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

"The Third Time Might Not Be the Charm, But It's Pretty Darn Great"

GRAPHICS - GK3 is the first GK game to be designed completely in 3D. The huge environments are in 3D, the characters are in 3D, and every object and item is in 3D. With a powerful computer and a nice 3D card, GK3 looks pretty fantastic. I miss the photo-real quality that GK2 had, which made the detail sensational, but the sacrifice is worthwhile due to the shattered limitations of 2D. In the previous GK games you had a certain view, due to pre-set angles, in which to explore the different areas. Yet, in GK3, you are in control of the camera and you decide where to search for clues. It's Sierra's new engine, the G-Engine, which allows the player to move the camera around the environments entirely independent of the onscreen character. It's very much like the Virtual World engine used in the last three Tex Murphy games by Access Software (Under a Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, and Tex Murphy: Overseer). However, the G-Engine is truly 3D all around, which the Virtual World engine was not. Still, the concept of full freedom of exploration is identical. You can zoom the camera around the areas and look up or down, and you can even raise and lower your view. The amount of freedom is exceptional, and it lets you further appreciate the graphic design. Running under the best settings (high resolution, maximum lighting, etc.) the vast range of textures and the architectural detail in the environments look superb. The 3D characters look very good as well...expressive and well textured. Occasionally during the game there are short FMV sequences, but they don't jump from the in-game engine visuals to a pure CG look. Instead, they are done using the same character models and everything apparently...maybe being in FMV mode just makes things more fluid. Anyway, a tremendous game visually. SCORE: 9.5

MUSIC - This time around Robert Holmes had extra help in the form of David Henry. These two share the music credit. I have to say, GK3's music does a wonderful job of enhancing the mood and drawing the player further into the experience. It also brings back many pleasant memories of the first two games because a lot of the pieces are modified themes from the other two. It must be said that GK3 has the best implemented music in the series as you really notice it in a positive way whenever it fades in. The music seems to always come at the perfect time too. So I say again, this is the best use of music in the series, and the compositions themselves are on about the same level as GK2, which is to say, it's great. SCORE: 10.0

STORY - GK3 had quite an act to follow. Its predecessors featured two of the best plots in gaming history. Once again, Jane Jensen has weaved a tale of complexity that will have any player glued to their seats in anticipation. It begins when Gabriel and Grace receive a letter at the Ritter family castle. The letter is from a certain James Stewart, Prince of Albany. As it turns out, he wants them both to come to his home to protect his child from what he calls the "night visitors". Unfortunately, while Gabe and Grace are on watch, the baby is kidnapped and Gabriel chases the two suspects down on his Harley. He chases them into a train, where he is knocked out from behind (all of this story intro comes in graphic novel form with the game, and it's nicely done but GK1's included novel is superior). Upon regaining consciousness, he stumbles his way out of the train and finds a helping hand to get him safely to a hotel. The hotel is in a little French village called Rennes-le-Chataeu, where the adventure truly begins. You must track down the kidnappers while learning of many other enigmas including rumors on Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, the Knights Templar, vampires, a hidden treasure, and the Holy Grail. It sounds like another wild ride through a spellbinding plot, and for the most part, it is. However, while there is depth to the story that is comparable to the other games in the series, the pacing isn't quite as intriguing. Most of the heavy duty plot stuff comes on Day 3, which is the final day of the game. The days before that are spent searching for clues and piecing together mini-mysteries that are leading to something, but you don't know what. Then, finally, it's all dumped in your lap late in the game. Also, there's not as much excitement to the plot when compared to the first two games. All excitement really comes in at the last three time frames of Day 3 (and barely even that, mainly just the final one). This is strange considering that in GK1, the ninth day had a climactic sequence before the huge finale on Day 10. In GK2 there was a dangerous and extremely cool sequence at the end of Chapter 5 to build up to Chapter 6's marvelous climax. Yet, in GK3, there's nothing much to get worked up about until the final timeframe! Also, I must admit slight disappointment at the climactic moment of GK3 when it finally reared its head. I liked it, and yet, I felt like something was missing. It didn't have quite the momentum and excitement of GK or GK2's finales. Don't get me wrong though, GK3 has an intelligent plot with pretty well scripted dialogue, just like the first two; it's just barely missing the same league. However, it has the best ending of the series (as in what transpires after the climax). It's freakin' excellent, with a plot twist that just kicks! SCORE: 9.0

