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Gabriel Knight

Go back to Sierra On-Line, Inc.


1: Gabriel Knight: The Sins of the Fathers

Type:
Point-n-Click/Music Written 1993 by Jane Jensen.
Runs on:
Notes: 256 color VGA graphics. Comes in both disk version (3 disks) and CD-ROM. Featuring the voice talents of: Tim Curry (Gabriel), Leah Remini (Grace), Mark Hamill (Det. Mosely), Michael Dorn, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Rocky Carroll and Virginia Capers, as the ever-unintelligible narrator.

Package includes a 42 page technical manual and a 32 page graphic novel, beautifully illustrated by Terese Nielsen.

This was Sierra's first straight-to-CD release project and featured a very expensive all-star voice-over cast.

The CD release originally came in an origami-shaped box, marketing not seen since the days of Infocom's equally hard-to-stack Starcross saucer. Floppy owners did not get such luxury, as the disk based version of the game (as well as later releases) came in a regular rectangular box.

Sins of the Fathers was awarded Computer Gaming World's and Computer Game Review's 1994 Game of the Year title, a title it most certainly deserved.

Comments: Gabriel Knight, dashing skirt chaser-cum-fiction writer, joins forces with his sarcastic Asian sidekick, Grace, and balding law inforcement pal, Detective Mosely, to learn more about the voodoo-related crimes plaguing New Orleans, in efforts to inspire his latest novel. Little does he know what he's getting into, as Gabriel will be anything but a commonplace bookstore owner by the time the game is over. Excellent.

Package blurb:

He started out writing a book on voodoo. Now he's fighting for his very soul. Gabriel Knight is the last in a long line of Shadow Hunters, those fated to fight the dark forces of the supernatural. Haunted by a centuries-old curse, he is tormented by terrifying nightmares. Now he must spend every waking moment scouring the side streets and back alleys of New Orleans for the key to the dark past. And when he sleeps -- the nightmare begins.


2: Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within

Type:
Point-n-Click/Music/Video clips Written 1995 by Jane Jensen.
Runs on:
Notes: Starring Dean Erickson as Gabriel and Joanne Takahashi as Grace.

Available on CD only in 256 colors SVGA. The PC version comes on six CDs (another source says 5 CDs) in one double-width jewel case. Includes a 24 page manual in jewel case.

Comments: Gabriel is back, surrounded by more murders, proving once again that Jessica Fletcher has got nothing on him. Now vacationing in his estate in Germany, with Grace grudgingly running the show back in New Orleans, Gabriel's vacation is cut short by the townspeople seeking vengeance on the supposed werewolf killing of one of their little girls. Chapters alternate between Gabriel's investigations of the murders through a coveted German hunting lodge, and Grace's trudging around Germany, in search of both Gabriel's location and the connection between old German history, and the plight of the werewolf.

An excellent storyline is marred by Sierra's use, once again, of the single icon "Light Up Interface." Where Sins of the Fathers was non-linear animation with voice-overs, The Beast Within is very linear full motion video shot with real (we think) actors. Dean Erickson and Joanne Takahashi are unable to find the spark that made Tim Curry and Leah Remini so endearing. Both Takahashi's crabby screen presence and Grace's endless quest for the next pixel that will unfold mountains of pointless historical text upon the viewer are the definite low points, although it's a toss-up which is more difficult to stomach. Otherwise, superbly written with some definite unsettling moments packed in.

Package blurb:

From the darkly prolific mind of creator Jane Jensen comes the next Gabriel Knight Mystery: The Beast Within. Now we find Schattenjager, or Shadow Hunter, Gabriel and his assistant Grace Nakimura deeply embroiled in a murderous mystery that unravels half a world away.

Play as both Gabriel and Grace as they are dispatched to Munich to solve a series of mutilation murders thought to be the work of werewolves. Gabriel confronts his own demons while Grace traces an historical mystery, that of the strange demise of Mad King Ludwig II. The hunters become the hunted, and the only hope for deliverance lies in the most desperate of schemes...



3: Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

Type:
Point-n-Click Written 1999.
Runs on:


Gabriel Knight Mysteries (Limited Edition)

Written 1998.
Runs on:

Notes: This is a compilation which contains Gabriel Knight 1: Sins of the Fathers (1 CD), Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (6 CDs), Gabriel Knight Soundtrack (contains Gabriel Knight 1 & 2 game manuals and Sins of the Fathers graphic novel in digital form; 1 CD), Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (novel by Jane Jensen, 400 pages), Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned - Prologue (graphic novel, 16 pages).


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