Gabriel Knight

[Moosferatu]

I'd never played any of the Gabriel Knight games, so I decided to get the first one off ebay a couple weeks ago. I just started playing it this week, and I'm currently half-way through the next to last day. It seems that people are always raving about the game and its incredibly intricate and well researched story. Barring some amazing plot development in the last day and a half, I'm just not seeing what the fuss is about. Sure, the story is well researched and Gabriel and Grace's characters are great, especially Grace, but that doesn't automatically make the games storyline engrossing. As a mystery, which it claims to be right on the box, it utterly fails. Every aspect of the plot is blatantly obvious to the player from the outset. Doesn't exactly make for an exciting or engrossing "mystery". Don't get me wrong, it's a decent adventure, but, as far as I'm concerned, its plot is nothing special.

I hear a lot of people say that they think the first game is the best in the series. So, my question is, is this true? I really want to love these games, but if the plots to the two sequels are just as disappointing, or even more so, I think I'll pass for now.

[miffy495]

But... Tim Curry...

Yeah, I wasn't all that impressed with the first one either. Personally, I think the Beast Within (#2) is much better, and have never played the third. 'Course, when I played the Beast Within it was a long time ago, and the genius may well have faded, but at the time it was awesome.

[lobotomy42]

Well...I liked them. All three are very different from each other. The second is very linear, but most consider it to have the best storyline. (I didn't like it as much, but I'm in the minority.) The third is the most "mystery" like, in that you're investigating a group of people who could all be suspects and whose motives are unknown. I like the third the best, because characters move around during different times of the day, and there's lots of little optional subplots to discover by figuring out where everyone is at any given time.

So, yeah. I really dig the storylines of all three games and consider them "mysteries," even if they are somewhat predictable.

[lobotomy42]

Should also add: I didn't like the plot of the first game very much when I first played it either. Specifically, I was really bothered by the "dragon" sequence and the fact that they throw the whole "Schattenjager" thing at you from out of nowhere. But, that bit makes more sense after playing the sequels, since it essentially allows them to happen.

And, to be fair, I still think any Gabriel Knight game has a better storyline than Broken Sword, which is equally raved-about.

[BigJKO]

And, to be fair, I still think any Gabriel Knight game has a better storyline than Broken Sword, which is equally raved-about.

Yes, yes, yes! Broken Sword fails miserably at setting up its own plot, and then usually its just a plot involving some idiotic things. At least Gabriel Knight gets me interested in the plot right from the start, and then throws the idiotic crap at me.

[CanarDuck]

I'll go with the majority and tout GK2 as the best in the series. The first one has a nice general ambience, but ends up indeed by "throwing idiotic crap at the player" (to quote BigJKO) towards the end -- actually simultaneously idiotic, grandiloquent and distasteful crap, which really was a big letdown for me at the time. (So if you haven't played the last day yet, you are going to get even more disappointed. Or, you and I have really different tastes.)

The third one follows unfortunately the same kind of pattern with a ludicrous boo!-big-monster-in-your-face ending, except the rest of the game is not so hot either. The investigation on the "group of people with unknown motives" mainly consists in "figuring out where everyone is at any given time" (to quote lobotomy42) which turns out to be incredibly boring (especially since it's blatantly clear that most of them have absolutely no useful information about the mystery whatsoever). Also, here the obligatory link to the famous article of Psychonauts co-writer Eric Volpaw explaining that GK3 is single-handedly reponsible for the death of adventure [spoilers]:

http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html

As for GK2... I have really fond memories of GK2. By today's standards the FMV is probably extremely dated and the main character's acting is really poor (I missed Tim Curry). Although the supporting characters are played more competently (in particular the bad guy has a lot of presence). But the story arc in GK2 is really what stands out. What stroke me at the time is that it avoided a common flaw of mystery games where everything appears obvious to the player while the in-game character keeps saying "Jeez! I wonder what all of this means." In GK2, the player and character are on an equal foot: you suspect quite early who the evil person is, but you have to find proof and understand how different partial pieces of explanation all fit together by digging out the past. All in all, this makes up a relatively subtle progression. And the ending, exceptionally in the series, is satisfying.

