Buy Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers

A remake of a 1993 point and click murder mystery game, this game combines classic old-school point and click adventure gameplay with a black sense of humour, a compelling story, and our hero trying to get it on with his employee.

It doesn’t work out. Seriously.

It has all the hallmarks of a good remake, and we recommend it.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=356972689

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Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is an adventure game classic. It was full of adult humor and powered by a dark mystery surrounding voodoo. HD Remakes are now the nature of the game, and Gabriel Knight is next to get its upgrade. It does away with the 2D visuals of the first game and takes its steps into a fully realized 3D world.

For those who don’t know about the story of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, it follows a charismatic novelist who gets involved in a murder case. He’s been having terrible dreams that depict him dying a specific death, and soon he’ll discover that they lead to even more problems. Gabriel will travel across the city investigating the "Voodoo Murders" for his book. He will find love and intrigue as he tries to discover the secret behind the murders in New Orleans.

The Anniversary Edition makes some major changes from the original. The visual bump from 2D to 3D is the obvious change, with many of the key areas and characters re-imagined for higher resolutions. Even the comic book scenes have been changed to include better art and speech baloons. It definitely looks much better than the classic version, but it loses all of the nostalgia factor for those that have already played it. Despite a few odd animations when moving around the title is a beautiful recreation of the classic.

Interacting with objects and moving around the city is easier than ever. Simply double tapping an area will teleport Gabriel to a certain point in the room. A new icon now allows players to quickly leave an area and head to the world map at any time. No more waiting through long animations to wait for in a game with tons of backtracking.

That's a staple of classic adventure games but this HD remake makes some changes to how the story unravels. Certain aspects of the story and puzzles are shifted around among the various days. For example, in the original game Gabriel would visit his grandmother on the first day. In the new version he doesn't visit her until the week is nearly over. It's subtle little changes like this that adds a welcome freshness to a familiar story.

Fans of the classic will notice that the voices have changed for many of their favorite characters. Anyone that has played the original would be familiar with the popping and static in the original game. Sadly, Tim Curry, Mark Hamil, and many others were not able to re-record their voices. Instead, they have been replaced by a whole new cast who try to replicate the voices as much as they can. They do a fairly great job at sounding like the original characters, and some voices actually sound better than the original. The only change I miss is Leah Remini's fiesty run as Grace Nakamura.

The upgraded animations are the best improvements to the title. You can actually tell what everyone is actually doing on-screen. It comes at a small sacrifice however, as there are zones where the world feels less alive because of ambience removal. The crime scene was hectic when Gabriel reaches the location in the first game, but it seems much calmer in the upgraded version. Also, the police station doesn’t have that lively hustle and bustle about it anymore.

It’s good that the upgraded puzzle design outweighs a few removed animations. No more randomly clicking on pixels to find a snake scale in the sand. U.I. upgrades and of course cleaner graphics improve the experience from the original. The puzzles in Gabriel Knight have always been well thought-out (besides that awful clock puzzle.) Now Gabriel has a journal to keep up with current events for the day, and if all else fails a new hint system is in place to help players push through the story.

My only real complaints come from the puzzles that allow players to clear manual input. Some of them have incredibly long strings, but the player will only be able to clear all the text instead of deleting a single character. Another problem I have is the strange speech baloons during the comic book cutscenes. Maybe it is the extensions that block the visuals on screen, but I just think it looks out of place and unnecessary.

Do any of these changes make the Anniversary Edition better than the original? That’s going to be subjective to anyone that’s played the first game. There are always going to be games that we mesh more with and don’t want touched (Chrono Trigger, I’m looking at you) but for people who don’t mind seeing games upgraded, you can’t go wrong with this remake. It's a fantastic recreation of a classic title, and it even features some behind the scenes content from the original game for the nostalgic. Geek Citadel gives Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition 4 stars out of 5. A lot has changed to bring this classic to the HD world, but it's still very much a classic.

Gabriel Knight is one of those classic adventure games that has it all. At its core, a rich, engaging story involving voodoo, occult & sacrifice in New Orleans. Uncovering old family secrets & discovering your destiny. A cast of interesting, reoccuring characters full of personality. Mystery, murder, horror, star-crossed lovers & challenging puzzles. And off course, that black trenchcoat & that awkward southern accent! It's all been faithfully reproduced.

