"A top-class voodoo-me-up with more shifty comments than you can shake a stick at"

I was introduced to computer games largely through my dad - he worked at a company that wanted to be ''in'' with all the new fads, and they had kitted out the workers with Apple Macs. It didn't belong to him, but every now and then he'd come home with a Mac, plug it in and load up some point-and-click adventure games that he had gleaned from some dodgy friend of his. I replayed some recently when I finally got access to another Mac, and they were the most shoddily designed, boring games in the world. But the point is, adventure games were his favourite type of games, and thus they became my first.

''What's the point of all this?'' I hear you cry. Well, the only games that my dad would buy from that point on would be adventure games - if my brother and I wanted to play any other type of game, we'd have to buy them ourselves. Bearing in mind that most money we managed to earn for doing jobs around the house would be instantly wasted on Chewits and Irn Bru bars, we had to trust his taste in games. Several years later, standards had advanced considerably, and we purchased a copy of Gabriel Knight 2. We were hooked for weeks, and I kept ''borrowing'' the CDs to try and finish it before him. After this classic of a game was over, we decided to investigate the first game in the series, which by now was on White Label costing a measly £10. By this time I wasn't quite as skint, so I bought the game and my addiction was renewed. The graphics weren't as good as the second one (obviously, as GKII was live action), but they had exactly the right feel to them that made the player tune in after a few minutes and not care. It had the most compelling storyline of any game I'd ever known (even RPGs!) and it came as no surprise to me that it had been novelised. This game is still one of my favourites ever.

The Premise
Now, you see, normally I'd give a brief run-down of the story, leaving out any major spoilers. But this game has one of the best stories since that urban legend with the serial killer on the roof of the car, banging the husband's spine against it, and the woman that got out and turned around and was killed and stuff. But I digress. Basically, there is a book shop in New Orleans owned by one Gabriel Knight and tended to by his assistant, Grace Nakimura. Gabriel, in search of a breakthrough and/or the possibility of scraping together enough money to continue living for a few more weeks, has started working on a novel called The Voodoo Murders, based loosely on a real life cases. Gabriel finds himself being drawn into a mystery that could threaten his very existence. I'll stop now, because I don't want to give anything away, and I sound like the back cover of a Colin Forbes book.

Graphics
Yes, I admit that these graphics have a tinge of 1993 about them. They were luscious for the time, but they can't hold up to the inspection of anyone that has been raised by modern games. I find that if you stick with any game with graphics up to at least an Earthbound standard, you start to tune into the game and you can play through it without thinking about the graphics once - it's a lot like Shakespeare in this respect. This game exhibits this especially well, as the graphics are good enough for you to be able to see everything you need to. The only FMV in the game is a set of a few animated movies that show Gabriel's nightmares - there are about 5, but they are all quite similar with extra scenes added as you proceed through the game. Apart from these, the only cutscenes are comic-book style panel scenes, with carefully drawn artwork and, sometimes, better voice acting than the rest of the game. I think the graphics are perfectly adequate, but I can see how the mainstream gamer might be slightly annoyed by them. It's their loss.

Sound
This game is replete with a typical adventure game soundtrack, but it is executed startlingly well. Along with songs that seem to crop up in every adventure, such as the Bar Theme, the Old American Woman's House Theme and the Old French Woman's House Theme, there are a couple of really good tracks in there as well - my favourites are the song that plays on the streets of New Orleans and the ''frantic'' theme - I can't think of a better title for it that doesn't give anything away. The songs are kind of midi-but-played-through-a-bloody-good-sound-card, like Final Fantasy VII but without the scope of instruments. There are only two game songs that I've ever properly learnt to play on the piano - One Winged Angel and the Gabriel Knight theme.
Ahh, the voice acting. I once said to someone that in the Gabriel Knight games, everyone is either a criminal or criminally sarcastic. This is much more apparent in the later games, however, and not everyone in GKI is the kind of person that you'd want to beat up if they talked to you in the street. I, personally, love the characters, but this is probably because I'm by far the most sarcastic person I know. Gabriel himself is played by Tim Curry, whose N'Orleans accent has been frequently complained about by anyone who's heard of this game, but I love it. I think it defines his character and makes him stick out in your mind. The other characters with famous names behind them were obviously chosen by a sci-fi fan with a sense of humour, because I would have loved to see the tension between Mark Hamill (Detective Mosely, Luke Skywalker) and Michael Dorn (Dr John, Lt. Worf). The other actors aren't particularly famous, but each one is unique and fits their character well. I especially like the guy in the Dixieland Drug Store, he's everything that I'd imagine a drugstore worker to be.

