Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father®
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is a classic Point & Click Adventure game from Sierra and has two more games in the series. Though I was certainly playing Sierra games when this first came out… I had never played this game. I had always heard how fantastic it was but just never got around to it. So I finally purchased it on STEAM and gave it a go.
The story and characters are absolutely fantastic in this game. The story isn’t overly predictable and has several twists. The characters are well developed and have a lot of interesting backstory and personality. There really isn’t anything I would complain about in terms of the story. This game is not a short game and offers a lot of dialogue and reading material. The dialogues while they do actually end up being pretty extensive are generally revealed in relatively short snippets for you to discover over the course of the first 6 (of the overall 10) in-game days. There are some dialogue options that are optional and serve only to flesh out the story and character more but, I really liked and appreciated that they were there for just that reason.
– Real player with 32.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Atmospheric Games.
Outstanding game! Outstanding series! If you enjoy the classic point-n-click, give this one a shot. If you like it, try the other two games. If not, move on.
Rather than writing separate reviews for each game, I’m going to briefly cover the entire series in a few paragraphs.
With their love/hate, yin/yang, brain vs. brawn relationship, Gabriel and Grace steal the show! I can tell series' creator Jane Jensen really enjoyed using this to spruce up the character cohesion and back-n-forth banter. In my opinion, this is by far the most enjoyable aspect of the series.
– Real player with 26.7 hrs in game
Gabriel Knight® 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Outstanding game! Outstanding series! If you enjoy the classic point-n-click, give this one a shot. If you like it, try the other two games. If not, move on.
Rather than writing separate reviews for each game, I’m going to briefly cover the entire series in a few paragraphs.
With their love/hate, yin/yang, brain vs. brawn relationship, Gabriel and Grace steal the show! I can tell series' creator Jane Jensen really enjoyed using this to spruce up the character cohesion and back-n-forth banter. In my opinion, this is by far the most enjoyable aspect of the series.
– Real player with 57.1 hrs in game
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Cozy, atmosphere rich and intriguing. Gabriel Knight 3 is set in a small village in France where you as Gabriel and Grace are investigating the abduction of an infant child. With an interface not seen in any other major point-n-click adventure (to my knowledge) where you hover around like a drone camera you can really immerse yourself in the environments of the game while investigating with great accuracy, As far as adventure games go, this game has it all, the plot is like any good Agatha Christie novel mixed with occult and religious elements. Add to this, extremely well done voice acting which made me laugh so many times, and great puzzles and a gallery of memorable characters, this game will make you want to check in to a hotel in rural France asap and start looking for clues and interrogating hotel guests. And yes, the music is amazing and superbly fits the game world. This game is one of my all time favorites, but you will probably need a open mind, if you start playing it in 2020. Please do.
– Real player with 41.8 hrs in game
The Last Express Gold Edition
I think this may well be the greatest game ever made. Yes, the controls are clunky as all get out. Yes, for people used to today’s games the ultra-high-tech-for-1997-digital-rotoscoping technique looks extremely antiquated. Yes, you’re dropped into the game with no idea what to do, and you’re going to fail. A lot. But at the same time “The Last Express” includes:
- Probably the best-developed characters in any adventure game I’ve yet played (the weakest is arguably Robert Cath, who the player controls, but even he has an intriguing and irritatingly-largely-unrevealed-due-to-lack-of-a-sequel backstory). By the end of the game you know what they want and what makes most of them tick, and since certain bad things are more or less guaranteed to happen to a number of them the result is the equivalent of an emotional shovel to the face.
– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Real-Time Games.
Ahead of its time but stuck in the past
First read about this game way back when it came out, in a magazine I still have, where the reviewer was left in complete awe because of unique design for an adventure game. Ever since it occupied a small cluster of neurons in the back of my head, waiting for me to play it and its moment to shine. I should say I never played the original so my review will only address this 2013 port, with some inferior exceptions others have noticed.
It plays like Myst, from 1st person perspective with static scenes as you move around, but is set in realistic environment of an vintage luxury passenger train called Orient Express. The whole game takes place in the same 4-5 vagon carts with beautifully rendered backgrounds. You move by clicking edges of screen with mouse cursor that contextually changes functions to forward, backward and left or right turn, with interaction prompts for opening doors and object/NPC interaction.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition
I would recommend you not to read too much about the game. Play the demo first, it’s a good representation.
If you, after completing the demo find the game interesting and, want to continue your experience I would suggest that you back up your saves, before the purchase, because Steam will just delete it all upon installation of the full game.
I was a bit sceptical about the game at first, especially in regards to the new boy’ish look of Gabriel Knight and this silly southern voice that is being used, but also in regard to the changes of design. It took me awhile to get past that change and I was just barely ahead of it at the end of the demo.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
I was afraid something like this would happen when playing a 20th anniversary edition… Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers was the first adventure from Gabriel (the Shadowhunter) in 1993 and the first game created by Jane Jensen.
