Developer and Publisher: Sierra On-Line

I consider the Gabriel Knight trilogy to be one of the best, if not the best, adventure series ever. These games are a happy marriage of the storytelling magic of their creator Jane Jensen and the talent of numerous Sierra artists. Gabriel Knight 1: Sins of the Fathers was published in 1993 with Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within following shortly in 1995. For a long time it looked like that would be the last but in 1999 Sierra released Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned.

While each of the three games can stand on their own (and beat most of the competition hands down), it helps when they are played in order - otherwise you'll miss the references to previous installments. Interestingly enough, when playing GK1 after GK2 and GK3, you might also notice one or two forward references that you cannot understand without having played the sequels - I'll go into detail later.

In Sins of the Fathers we meet Gabriel Knight (Tim Curry), a young New Orleans writer and owner of a bookstore specializing in rare books ("they're rare because no one wants them"). Gabriel is not a very orderly person, a little too reckless and a womanizer (I'm not saying any of these are a negative thing). Working as a sales clerk in the bookstore is Grace Nakimura, a history student of Japanese origin - also doubling as Gabriel's secretary, accountant and research assistant. The relationship between Gabriel and Grace is curious to say the least. Grace is in many ways the exact opposite of Gabriel - calm, cautious, intelligent (not to say that Gabriel is stupid - he just often behaves that way). Where Gabriel chooses direct confrontation, Grace goes for careful planning and well thought out strategy. The two are constantly bickering and insulting each other - quite possibly in an attempt to hide mutual affection. On the whole Gabriel and Grace make a great supernatural investigations duo.

Gabriel is working on a new novel about "voodoo murders", a series of gruesome killings currently raging in New Orleans. Gabriel has a source of inside information - his old college pal Mosley (Mark Hamill, of all people), currently an NOPD detective. The police claim that the voodoo aspect of the murders is fake, intended to be a scare tactic. Gabriel of course starts his own little investigation, seeking information in the local voodoo museum, a voodoo store, New Orleans Cemetery #1, the University and wherever else he can find anything relevant, or at least interesting. After a while he comes to the conclusion that the voodoo is very real and the murders are a form of human sacrifice - and that there is a very powerful underground voodoo group operating in New Orleans.

Seemingly unrelated to the murders are Gabriel's nightmares involving the burning of a witch, a strange talisman, a ceremonial dagger and other odd goings on. Apparently these nightmares had also haunted Gabriel's father who unfortunately died together with Gabriel's mother in a car crash when Gabriel was a little boy (he was raised by his grandmother). Parallel to the voodoo investigation Gabriel tries to trace his family tree - his grandfather had come to New Orleans from Germany and it seems that Gabriel still might have some relatives in Europe.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), it turns out that Gabriel's family and the voodoo tribe had met hundreds of years ago and that there is some unfinished business. In the process of righting old wrongs Gabriel must decide whether he wants to atone for the Sins of the Fathers and become another in the long line of Schattenjaegers - the Shadow Hunters (literally translated), Warriors of Light. Since there are two sequels out already, I don't think I'll spoil anything when I say that Gabriel prevails in the end and restores the power of the Schattenjaegers.

In GK2 we learn that Gabriel (Dean Erickson) has moved to the old family castle in Rittersberg, Germany, not too far from Munich. Ritter means Knight by the way - Gabriel's grandfather had changed his name after moving to New Orleans. Gabriel's latest novel, The Voodoo Murders, has been pretty successful. Plus Gabriel had appropriated a bit of cash from the voodoo cartel he helped to destroy so he now has the means to repair the old castle. Grace (Joanne Takahashi) stayed in New Orleans to take care of the bookstore, although Gabriel considers selling it. The only other person living at Castle Ritter is Gerde, a young woman from Rittersberg who was a lover of Gabriel's late Uncle Wolfgang, the previous castle owner.

Gabriel is trying to start his next novel (without much luck) when he's interrupted by a delegation of villagers. The six year old daughter of one of them had been recently killed by a wolf. Except it supposedly wasn't an ordinary wolf - it was a werewolf. Just the job for a Schattenjaeger. Gabriel doesn't appear to be terribly enthusiastic but promises to look into the matter.

