In 1993, Sierra had released what would later be recognized to some gamers as future of PC gaming. This game was also known as the CD release King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. The game was a technological marvel, to say the least. It featured unbelievable, beutiful graphics, great voice acting, and new lip synching technology that all made the game the start of an era of CD-ROM.

Sierra's '93 lineup followed this trend they had set, and the company was the Hollywood darling of the industry. This was a very exciting year for adventure fans. We would be able to expirience future classics like Space Quest VI, Quest for Glory 4, and Leisure Suit Larry 6 while expiriencing the magical production values of KQ6. It even looked like Sierra was taking an even bigger step into the future with Police Quest 4 and King's Quest VII.

But, in the midst of this monster lineup, a strange, obscure game sat. It wasn't a sequal to a series, it seemed to be an original idea. The game never got much attention before it's release. It was usually crammed into a-few-sentence summary in between full page previews of Space Quest VI and Quest for Glory IV. But as it's release drew near, people began to pay attention. It seemed that it would be written by Jane Jensen, co-writer of King's Quest VI. The story would be a mystery and would promise suspence and intruege. It would even have all the production benifets as the other games.

The game was Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. And it was good.

Gabriel Knight is a womanizing, lazy, failure of a writer. He owns a book store in New Orleans that doubles as his home and just so happens to be hanging on by a thread. His life has been easy for him, but he still is in a financial situation. He has written a few books, but those didn't sell well and he hasn't tried writing in a long time. He is, however, researching some strange voodoo murders that have been ocuring around the city for a new book. This might be his big break. But he will soon learn that he has gotten himself into some deep stuff. As he uncovers more on the murders, he gets himself in more danger. He has been having very strange, creepy dreams and has been getting calls from someone in Germany claiming that he is Gabriel's uncle. There are many questions he must answer. Who is behind these murders? Why does he feel as though he's being watched? Who is this 'Wolfgang Ritter' and what does he know about his family history?

That's not saying much, but I would be spoiling by writing more. This easily one of the best and most well writen stories in a game. Every charater is believable and has their own unique personality. You can easily get behind Gabriel and his anti-hero persona. You'll want to play this game over and over because of the chilling mystery that begs to be uncovered. It's set up into seven chapters, which makes the story progression even more immersive, and the game has so many twists and turns, you never know how it will play out. You won't know who to trust or what path to follow. What a lot of adventure games don't do anymore is make you feel intense, but Sins of the Fathers does just that.

Again, production value for this game is high. With crisp, hand drawn characters and backgrounds, the game feels just as good as other Sierra games. What was unique were the cutscenes that were in comic book form. They consist of several frames with some very nice artwork. Another thing worth mentioning is the 3D cutscenes of Gabriel's dreams.





GK's music, I think, plays a part in the game. The voodoo drum music that plays in certain rooms are very nice. Same goes with the tense suspence music that makes you feel a part of the game. I think the best music is in the park with all the jazz and cagin bands playing "When the Saints go Marching in". But the real winner in the audio is the voice acting. Tim Curry (The doorman in Home Alone 2), Mark Hammil (Former guest star on "Just Shoot Me"), and other big-time stars lend their talents as characters in the game. All these actors and the dialog make the characters believable and interesting (although Tim Curry as Gabriel does take some getting used to).

Gabriel uses the same control scheme as other point and click Sierra games. That's probably my only complaint with the game. It's not that these controls are bad, but this game has a few more icons than others. You cycle through them by clicking the right mouse button and I always missed the icon I wanted and had to cycle all the way through again. And speaking of the icons, there is just too many. Why have an "open/close" icon when the "use" icon would have been just fine. Or merging the "interview" icon with the "talk to" icon?

What I really liked about this game was that it's light on puzzles and heavy on story and character development. Yes, there are a fair number of puzzles in the game and all of them are solid. But, most of the game is interviewing the right people about the right topics to get more dirt on this voodoo business (there is also a tape recorder in the toolbar so you can listen to conversations again). The best puzzles, believe it or not, are the actionesque moments. The game is a mystery and these moments are what makes it a mystery. Not a lot of games can compare to sneaking around the voodoo headquarters or running from mummies that GK offers.

Please note that if you want this game to run on XP, you will need a patch and the good people at Adventuregamers.com have one for you right here.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is Sierra's greatest story. If you want to play a game of love, lust, and drama, then you can't go wrong with Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Because you won't want to play to get to the end. You will want to play to see if Gabriel reaches his revelation and achieve his goal. And that's something that games just don't do anymore. Thanks for the memories, Jane!

9.8/10

[Mishale]

Bravo, bravo *clap clap clap*. Then again I'm heavily biased because the GK series is my favorite games of all time

[MaryScots]

Great review, SamNMax!

I totally agree with you. GK1 is one of the first adventure games I played and one of my all-time favourites, too. I own both the floppy and CD versions and replay it every once in while.

As for the voice-acting my favourite is the narratress's voice, I could listen to that lazy southern drawl all day long. It sends shivers down my spine.

[samIamsad]

To be honest, that's the only game in the series, I didn't finish. Never made it past that voodoo code stuff. Even after consulting a walkthrough!

You really should finish it. Why don't you consult your problem in the hint forum?

[samIamsad]

I don't think I have the savegame anymore. The last time I tried was quite a long time ago...

[plattyaj]

Originally Posted by samIamsad

To be honest, that's the only game in the series, I didn't finish. Never made it past that voodoo code stuff. Even after consulting a walkthrough!

UHS, and perhaps other places, had a problem with this in that they said you could do this one chapter before you actually could. It held me up for a while before I just decided to do one other thing I wanted to and the day suddenly ended.

Andy.

[plattyaj]

Good review. I just finished GK:SOTH yesterday and really enjoyed it. Like you I found the controls awkward. Some people accuse the merging of 'use', 'open','push' into one button dumbing down but it seems logical to me.

The other thing I didn't like (and this goes for many adventure games) is that there was often no hint that you would need to return to some location on a particular day. I found myself wandering aimlessly many times.

Oh, and don't get me started about the pixel hunting! In some cases even after I had used UHS I couldn't work out what it was I was supposed to click on!

But the story is simply superb!

Andy.

[SkepticSight]

I have Sins of the Father, and haven't touched it. I played The Beast Within first, and I absolutely loved that. But I'm not sure how the two compare. I've heard quite a few negative things about sins of the father, so I've been rather hesitant to start it.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by SkepticSight

I have Sins of the Father, and haven't touched it. I played The Beast Within first, and I absolutely loved that. But I'm not sure how the two compare. I've heard quite a few negative things about sins of the father, so I've been rather hesitant to start it.

There are an awful lot of people who consider Sins of the Father to be the best game in the trilogy. Sure it has a few flaws (it's an old game after all), but if you loved The Beast Within then you have nothing to worry about. Except dealing with the fact that the backstory to TBW hasn't occured yet..