CHARACTERS: GK3 marks the return of two crucial things that were featured in the original GK, but missing in GK2. Number one is a motorcycle for Gabe (as opposed to a cheap car and public transportation in GK2). Number two is Mosely!!! Yeah! He's back this time around, nosing around in Rennes-le-Chateau. Coincidence? Ha, yeah right. The list of suspects is large, and the clock is ticking. The cast of characters in GK3 is quite an array of different types of people. There's Madeline Buthane, the sexy tour guide. Emilio Baza, the mysterious Middle Easterner. John Wilkes, the Australian with the rather large ego. Lady Howard and Estelle, an odd pair of women. Vittorio Buchelli, the lying Italian. Excelsior Montreaux, a local viticulturist. I could go on, but I won't. I'll merely say that most of the characters aren't what they appear to be or who they say they are. These characters are generally very good, but they aren't quite as interesting as most of the characters in GK or GK2. The main villain here has nothing on GK2s main villain either. Still, character developments between Gabriel and Grace are in full swing here, something big happens between these two. Also, the final twist in the ending of the game is exceptional. Ever wondered why Gabriel's family has been chosen to fight the darkness? Ever wonder when it all began? Get ready to find out. SCORE: 9.0

GAMEPLAY: GK3 undoubtedly has the best, most complex gameplay in the series. Due to the G-Engine, the possibilities are many. There is plenty of full exploration involved, spying that requires a 3D camera, etc. There is also plenty of convenience to avoid the hassles of large 3D areas. For example, when you move your camera independently of your character you can fly up to a door, choose to open it, and no matter where your character truly was in the environment, he/she walks into your view from just offscreen and opens the door (this is much faster than playing the game controlling the character manually). Anyway, this game brings back the one cursor type of approach that GK2 had, and now dialogue trees and choices are visualized in pictures as well (a picture of Grace, for example, means "discuss Grace"). At its essence, GK3 is the same kind of game that its predecessors were, with a few differences aside from the obvious 3D upgrade. One difference is the timeframe the game is played in. Where the original moved along through 10 days and GK2 was played through 6 chapters, GK3 is played through only 3 days but with 17 separate hour - hour timeframes (10am - 12pm, 12pm - 2pm, etc.). There is also the addition of SIDNEY (Schattenjager Information Database), a laptop program designed by Grace to make information easier to pull up and investigations more official. It's a pretty complicated tool, with many different commands and important puzzles involved in it. With SIDNEY you can scan in information on suspects such as fingerprints, analyze maps and pictures to find hidden geometry or small text, translate documents from different languages, make fake I.D.'s, and search the database (I really got a kick out of doing a search on "werewolves", it's got many of the documents you found in GK2 all readable through the database!). All of these additions, especially the 3D engine, make GK3's gameplay superior to the first two games, despite the fact that it takes longer to navigate overall than GK1 or GK2 ever did. Once again, a point system is used to keep track of how many tasks you've completed in the game. This is the hardest game in the series, and it's definitely the hardest to get all of the available points in.
SCORE: 10.0

VOICE ACTING - Despite having the same voice acting director, Stuart Rosen, GK3 has a much better result than the original did. Tim Curry returns as Gabriel Knight, and he does a far better job than he did in GK. The voice actress for Grace is superior to her original game counterpart and the same goes for Mosely (yep, he's better than Mark Hamill). Most of the other characters are cast well also, but Jean gets particularly annoying. Fine voices overall. Still, I don't think the acting reached the level of GK2's. SCORE: 9.0

OVERALL SCORE: 9.4

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/04