Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hey now.

So I guess I’m on the retro adventure game kick lately.  Just played through Gabe Knight 1 and really enjoyed it.  I played this one pre-pube and dug it.  Dug it still (post-pube).

My favorite aspect is the detail in the environment.  Everything you click has a brilliant description.  The chandelier, the chair, the wall hangings, it’s all there.  Great care was obviously taken to create a fully-immrsive environment and I think it pays off.  Sierra was good a bout that if I recall.  The Quest For Glory Series really sucked me in, too.

Anyway, thinking about buying GK2 from GOG, but it looks like it’s all “video” and whatnot.  That’s usually about as severe a red flag for me as a “Planet Hollywood” sign, so I thought I’d pop by here and register a couple opinions first.  Was also thinking of grabbing the Broken Sword game (which i never played) as it sounds similar in genre/style, but much more to my liking in the visual design department.

Thoughts?

-Renee

You’ll enjoy GK2 most likely. I dont like it as much as Gk1 for a bunch of reasons. But its still very good.

GK1 and GK2 are my 2 favorite adventure games.  It’s really hard for me to decide which is my favorite.

If you loved GK1 you’ll probably love GK2.  It’s very different, but still great.

Since you don’t exactly discuss obscure games, you may want to search the forums before starting a new topic.
For instance, here’s a fairly long thread about GK2: http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/2604/

To throw a non-fanboy opinion into the mix, I’ll say that GK2 is something of a mixed bag.

It does not do FMV nearly as well as the Tex Murphy games, for a number of reasons.  The biggest problem is that FMV is used to illustrate dozens and dozens of totally inconsequential actions, like unzipping a bag, writing letters (and folding them, putting them in an envelope, licking and sealing it, etc.)  It really slows down the pace of gameplay and quite simply doesn’t flow well at all.  The quality of acting is predictably hit and miss (mostly miss, in my opinion, but your mileage may vary), and the editing could definitely have been better.  I mean, it’s 90s FMV—the quality is about what you’d expect.

Additionally, the world is not fully interactive and detailed in its descriptions in the way GK1 is.  You will absolutely not get that fully immersive experience that you talk about liking so much in GK1.  You can only click pre-determined hotspots, and yet, amazingly, the game also includes at least one major pixel-hunt section.  The environments are also not nearly as visually rich as they are in GK1, mainly because they’re all done as photo-composites as opposed to hand-painted artwork.

That said, the story is pretty strong, and well-researched enough to blur the line between history and fiction.  It feels a lot more “real-world” than GK1, for good and for bad.  It’s cheap on GoG, so you might as well give it a go—but set your expectations at an appropriate level.  This is not the game to sell you on FMV if you’re not a fan of that format.

The first couple Broken Sword games are pretty great all around, though—I’d recommend those without much hesitation.

CaptainRottingham - 05 June 2014 05:21 PM

  Great care was obviously taken to create a fully-immrsive environment and I think it pays off.

true, back then adventure games were taking a long time to make and that’s surely a reason why those classics are much more appreciated now.

I"m no expert to talk about GK2 but it certainly worth a try - it’s a one of a kind game with a good story, although I hate FMV games, I believe this one is definitely an exception.

Recently played the GK1 20th Anniversary remake and it was awesome.  I think the VO work was largely an improvement (and I’m about as big a Tim Curry fan as you can get, but man that was not his finest hour).  The graphics and gameplay are all great.  I wish they had redone the score a bit more, it still sounded pretty midi and dreadful.  But overall the thing that really struck me was once again the story and detail.  Singular in adventure games I think.  All the voodoo history, the NOLA culture, the characters, and then you end up in Germany and Africa too.  So epic.  It’s like great Indiana Jones episode.

Anyway highly recommend playing the remake f you haven’t already.

My favorite aspect is the detail in the environment.  Everything you click has a brilliant description.

I totally agree with you.  GK1 is my favorite adventure game of all time, and this right here is really one of the biggest reasons.  And it’s not just the descriptions when you examine objects, but the unique responses you get when you combine nearly every single action with any object in the game.

Some people complain about how many icons there are, but that for me is part of what makes the game so special.  Largely because of those unique descriptions and responses to nearly everything you can try.  Games that just give a lot of “I can’t do that” feel pretty dead by comparison.

Regarding your questions, 100% you should get GK2.  Even with how much I love GK1, and with GK2 losing everything I’ve said above with the single click system, it’s still good enough that it’s hard to decide which I like better between the two.  It’s impossible for the gameplay to be as good with the format change, but given the limitations it’s still really good, and the story is even better.  Also FMV allows for some scenes to deliver a level of emotional depth that is not really possible with pixels.

Personally Broken Sword didn’t really do it for me, but I was very much going into it looking for another GK1, so maybe I had my expectations set too high.  Also it’s been a really long time since I’ve played it, so perhaps I’d enjoy it more if I played it now.  I just remember it didn’t have near the emotional impact that GK1 had on me.

Ha, I just realized how old this is.  Didn’t realized I had replied previously.  But my points still stand.

edit: same mistake. deleting my useless post

Sorry for confusion, the point of posting today was to extol the virtues of the 20th anniversary remake, not to resurrect my post from 4 years ago about the original GK1.  Guess I should have created a new thread, but had I done that a mod would have told me not to create a new thread every time I want to talk about an ancient game that has already been discussed ad nauseam on a hundred other threads.  Damned if you do..

Anyway, 20th anniv remake is great

Detective Mosely - 19 March 2018 05:45 PM

My favorite aspect is the detail in the environment.  Everything you click has a brilliant description.

I totally agree with you.  GK1 is my favorite adventure game of all time, and this right here is really one of the biggest reasons.  And it’s not just the descriptions when you examine objects, but the unique responses you get when you combine nearly every single action with any object in the game.

Some people complain about how many icons there are, but that for me is part of what makes the game so special.  Largely because of those unique descriptions and responses to nearly everything you can try.  Games that just give a lot of “I can’t do that” feel pretty dead by comparison.

Regarding your questions, 100% you should get GK2.  Even with how much I love GK1, and with GK2 losing everything I’ve said above with the single click system, it’s still good enough that it’s hard to decide which I like better between the two.  It’s impossible for the gameplay to be as good with the format change, but given the limitations it’s still really good, and the story is even better.  Also FMV allows for some scenes to deliver a level of emotional depth that is not really possible with pixels.

Personally Broken Sword didn’t really do it for me, but I was very much going into it looking for another GK1, so maybe I had my expectations set too high.  Also it’s been a really long time since I’ve played it, so perhaps I’d enjoy it more if I played it now.  I just remember it didn’t have near the emotional impact that GK1 had on me.

\\

Btw Mostly, I did end up playing GK2 on your recommendation years ago and loved it.  GK1 will always be my fave though.  Thanks

CaptainRottingham - 19 March 2018 06:19 PM

Btw Mostly, I did end up playing GK2 on your recommendation years ago and loved it.  GK1 will always be my fave though.  Thanks

Ha, good to hear.  And don’t call me Mostly.