Today is June 23, otherwise known as St. John’s Eve, a holy day that celebrates Saint John, the Baptist. In Catholic churches it was a pretty common day to hold mass, but over the years has decreased in popularity in the United States. However, St John’s Eve is not only a holy day just for Catholicism, but many other peoples around the world as well, due to its proximity to the summer solstices and the midsummer celebration. The day is also associated with the voodoo culture within New Orleans in which voodoo practitioners keep the traditions of famous voodoo priestess Marie Laveau alive, and hold religious ceremonies.
The date sticks out to me so much because of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, one of the lesser known (but still popular in certain circles) Sierra titles. Gabriel Knight was something of an off-beat creation for Sierra, instead of the usual humor, or tongue-in-cheek story telling, it was a serious detective story, that plays beat-for-beat like the schlock novels of the 70’s and 80’s that the creator, Jane Jensen, clearly was a fan of and tried to emulate. Gabriel Knight came complete with cheesy romantic dialogue, bouts of intense gore and horror, and characters that feel like they would be more at home in a soap opera than in a computer game. It was a fascinating turn towards the more mature side of gaming for Sierra, and it is pulled off wonderfully largely based on its unique setting and the amount of research that went into it.
The story beings centering on our titular hero, Gabriel Knight, waking up from a horrible nightmare, full of blood. strange rituals, and himself being hanged. This morning (June 18) marks a complete week--the 7th day in a row--that Gabriel has had this dream. Gabriel, and his assistant, Grace, both try to wave off his nightmares as a side effect of all the research he has been doing lately. You see, Gabriel is both an unsuccessful author and owner of a grossly unpopular used bookstore. Out-of-luck, and suffering writer's block, Gabriel has turned his attention to a string of murders in which the victims are discovered with their hearts cut out of their chest, hanged from trees, and surrounded by remnants of mystic circles. These murders--known as the Voodoo Murders in the local newspapers, are what Gabriel decided to make the subject of his next book, and has an in on the case because of an old friend of his, Franklin Mosley, who is a detective in the NOPD.
The story beings centering on our titular hero, Gabriel Knight, waking up from a horrible nightmare, full of blood. strange rituals, and himself being hanged. This morning (June 18) marks a complete week--the 7th day in a row--that Gabriel has had this dream. Gabriel, and his assistant, Grace, both try to wave off his nightmares as a side effect of all the research he has been doing lately. You see, Gabriel is both an unsuccessful author and owner of a grossly unpopular used bookstore. Out-of-luck, and suffering writer's block, Gabriel has turned his attention to a string of murders in which the victims are discovered with their hearts cut out of their chest, hanged from trees, and surrounded by remnants of mystic circles. These murders--known as the Voodoo Murders in the local newspapers, are what Gabriel decided to make the subject of his next book, and has an in on the case because of an old friend of his, Franklin Mosley, who is a detective in the NOPD.
Through the course of the next 6 days, Gabriel, and the players along with him, travel all across the local scenery in New Orleans, and learn everything they can about voodoo culture, and the recent string of murders that seemingly are connected to it. This element is where the game shines and becomes something truly unique, as everything is expertly researched and crafted, and you honestly will learn a whole lot about New Orleans and voodoo. If you were ever curious about the culture and history of New Orleans, or about voodoo culture and its history then this is the game for you! Jane Jensen and her team crammer in so much detail that it almost feels like you might be playing an edutainment game, but only almost, because this is actually fun.
Most importantly though, this setting just sets Gabriel Knight so far apart from everything else. We’ve seen fictional murders before in many places, The Big Apple, Chicago, California, Vegas, London, Japan, and even the far flung future, but you never really see that many mysteries tackle (United States) Southern society before. Gone are the big skyscrapers, fedora with trench coats, and fast talking, that most people associate with the genre. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is a different beast all together. Much like the cult classic film Fargo, it’s an incredibly refreshing change of locale for mystery fans. Throw in how equally refreshing the supernatural elements are—elements that are solely unique to American culture, and mostly misunderstood, or not even well known by many people, and you can see why Gabriel Knight is so special. Instead of the typical vampires, werewolves, aliens, and other monsters-of-the-week that most detectives would take on, our lovable lout and self-described ladies’ man Gabriel faces a whole underground society of voodoo practitioners that may expand into every pocket of influence and control in New Orleans, from the crime families down to the daily workings of the police officers out on the street.
