One of the Greatest FMV-Adventures is back.

With this and Phantasmagoria on Steam i only need to wait for Tender Loving Care, Ripper and Black Dahlia and the greatest FMV-Adventures of all times are back in my Library where they belong.

As a native german speaker this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hilarious.
The bad english from german actors and the awful german from fake "german" (american) actors make me laugh still now 20 years later.

I played through this game countless times on the Original CD-Version (Win 95) and i give it a go again because the Story is worth experiencing.

Imagine you are watching an old movie. Technically, it's out of time...the actors look different, the colors are washed out, the sound is plastic, the movement is clumsy. But still, you like it for what it is at it's core... now, imagine you played this one game when it came out, when technically it was something else, and when, besides the technical distractions of the time, you stood there, watching, an amazing story, with interesting and engaging characters, and you watched it until the very end and you didn't have any more words, you just stood there in silence, thinking of what you have just watched. You were amazed at what video games may become, one day, some day, but that day, you are just sixteen years old and you feel lucky , because you travelled the world, across the ocean onto far away lands, places you never been (and probably you'll never be, but you never know) you travelled to Europe, you don't speak German, (And you barely speak English, which you are just learning ) and travelling (for real) is so impossible, so expensive for someone of your class, so out of reach for you, and still, you have travelled the world, you felt in love with the romantic, the wild, the unknown. And you are just sixteen years old and you are so far away from all of it, but life is just beginning.... and you've already experienced something special.

That's how it felt when i first played Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast within and it still does, but in a different a way, today.

Years have passed, and of course, technically, the game is very old, it would be impossible not to note that this game is from another era, before high definition, 1080p, streaming, online movies, even before dvds, this game was on 6 cds at the time, a time when vhs analog tapes were the way to watch a movie at home, and also a time of full screens (wide screen didn't exist), and Dolby digital was just something for the theaters. Sound was in mono... Its' impossible not to note that because it will be a distraction first, the same way it was a distraction at the time how good it was technically (during the 90s) but once you look behind all the technicalities (even if you played it many years before like i did you will get distracted by technical stuff) you will still find (hopefully) the amazing story, that it is the beast within.

When the main character of this story, who is a sort of detective of "special" cases, is hired by a group of people of a small German town to investigate the disappearance of one child, that they believe was killed by a werewolf... (yeah, of course it sounds cliché i know) you will start an expansive investigation across time and history, mixing real places with real historical characters, with some fiction. An investigation that would make you learn a little about European history, about king Ludwig II , some of his castles (that still exist to this day) the story behind them and his friendship with composer Richard Wagner, a supposedly lost Wagner opera (oh yes, there’s and opera somewhere, there) and all this mixed with some part fiction and lots and lots of historical research.

Jane Jensen, the writer and designer of this game is at her best here, creating a story that even played today, still resonates with all the right notes, mixing history and fiction , with the romantic, the poetic and the grotesque (and a little gothic, although historically is more romance than anything else)
The final confrontation of the last act, when all present and past stories and characters come to an excruciating and devastating end, reaching from the late 1800s to the (at that time present) 1990s was something so well done, so emotional, that even today makes you stop and take notice.

What’s even more incredible, is that, many of these places exist in real life, (specially the castles) and it is amazing to look at and see them after playing the game for real (in youtube, or in person if you can) and how jane jensen creates a story of her own based on real characters. What's best is that it makes you want to learn more about it, and that I can appreciate it a lot.

Finally, the music is something special in this game, made by Robert Holmes, is one of the main things that gives character to this game, the music is not only great, but it is so unique and original. Really timeless i would say. Compression wise, the music and sound in game is not very high quality. But if you are lucky enough, you may found one special CD edition that came out many years ago which featured all GK2 music in cd quality. The soundtrack is haunting and dark, it's like travelling to the past, walking beside kings and reaching to classic composers, all at once, it is like that.

The acting and the actors in this game are at times good, and other times.. not so much, it is a mixed bag of quality, that's what it is, but still in general it's good, some characters like the main villain are really great (very well acted) which makes a difference, and the main character(s) have their moments too, for sure.

The game itself is pretty good and straightforward for the most part, except certain parts during the final chapter which to be honest are not very intuitive (specially by today standards of gaming) so it might be difficult there, but nothing that can't be solved without a walkthrough.