He starts at a farm near Munich where the alleged werewolf had attacked. From the newspaper he learns that this was only the last in a series of mutilation killings. The police suspects a pair of wolves who recently escaped from the Munich zoo. Naturally Gabriel soon discovers that the killer zoo wolves theory doesn't hold water and whatever or whoever is responsible for the killings, it's not the escaped wolves.

More or less accidentally Gabriel also stumbles upon a very exclusive hunting club whose members are German nobles and high ranking businessmen and politicians. At first the club appears to be harmless but it later becomes clear that at least some of its members are somehow involved with the killings.

In GK2 Gabriel no longer monopolizes the stage. Upon hearing of his new case, Grace immediately catches the plane for Germany and arrives at Rittersberg. She is somewhat taken aback by the fact that Gabriel has already left and no one wants to tell her how to reach him. Not one to give up easily, Grace starts her own research into the history of the Schattenjaegers and their previous encounters with werewolves.

Meanwhile Gabriel gets deeper involved in the case. His poking around at the hunting club reveals that there is definitely something fishy going on. He also manages to squeeze some information out of Komissar Leber who heads the official investigation. When Gabriel learns of Grace's arrival, he's not very happy and sends her on what he thinks to be a wild goose chase (I said Gabriel was sometimes acting stupid).

This supposedly irrelevant investigation concerns King Ludwig II, the last king of independent Bavaria in late 19th century. Grace visits a museum and one of Ludwig's castles, Neuschwanstein (beautiful castle by the way). It appears that Ludwig may have suffered from lycanthropy. There's also a connection to Richard Wagner, the famous German composer. There are hints that shortly before his death, Wagner wrote a heretofore unknown opera exclusively for king Ludwig.

I won't go into the details but I will reveal that the lost opera is found and premiered. In the game there is a ten-minute segment of this supposed lost Wagner opera. We're talking real opera with real orchestra and real singers. But this musical sequence isn't just for the show, it plays a very important part in the story. The opera scene is one of the most memorable moments I've ever encountered in an adventure game. Or any other game for that matter. The music for all three Gabriel Knight games was composed by Robert Holmes and he did a brilliant job. The music is so good that sometimes I had to just sit and listen. The score is mostly in classical style and it fits the games perfectly.

In the end Gabriel naturally wipes out the werewolf menace, although it's a close call and he nearly becomes a werewolf himself. He would have never pulled it off without Grace. I should perhaps mention here that there is one scene in GK2 where the less hardy players might feel unwell (Gabriel does get sick in the game), so watch out. It is supposed to be a horror story after all and that part really is scary.

GK3 is taking place in 1998 in southern France for a change. Everything starts when Gabriel (Tim Curry again) gets an invitation from Prince James Stuart of Albany, of the old (and long exiled) Scottish royal family. Gabriel accepts but instead of just having some party time, Prince James charges Gabriel (in his capacity of a  Schattenjaeger) with protection of Prince James' baby son. Why Gabriel? Because the Stuart family has suffered throughout history from so called "night visitors" who sound suspiciously like vampires. Sadly, Gabriel isn't quite successful as a babysitter and these night visitors kidnap the baby. Gabriel pursues them on a train to the Rennes-le-Chateau area in Languedoc, France where he loses their trail. His job is clear - find the baby.

Gabriel checks into the only hotel in the area and immediately starts snooping around. The hotel is almost completely occupied by a group of tourists - or really treasure hunters, bent on discovering the ancient treasure supposedly hidden in the area. Every one of them has a different theory about where the treasure is, what it is and how to find it. It could be the lost treasure of the Romans, old French royal dynasties, Knights Templar and who knows what else. It just so happens that one of the treasure hunters is Gabriel's old pal Mosley. Both are quite surprised to bump into each other in such an unlikely place but (predictably) it will turn out that it wasn't a complete coincidence after all. There are lots of suspects for Gabriel because most of the hotel guests seem to have their own hidden agenda.

The next day starts with the arrival of Grace (Charity James) and two of Prince James' men who officially relieve Gabriel of the case - not that it stops him from continuing the investigation of course. While Gabriel is busy counterfeiting IDs, stalking, breaking and entering and picking up everything that isn't nailed down (those tight jeans of his have far greater carrying capacity than anyone would suspect), Grace is taking a more intellectual approach to the case. Her goal is to crack the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery and find the hidden treasure. She is aided by Sidney - not a new boyfriend, just Schattenjaeger Information Database, a laptop computer with a huge database of entries about history, secret societies, religious sects, vampires and other relevant information, as well as an incredibly smart analysis and translation program.