[andreadst]

GK was one of my favourites games of all time...I don't know, maybe the new orleans setting and the the voodoo stuff really got me going. And the dialogues were very well written too for that time.

Yeah, the "Schattenjager" thing all of a sudden was really crap and the last part of the game has a certain "rushed out" feeling.

I have to admit that the first game is the only one I got to play... I never liked the FMV thing (who was anyway? ) but GK3 looked cool, it's been on my "must play" list for quite some time.

Anyway, the creepy setting and the voodoo related plot made GK one of my favourites adventures. Oh, and I loved those nice midi tunes too.

ps. first post on idle forums, hello everyone

[Ryam BaCo]

i only played gabriel knight 3. in my opionion the riddles and the design were horrible, but the story was very impressive. (especially the ending really honored me for bearing all the ugly game-design)

ps: andreadst, welcome on idle-land!

[Moosferatu]

meh. I just finished it. I don't really understand why it's on so many people's top 10 lists. I did really love the chemistry between Gabe and Grace though. I'll probably pick up the second game one of these days.

[andreadst]

one thing I really didn't like at that time (waaa, it was like...mora than 10 years ago:eek: ) was a terrible puzzle involving some kind of writing on a crypt wall... I still remember it: * DJ bring sackey madule * or something like that....

I was clueless about that one, especially since my english was worse than now...it was one of the few times I had to rely on a faq:shifty:

[Lechimp]

one thing I really didn't like at that time (waaa, it was like...mora than 10 years ago:eek: ) was a terrible puzzle involving some kind of writing on a crypt wall... I still remember it: * DJ bring sackey madule * or something like that....

I was clueless about that one, especially since my english was worse than now...it was one of the few times I had to rely on a faq:shifty:

I do remember the part that you're talking about. In a graveyard, you had to use a book to translate something that was written on the wall of one of the tombs, and then write something else, it was pretty annoying.

But aside from that puzzle, and the zombies in Africa, I enjoyed all three Gabriel Knight games and it's one of my favorite game series. I thought the series had some great writing and did a great job of integrating history with whatever case Gabriel would be on. I even liked Gabriel Knight 3 despite it having a puzzle that required the use of cat hair. Jane Jensen's writing really made the series stand out from all of the other games published by Sierra, and it was obvious that it was her writing that made King's Quest 6 the best in the series.

[miffy495]

She wrote King's Quest 6? Damn, I gotta play that now. The only Quest games I ever played were the Space Quest ones.

[andreadst]

Space quest... why didn't they make a sequel...this reminds me that we don't see many games that manage to be so hilarious...

Roger Wilco stands right there with Guybrush in the "most-funny-characters-of-all-time" category.

Anyway, GK and SQ both have that kind of characterization that could make a game stand out, and the Grace-Gabriel duo is a nice example of that.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

Space quest... why didn't they make a sequel...this reminds me that we don't see many games that manage to be so hilarious...

Roger Wilco stands right there with Guybrush in the "most-funny-characters-of-all-time" category.

Anyway, GK and SQ both have that kind of characterization that could make a game stand out, and the Grace-Gabriel duo is a nice example of that.

There were at least 7 Space Quest games.... so... they did make a sequel.

I liked GK... and I liked that depending on what you took from the last area, your ending could be somewhat different.

I also like the Quest for Glory series, despite the 4th one being really buggy.

[David]

There were at least 7 Space Quest games.... so... they did make a sequel.

Only 6 games were released; perhaps andreadst was referring to the cancelation of SQ7 and discontinuation of the franchise. Maybe. Sierra's adventure games were cruel and unusual, but at least the SQ games were entertaining.

[andreadst]

yeah, I miss sierra adventures. I certainly didn't like them all but those were the Lucasart vs Sierra days ....GK, all the "quests" titles, larry, even the police quest series that spawned SWAT was cool.

and yep, metallus is right, only six games SQ were made. the last one was canned.

[lobotomy42]

and yep, metallus is right, only six games SQ were made. the last one was canned.

In fact, it was canned THREE TIMES in one of the most frustrating experiences ever...