The 20th Anniversary edition, could be likened to a "Director's Cut". The full story is still there, nothing missed, but some things are remixed appearing at different days or points in the story. There is also a few new things added. This all up, adds some freshness for those familiar with the original '93 release. It plays well and the changes made seem logical, balancing out the gameplay & story arcs.

Cutscenes deserve a special commendation. They're done in a comic style (frame-by-frame), beautifully done, almost popping out the screen at times. These added a lot of emotional impact to the story.

Although Gabriel Knight is a fairly logical (by point-n-click adventure game standards), its still an old school design, so there is some strange logic at times, ultimately adding to the difficulty & forcing you to think creatively. There are clues throughout the dialog though (& your Journal), so its important to always pay attention, even if it seems to be irrelevant at the time. It's a deep, detailed story to explore. Finding the clues, and figuring it all out is well-paced & generally an enjoyable experience. Makes you want to explore everything just to make sure you don't miss anything!

There is great (fully voiced) dialog along with some funny adult humor & sexual tension between Gabe & Grace/Malia to spice up some of the conversations too. Although the voice acting is top notch, Gabriel's voice did grind at me (along with Gabriel's unlikable persona) for the first 2-3 days (in-game episodes). I got used to the voice eventually, and persona-wise this does change over the course of the 10 day episodes the game is split into. I though the creole narrator was particulary good, although if you don't like it you can turn her off.

When you add the combination of the excellent remastered soundtrack (changes per location), along with the gorgeous highly detailed painted artwork, to the top voice acting, it creates an immersive experience with a unique ambience to every scene. I found myself just sitting back sometimes, taking it all in before progressing in the story.

Most of the scripted animations were well done, although I found the animations for Gabriel a bit stiff at times when moving around a scene. It wasn't terrible, but it was noticable. You can also see clipping issues from time to time or the odd glitch.

Interface was clear & functional and there is a limited hint system. It was nice to be able to double click to 'teleport' to a point. Click the exit to the scene just gently fades out was a smooth touch too. There is also a lot of content to sink you teeth into, for me it too around 25hrs to figure everything out to complete the 10 days & all achievements (although I am sure you can do it much faster!).

Feels like a lot of care was taken to get this right. This is a quality, story-rich supernatural point-n-click adventure, honoring the spirit of the original. It reintroduces Gabriel Knight to a whole new generation of gamers, while bringing back fond memories for many older gamers.

I really enjoyed the entire experience. Highly recommended!

(PS - Hope this leads to the sequels getting the same 'Anniversary' treatment sometime in the future!)

As someone who never played much of the original (and only played the third game till a technical bug prevented any progress) I thoroughly enjoyed the 20th Anniversary Edition. Gabriel might be too much of a playboy at first, but he got better towards the end. And the other characters are insteresting enough and offer voice acting that I can't complain about. I really didn't like the narrator, though. Her voice can be turned off, however.

The story is also interesting from beginning to end, although I found Gabriels relationship to Malia highly unrealistic.
And for an adventure game, it offers a whole lot of puzzles, all of which are logical enough to be solved without having to endlessly wreck your brain. I hated the pantomine, however. And deciphering some of the codes towards the end took me a while.

But if you're ever stuck, the game offers a hint-system with multiple levels. It doesn't offer solutions on a silver platter, but gets you far enough to proceed. Except for day 4, where I found myself wandering around aimlessly as I had no idea how to solve a specific puzzle until I decided to look at a certain book again.

These comfort-features do have a downside, though. Their implementation is lacking.

Show all hotspots - plasters terms all over the screen instead of showing subtle hints
Skip through dialogue - speeds up the game, which is very noticeable at times. Also can lead to skipping multiple lines of text
Run to a specific spot - run? Gabriel doesn't run. He teleports!
Continue - does not continue from your last save but from an autosave at the last map you visited

It does have a few good features, however. If you click on an exit, the screen fades out almost instantly. And you can get to the worldmap from almost any screen. Important dialogue is also marked. And the journal contains extra-features for every map, like interviews, artworks etc...

