It has been an odd month for early 90’s adventure games. A really odd month. First, we got a small teaser hinting at the return of Sierra Entertainment. Then at Gamescom we heard that Sierra is in fact back and working on a new King’s Quest game. Now we have this potentially exciting news that another of Sierra’s former properties, Gabriel Knight, is making a return, this time from Pinkerton Road Studio. I got the lucky chance to check out Gabriel Knight this week.
As a massive fan of the point-and-click adventure genre from the early 90’s, I for one am ecstatic. Telltale games has really moved the genre into modern times with the likes of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, and I can’t wait to see what this new wave of re imagined classics brings.
The original Gabriel Knight was released by Sierra On-Line in an era when there were two really big players in the point-and-click game, Sierra and LucasArts. Each studio had their own distinct style and most people I knew only experienced one or the other. As a LucasArts kid I never got the chance to play the original Gabriel Knight, so I come to the 20th Anniversary with a completely fresh set of eyes. Unfortunately from what I’ve seen so far, these fresh eyes are starting to get a little sore.
I got the chance to play the first two days of the 10-day Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition, and so far I’m not yet sold. The controls feel pretty sticky and unresponsive. The voice work is pretty rough as well, at least at this point in development. Most importantly, the puzzle solving treadmill just hasn’t felt rewarding yet. Point-and-click games at their very core are about presenting you with a problem and making you come up with an unconventional way of solving it. This process usually feels very satisfying, but so far with Gabriel Knight it just….doesn’t.
New environments seem well realized, but will the gameplay hold up?
The story seems intriguing, and from what I’ve seen it follows the same exact arc as the original Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers story. Hopefully there’s some really fantastic nostalgia for fans of the series in this remake, but things have changed a lot in the last 20 years, especially from a controls standpoint. Higher standards have been set by Telltale games, Monkey Island remakes, Broken Age, and likely the upcoming Grim Fandango. The same old mechanics from the original are going to be harsh and abrasive for any newcomers to the series.
I am very intrigued by the ultra dark mood that’s set right off the bat in this game. I’m used to pretty fluffy, light-hearted adventure games, and a dark departure would be welcome. That alone might be enough for me to keep going with Gabriel Knight when it’s fully released. With a slated release for iOS and Android, the mobile arena might be the ideal location to give this game a shot. As a full PC release, however, we’ll have to see if improvements are made in terms of gameplay mechanics.
