The Let's Play Archive

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

by flamedrake

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Original Thread: Gabriel Knight: Lying and stealing your way to the truth

 



Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, the brainchild of writer/game designer Jane Jensen, is a point-and-click adventure game released by Sierra Entertainment in 1993. It made a name for itself with a well-written, serious storyline, an excellent audio/visual presentation, and a relative lack of the totally insane puzzles this genre is infamous for. Of particular note is the CD version, which I will be playing here, which improves upon the floppy version with 640x480 resolution, greatly improved music and -- most importantly -- full voice acting from a professional Hollywood cast that (for the most part) does a great job.

In 1998, during the buildup to the third and (to date) final entry in the series, Sierra rereleased this and Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within in a two-pack that also included a soundtrack CD and a copy Jensen's own Sins of the Fathers novelization. This is how I became familiar with the series. Sadly, I lost the book somewhere in the last ten years, but I recall it being a fairly good adaptation.

So, why am I LPing this? Mainly because I think it's great and I want to share the experience (to include the frustrating parts) with those who haven't played it. We can't expect everyone to have been gaming for 10+ years, after all. Additionally, I'm sure there are some people who played it but never beat it for one of several reasons:

- The beginning parts are very slow, and the game takes a while to heat up.
- Although not as bad as some of its peers, there are some frustratingly obtuse puzzles.
- Horrible, game-crippling timing bugs.

To counteract the last of these, I'm going to use a fanmade patch to the Windows version to make it fully playable in XP. To the best of my knowledge, it only makes one significant gameplay change (which is a spoiler, eventually explained in Chapter 30.1), and that's really more of a courtesy than anything.

With all that said, let's get started! I'm going to focus primarily on the storyline, so I doubt I'm going to end up hunting down every single little thing that gives you points (scratch that, turns out it's a full-score run). As such, I'm also going to try to focus Gabriel's actions into an order that makes some semblance of sense whenever possible. There are many things you can do on day 1, for instance, that don't make a lick of sense until day 3. There are a couple points where I know I'm gonna have to stretch it a bit but I think it'll work a lot better this way.


The Story
Gabriel Knight is one part starving writer and one part starving New Orleans bookstore owner. He has a few horror novels published, but none of them caught on, and the store is pretty much a sales disaster. For his next book, however, he has a great research lead: His best friend, a well-respected detective, is embroiled in a murder case, and he's allowed Gabriel in on it. The murders appear to have been conducted during Voodoo ceremonies, although the police believe this aspect is faked.

Not satisfied with the information being fed to him, Gabriel begins digging on his own. As he gets deeper in the case, he begins to suffer from terrible nightmares. Before he knows it, he becomes too involved to back out. Worse, the murderers begin to catch on to his prying.

Worse still, he begins to believe that the Voodoo -- and the power behind it -- might be real...


Major Characters

Gabriel Knight (voiced by Tim Curry) is, as mentioned, a novelist whose works have not exactly jumped to the top of the bestseller lists. He's also a bit of a perv. He's very inquisitive, and prepared to tear New Orleans apart to find out the truth behind these murders.

On a side note, Tim Curry's accent for this game is legendarily bad. It is an experience that should not be missed.


Grace Nakimura (voiced by Leah Remini) is Gabriel's assistant. She came to New Orleans to escape having to pursue a doctorate immediately, and wound up at Gabriel's store. She's extremely smart and is pretty much the only thing keeping the store up and running. Gabriel also hasn't paid her yet, because there is no money. She sticks around because -- let's be fair -- she's a bit of a doormat, but her heart's in the right place.


Franklin Mosely (voiced by Mark Hamill) is Gabriel's aforementioned detective friend. Gabriel gives him a lot of crap, but he actually is extremely good at his job. He's just as determined to find out the truth behind these killings, but through official channels whenever possible. His assistance -- and occasional hindrance -- is essential to Gabriel's own investigation.


Malia Gedde (voiced by Leilani Jones) is a beautiful, extraordinarily wealthy socialite who Gabriel falls head over heels for. She appears to have some involvement in the case, but what that involvement entails is unclear.


Wolfgang Ritter (voiced by Efram Zimbalist Jr.) is some weird German guy who keeps calling Gabriel.


Table of Contents

This game contains some minor content on Day 6. All unmarked pages are safe.


Chapter 1: Gabriel Knight vs. Mornings
Chapter 2: Gabriel Knight vs. St. George's Books
Chapter 3: Gabriel Knight vs. Knight Family History
Chapter 4: Gabriel Knight vs. The French Quarter
Chapter 5: Gabriel Knight vs. The Police
Chapter 6: Gabriel Knight vs. Minor Felonies
Chapter 7: Gabriel Knight vs. Evenings



Chapter 8: Gabriel Knight vs. Class Consciousness
Chapter 9: Gabriel Knight vs. Voodoo Lore
Chapter 10: Gabriel Knight vs. Magentia Moonbeam
Chapter 11: Gabriel Knight vs. Snake Research
Chapter 12: Gabriel Knight vs. Malia Gedde



Chapter 13: Gabriel Knight vs. Reasonable Expectations
Chapter 14: Gabriel Knight vs. Interrogations
Chapter 15: Gabriel Knight vs. Lectures
Chapter 16: Gabriel Knight vs. Family Secrets
Chapter 17: Gabriel Knight vs. Odds & Ends
Chapter 18: Father MacLaughlin vs. Mild Dementia



Chapter 19: Gabriel Knight vs. Detective Mosely
Chapter 20: Gabriel Knight vs. Crash



Chapter 21: Gabriel Knight vs. Ritter Family History
Chapter 21.1: It's Just Like A Great Big Hug
Chapter 22: Detective Mosely vs. Compelling Evidence


Chapter 23: Gabriel Knight vs. Unexpected Gifts
Chapter 24: Brother Crocodile vs. Brother Eagle
Chapter 24.1: This Is The Worst Consolation Prize


Chapter 25: Grace Nakimura vs. Travel Plans
Chapter 26: Gabriel Knight vs. A Massive Headache
Chapter 27: Gabriel Knight vs. Schloss Ritter


Chapter 28: Gabriel Knight vs. The Library


Chapter 29: Gabriel Knight vs. Sacred Ground
Chapter 30: Wolfgang Ritter vs. The Inner Chamber
Chapter 30.1: Eat Your Heart Out


Chapter 31: Gabriel Knight vs. Homecomings
Chapter 32: Gabriel Knight vs. The Secret Hounfour
Chapter 33: Gabriel Knight vs. Dr. John
Chapter 34: Gabriel Knight vs. Tetelo
Epilogue: Gabriel Knight vs. The Future
Chapter 34.1: You Are So Dead
Chapter 34.2: Ritualistic Failure
Chapter 34.3: Alternate Endings
Archive Index