And Grace puts Sidney through its paces when she solves Le Serpent Rouge (The Red Serpent), a fiendish treasure guide which instead of simply featuring an "X marks the spot" map is a a very long and tough riddle involving local history and landscape, Louvre paintings, the Bible, Egyptian pantheon and more. If you like complex puzzles and riddles, you'll love this. I know I did.

GK3 is a fantastic blend of ancient and not so old history, Christian mythology and Jesus Christ in particular, Freemasons, Knights Templar, Priory of Sion and other secret societies, stories of the Holy Grail (which turns out to be something quite unexpected), saints, gods and demons, alchemy, heretics and heresies, religious sects, the Wandering Jew (who makes a personal appearance), ancient royal dynasties, ritual murders, hidden and mysterious treasure, secret agents of several governments, viticulture, blood cults, magic as well the latest in electronic equipment (considered to be undistinguishable by many people), unicorns, priests real, fake and hidden, strange churches and astrology, not to mention vampires (who are far more sinister than you ever thought). Everything comes together in a stunning finale which very few games (and most other works of art) can rival (one of the few exceptions being Gabriel Knight 2 whose ending is just as powerful, only not on such a grand scale). The first time I saw the GK3 ending it almost made me cry (but please don't tell anyone, I have my macho image to maintain).

I really cannot do the Gabriel Knight stories justice on such a small space - if you want to find out more, play the games. But at least I can now examine the technical aspects of these masterpieces. Six years elapsed between the release of GK1 and GK3 which is nearly an eternity in computer technology terms. That makes the comparison of the games all the more interesting, especially if we look at what has changed and what hasn't.

By far the most different in each game is graphics. GK1 is a typical 1993 Sierra adventure, running in 320x200, 256 color mode with a full screen (more or less) view and icon interface. The CD version can also run in a higher res 640x480 mode with most of the game still low-res but some high-res screens (notably dialogs). Pretty much all GK1 graphics are hand drawn with tiny little bits of pre-rendered 3D animation in some cut scenes. GK2 is again a typical Sierra game, but of 1995. Everything runs in 640x480 resolution with 256 colors. A very important part of GK2 is FMV sequences which form a substantial part of the game (and take up six CDs and several hours). The videos are interlaced, just like in many other games of that era. Where GK1 art was almost 100% handmade, GK2 is the exact opposite: most of the locations and objects are real (if retouched) photographs and movie sequences sport real live actors (sometimes with CG backgrounds). GK2 is thus one of the few live action games. Both GK1 and GK2are classical 2D point-and-click adventures. GK3 on the other hand is completely 3D with a free moving camera view. This is both a blessing and a curse: the free flying camera makes it very easy to explore scenes and it also makes it very easy to miss important objects. Compared to latest games, the 3D models in GK3 already look somewhat crude and character animation isn't quite as good as the live actors in GK2 - no surprise there.

There are far fewer variations in sound between the three games. All three games feature full voiceovers, although there was a floppy version of GK1 without them. Sound quality is pretty good in all cases, although GK3 is better than its predecessors (again no surprise, it was released so much later). Voice acting is quite decent, although Tim Curry as Gabriel is rather grating and annoying in GK3 (but he wasn't in GK1 for some reason). Music is MIDI style in GK1 and fully digitized in the sequels. In all cases the music is truly excellent and adds a great deal of depth to the games.

Similar to graphics, the game interfaces have changed a lot over the years. GK1 sports the classic icon based Sierra interface with a short and fixed list of "verbs". GK2 has the simplest interface with no verbs, no icons, just mouse clicks. GK3 is more complex again, with context sensitive action menus on objects and the necessity to use keyboard for full camera control. I do not consider any of these interfaces "best", each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Despite the major differences in underlying technology, the gameplay of all Gabriel Knight games is surprisingly similar. Each of them is in some way split into smaller parts: GK1 in ten days, GK2 in six chapters (each chapter is roughly one day but Gabriel and Grace work in parallel in their own chapters) and GK3 in approximately seventeen "time blocks" (that's my term) of several hours each, sometimes with added progression of time within the block. In all cases the game time is not dependent on real time and will move forward after you finish certain action or actions. This is sometimes annoying if you missed some little thing and the time just won't move. In GK1and GK2 there are optional actions but they're never important and not too numerous. GK3is much tougher in that the amount of optional actions is significant and it is easy to miss certain plot lines entirely - if you advance the game time there is no way back. This of course affects overall game difficulty. I consider the difficulty level of GK1 and GK2 to be easy to moderate. GK3 isn't really any more difficult to finish - but it is very hard to finish without missing half the subplots because the precise order in which you perform the actions is so important.