Not only is New Orleans incredibly in-depth but Gabriel himself is too. Throughout the course of the mystery Gabriel not only discovers more about voodoo, but also himself and his own family history. Gabriel eventually comes face-to-face with the reasons behind his own nightmare, and uncovers the curse that has haunted his family for generations. You learn all about the Knight family, and how it started, why they settled in New Orleans over 200 years ago, and what they left behind from their ancestral home in Germany. There’s tons of depth to the story that really explores the cast of characters.
The pixel art of the original has a certain charm to it that just makes it timeless, where as the remake has beautiful backgrounds but uses 3D models that are a bit stiff and almost look like, The Sims, at times. But to play devil’s advocate, examining everything farther really reveals no matter what avenue you may look into, there are certain advantages and certain disadvantages to each version. The pixel art is classic, yes, but it is also created for a smaller screen, and even while you can enlarge it for modern aspect ratios, the content on the screen is less than what you can have in a modern game.
One of the main points driven home in a lot of the developer notes for the remake however, is how much emphasis and work was put into making the backgrounds bigger, and bringing more life to them. There are more things to look at in each frame of the remake, and this by large is what makes the remake appealing looking. Throw in remaking all the previous pixel art cutscenes that had very limited animation into full blown motion-comics, and some nice effects with the lighting, and it’s easy to see the positive side of this Unity based version too.
The original ’93 release of the game features an absurdly huge star studded cast of famous Hollywood movie and TV actors. Seriously, look at this cast! That’s right, those are the acting chops of Tim Curry in the lead role of Gabriel, which is blow your mind levels of awesome. But that’s not all either, as there’s Mark Hamil, Michael Dorn, Leah Remini, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the list goes on. The cast is superb and there’s no wonder why for many people the original star cast is one of their main reasons why they prefer the 1993 version of the game over the 2014 remake. However as shocking as it is (please hold your gasps for later), voice acting has come a long way in the past 20 years. The idea of wanting to create a new dub for the remake isn’t exactly an unreasonable endeavor, especially when you consider the high cost of royalties that may be involved for the previous cast of actors, as well as the absolutely unfortunate reality of the original recordings for Gabriel Knight being destroyed in Activision’s acquisition of Sierra, and thus the audio can never be restored or remastered for the remake.
The remake has a rather competent dub, and doesn’t even try to deviate much from the original performances. Most of the actors are trying their darnedest to match the mannerisms and vocal range of their previous counterparts, to various degrees of success. It’s a bit mixed, and some minor characters especially came out a bit lackluster, perhaps directionless, but over all, the dubbing is up to modern standards for the most part, and sounds good.
Jason Victor, the new actor for Gabriel, has a noticeably more Southern accent than British actor Tim Curry did, and it is honestly a bit distracting at first. Humorously so, actually! It’s no stretch to say Jason comes off as someone with a “Proud Southern Gentlemen” persona. His voice actually makes me remember an old episode of the TV show, The Office, where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) does a terrible Southern drawl all episode, and thinks everyone from the South ends their sentences with “I do declare”. Funny thing though, is that Jason more or less nails Gabriel down to a Tee. The Southern accent is perfect for a man who comes from a family that has a long relationship with New Orleans, and Jason puts on quite a fun performance to boot. It may take some time to adjust to the accent, which is honestly pretty rare these days to hear in entertainment media, but once you get over the whole culture shock of it all, Jason Victor really is a better fitting Gabriel than Tim Curry ever was. Or at least I think so.
No matter what version of the game you play though, you are in for a really good time, so I say pick whichever one sounds the most interesting to you. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is a point ’n’ click adventure game must, and even all these years later, stands as a fantastic story. Eerie, dark, and mature, the game was nothing like its competition at the time, and even with some stellar mature adventure games that have come since, Gabriel Knight still stands among the greats. The amount of research, planning, and originality that went into creating this game is simply awe-inspiring. The mystery of the Voodoo Murders are still to this day one of my favorite mysteries in gaming, right up there with The Tale of The Girl in the Back (Oh don’t worry, we’re gonna talk about Famicom Detective Club some day!), and Blickwinkel (And yes, I also plan to talk about Ever 17 again too). If you consider yourself a mystery fan and haven’t played Gabriel Knight, then do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of the game. You won’t be disappointed unraveling the mysteries this game has to offer.
The original 1993 version of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is available for Windows PC at GOG.com.
The 2014 remake titled, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father 20th Anniversary Edition is available also at GOG, as well as Steam, and other online game retailers.
