Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC)
Developed and Published by Sierra
By Graham Tsui
I used to love PC graphic adventures. Actually, I still do. But the glory years of those “point and clickers” we old-school gamers knew and loved throughout the late 80s and early 90s is over. Times change, and games evolve. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth playing anymore — some of the best graphic adventures of the 90s featured excellent scripting, appealing graphics, and great innovations in video game voice acting. One of these games was Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
Released in 1993 by Sierra (the makers of the King’s Quest and Leisure Suit Larry series), Gabriel Knight offered gamers a complex labyrinthine story involving voodoo cults, murder mysteries, romance, and estranged families. Like many of Sierra’s graphic adventures of the time, Gabriel Knight was played from a third-person perspective with all the action and characters clearly visible onscreen. Characters were controlled by using your mouse to select from a limited assortment of “action” icons in a menu (such as “move,” “pick-up,” “open,” etc.).
The CD version of the game came with actual voice acting, which was still something of a novelty for video games at the time. But Sierra went even further and decided to have voice actors act out the dialogue for the ENTIRE GAME – a big deal in 1993. They even went out and got professional actors and voice actors to do it. Two names people will recognize today are Tim Curry, who played the eponymous Gabriel Knight, and Leah Remini (of King of Queens fame), who played Gabriel’s long-suffering assistant (is there any other kind?), Grace Nakamura.
All this is fascinating historical stuff, but how good is the actual game? I’m pleased to report that it still holds up as fine entertainment today. The dialogue is witty, the story is gripping, and the voice acting is a lot of fun to listen to. Sierra’s “point and click” interface is easy to use, so gamers can concentrate on the story rather than how to get your character to do stuff (which was a problem for many PC gamers before mouses came into use). The graphics are a little dated (it was actually a bit dated even when it first came out), but it’s definitely not bad enough to cause eyesores or massive complaining amongst less discriminating gamers.
All in all, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is an example of a top of the line game from the glory years of the graphic adventure genre. If you want to give the game a try, a bit of searching through the internet might yield a (wink, wink) “download” or two…