With all its negatives and many many positives, this is the best game in the Gabriel Knight Saga, and quite possible one of the best games by Jane Jensen.

FMV games are often seen as cheesy schlock that's not worth your time. Gabriel Knight 2 breaks that stigma and excels at being an exciting and interesting mystery full of twists and turns. The acting is surprisingly pretty decent, and the gameplay, while sometimes a little obscure, is a lot of fun.

This is a really long game though and you really do have to sink a lot of time into it. One chapter requires you to read through every single plaque in a museum in order to progress. It's interesting - but it's very time consuming, and frustrating if there's a plaque you miss.

Overall this game is excellent. Dark, mature and serious. I recommend the novelisation as well! (If you can find it - it's expensive to even get a secondhand paperback copy these days.)

Thomas, Herr Doktor Klingmann here. Show our wolves to Mr. Knight

Gabriel Knight has this unfortunate habit of championing something right at the tail end of its popularity. Late 1993, Sins of the Fathers debuted as a pixel plotted adventure using a dumb icon interface and a creaking game engine. It was never going to be the most technically advanced title released that year, so it instead settled on being one of the best. Gabriel, a struggling author running a struggling book store, had fallen headfirst into an ancient voodoo sect that had entwined itself through the city of New Orleans. Armed with little more than a cult of personality and a mane of perfect golden hair, he smarmed his way through intact. His reward was enough material for a bestselling novel and a locational upgrade to a mediaeval castle located in rural Germany.

Then came the sequel. Wisely, Sierra decided Sin’s ageing interface was due an update. Unfortunately, the update it decided on was mid-nineties fad, FMV. Characteristically, 1995 was when the genre was starting to fall out of vogue, but the dice had been cast, and consequences had been reaped. Gone was Tim Curry’s scene-stealing vocal performance as the titular protagonist, and in came stage actor, Dean Erickson. Erickson had huge shoes to fill, but rather than try and emulate Curry, he provided a more nuanced take on the character. Sins of the Fathers’ Gabriel Knight was the king of his domain, an unflappable dervish of self-confidence, charm and wit. Perhaps fittingly considering his change of location, The Beast Within finds a more reserved Gabriel, one happy to be assumed a dim-witted American clown by the people around him while he patiently sleuths out the details needed to destroy them.

He’s also (unofficially) official in his second outing; originally a self-serving amateur detective looking for ideas to bolster his awful book sales, the successful elimination of the voodoo cult helped identify him as a Schattenjäger - a Shadow Hunter. They used to be an ancient order sworn to protect humanity against unspeakable evils, but they’re very much an army of one by this point. Still, downtown Munich suddenly finds itself held hostage by a rash of brutal, animalistic murders and no one’s really buying the media take of a couple of escaped zoo-reared wolves being to blame. There’s something stronger, something more cunning, out there. It can hide its tracks; it can shift blame. It’s bestial, but no mere beast. Modern day Germany has an old fashioned Werewolf problem.

Team Schattenjäger [population: Gabriel] have a monopoly on that market, so when the young daughter of a farm owner is snatched away mere metres from her house, there’s only one person to call. Spurned partly by his new-found duty and partly by his damning lack of material for a new horror novel, Knight agrees to look into things. He snoops around the farmland, he harasses innocent zoo workers and he spends time fixing his hair every time he passes a mirror. All a means to sniff down a centuries old hunting lodge, full of shady high-stakes movers in the political and business world.

Once he’s tricked his way onto the lodge’s membership roster, much of Gabriel’s time is spent trying to endear himself to the existing membership in order to try and figure out which one of them – if any -- might be [ahem] moonlighting as a murderer. But the lodge is a tricky place for a humble New Orleans boy to exist in. His newly-discovered Schattenjäger title has bestowed Gabriel with links to ancient Germanic nobility, which provides an initial foot in the door, but it’s the slowburn bromance with Baron Friedrich Von Glower that keeps him there. Glower seems to be the lodge’s spiritual leader of sorts, championing a philosophy that humanity is all very well and good, but perhaps man was better off when they relied more on their primal urges. Which, suspiciously, is a very werewolfy thing to say. However, the lodge is governed by this creed; all existing members subscribe to it. Some more religiously than others.

