There’s something rotten in New Orleans. And it’s not just all the shady murders…
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers casts you in the role of the titular smarmy writer/bookshop owner, researching a spat of recent murders in New Orleans for his latest book.
This is an update of a 1995 title of the same name, although I’ve never heard of it (That might just be because I was four years old at the time and when I did get around to playing adventure games it was all about Monkey Island and Broken Sword) and my initial impression was immediately distinguished as a game that just hasn’t been updated enough. There’s a graphical facelift, sure, and a few little tweaks to fluidity here and there, but something just feels altogether insincere. Gabriel’s stilted click-to-walk is a pain, some of the puzzles are just plain bizarre, and it takes much too long for the story to really get any claws into you. Hell, wandering through the game’s environments and straying too close to the edges often brings up a jarring black border where the game has simply run out of the world to show you.
It has moments of genius, but these are offset by moments of sheer dumb trial and error – and while this might be a staple of the genre, it really shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t have to be an issue of just trying everywhere, showing everything in your pockets to everyone you meet, and hoping for the best. One of the first puzzles involves luring a cop away from his motorbike so you can listen to his radio and find out where a crime scene is. There’s a lot going on in the area – bands playing, muscleheads and attractive women wandering around, and… a mime.
Now, I spent more time than I care to admit trying to figure this out. Every other door was closed to me. I’d picked everything clean and I was getting frustrated. Then I noticed the mime following people and copying their walks. This complete and utter tool of a mime was lurking behind the other people aimlessly wandering through the square just to take the piss out of them (although comedy did ensue when he tries to follow the woman and she says “Get away from me, you… you man!”). In my head an impossible equation began to form. Mime + policeman = distraction? No. It couldn’t be. How? Was the mime going to pretend to rob an invisible bank? So I walked over to the mime. He starts slouching behind me, and I think I might be on to something, but then every time the mime sees someone else he gets distracted and wanders off.
Right. I see how it is. So I leave again, despairing, return to Gabriel’s bathroom to cry on the floor for a bit (sadly not a scripted action) and go back to the square again. I get the mime to the policeman, and bam – he starts acting like a monkey which for some reason causes the copper to start chasing him around for just long enough for me to listen to his radio and figure out where I have to go next. And yet, somehow, in this bizarre, fascist world where a mime gets subjected to police brutality for just doing his thing, blonde douchebags who get caught red-handed interfering with police business just get off with a slap on the wrist.
It’s not all bad. The atmosphere and the soundtrack – well, the majority of the soundtrack at least – are excellent, crafting a city steeped in history and darkness, balancing themes rather well between the seedy and the cheesy. Push on with the story and it’s definitely a compelling little murder mystery. But it just feels… well, old. The dialogue is chunky and out of date. It only really comes to life when people are insulting Gabriel. As they should be.
All the good parts are there. It’s just hard to get past how unlikable Gabriel is. It’s sort of like playing the older Tomb Raider games – there’s nothing charming or winning about his personality or the fact that every other sentence is innuendo. He’s just an arse, with his gravelly N’orleans drawl and sandy blonde hair topped off with an inexplicable trenchcoat. It’s hard to understand why anyone does anything for him. If he was a real person his name would be Chad and his life would have ended after high school.
Gabriel Knight is a game that’s only really going to do anything for you if you have a nostalgia boner for the glacially slow pace and trial and error of the adventure game’s early days. For those of us who have been spoiled by all of Telltale’s magnificent efforts before they even tried solving Monkey Island’s hilarious conversation puzzles or using a rubber chicken on everything they could, it’s going to seem old and out of shape. If you can get past the insufferable plank of a main character, there’s a fair bit of good ol’ fashioned fun here.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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