At the time it was a fantastic game, it was one of the first games to include a dark subject, not exactly suited for kids, not because of the violence or blood (that was something that other games always had) but also because of the dark, dramatic, almost ghotic nature of the main story and characters. Something different at the time (and still to this day) was the research that jane did for these games, mixing historical facts, real places, with of course a good dose of fiction to create her own story, and not just an historical retelling. It was always fun (and amazing) to go looking for these places after finishing the game, and see how much of the real world was put into the story. For me the most amazing story of all that jane had created was the one for Gabriel Knight: the Beast within, the second game, about the legend of king Ludwig II and Richard Wagner.
– Real player with 37.1 hrs in game
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight® Mystery
A game I revisited from my childhood. A FMV classic from the 90s.
It’s an incredible piece of work. Completely engrossing and uncompromising. (It didn’t actually take 152 hours, I left it on the launch screen - but expect a good 25-30 hours if you don’t use a walkthrough)
You play just over half the game as the title character, Gabriel Knight. Knight is a reluctant shadow hunter following the events of the first game, Sins of the Fathers. Living in his ancestral town in Germany, he is asked to investigate the killings of a young girl near Munich. The town folk are convinced it was a werewolf.
– Real player with 152.5 hrs in game
GK2 is the ‘Star Wars:Empire Strikes Back’ of the series, a really strong follow up to a fantastic first game, that may actually be even better than the original.
I’m on my 4th or 5th playthrough of this game since it came out many years ago, and it has singularly spawned my interest in topics such as Bavarian/German history, Werewolves and Wagner. It’s a ‘pilgrimage’ type game, which has me coming back and that in itself tells you a lot of about the quality of this game if i’m willing to do it over and over again.
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in game
Future Proof
This is a wonderful game of interconnected puzzles, there are lots of hints, riddles, and items to decipher. There are tons of ways to beat the game some silly, some very thought provoking and sad, and some really funny. The game has great humor too and it pays attention to details, like when the everything gets darker as your time runs out.
About the game play, this game is very difficult, and it is full of mystery. You will be trying your hardest to get through puzzles while the clock is ticking. Every death you’ll come back knowing more. Every time you’ll get a little further and you’ll probably never get far enough to know everything (unless you look it up). The game has so many puzzles twisted together as you progress through one you’ll find pieces to another and eventually you’ll find all the pieces to one and go that path and get to the end and realize you don’t like the way it ended or you want to make it end another way. This game has really good replayability. You will get to the end and start again so many times. This game is probably one of my favorite puzzle games and I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a good puzzle and a hard puzzle.
– Real player with 39.6 hrs in game
Welcome to Greensvale, a city full of mysteries and weirdness! Hidden under the normal looking surface you will quickly ask yourself a lot questions:
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Why is there a cow in the garden?
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How does it come that I see strange hints everywhere?
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Had this city always these portals?
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And why have not all people been evacuated 12 MINUTES before a fricking meteroid is hitting the town?
Ah right, the meteroid ….. so let’s get to the point. You are playing Sean, a teenage boy escaping out of school to run home and help your parents with the evacuation. Only to find out they are already out of town. So now you are standing here: 12 minutes before the town will be annihilated and the only escape route broken down. 12 minutes to find a way to survive or how to avoid the approaching doomsminute.
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
realMyst: Masterpiece Edition
realMyst is a very simple yet sometimes complex puzzle game that was made back when home computers were just starting to find their way into households. In other words, don’t expect there to be a huge amount amount of gameplay here. If you buckle down, you can beat this game in one sitting. That’s not to say that there’s no challenge to it as there certainly can be at times.
For the most part, you’re playing to find out about the unfolding story. This game used to be a point and click adventure. It seems to have upgraded to being a free roam First-Person which can ultimately betray any new comers to the game leading you to believe there’s more to the puzzle than what there really is. You can now roam in unchecked corners and behind bookshelves which you could never do in the first place so if you’re stumped on a puzzle, it’s best not to start checking every nook and cranny. To be safe, they’ve added a feature so that you can use the point and click system which at times can be pretty difficult to use since there’s multiple things to click on so you have to be pretty precise about what you want to inspect.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
“I know my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written.” - Atrus
And thank the great Guildmasters of The Art because this series went on to produce many other excellent games, Riven being the height of exceptionalism.
