Gabriel Knight

[Sanchenuss]

I loved the Gabriel Knight trilogy. It would be sweet if someone made the second and third versions like the first. Sorry I just had to vent.  :hat

[Quest For Glory Fan]

The second one took me awhile to adjust to but I could actually appreciate it for what it was when I got more into. The third one is the real travesty.

[adeyke]

GK2 was a superb game despite the game engine.  GK3 also had a bad engine (worse, I'd say), but it was coupled with a weak plot and such as well.

[Gronagor]

Gotta say, the first 2 fascinates me because of the incredible amount of research that was obviously done.

The 3rd one is beyond saving.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

The first one was especially amazing research wise. I found it difficult to go throughthe puzzles at one point as Gabriel though because of myfrench background I knew

[spoiler]Cabrit Sans Corps was a human sacrifice[/spoiler]

[Sanchenuss]

I agree. The first two are a couple of my favorite games all-time but the third part lacked something.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

I really couldn't get into any of Sierra's FMV games like Phantasmagoria or GK2. I found the game play way too tedious.  The movements of the live action actors seemed totally wooden and scripted, the way they'd always return to a neutral position made them seem like robots. And given that the game was supposed to resemble a film, it didn't seem at all realistic. The sets and pseudo environments were terrible too. In the case of GK2, I also found the Gabriel and Grace actors to be a jarring jump from the way they were portrayed in GK1. I couldn't get used to them. And even though the story was good, I felt GK2 was brought down by too many other factors.

I really liked GK3, though. It brought something back that had been missing since GK1 (and I'm not just talking about Tim Curry). I think perhaps the ending was a bit rushed, and we got an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade facsimile, but the tension created in the lead-up to the end was great. The cliff-hanger ending of the game was excellent too.

Although, I still like GK1 best.

[Sanchenuss]

I really couldn't get into any of Sierra's FMV games like Phantasmagoria or GK2. I found the game play way too tedious.  The movements of the live action actors seemed totally wooden and scripted, the way they'd always return to a neutral position made them seem like robots. And given that the game was supposed to resemble a film, it didn't seem at all realistic. The sets and pseudo environments were terrible too. In the case of GK2, I also found the Gabriel and Grace actors to be a jarring jump from the way they were portrayed in GK1. I couldn't get used to them. And even though the story was good, I felt GK2 was brought down by too many other factors.

I really liked GK3, though. It brought something back that had been missing since GK1 (and I'm not just talking about Tim Curry). I think perhaps the ending was a bit rushed, and we got an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade facsimile, but the tension created in the lead-up to the end was great. The cliff-hanger ending of the game was excellent too.

Although, I still like GK1 best.

Youre absolutely right about the ending to GK 3. It seemed extremely rushed. What I liked most about the first two Gabriel Knight games was the story itself. Thats what made Kings Quest so good.

[Gronagor]

I agree with the live-actors for GK2. I especially hated the guy they chose for Gabriel!! The story was great, although it could get very irritating if you got stuck somewhere...

The best, graphic-wise, was definitely GK1.

[nilvaz]

I really liked GK3, though. It brought something back that had been missing since GK1 (and I'm not just talking about Tim Curry). I think perhaps the ending was a bit rushed, and we got an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade facsimile, but the tension created in the lead-up to the end was great. The cliff-hanger ending of the game was excellent too.
.

Thats how i felt about GK3 actualy. If it wasnt for the last quarter of the game i was enjoying it quite a bit more than 2.  2 wasnt a bad game but i just didnt feel like it was the right direction for the series. GK1 remains to be one of my favorite games of all time.

[nilvaz]

I loved the Gabriel Knight trilogy. It would be sweet if someone made the second and third versions like the first. Sorry I just had to vent.  :hat

It would be pretty cool to see a Gk2 remake, but i think at the point where youre trying to put it in the style of GK1, you'd have to change so many aspects of the game you might as well just be making a new GK game with a new plot.

[adeyke]

(SPOILERS)

I do agree that GK2 has huge problems.  The production quality is quite low.  Many sound samples are muffled or tinny, and they're just generally inconsistent.  The "normal" view of the game is also just cheesy and unbelievable (a lifeless background with some very obvious actors stuck on top).  And while the video things are very dynamic, they're also very low-quality and blurry.  And the whole dialogue thing would have been better if the last second or so of each video had been dropped.  And it was frustrating when you couldn't find the missing action to progress the plot.

However, despite all of that, I still greatly enjoyed the game.  I liked the story, and I appreciated how the different threads intertwined.  It starts out with the werewolf murder, and the game then focuses both on finding out the werewolf's identity and discovering his history, culminating in using the lost opera that would expose him.  And, while some characters were problematic (Grace is a complete jerk for a lot of the game, and Gabe just didn't feel at all like the real one), overall the acting was rather well-done.  Baron von Glower, especially, was a really interesting character.

