Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned

"What happened to Gabriel?!"

Ok, I really anticipated this game, when it was supposed to come out in '98. I am a big fan of the series, and I kept checking for updates to Sierra's GK3 development page, in hopes that it would come out EVENTUALLY. But it took so 1ong for Jensen to bring it out, that I almost believed it was just gonna be vaporware. In fact, as exciting as it was that I was able to get it winter of '99, it was also anticlimactic. Also, I was very disappointed with it compared to the previous games.

Story: 6/10 In previous GK games, they'd give you the suspects up front, and all you had to do was prove they committed the crime(s) in question. In this one, they try to connect too many different elements at once, instead of focusing on the occult atmosphere that made the game so great. The story wasn't even that original, with elements swiped directly out of Indiana Jones' last movie. I'd actually have given the story a lower score, if the ending wasn't surprising.

Characters 4/10: I remember cheering, when I first heard Tim Curry would come back to do the voice of Gabe. He, imo, IS Gabriel Knight. Though I'll give Dean Erickson credit for being a good lookalike and actor as well. But outside of the voices being decent[The new actors for Mosely and Grace are as good as the first 2. Yes, someone managed to sound like Mark Hammill.], the characters really disappoint.
I liked Gabe's character in part 2, cus he stopped acting like a player, and started being more serious. Here, he went back to one, and sadly, the 3-d version of the girl he's hitting on makes you wonder what he's excited about. I hate to say it, but the women in the first 2 games were a LOT more attractive, and the woman in the first game was only a DRAWING! As for Grace, I think they had this idea
that if they gave her Lara Croft's figure, they'd attract
the eye candy fanbase that's in video and computer games today. I remember the days when they emphasized her personality, and not her ''assets''. Now she's just a one-dimensional version of herself.
A lot of what they do in the game really seems forced. I mean, I don't think anyone would believe Mosely is in the Chateau, for the reason he's there. And what happens with Gabe and Grace in one part of the game is COMPLETELY unbelievable. I think they made Grace weaker and more gullible, which really sucks, cus those kinds of women are for Larry or anime-dating games, NOT for the GK series! I'm sorry, but she seemed like a perfect role model for young and adult women in 1 and 2, and now she's just turned into Ally McBeal or Julia Roberts. And Gabe has a good sense of humour, as always, but he seems like a bigger jerk than even in part 1. He's supposed to have changed and grown, from what I hear, but this difference only shows in his voice.
As for the suspects, I think they threw in WAY too many of them! In the first 2 games, you'd know who was the culprit very soon. Even when they stretched how the suspects in GK2 were connected, the story still worked. Two of the characters who don't even have any real involvement in the crime are probably thrown in for comic relief, but they are boring to talk to. Two other suspects' reasons for being there are really worthless, since the suspects don't really do much to advance the story. And the actual culprit doesn't have much of an interesting personality, since you meet that person later in the game, instead of earlier, like the first 2 games. By the time you find out that the person is the culprit, you really are only glad, because you don't have to play ''Whodunit'' anymore.

Gameplay: 3/10 The game's trying to look like Tomb Raider, but has the awful loading time of an Activision 3-d game. I hate having to go to another screen, and wait an hour, just to accomplish something for a few measly points. Even when GK2 went live-action, it STILL had a better loading time than 3.
I'll admit, that when you had to collect certain clues on certain days in part 1, in order to advance the story, that it was a little annoying, if you missed out. But here, it's worse. Maybe I just enjoyed the linearity of part 2, but I really hate having to spend all day collecting clues, from each and every individual suspect, and not having much of a story to immerse myself in, along the way. At least in the other 2 games, you'd meet interesting people who'd make it worth getting info out of them. Here, the suspects are too one-dimensional to make the task exciting.
Oh, and don't even get me started on SIDNEY. Now, I actually thought clue collecting and analyzing on a computer would be cool. But they really don't give you a strong indication of the information you need to research on SIDNEY;and the computer itself is full of useless information that doesn't advance the story. You don't even get points for some of the info you research. You'd also think that if SIDNEY had such a huge database, that it could actually bring up files on some of the suspects, so that you wouldn't have to waste time following a dead trail. If they really wanted an accurate depiction of the
internet, then you should be able to find out where the person specifically lives, and call that place up to find out more about the person's motives for being there. After all, the net has yellow and white pages, right? But nooo! You have to make files of each suspect, where you type descriptions of each suspect, based on what they say, or how they act. And you'd think that if you had to swipe fingerprints from each suspect, that with SIDNEY's database, it would be able to do some research on the people in question, based on their fingerprints. But no, you have to input all the info yourself.
I also hated analyzing the clues, using a complex poem
as the basis for my progress. This isn't Zork, and this isn't Police Quest! I expect there to be LESS tedium and challenge than those two games, not more! I swear, if they spent less time on clue-collecting, and more time on characterization, I might have beaten the game sooner! It's the only game I used an entire faq for, and the point of these games is to ENJOY working through a puzzle YOURSELF, NOT needing HELP(or at least not needing help 99% of the time)!
Just give me back the magnifying glass and tape recorder, and stop trying to make the game look high tech!

Graphics: 6/10. I'd give em a better grade, if I didn't have
to deal with a wretched loading time to see them! It can take 5 minutes just to examine an object up close. And at one point, the game crashed, and the textured colors for the 3-d models got erased, revealing a bunch of polygons in neon colors! I really don't dig this exploration garbage! I miss the old days, when the areas you were exploring were relatively small, but you had a lot you had to do in them. Now the areas are LARGE, and you have a lot to do in them. It only increases the tedium, as I increase my chances of missing something important. I admit the cgi sequences are nice, but after having played Final Fantasy 8 on my broken down ps[It's one of those ''older'' models I have to tilt to play a game], I'm still disappointed. Why do I get a better overall loading time on a broken down 2x cd game console, compared to a 4x dvd rom drive?

Sound: 5/10 Music's decent, but not as grand as the first 2. At least the intro is still there, but the song they used to play, when you were in a deadly encounter-like the tomb in GK1, or in the forest in GK2,when you're being stalked by the wolf-is sadly gone.

Overall: 5/10 I really expected a lot from this game, but the story tanked, in favor of graphics. Graphics that have horrible loading time. Still, I hope that number 4 turns out to be improved; that is, if Jensen even GETS to do a number 4, with people at Sierra being axed right and left...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/00, Updated 01/30/00