"Did you dream about the fire and the hanged guy and that lion thing last night?"
I remember reading the issue of InterAction Magazine in which Sins of the Fathers was first previewed. It was a short preview, in between the very first articles about Police Quest 4 and Quest for Glory 4, sequels I cared much more about than this game. I scanned the article quickly, raised an eyebrow, shook my head, and commented to a friend that the idea would never work. I am glad to have been proven wrong.
Even Tex Murphy casts more of a heroic light than Gabriel Knight, who has literally failed at everything in his life and has nothing going for him. His books go unnoticed and his store has no customers; all his hope is pinned on a novel he is working on about the series of voodoo-related murders occuring all over town. Gabe's family history soon plunges him, quite unwittingly, into a dark ring of secrets that every adventure fan has etched on their minds.
The writing, and especially the historical research involved, is also top-notch. I learned more information about voodoo from Gabriel Knight then I thought existed, and the painstaking attention to detail taken by Jane Jensen is so evident, as it is in the entire GK series. The script accurately portrays Gabriel not as any sort of hero, but as a downtrodden man who simply can not escape his fate. The series of events that occur as a result of this fate is dark, disturbing, and brilliantly told.
A game whose plot centered around a cult created a cult of its own; a loyal legion of Gabriel Knight fans propelled the game to two excellent sequels at a time when adventure franchises were dying out left and right, and it was all because of the drama and intensity of Jane Jensen's original masterpiece. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, the darkest and most intense adventure game ever, is the #5 adventure game of all-time.
Last time: Gabe, like Indy and Sam & Max, falls one slot from #4 on the last countdown. Why all these one-slot drops? Well, that will be explained tomorrow.
Click here for the complete top 20 of best adventure games of all time!