplicate things. The screen view is letterboxed, with the icon bar appearing at the top of the screen, and the dialogue on the bottom. Not only does this lend to the movie-like feel, but it also prevents the text from blocking the visuals.
The writing is almost uniformly excellent - with the occasional slightly-silly line - bolstered by some excellent voicework found in the CD-ROM version. Tim Curry provides the voice of Gabriel Knight, which is a love-it-or-hate-it ordeal - it's distinct, to be certain, but there's still something off about a British actor trying to do an American Southern accent. The narrator is played Virginia Capers, an elderly African-American woman with a very thick New Orleans accent. She adds plenty of color, but she also talks really slowly, to the point where it's better to enable text and click through the descriptions.
There are any number of reasons why Gabriel Knight stands out amongst its peers. For starters, its approach to storytelling is much more mature than practically any other game out there, adventure or otherwise. It's more than just violence, sex and profanity - but there's plenty of that too, although it's rarely too explicit. Simply, Gabriel Knight's writing and characterizations are head and shoulders amongst any other adventure game. In most Sierra games, you just click the "talk" icon on someone and exchange a bit of dialogue. In Gabriel Knight, these are far more fleshed out. These take place on an entirely different screen, on a black background, with portraits lipsynched with the spoken dialogue. You can ask any of these people about any of the important topics regarding your investigation. Most of them are in some way relevant to the mystery, but the last option in any character is simply to ask them about themselves. Here, assuming you're talking to someone who's willing to open up, will go into huge depth about their background, their likes and dislikes, and other tidbits about their personality. It makes every other character in every other adventure game look like nothing more than cardboard cutouts.
Gabriel, too, is far more fleshed out than your average protagonist. Here, you can visit your aging grandmother, and have lengthy discussions about your family history, how your grandparents (and parents) met and fell in love, their immigration into America, their life ambitions. You can talk to your old childhood buddy Mosely, now a detective with the New Orleans police, and either chat about the case or simply reminisce about old times. You can even exchange playful insults, if you want, which highlights the boyish nature of their relationship. You rarely seen depths plumbed this deeply, in any kind of interactive narrative.
It also highlights some of contrasts between video game narratives and literary narratives. During the course of the game's ten days, you spend about seven of them simply wandering around New Orleans, interrogating people, following up on leads, conducting research, and generally just providing background info. It's not until the seventh day - roughly 3/4 through the game - that you actually leave New Orleans for a quick jaunt through Gabriel's ancestral home in Germany, before leaving for a tomb in Africa, and then finally returning home for the climatic encounter. In other words, it takes a sizable chunk the game in order for the "adventure" to truly begin - while the storyline progresses in the early chapters of the game, the locations don't, compared to most other games, which following a linear set of levels. It might feel a bit slow paced at first, but all of this backstory is necessary for the final stages of the game, and make the payoff all the more satisfying.
Where the characterizations really pay off is right at the very end, where you're presented with a very clear "good ending/bad ending" choice. Suffice to say, the bad ending is...pretty bad, where the surviving characters mourn the departed ones. Death scenes are rare, but when they do happen, they're really gory - a quick run-in with a mummy results in Gabriel's heart being torn from his chest. It's shocking, but perhaps required by something that would call itself a "horror" game. So many adventure games, especially Sierra's, have prided themselves on haphzardly killing the player characters, for the sake of humor or frustration. Here, it's legitimately emotional, and even a bit heartbreaking. And that's when you know that Jensen has done a damn good job.
It's also clear that Jensen is pretty astounded behind the history of voodoo, particularly the brand that originated in Lousiana. New Orleans voodoo is a mixture of Africian traditions and Catholicism, which sprung up due to the slave trade in the South in the 1800s. Much of the game is spent exploring the history of voodoo, its misconceptions, and most importantly, how real voodoo has nothing to do with the ritiualistic murders bring committed in game. It's pretty educationial, and this depth of knowledge largely characterizies the entirety of the Gabriel Knight series.