While he tells himself hanging around an open bar filled with (mostly) personable drunkards at a gentlemen's club is necessary and dangerous work given the context, this is not a viewpoint shared with his former bookstore assistant. Feeling like she’s been cut out of the loop, Grace Nakimura is not happy and is perfectly willing to demonstrate this to any unfortunate nearby. While Gabriel is all charm and subtext, Grace is laser-focused intellect and tightly-wound fury. She’s armed with a ravenous interest in history and a not-at-all tsundere attitude that she doesn’t care at all about that idiot, Knight, but if she doesn’t step in, nothing will ever get done. She kind of has a point; while Gabriel dives headfirst into trying to figure out who the murderer is, Grace is left to try and sort out the why.

It’s in her lore deep-dive that Sierra’s sheer commitment to the FMV format starts to pay dividends. All the backgrounds used through Beast Within are based around countless specifically captured photographs, rather than the mocked-up CGI efforts that were the norm. This is impressive enough when it’s the backdrop for Gabe lazing around in the farmhouse he uses as a base of operations, or poking around the local zoo to the annoyance of many, but Grace’s locations are somewhat grander. She’s latched on to the legends of The Black Wolf, a historical figure initially easily dismissed as fanciful who was active around the time of the eccentric Bavarian king, Ludwig II. Through Grace you’ll be learning a lot about Ludwig (wherever you’re interested in the rise and fall of the proclaimed Fairy Tale King, or not!), which means visits to museums and ancestral homes aplenty. All resplendently captured and ready for you to explore.

The two investigations complement each other perfectly, with Grace often discovering horrific patterns that predict the dangerous path that Gabriel continues to unknowingly wander down. With no way to stop the runaway train that is a bullrushing Knight, a lot of damage has already been racked up by the time the pair converge on each other. Some of it unrepairable. Their last hope lies in the successful reinvention of a long forgotten opera and the desperate machinations of centuries old conspiracies that’s all precariously balanced on the lock strength of a secluded storage room. Set to the heady backdrop of operatic tragedy, impossible high notes and awful juggling, the music hall’s catacombs stage a final, fatal gambit. Victory here, at best, is bittersweet; there’s no perfect solution available. Just hard decisions and heavy consequences.

Not every encounter with a big bad wolf can produce a happily ever after.

Bestselling novelist Gabriel Knight inherits a castle in Bavaria, where his ancestors came from. He also becomes the shadow hunter who fights evil in various forms. This time, local residents from the nearby village ask him to solve a girl's murder, and Gabriel gets to work.

You control both Gabriel and his assistant Grace Nakimura, who each solve the case together in different environments and are in contact with letters. The characters are well laid out and longer cutscenes add to the suspense. You take control in the usual point and click gameplay.

This game is a bit old, but has aged well and is still very playable. I recommend purchasing in a bundle or in a discount campaign. Have fun!


DE
Bestseller Romanautor Gabriel Knight erbt ein Schloß in Bayern, woher seine Vorfahren stammen. Damit wird er auch der Schattenjäger, der das Böse in verschiedenen Ausführungen bekämpft. Dieses Mal bitten ihn Anwohner aus dem nahegelegenen Dorf, einen Mord an einem Mädchen aufzuklären und Gabriel macht sich an die Arbeit.

Du steuerst sowohl Gabriel als auch seine Assistentin Grace Nakimura, die jeweils in anderen Umgebungen gemeinsam den Fall aufklären und in Briefkontakt stehen. Die Charaktere sind gut angelegt und längere Filmsequenzen erhöhen die Spannung. Du übernimmst in üblicher Point und Klick Spielweise die Steuerung.

Dieses Spiel ist ein wenig in die Jahre gekommen, aber gut gealtert und immer noch sehr empfehlenswert Ich empfehle die Anschaffung im Bundle oder im Sale. Viel Spaß!

Enjoy it with some cookies :)

Pistachio Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 to 3 drops green food coloring
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant pistachio pudding mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pistachios or pecans
1/2 cup green colored sugar

Directions

In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil and confectioners' sugar until blended (mixture will clump together). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extract and food coloring.
Combine the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, cream of tarter and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in nuts. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375°.
Shape into 1-in. balls; roll in colored sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are set. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

Gabe is bae

this game is a warm blanket for me from back when i was in high school. if you get it, you get it

a very good fmv adventure game. maybe the best

Canis Lupus Lupus