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Archived
Review
Gabriel
Knight 3
Hello
there fellow gamers. Have you been hounded by spooky
shades, or hideous horrors? Mobbed by goblins or a hungry
ghoul or two? Well don’t fret because Gabriel Knight
is back on the case. Yes it’s the return of your favorite
New Orleans supernatural investigator and this time
he’s got a whole bunch more nasties to battle and puzzles
to solve. Oh yeah, and he also has that real smooth
New Orleans thing (wish I could do that). The game is
back, it’s new, and it’s got a nice 3d engine to go
with it, as well as a fairly good plot. So let’s get
on with the review.
The story begins with a prologue written in comic book
format and packaged with your purchase of GK3. Gabriel,
(You) have been invited to Paris by Scottish royalty.
After initially turning down the invitation good old
Grace Nakimura decides to take it upon herself to find
out more about the invitation and eventually they end
up in Paris . Upon arriving they are treated rather
rudely and are basically the joke of the party. As the
night continues and they have gone to relax in their
rooms they are visited by the Stewarts. These upstanding
folk know of Gabe’s background as a Schattenjager and
have sought out his help. It seems that for centuries
their family has been plagued by a vampire like creature
that has its fill of the youngest heir in the family.
While they have tried numerous means over the years
to stop the visitor they have not been successful. Being
the good and upstanding supernatural investigator that
he is, Gabe decides to take the case and protect the
Stewart’s youngest child, Charlie. As he sits awake
with Grace and a canine friend one dark and somber evening
watching for the foul creature to show its insidious
self, his two companions fall asleep then totally lose
consciousness. It’s at this point that the monster shows
itself. It creeps into the bedroom via a window from
the street and snatches the baby before Gabe has a chance
to even move. Without a moment’s thought he is out the
door and chasing the beast and the young innocent that
lies within it’s arms. He chases for a long time through
the empty streets and sees what appears to be 2 men
getting into a car with Charlie, who then speed out
of the city towards a train station. Unfortunately for
Gabe and the Stewarts, the shady characters lose him
and he must look through the train to find the missing
child. His search is fruitless, however, as he is knocked
unconscious by a man hidden in shadows. You awake in
a small town and as you exit the train you ask for directions
to the nearest inn. This is the point at which your
fun and adventure begins.
The gameplay in GK3 is something that I’ve been getting
the hang of the last couple of weeks. Set in a 1st person/3rd
person view with transitions between the two, you are
given a lot of freedom with how your character acts
and moves about. When you look at things your are given
a friendly little item bar that allows you to choose
from certain actions such as think, examine an object,
and physically handle the object (this includes picking
it up or trying to use items). As you walk through the
hotel you are staying in you begin to become more familiar
with your surroundings and the staff, as well as the
few other guests. You will be given clues by most of
the characters you run into, though a lot of what goes
on could be considered just elementary deductive reasoning
(not trying to sound like the great Holmes, but the
game isn’t exactly like performing brain surgery). You
have an easily accessible inventory which allows you
to gaze through Gabriel’s personal effects, as well
as whatever you happen to pick up during the course
of the adventure. Interaction with NPC’s is fairly easy
to do, though you may need a notepad and pen to remember
what everyone has said to you. Not that everything you
will hear is a critical factor, but you never know when
something might come in handy. Careful examination of
objects will be very important to do, as things such
as Gabe’s wallet are important. In it you can find phone
numbers to call and other such neat things. Of course,
you always carry your schattenjager dagger and talisman
in your personal inventory. Some of the puzzles I ran
into were not overly challenging but somewhat cool in
design, but there were many that challenged the brain
as well. You don’t actually move your character as much
as point and click where he is to move. Most of the
looking around in the game is done using a free-floating
camera that you can maneuver to almost any angle. The
only time you don’t really have control of the angle
of view is during an animated cut-scene or during a
conversation with someone you’ve met during your travels.
In the beginning I found it a little bit confusing as
to what I was supposed to do. I know you are supposed
to begin searching for the Stewart’s son but you really
aren’t given that much information to go on and it seems
a little hard to draw forth new info from the other
characters at first. You do run into some old acquaintances
as you progress and not all of them are really too happy
to see you. Overall it’s not that complicated to get
the controls down and move yourself around in the world
once you get the hang of the camera. When you click
on a new place to enter you just have to wait until
Gabe’s avatar walks to where you want him to go, which
can be annoying after a while. Eventually you just see
the same awkward walk to a new room over and over and
over again.
The
graphics in this game were nicely done. The characters
proved to be a bit blocky but this isn’t something that
requires a top of the line video card to run, so 100%
realistically rendered people shouldn’t really be expected.
The cinematic cut-scenes were nice and put in enough
places to make it worth having them. I didn’t run into
any problems with the video aspect of the game either
technically or aesthetically as long as I played it.
On the other hand, I had one key disagreement with the
sound. The music in the game and the sound effects are
perfect; even the voices of all the actors are perfect
and fit in well. All save one. Okay, Rocky Horror fans
unite against me, but I can’t believe they picked Tim
Curry of all people to do a New Orleans accent. This
has got to be one of the poorest choices of voice actors
I have ever seen. Tim’s a nice enough guy, I guess,
but you can damn sure tell he wasn’t raised on the Bayou.
I have never played the original Gabriel Knight so I’m
sure I missed out on some major fun; however, one of
my fellow staffers informed me that Mr. Curry was the
voice for Gabe all the way back then. It utterly perplexes
me as to why they’d choose to hire him again, but I
guess that’s for me to spend my sleepless nights thinking
about. Other than one actor in the whole kit and caboodle
there weren’t any problems as far as I could see with
sound. The background music has a nice somber sound
which makes you feel almost too relaxed in the beginning.
To sum all this up the game is fun, takes some time
to beat, and is a nice addition to a successful title.
Aside from personal problems with the game, I can’t
see why anyone would not recommend this as a good game
to go out and pick up. If you are interesting in solving
a mystery and running down dangerous corridors then
this is the game for you. If you’re not a big Gabe Knight
fan but are looking for something fun to try, have a
seat in front of your computer and put the do not disturb
sign on your door for the next few hours as you delve
into the supernatural world of a Schattenjager on a
mission.
Written
By
Dave (Werewolf)
Montowski
While not writing for this magazine Werewolf wonders
if Tim curry can TRY and pull off a decent New Orleans
accent then why can’t I get the voice roll of an Australian
for a Crocodile Dundee video game? G’day mates
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