Puzzles too are similar in all three games - mostly inventory based with dialogs being a significant part of gameplay. GK3 is slightly different with the very complex Le Serpent Rouge puzzle and many "puzzles" which require you to be in the right place at the right time.

Because GK2 is such a great yet relatively old game and as a result I played it many times, I noticed a bunch of odd little inconsistencies. This is not a real criticism, just gratuitous nit-picking. First off, there is an interesting time lapse. The presumably current newspapers show the dates of March 1994, which is consistent with mentions of the voodoo murders taking place the previous year - and that was 1993. Yet Gabriel has a letter from his lawyer dated February 1995! Who would have thought that the Deutsche Post is so good, delivering letters before they had been even written... Another oddity that I would never have noticed if it weren't for the fact that I know both Germany and United States fairly well is the appearance of American style doorknobs in the game (you won't see those in Germany, believe me). The last imperfection concerns the usage of language. The story is taking place in Germany and most of the characters are supposed to be German. They speak with pretty convincing German accents (although not quite Bavarian, but that's nit picking taken to the extreme), yet many pronounce German names like an American would. Related to this is a strange inconsistency in the language of written materials. Many are in German and need to be explicitly translated in the game. Yet for instance the Schattenjaeger diaries dating back to 17th century are inexplicably written in English. That just plain doesn't make sense. GK3 has some of these "problems" as well. Which only goes to show that I should not take games so seriously.

All Gabriel Knight games share a common trait: the stories are a brilliant combination of historic facts and fiction (Jane Jensen is soooo good). It is extremely difficult to tell where the facts end and the fiction begins. Taking GK2as an example, King Ludwig II and Richard Wagner are real historic figures. I'm certain that most of the facts presented about these two in the game are real. Yet I don't think Ludwig was a werewolf (or at least I hope so). Same goes for locations. Munich, castle Neuschwanstein or Altoetting are real places. Rittersberg, as far as I can tell, is not. Parallels can be found in the other games. I'm sure that most of the information about voodoo and the African voudoun religions presented in GK1 is accurate. But I don't think there are real voodoo cults under New Orleans. Similarly in GK3, orders like the Knights Templar did exist and Rennes-le-Chateau is a real place but I don't believe all the Holy Grail stuff is true. Still, it's fun - and I strongly recommend the book Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco for a different but equally entertaining take on secret societies.

I am curious whether there ever will be Gabriel Knight 4. I have a feeling that the series was planned as a trilogy from the beginning. And the reason why I think so are the previously mentioned forward references in GK1. In the Schattenjaeger library, besides books on Voodoo, Gabriel also finds tomes on two other topics: Lycanthropy and Vampirism. And werewolves and vampires are Gabriel's adversaries in GK2 and GK3, respectively. Hardly a coincidence. Also in GK1, Gabriel's uncle Wolfgang mentions speculations about the origin of Schattenjaegers but refuses to go into detail because they're "too far-fetched". In GK3's grand finale we learn what the origins are and it becomes clear why people would consider them unlikely. Then again... searching for "Gabriel Knight 4" in the Sidney database in GK3 comes up with "Ghosts", so maybe Jane Jensen has GK4 all planned and ready to go. Or she's just pulling our legs.

The hardest part of every review is the final score. It is nearly impossible to roll up a whole game into one little number or letter. But it has to be done... so here we go: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father gets an A-. It is a fun game, well made, and even educational if you want to learn about voodoo. Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within gets an A+. After over five years since its release it's become crystal clear that GK2 is a classic. Nice graphics, solid acting, wonderful music, gripping story and a sophisticated mix of reality and fiction. Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is an A+ game as well. Good graphics (I still think 2D could have looked even better than 3D), great music and an incredibly broad and imaginative story with lots of great puzzles are what makes another classic.