Point and click adventure games seem to be making a bit of a comeback in the last year or so and I’m really pleased with that. In the mid 90s, I got my first CD-ROM and point and clicks, especially those from Lucasarts, remain some of my favorite games, and source of gaming memories, of all time. Yet, I managed to never play the Sierra Online titles, despite having bought them over the years from places like GOG. In some respects, I’m glad I had yet to play the original Gabriel Knight, but having now played this 20th Anniversary Edition version, my interest in the original has only increased.
So, all that anecdotal stuff aside, what Pinkerton Road Studio are offering here is a genre-defining experience. It’s one of the very best in a genre that’s packed with classics, and quite frankly it’s one of the best adventure games released in a very long time, even though it’s just a re-imagining. I’m avoiding the term “HD edition” because it’s hardly that, this 20th Anniversary release is really a celebration and modernization of a superb game. Along the way, some miscellaneous bugs were introduced, nothing game-breaking, but there are some minor quirks to this release. Most apparent to me were some of the robotic animations of the characters triggered at certain events, or glitches in the dialogue scenes with NPCs. The ‘robotic animations’ are not terribly unusual for a point and click adventure, but when you do see them, you’ll know it right away, as they stick out against an otherwise serene visual package (especially the backgrounds). As for the dialogue woes, it’s easy to cause both parties to speak simultaneously or to skip over the subtitles, which makes the conversations a little garbled up, but still understandable.
On the other hand, the Anniversary Edition does a lot of very positive things, too. The most obvious of these are the graphics, which brings the game into 3D and it looks excellent. I actually played in a 1400×1050 Windowed mode on my 2560x1080p screen with the ‘Fantastic’ detail settings and it was really impressive, and also dealt with ALT+Tab’ing perfectly fine. The back/foreground art was the most impressive of the visual package, with some scenes showing details as minute as floating dust particles next to a window with sunlight shining through. Each room or area is loaded with nice visual detail that goes a long way towards building a great and memorable atmosphere. Plus, in each of these ‘rooms’ you can also click on the Star icon in the bottom of the HUD (assuming you haven’t selected to hide it) to bring up additional information. These extra bits of info are really interesting for fans of the original game or videogame buffs/historians in general because you are often shown the original design sketch or a picture-in-picture comparison with a screenshot of the ’93 game and the current one. Other cool bonus features include audio interviews with Jane Jensen or various other artwork and renderings, both vintage and new. I’ve gotten a little bit off track here, but suffice it to say the visual package is a strong point, as is the bonus content that is available for each room.
The graphical work is complimented by a remastered soundtrack from the original composer, too. Robert Holmes, who also did audio work for the King’s Quest games, Cognition, and others, presents a good score for the game. Sometimes I thought the music came off a little bombastic and overbearing, but mostly it does what it is intended to do, and that’s help create an immersive atmosphere that compliments the graphics and the tone of the story in that particular moment. I think my favorite track, by the way, is the one in the Voodoo Museum which you’re actually treated to very early in the adventure.
Interestingly (and unfortunately lost on me as I haven’t played the ’93 version), some of the puzzles, items, and timing of events have changed in this new version. I would have to think these were changes that Jane and Pinkerton decided were best for the flow or otherwise sake of the game, so they’re probably good things, but purists expecting just a “HD-ified” version of the ’93 release with bonus content might be irked by this. I’m eager to see the differences between the two games as far as these changes go, but speaking strictly about this 2014 version I thought the puzzle design to be fair and logical.
Even still, at times I did make use of the integrated Hint system which is not only extremely helpful, but also well designed. I doubt the original game had this feature, and of course back in the early 90s there were no online outlets or Let’s Plays to get you out of a rut. And with Gabriel Knight, there are a lot of places to visit, NPCs to talk with at length, and it’s not uncommon to have a dozen or more inventory items, too. So a hint can really go a long way in keeping things going and avoiding the dismay of being stumped for however long. To use the hints, you simply open up the Journal which keeps track of all of the various paths and such that Gabriel needs to investigate, and click on the Hints tab. A simple question is posed to you that in itself helps you figure out what you need to be focusing on, but, usually you are already asking yourself this same question, you just need a hint to get going. To show the Level 1 hint, you click on the corresponding button and a few lines of text are revealed that given you another broad overview or explanation of what to do. If you need more specific info, you can wait about thirty seconds and the Hint Level 2 button appears, which gets further detailed. Finally, a Level 3 button, which you again have to wait for to activate, appears. It will tell you in pretty much no ambiguous terms what you need to do. I don’t have all the time in the world that I used to have growing up, so a built-in Hint system is something I welcomed, and I really liked that the answers aren’t just plainly visible for you to see, and that you have to wait a little bit for the hints to become available. This lets players get just a tiny hint, a moderate hint, a huge hint, or even not hint at all if you decide not to look.
At the end of the day, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is required playing for anyone who enjoys a great story and classic point and click adventuring. Whether you play the original from ’93 or this impressively updated Anniversary Edition is up to you, but the latter offers a lot of modernizations and extra content, while still being true to the original, that makes it that much more compelling.
To the summary…