GK3 just didn't do much for me.  The low-quality 3D graphics were really distracting.  Where GK2 had an actor pretending to be Gabe, GK3 instead has a crude mannequin with Gabe's voice.  I just couldn't get over how plastic-looking the characters were, or how angular the landscape was.  Now, I like good 3D, but in 1999, going 3D was a huge step backwards.  And, while there was no longer the problem of being stuck because you can't find the missing action, it instead has the opposite problem, where you can miss huge parts of the content by either being too slow in the real-time bits or accidentally hitting the time-advance trigger before you're ready.

Also, there was a big disconnect between the actual Schattenjäger case and the gameplay.  We know (from the little comic book) that the case involves the abduction of a royal baby by vampires.  However, the actual gameplay involves joining a group of tourists on a Grail hunt in the sunny French countryside.  It's immediately obvious that none of those treasure hunters are connected to the case, but you still spend most of your time interrogating them, spying on them, and looking through their stuff.  While that does prove beneficial, it's basically independent of any vampires or abducted babies.

[malekdarshin]

I ended up playing GK2 first, so the actor Dean Erickson will always be Gabriel. I loved that game. I ended up playing GK1 a few years after, and remembered seeing an ad for it in an old copy of EGM as a kid. A very good game.

Then I played the talkie version and hated Tim Curry's voice acting. It was just a cliché' fake southern accent. And that Grace was voiced by Leah Remini who plays on the TV show The King of Queens just knocks me out of the game. Since when does Grace have a Brooklyn accent?

GK3 was just not that good. I dislike games that are like Myst. Click. Load a screen. Click. Load a screen. I did like the ending though. I thought it was taking a huge chance is bringing religion in like it did. I also think that Dan Brown (the author of The Da Vinci Code) must have played this game at some point in his life.

So in conclusion, GK1+GK2= the old school gaming version of Jessica Alba where Gk3 is just okay.

By the way, Dean Erickson played on the TV show Frasier for 4 episodes. I was watching the show and suddenly bolted out of my chair screaming "That's Gabriel Knight!" Then to the replies of "Who?" I had to think fast before I was branded a gaming nerd forever. The only two acting jobs IMDB had listed for him were GK2 and Frasier. He's now a real estate agent. Go figure.

[Blackthorne519]

I've never played Gabriel Knight.  Any of them - and all my friends harp on about how great they are.  

I really have to play the first game, at least.  In a way, it's kinda cool - I still have an adventure game to look forward to.

Bt

[MusicallyInspired]

I've played but not finished the first one. But the I seen the ending before I played it (watched my dad play it) so it was kinda ruined for me. Still. Awesome game. The atmosphere is just amazing. And the score is stunning.

[Gronagor]

GK1 is a definite movie-possibility.  :p

[Xyloc]

I loved GK1, but I hate action scenes in which you have to be lightning-quick with an awkward interface in order to avoid sudden death.
SQ4 & SQ5 also have some of those sequences.
Somehow they don't fit in with my sense of computer adventuring.
The background research was great. I don't know what stuff has been made up and what is part of real Voodoo, but I got the feeling that I learned more about that subject from this game then from any other source I 've read/ seen/ experienced.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

you know Bt I was pretty close to your neighborhood last weekend. I coulda mailed you my copy of the GK trilogy for next to nothing if I put them in envelopes. Then maybe in return you'd send me that Tim Horton's Coffee you promised me two christmas' ago... on second thought maybe you should keep it.

[DetectiveMosely]

i loved all the GK games, but maybe just because i never wanted GK1 to end. i didnt mind 2 or 3, just the lack of 4!  :)

in a slightly related story, referring to the amount of research that was done on all of these games... i once had to do an oral report on a french speaking place in french class. most people got countries assigned to them, but my partner and i were given Louisiana. she was supposed to write the short paper and i did the visual aid. when i showed up to class with the poster i had made, my partner just shrugged at me and said she didnt write the paper. when we were called to do the report, she just sat there, so i got up by myself and told everyone about the french quarter (my teacher was nodding along at this point) and little old creole ladies playing with gris gris, cabrit sans cor,  and all that good stuff(teacher stopped nodding, seriously confused). i got a 70, and my partner got a 0. thanks gabriel knight!  :lol

[Quest For Glory Fan]

that's a sweet story, if you had incorporated the whole voodoo from Africa (french speaking in some places) and then related it to Cabrit san corps and all that other gris gris stuff you would have done even better. I've had many simmilar in class blunders my self though where video games have come to save the day. Glad to see I'm not the only one.

[Cadbury Wookie]

Being a Tex Murphy fan, GK2 worked best for me. Excellent villian, well-performed subtext, and some decent scares.

[DetectiveMosely]

QFQF, i made the report last the needed 5 minuted, or whatever it was... who  knows what i told them. heh.  :D

TEX MURPHY! i totally forgot. damn, i just dont have time to play all of these games, but i keep getting reminded of how many good ones there are to play/replay.

[Muadeeb]

It's awful how MS bought Access Software for the Links line, only to completely blow off their other products.  I _still_ want to know what happened to Tex and Chelsee after they were dumped into the speeder.

[Brainiac]

You could always ask Chris Jones at the AG Expo.

[kosch]

gk1 was the only game i the series i could stomach. :/ Great game too. the other 2 were just awful though, sorry just being honest.