I'm sure I could mention more, but I've already written a whole review in German :D

If you've never played Gabriel Knight, I don't see a reason not to buy this version. Is the original superior? Maybe, but I liked what I got.

8,9/10


+ the graphics are indeed remastered while staying faithful to the original
- character models could be much better and detailed, especially gabriel

+ fantastic soundtrack (enhanced version of the original), the original in-game music is great , brings back nostalgia, voice acting is generally very good
- still had to reduce the volume of the music in-game, because it gets distracting being so loud - also prefer the original gabriel's voice and luckily there is an option to mute the disturbing narrator's voice

+ don't have to say much about the story, it's great - gabriel tries to figure out the mystery of the voodoo murders in orleans, great dialogues, great characters, great setting and atmosphere

+ in every scene you can see the concept art and several comparisons to the original sketches, very interesting stuff for the fans of the series

+ puzzles are plenty with variable difficulty, mostly logical, classic gameplay mechanics (point and click adventure game in 3rd person), but with the great scope of the story it is sometimes difficult to proceed since you have to remember and combine many things - luckily the notebook is a great and very helpfull addition and there is also an in-game hint system (that i do not intend to use)
+ the graphics being much clearer now than the original helps a lot in the pixel hunting, things to interact with are much easier to identify
+/- space button reveals all hot spots in the scene

+ great score system (that really rewards your progress)

- technically the biggest concern are the animations - very stiff and slow, especially there is a delay when starting moving gabriel around - also skipping dialogues sometimes is done in fast forward skipping the next sentences as well, this can really use a patch


in general , having played and loved the original i am happy with this release, it is definitely a remastered edition of the original, i am just not sure if it will appeal to new players (especially with games like vanishing of ethan carter being fresh and probably a step forward for the adventure genre) but the fans of the series will surely love it

it's a very faithful remake of the original gabriel knight game. all the original content is there and there are some new bits and pieces added. the story - set in new orleans circles around theme of voodoo - is still as engaging as it ever was. and this should do as an overall summary - it is still the sins of the fathers that we know and love, only it looks better and works better with modern systems.

it's very nice in the art department, both being faithful to the original and enhancing on the original with added details - a lot of which seem to be from original designs but not implemented in original (mostly for technical reasons like art and display resolution).

soundtrack matches closely to what's been done to the art. it is the same yet improved. and it is really good.

voice acting quality tends to vary. occasionally it is really good, occasionally it is not good and most of the time it lingers somewhere around good. at times actors seem to be trying too hard to emulate the mannerisms of the dialogs in original game. not a bad thing in itself but a bit too obvious. acknowledging that it is very very difficult to top the voice acting of main characters from the original gabriel knight I cannot really blame the remake to fall a little short in this area. what we have in the game is still a respectable result.

technically, it's not bad. unfortunately, it does have the downsides.

large resolutions are supported and it works at 1080p (and higher) without problems. not related to resolutions but aspect ratio - some images look out of place with widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio - both studio's and game's logos in the beginning looked just a little bit off.

animation is stiff and feels unpolished. wooden gabriel walking around is not too bad but in the first day introduction seeing grace walking into the stairs and then slowly rising above it (while she was the only moving thing on the screen, grabbing attention) left a strong impression of game needing just a bit more polish.

tutorials are quick and simple but great and do give a small overview both to new and old players of how the ui works.

adding labels to the actionable items on screen when pressing onscreen button or space is a great idea and a good way to remove pixelhunting (especially as this never was the point of gabriel knight games).

unfortunately, there are issues with the ui as well. at times, after action or listening to a description, the game waits for a few seconds before allowing the next action. when skipping an action (not too uncommon with some items giving multiple descriptions on repeated views/actions) it gets more common. this also seems to depend on the area/screen, in the very beginning of the game, inside of the cabinet was a bad offender. an additional related problem - having clicked on a hotspot, the only way to continue is to select an action, there does not seem to be a way to cancel.

clicking to skip/fast forward lines is unreliable, often skipping multiple lines of dialogue. it seems that due to the way skipping is implemented cursor basically jumps around on the screen (to the skip button and back to where it was before, sometimes missing the target on the latter) and quick clicking is thus discouraged.