In a time before the internet I played this game and I remember being so frustrated at points. Rather than Google, we had friends who would hang out together and connect their brain processing power to try and find solutions to the puzzles. There really was nothing like this in the history of computers. This hypercard, photoreal, puzzle game with live action cutscenes and fully immersive worlds. It was jawdropping back then. If you are new to the game it may lack the punch it had from 30 years ago but it is still an incredible game today and while I understand the graphics weren’t up to a lot of people’s expectations in this remastered edition, I found the game to be very much at home as a first person free roamer on the Unity Engine. If you are a puzzle lover you will soon understand why the game is referenced so much and you will see how modern puzzle games have adapted the levels, environments, puzzles etc for use today in games like The Witness, Quern, The Room and ASA.
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Final Scene
ah, the theater! the stars! an audience’s anticipation! set designs! lights! positions! murder…? having only fully played 6 Nancy Drew games at ‘press time’ (quite fitting since Nancy’s friend is a reporter in “The Final Scene”), this one is among my top 2 favorites. (*note: i foresee the 7th i’m currently engaged in becoming my #1, although i’m not here to jump the gun… unless someone points it at me as Nancy, bwuahaha!) all jokes aside, the story line is immediately compelling, unlike any i have yet encountered in this game series. while each player’s preference differs, i found the puzzles less frustrating than in other releases. the characters/ suspects were most engaging, regardless of loving/ hating them. as a critic/ player, i extend rave reviews!
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game
Wow this one is a shining star among the early Nancy Drew games. You are thrown right into the action; no introductory dialogue that bores you to sleep, no obnoxiously long cut-scenes or menial tasks. Instead, the most exciting missing persons case in any Nancy Drew game I’ve played begins and from the first second to the final moments you are viciously tracking a kidnapper that always seems one step ahead, always taunting you with their stupid, low voice. The game is short but I will take a short and intuitive Nancy game over a long, frustrating and drawn-out one any day. There is a three-day time limit that puts the game nicely into a three-act structure. As you uncover new clues and puzzles, the time is always running out. The last day even has an actual timer that counts down to destruction ominously. I liked the characters, they weren’t the strongest I’ve encountered but how can you beat Henrik am I right? The thing that sets a good Nancy game apart from the rabble for me is whether or not you need a game guide to find your way around it. This is a classic example of a game that doesn’t require one, and is honestly a lot more fun because of it. 9/10
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
Déjà Vu: MacVenture Series
A very limited and simple quasi-real life simulator that has troll gameplay which makes you die unpredictably just because the game wanted you to die because of a particular choice you made, so, while playing this game, make your peace with death and prepare to die, LOL. At least the game has a great sense of witty, sarcastic and dark humour and a sense of showing the rope about life 101 to help players free from their own naivety and ignorance.
It’s very admirable that, as an adventure game, players ain’t tasked with most of the adventure games' usual boring errand-runner tasks that require them to solve a moon logic puzzle. What this game mostly ask from you is finding a key to open particular doors. As simple as it may sounds, the actual complexity of the game is figuring out who you are, what happened to you, where to go and how you can make things right for you.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
Deja Vu was the first of the MacVenture entries that was released in 1985. It places you in the role of Ace Harding, a retired boxer now detective gumshoe set in the 1940s.The only problem is, you’ve woken up in a bathroom stall and worst of all - you don’t remember a single thing of who you are!
This leaves you in the challenging role to solve the problem before you become a vegetable. That’s not the only worry because it just so happens that a band of criminals have framed you for a murder and a kidnapping. This is requiring you, the player, to think out of the box and think like a detective to help Ace.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Runaway, A Road Adventure
“Runaway” is one of those games people love to argue about. It’s featured in multitude of “favorite” and “best adventure” lists with many players considering it one of the best; yet there are always complaints from the other side of the fence – about puzzles, characters, story… Such division in opinions isn’t undeserved, as the game has some kinks and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it has undeniably become a famous title in adventure gaming.
One thing almost no one disagrees on when it comes to “Runaway: Road Adventure” is how gorgeous it is. A mix of 3D and 2D characters and environments creates vivid, rich visuals with some epic backgrounds you’d want to pause and take in for a minute before moving on (some 3D cutscenes, on the other hand, can be eyebrow-raising). The looks of the game became so popular that referring to something being “in a style of Runaway” is, in a way, synonymous with cartoon-styled, intensely colored, and detailed graphics - a large part of an overall attraction for this adventure.
– Real player with 25.8 hrs in game
Runaway: A Road Adventure is a point-and-click (P&C) adventure game which, by design, it is no more than your typical P&C game from the ‘90s.
The story centres around Brian Basco, an initially shy and nerdy Physics graduate from New York whose life totally changes the moment he almost runs over an admittedly hot chick, Gina Timmins, with his car. Could this be faith? Taking her quickly to the hospital, Brian soon finds out that the mafia gang is after her as a result of possessing an enigmatic crucifix given by her father which she pledged to protect. From here on out, it is knowable what is about to happen and is already hinted in the title itself: become runaways chased by the mafia whilst trying to decipher the mystery behind the crucifix.
– Real player with 13.0 hrs in game