Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition has arrived on Steam, and it's as if time has never passed. On the other hand, this is a real restoration work dedicated to all the players who have lost the original, and since the original was a classic, its value has remained intact. However, it is known that the gamer has a visual tolerance that decreases with increasing pixels. Today his greedy eye loves high definition, but he can't stand the big pixelated screens that were all the rage in the XNUMXs. So Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen joined the forces of her studio with those of Phoenix Online Studios, and with great dedication he has elevated his best work to the exacting contemporary standards. The result is that now anyone can play the first Gabriel Knight effortlessly, contributing with his purchase to the realization of a new chapter of the series, already ready for years in Jensen's drawer. It would be nice to see the shadow hunter grappling with a new case.
Let's think about the present anyway and see what has changed in this version. First, the graphics are in high resolution. The developers have harnessed the power of new graphics cards to enrich the environments with objects or architectural details that allow us to discover something more about the atmosphere that reigned in New Orleans at the time the game was created. In addition to being faithful to the originals, the new screens are very beautiful, sometimes glorious in their evocative force, especially the iconic rare book store that Gabriel Knight owns. Compared to the original game, the characters then gained the third dimension, fortunately maintaining an acceptable fluidity in the movements. Above all, the quality of the faces stands out when they are framed closely during the dialogues. Both Gabriel's face and that of the supporting actors are pleasant to see and credible in the various emotional expressions. The voice voicing Gabriel has changed, but the new actor, as well as those who voiced the other characters, have all done a great job and fans of the series won't regret beloved Tim Curry too much. Gabriel Knight is therefore in line with the expectations of today's players without losing the touch he once had, and we wish him to continue to make the same figure in another twenty years. So we just have to look under the dress and see if something else has changed (and we are not referring to Gabriel's amatory abilities).
Gabriel Knight gives himself a dusting off and all graphic adventures are at his feet again
When the women were all Gabriel's
The puzzles have remained the same, as have the story and the dialogues. Little extra steps have been added, and a couple of events, like Gabriel's grandmother's visit to the house, have been moved forward in time. But the substance does not change. Gabriel Knight is as exciting today as twenty years ago and we are convinced that new players, thanks to the renewed graphics, can realize how even today he cleans up almost all the graphic adventures on the market, which hide from the classics of the past behind more or less successful polygons.
Jane Jensen has written a long and well thought-out story, full of details about voodoo and the city of New Orelans. This attention to detail places the player in a plausible context, but it is above all Gabriel's freedom of movement that gives the impression of being inside a world that breathes. Graphic adventures usually have too few screens and often look like theatrical comedies with actors playing in front of different backgrounds from time to time. In this case, however, the amount of places to visit is considerable and there is always something new to discover, thanks to the amount of possible dialogues on even daily topics. Now the topics relevant to advance in the story are highlighted in yellow, and this is certainly a facilitation, but at the same time it offers the possibility to play the character Gabriel. Since over the course of the days we will talk several times with the same people, keeping aside a few lines of conversation allows us to leave an unsuccessful search with the feeling of having brought home something anyway: a news, a joke, an anecdote. of the past life of an old friend. Another notable aspect of the game, very rare in adventures, is the evolution of the main character, from self-centered on the run from responsibilities to a shadow hunter ready to embrace his destiny, with one last, difficult decision to make. Perhaps new players may find some steps in the game a bit complex, but thanks to the new interface, help system and journal notes, progressing in the investigation should be a task for everyone. However, there is one last reason to choose to buy this edition of the game, and that is its historical value. In fact, in any screen you can access extra content related to the screen itself. These extras contain sketches, comments and interviews with the creators of the game, which tell how they modified that part of the game or what inspired them. It is therefore a precious documentation, very difficult to find in relation to the birth of a video game. So it doesn't matter if you played it when you were very young or if it's the first time you've heard of it: Gabriel Knight is still a game for everyone.
PC System Requirements
Test Setup
- The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
- Intel Core i7 2600 processor
- 8 GB of RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card
- Windows 7 operating system
Minimum requirements
- 2.0 GHz processor
- 2 GB RAM
- ATI or NVidia video card with 512 MB RAM
- Windows XP or later operating system
Comment
Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam, Official Site Price 19,99 € Resources4Gaming.com9.0
Readers (8)
8.9
Your voteThe 20th Anniversary Edition offers all players the opportunity to discover, or rediscover, one of the most loved and successful adventures in the history of video games. The new graphics, the modern interface and the historical documentation that accompanies the screens, give new polish to a game that does not feel the weight of time. Now anyone can effortlessly play Gabriel Knight: Sins of Fathers and see that, in many ways, it is still unsurpassed.
PRO
- An exciting story full of details, today as then
- New Orleans shines in its new graphics, and with it its characters
- Historical documentation associated with each game screen
- The new edition makes the game more accessible while leaving its substance intact
- We would have preferred a Gabriel Knight 4, but there is still hope
