Part 22: Beast Within 1: Shall we begin again?

Part One: Shall we begin again?

And so here we are, with Not-Tim Curry as our hero this time. And while I’m sure he’s a very nice gentleman, because of this game, he is forever now to be referred to as Not-Tim Curry.
So a minute difference between this LP and the last one is that I had played GK1 before. I am going in blind here, so forewarned is forearmed.
At any rate, let’s Prologue this bitch!


So we open with this fellow locking a door while a wolf howls in the distance.


He throws his keys onto this leaflet, and for everyone’s convenience, I’ve run what I can read despite the old-timey font through Google Translate, and it reads as thus:
Attention! The Beast of Ulfing
And that’s all I got. If anyone can make heads or tails of the rest, feel free to chime in.


We then get a long shot of this chubby kid and who I guess is his mom staring off camera.


Not really sure if they’re staring at the fire or not.


Then this guy shows up, barks something in German, and the two of them follow him.


For some reason, the fact that there’s only one person credited as working on the werewolf effects kinda tickles me. Not sure why.


Then we have a shot of a torch being shoved into a haybale, not sure what’s going on there.


And then the kid’s face is kinda superimposed over it, making me feel even MORE lost.


I’m sorry, who? I’m more shocked that any Germans who were born with that last name didn’t change it years ago for fear of ridicule. Unless they’re going by Office Space logic. (Why should I change it? He’s the one that sucks!)

So yeah, from that prologue, I have no fucking idea what’s going on beyond werewolves, and the only reason I know that is the leaflet, and the credit specifically addressing the Werewolf Artist. Also, seeing as this is an FMV game, and well, I haven’t had much luck with those in previous LP’s, I have a feeling that this is going to hurt bad. Brace yourselves, we’re going in.


Really? I have to choose to continue the game despite the fact it hasn’t even started yet? Wow, I think this sets a new record for how soon it takes a game to annoy me.






This game is made of lies.


So Gabriel just keeps a statue of the Virgin Mary around now? Well, okay, that seems like a minor point to get annoyed about.


I have a sinking feeling that Not-Tim Curry was cast simply because he looks vaguely like Gabriel in the first game and owned a lot of t-shirts.


And it looks like Gabriel’s neighbors have already assembled a mob to run him out of town.


Looking back at Gabriel, we can see a few scars from his adventure in N’awlins have stuck around. Except for one problem: I'm assuming those scars are from where Malia cut his arm to make him drop her into the fire lake under New Orleans (And no, I'm not letting that go, it was silly.) Now, I went back and checked this, just to make sure I wasn't crazy as fuck, but...



Do you see it? I'll just tag this, but think it through. The cuts are on the wrong arm. Malia cut his left arm, and that is very clearly his right. I applaud the attempt at continuity, but how hard would it have been to double check that???


Really? So for your prop book you just recycled some of the art from the game? Laaaaaazy.


OK, I will give this game some credit here. A) That’s a pretty good reproduction of the Talisman from GK1. B) That prop really gives the thing a sense of power and weight. I mean, from the in-game depiction, you really wouldn’t think it was so fucking hefty. Damn.


So Gabe is working on his next book I guess and gets frustrated, then punches his typewriter. Buddy, believe me, there’s better ways of working through writer’s block.


So Gerde (Ok, I’m assuming this is Gerde, this character isn’t named in this cutscene), comes in and tells Gabriel there’s a mob to see him. She then admonishes him that he’s not wearing his Talisman, and as Gabe leaves, he puts it on, grumbling at how heavy the damn thing is.

And thus do we reach what I’m going to assume is going to be my biggest problem with this game: Not-Tim Curry’s acting. Gabriel Knight in the first game was a smug, lovable asshole who owned up to his familial responsibilities and heritage as a warrior against darkness. No matter how frustrated he was at the situation, he was bold in his statements. This Gabriel Knight just mumbles and grumbles his way through the opening movie. Also, while Tim Curry’s Gabriel Knight had a very distinct Louisiana accent, this guy has opted for “generic southern”. Oh god, I was right, this game is going to fucking hurt me worse than The 7th Guest did, isn’t it?

Side note, if that is Gerde, she’s had some work done.


“Shouldn’t those be torches?”
Okay, that was pretty good. The old guy on the left, Werner Huber, tells Gabriel that the couple in the middle lost their daughter recently, and they need his services as Schattenjager.


She was wandering near their house when the mother saw a wolf.


By the time she called to the child, it was too late, and the wolf killed her and carried part of her off. The mother cries at this part of the story.

“They say she die quick.”

Way to reassure the grieving mother. Idiot.

“That’s horrible.”
Oh god, this is baaaad stuff.

“Ja, it is very bad, Herr Knight.”


So Gabriel is a little confused as to why they’re coming to him. Or possibly constipated.

“The killer is not wolf! It is werewolf!”

Uh, Jane, you do know the letter “a” exists in German, right? Even for Germans speaking English? Anyway, Gabe has trouble believing in werewolves despite, you know, coming face to face with the walking fucking dead previously. So the father-


Oh god, I can’t help it, that lazy eye is cracking me up…hang on…oh jesus….Anyway, the *snort* father says that the wolf looked at him with “human eyes”, and that it “knew what it was doing”. So I guess this guy is the Beastmaster of Oktoberfest. Gabriel tries to back out, until Gerde reminds him that he is the Schattenjager, and he finally agrees to at least have a look around the village.


So he naturally crashes on the couch after he gets there. So yeah, that was fucking painful to the extreme, and about all I can take so far. Also, where is Grace? The end of GK1 made it pretty clear that she was going to join him in Germany. But yeah, all that, MS Word is saying I’ve written better than 1050 words so far, and I haven’t even actually done anything beyond save my game.


Next Time: Actual gameplay (I hope)!