as a bonus, especially for fans of the original, there is extra material for each scene - concept art, artwork, comparisons of the remake and the original, interviews etc.

for an adventure fan, this is a definite recommendation. for everyone else - give it a shot and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Point n' click adventure games are making a return into the gaming industry! I loved the 1993 version and I love this version too. Jane Jensen wants to do more Gabriel Knight games and she has my support on it. The graphics are beautiful, even though you can spot the occassional clipping or the weird way people walk. The dialogue is as humorous as it was originally. They couldn't get the original voice actors, but they did a good job nonetheless. I am really digging the new interface and how much easier it is to do what needs to be done. The music in this game was done by Robert Holmes. If you don't know who he is, you have no taste in music. The music sets the stage for this gloomy game. But for what it's worth, this is a great game.

The original Gabriel Knight was something of an unintentional rite of passage during my childhood. I found the game as a kid and I tried to play, the problem is that as a 10-11 year old kid I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. But I kept going on and on and because the game had a grip on me, the story is something that stayed with me for years to come.

This remake came out yesterday and I've beat it already. I wanted to pace myself to enjoy it over some time but that was impossible, I just couldn't stop. Playing this game made me feel like I was brought back to my childhood, when I first played the original Gabriel Knight, with the difference that this time I had some sort of idea what I was doing. The additional material was really interesting too, because it included snippets from the making of this game and the making of the original one-

Even if you didn't play the original game back in the day, the game stands fine on its own, so you can play it without fear.

For a more exhaustive feel of the game you can read this review I wrote: http://www.kickstartadventure.com/home/gabriel-knight-sins-fathers-20th-anniversary-edition-review/

It makes me a happy person to be playing this. Aside from a few little bugs here and there, I consider this to be a pretty damn good remake.

Great Update to the original game that captured the minds of gamers 20 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TsTcOecCjI

One of my favorite games of all time.

I enjoyed this game a lot, though not as much as I did the original. That may have been because it was new and unexpected 20 years ago and now I knew what was going on and what was going to happen. My review will be sort of colored by that.

I think the atmosphere felt more sinister, tense, and mysterious in the original. This one doesn't carry the same weight it did. The graphics are terrific, but I think the very fact that they are so visible tends to make them less ominous. Some of the new puzzles are annoying, though they are not totally out of place. I still hate mazes in Adventure games, but this one can be forgiven because ALL adventure games had mazes back in the day (or it seemed so).

The voice acting is very good and I enjoyed most of it.

I can easily recommend this one very highly to people who have already played it and to those who haven't. I had a ball.

Absolutely incredible remake of a masterpiece of a game. Definitely worth your while to check this one out. :)

Was not disappointed in this revamp of the best adventure game ever made. Made things better without making anything worse. Anyone complaining about movement delays and stiffness, must not play many point and click games, because they generally all run like this. This wasn't a big deal or very noticable. I though the loss of the original voice track would be bad but again wasn't even all that noticable and all the new voice actors did very well. Saw someone complain that the New Gabriel was just trying to sound like Tim Curry, but for one would you want the new Gabe to sound like the old Gabe, and two it's a Gabriel Knight voice not a Tim Curry voice. Tim Curry who is british was doing a Gabirel Knight voice for the original, same as the new actor.

Impersonated a cop and a priest before being killed by a zombie.
11/10

I'm 13 again! I miss the original voice actors but anyone who is looking to relive a great memory from their childhood would have a great time with this and of course any newcomers who enjoy the point and click adventure/puzzle genre will love this classic piece set in 1990's New Orleans, Louisianna. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!

This is a solid and enjoyable adventure game and the remastering of a classic. It's interesting, beautiful and a lot of fun. I'd recommend it to fans of the original as well as new players.

People seem to be a bit consumed by nostalgia and were ready to rip into this new version, but the negative feedback is without ground at times. The voice acting is much improved over the original, especially the awful Tim Curry with his broken-down accent. Scenes are beautiful, and although the composition is problematic at times, it doesn't really detract from the experience.

There are some glitches, but they are minor.