The structure does lead to some irritating problems when it comes to progression. Each day will end once certain events are accomplished, and often times you find yourself running around into circles until you stumble upon the trigger that allows the game to continue. Compared to some other Sierra games, though, Gabriel Knight is much friendlier. While the puzzles can be difficult, they're rarely too illogical. Some of them are typical adventure puzzles, like distracting police offers with a doughnut cart. Others involve interpreting drum codes (which is pretty easy) and translating a symbolic language (which isn't.) There are only a scant few places where you can die in the early chapters, and Gabriel's life is only ever in constant danger during the final days. And since the game won't progress unless you solve all the necessary puzzles, there's really no way to get stuck, not counting a few instances if you save in a stupid place at the end of the game. In other words, it's pretty progressive, as far as adventure games go.
Robert Holmes also supplies the soundtrack, one of the best heard in a Sierra title. The song most often heard is Gabriel's theme, done as a dramatic orchestration on the title theme, and as a lighter, piano theme in St. George's Bookstore. Much of the music is to bolster the atmosphere, and that, too, does an excellent job.
The CD version can also be run in SVGA mode - optional for DOS, but mandatory for Windows. In truth, it's pretty cheap - the icons and character portraits have all been redrawn in the higher resolution, but the backgrounds and sprites have just been resized, so there's little actual benefit. The Windows version also improperly scales the font, making it look jaggy and ugly. The game is also notoriously buggy, and even with some of the fan made patches, it's currently impossible to play through the entire game with DOSBox. Thankfully, a Windows XP installer allows it to be played in Windows.
MP3s Download here
Intro
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
As computer gaming ages, there's a growing call for the media to mature, to tell more adult stories beyond the pulp fantasies of a vast majority of games. Many graphic adventure games from the likes of Sierra or Lucasarts, while enjoyable, erred more on the cartoonish side, telling light and humorous stories. Sierra's sole "mature" series was Police Quest, although that was little of interest to anyone who didn't care for crime drama or staunch adherence to legal procedures. In 1994, Sierra introduced Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, in an attempt to take adventure gaming to a new level.
American Cover
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers begins with a nightmare - images of spilled blood on a ritual danger, and a woman burnt at the stake, culminating in a foreboding image of Gabriel's own limp body hung on a tree. This dream, actually a vision of his distant ancestor, is explained further in the included graphic novel. Waking up in a cold sweat, he stumbles up out of bed to face the world. Upon reading the newspaper, he learns of a series of "voodoo murders", ritualistic killings that appear to have tracings with the voodoo religion. The experts dismiss this as crockery, but Gabriel sees this as opportunity to get some inspiration for his next novel and sets off to investigate. What begins as a casual curiosity soon explodes into not only an expose on the underground voodoo cults of New Orleans, but also an exploration of Gabriel's long forgotten - and cursed - family history. During the course, Gabriel learn that he's the last in a long line of Schattenjaegers, demon hunters from the days of yore. From there, Gabriel must not only solve the murders, but meet his ancient destiny, and stop the nightmares that have plagued his family for generations.
Gabriel Knight
Garbiel is a New Orleans native. He's smart and handsome, but also a bit of a lout, and a huge slacker to boot. His few novels have failed, and he resorts to living in the backroom of his New Orleans book store, St. George's, which also isn't exactly racking in the dough. Voiced by Tim Curry.
Grace Nakimura
Gabriel's assistant and his sole employee at St. George's Book Store. She's repelled by his chauvinistic mannerisms, but their sexual tension is undeniable. When not chastising him, she does research for his various investigations. Voiced by Leah Remini.
Detective Franklin Mosely
Gabriel's childhood buddy, Mosely is a detective at the New Orleans Police Department. Gabriel spends his time hanging out with Mosely in hopes to find an inspiration for his next novel. Voiced by Mark Hamill.
Malia Gedde
A wealthy socialite with deep ties to the history of New Orleans. Although initially repelled by Gabriel's forthcomingness, she eventually succumbs to her desires and begins some nighttime visits. Her unfortunate involvement in the case eventually causes Gabriel to open his to reality. Voiced by Leilani Jones.
Wolfgang Ritter
Gabriel's long lost relative from Germany, who eventually enlightens our hero on his family history. He lives in Schoss Ritter, a castle in Rittersburg, Germany, which Gabriel eventually visits. Voiced by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
St. George's Bookstore - Gabriel's Theme
Shattenjaeger - Wolfgang's Theme
Credits