Story
You've probably guessed from my constant plugs of the storyline that I am madly in love with it. Let me reiterate that this game has the BEST story of ANY game I've ever known, and only FFVI and VII come close. Not that there's any plot twists as such, but the way that details of the plot are constantly revealed, and the way that the more important ones are so blatantly foreshadowed from right near the beginning, makes this game like a classic mystery novel unfolding before your eyes. The story begins with its feet quite firmly on the ground, but it becomes clear that there are supernatural influences as you go on through the game - a few key words would be St George, Tetelo, Talisman. If you're put off by the age, make sure you pick up a copy of the novel from Amazon, because although I haven't read it, I trust Jane Jensen to have turned it into a good representation.

Control
I find it impossible to fault the control system of point and click games, because they're not open to the same faults that Tomb Raider clones would be. The perspectives are always the same, and a simple icon bar system allows you to interact adequately with your surroundings - but there aren't too many icons, like in Maniac Mansion. The game is also a lot more forgiving than games like Maniac Mansion, and there are very few incidences in which you can die - there are a few, but most of them have sufficient foreshadowing to let you know that you have to save. The only major control problem with the game is the beignet puzzle at the police department - there is a certain time limit imposed by the computer, but there is no threshold that stops faster computers from zipping through it. As a result, you have about 0.0005 seconds to make Gabriel walk across the hall of the P.D. - the only real way to solve this puzzle is to download Moslo or CPUKiller to slow your computer down temporarily. Other than this, the control is fine.

Gameplay
Being an adventure game, a lot of the challenge comes from problem solving. This is one of the best examples of a puzzling adventure, and in my opinion it is the defining game of the genre. If you don't listen in to every smallest detail of every conversation, you won't be fully informed for a later puzzle - I have one particular example in mind, in which a simple childhood reminiscence turns out to be the solution to one of the final puzzles in the game. It's also the first game I know to involve rada drumming and code breaking. The puzzles in this game are all novel, the solutions are mostly illegal, and yet you can't shake the feeling that no one would dare to reprimand Gabriel because he's such a nice character. It's also quite replayable as well, simply because of all the foreshadowing and the fact that you'd love to see which shifty comments support which aspect of the storyline. However, it's probably not worth playing more than three times for anyone except me; I could play this game forever (well not strictly forever; I'd probably get a bit bored after a few years, plus there's starvation to consider). Some gamers might not like the slow pace, but anyone who likes slower and more mentally challenging games (as opposed to mentally challenged games coughTombRaidercough) will love it.

Humour
This is always an important factor in any game that I play, especially adventure games, so most of my reviews will contain a category for it. This game is essentially a darkly-themed mystery, but there are more humorous elements than you might expect. In the beginning especially, there are quite a few small jokes, and the ongoing sarcastic war games between Gabriel and Grace lighten the atmosphere whenever an important plot point darkens the mood. Much of the humour comes from the characters, with Mosely being one of my favourite characters of all time, and Gabriel taking it upon himself to personally ridicule most of the inhabitants of New Orleans. There are some lines and scenes that you'll never forget, like the blessing of the bracelet and the snake tattoo scene.

Buy or...um...die? (renting's pretty much out of the question, being a PC game as well as a 1993 game)
If you can find it, buy it. I bought it for a tenner about four years ago, I'm sure you could find it cheaper nowadays. It'll probably be packaged with GKII if you do find it. If you find a deal like this, buy it immediately!

I would use a cheesy pros/cons system entitled ''We Want More''/''Cabrit Sans Cor'' but only people who have got moderately far in the game would understand it, and it's far to cheesy to say and have a clean conscience afterwards. So:

What? Why such a high rating?
Lovely lovely story.
Star-studded voice acting.
An atmospheric but suitably boppy soundtrack.
Rewarding and logical puzzles.
Funny moments, but not too farcical that they detract from the atmosphere.

So why not a 10?
It was made in 1993 (something which I don't care about, but you might)
I make it a principle not to give any game a 10 in case a better one comes along.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/01, Updated 07/15/01