I loved the first version and I love the new one as well. This is how an adventure game should be: interesting characters that grow on you, good puzzles, rich story, beautiful graphics. I hope their next game will be more like this one and less than Moebius. Very recommended.

I would recommend you not to read too much about the game. Play the demo first, it's a good representation.

If you, after completing the demo find the game interesting and, want to continue your experience I would suggest that you back up your saves, before the purchase, because Steam will just delete it all upon installation of the full game.

I was a bit sceptical about the game at first, especially in regards to the new boy'ish look of Gabriel Knight and this silly southern voice that is being used, but also in regard to the changes of design. It took me awhile to get past that change and I was just barely ahead of it at the end of the demo.

Truth be told I was never really a fan of the GK series even though I tried my hand with all them in their own time with a declining interest, that was completely gone after five minutes with GK3. I generally despised the Sierra Adventure games, because they were so dull, traditionally old-school and unforgiving somehow compared to the humorous and creative Lucasarts Adventure games I loved.

I am glad to see that Pinkerton Studios have gotten a much better hold on the game engine that severely scarred the previous Mobius game. Gone are the wandering eyes and jittery animations.. There is still a few minor flaws, but much less than before. There is also lip-syncing and it works surprisingly well.

I read quite a lot of reviews about the game, the good, bad and ugly, because I was a bit lukewarm about GK, but I was curious and played the demo first and even though this new version isn't quite the same high-caliber version as the original it's not a bad game, not a bad game at all, but it's clearly not a total remastery of the old game, since they've changed the voice actors. Even though I was quite resentful of the voice of Gabriel Knight in the beginning it kind of grew on me and the accent is also more downplayed as the game goes on. The rest of the voice cast is pretty decent.

My only real complaint about the game is the background Music - it's bloody horrible and totally out of place with the spirit of the game unlike the game music during cutscenes which is very well done. I was about ready to quit before the demo even got started, because of it, but I hit a key to skip the intro credits and turn off the music, which saved the day.

There is a new hint system in the game, but unfortunately it's neither very intelligent nor progress based. The few times I needed it I was way ahead of the hint system and had to wait for the hints to catch up to my point of progress, because of build-in timer, that I assume has been put in place to avoid that you spoil yourself too much and even then it was extremely rare that it was useful at all. At one point it was completely useless and I had to Google for a solution, because I got a bit ahead of myself and was unable to pick up on a vital clue on how to unlock an important puzzle.

There were times when I was a bit lost about my next move, because the game is a bit short of a narrative and there is a certain amount of things that you need to solve before the day ends, which isn't very clear, but the first hint of each day usually give you a list of to-do's of the day. I do not recommend using the hint system at all, because the game is actually quite short.

I saw a reviewer complaining about the same animations being played every time you leave an area, but that's kind of a silly point, because you can use fast-travel everywhere. You don't have to leave any area by going to an exit point at all, because you can bring up the map at any point, which is really nice, but unfortunately Gabriel Knights current location isn't highlighted on the map at all.. Sometimes I went to places where I was already.. The same teleportation system in Mobius has transferred to GK1 as well, but there are times when you need someone to follow you that it backfires.

There is still a bit of the old ghost of Sierra's unforgiving gameplay present, but the good news is that there has been added a RETRY option for those special events.

I finished the game in 15 hours and I am actually a bit surprised that I had a such a good time with it. Jane Jensen was a much better writer twenty years ago, but she also had a co-writer on GK1, and that part still stands.

Settings:

Gameplay:
Narrator Off, Hints On, Subtitles: On, Tutorials: Off, Language: English.

Audio:
Master: On, Music: Off, SFX: On, Voices: On.

Graphics:
Display: Beautiful - Resolution: 1920x1200 - Anti-aliasing: 4 - (+Morphological AA: On (AMD))

Fantastic remake of the original with a strong sense of what made the original so great. The rework of the graphics and attention to detail makes this a must buy for anyone who played the original. There's obviously some caveats - as an example the voice acting wasn't remastered so the voices aren't the same as you'd remember them due to new voice actors. Everything is well within reason though and I'd recommend this to anyone who likes adventure games at all. The story still lives up to what I remembered 20 years ago which is amazing.