Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Game review

We have to suffer and pay with a blood for the sins of our ancestors, at least that's what Sierra's legendary adventure game Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is trying to suggest. Gabriel Knight game has excellent storyline, which is divided into 10 days and a great horror atmosphere and it is not surprising - the game is inspired by the same name movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

You play as Gabriel Knight, who lives in Los Angles, owns an antique shop and now has decided to track down the cause of voodoo ritual murders. The first days are nothing special, but eventually you started to experience weird things and horror atmosphere is rising. In your quest, you begin the hunt in Los Angeles, but eventually you will get to Europe and Africa. Throughout the entire game more mysteries you solve, more will you discover and the story is everytim more complicated. You are gonna unveil most of the mysteries of at the very end, but some of them will remain unsolved - open for your imagination and logical thinking.

The technical processing is clearly excellent (for its time). Above all, the music is worth mentioning, although Robert Holmes will show the real qualities only with the second work with a greater possibility to develop melodies from MIDI in GK1. Each location has its own specific theme, and the soundtrack is easy to listen to even on its own. The graphics are slightly behind the concurrently released QFG IV, but it's still something to look at. The difficulty is high. Whether it's the fact that the plot won't move if you don't examine an object or ask something, it's also the fact that thanks to the slightly "out of focus" concept of visual design, you can't avoid pixel-hunting. However, a positive finding was that there is no long-winded wandering around the rooms, as we are used to from adventure games of that time, and instead, when you select a location on the map, you are immediately transported inside.

The depth of the story, the details, the overall atmosphere supported by excellent characters and dialogues would easily be enough for a great movie, after all, while playing, I thought of movies like Angel Heart or Had and the Rainbow. Supported by decent gameplay, the game has become one of the greatest classics of adventure games.