Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition

The original game was quite important in my formative years. My shared love of the game unlocked a whole new friend group with an interest in non-mainstream, artsier stuff. I bought no fewer than three black leather overcoats—mostly from thrift shops—directly as a result of [i]Gabriel Knight[/i]. And I'd have ranked it top slot for decades, up until I hit [i]Disco Elysium[/i]. That said, my opinions on the remake are unbiased and correct. Somehow, this decade-old remake feels more old fashioned than the three-decade-old game it's based upon. In every way, aside from resolution, it's lateral moves or steps backwards. [h3]Visuals[/h3] Sierra was at the top of it's field in pixel art—which is still in fashion in the indie scene, thanks to nostalgia and budgetary limitations. The 3D art of the remake is [i]not[/i] exemplar—though it looks fine from a distance for the most part. The character portraits that pop up during interrogations, however, are still images manipulated by an automated lip-syncing program that gives everyone the same weird teeth. Those, and the two new puzzles, have the aesthetic of those illustrated (now uncanny AI) hidden object games aimed at older ladies. Discordant, is the word. [h3]Audio[/h3] The original had the budget to hire Hollywood talent for the voice roles, such as Tim Curry (Dr. Frank-N-Furter), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Leah Remini (former Scientologist) and Michael Dorn (Worf). The original recordings were lost so it was either low bitrate audio or a new cast. The the small, independent studio doing the remake could not afford A-listers, so it's just young actors doing impressions. The impressions aren't bad but the performances are less than stellar, especially comparatively. This downgrade's a more severe blow than the visuals. [h3]GUI[/h3] A lot of the crew did return, the illustrator, animator, composer, even Jane Jensen herself. Unfortunately, any new blood on the team didn't show as everything's thoroughly dated. I struggle to think of any quality of life upgrades at all. There's the behind the scenes content—which is interesting—but even that's presented in a clunky 90s manner. All of the locations were modeled in 3D but the camera never moves, so, why? Frankly, I think they would have been better off adding achievements and trading cards to the original version instead. Maybe spending some of that money on ads. Pinkerton Road might have stayed solvent. [h3]Story[/h3] Full, graphical narrative games were a rarer breed in the 90s, let alone one with mature themes. We were thirsty for them. This one's a pulpy noir set in a New Orleans with a touch of mysticism, secret societies and a love triangle. To their credit, they changed almost nothing and it holds up pretty well. Maybe a period piece now. The stand outs being the womanizing lead, with a heart of gold, and the meticiously researched voodoo material. I read a bunch of books on the topic afterward back then and they only changed some of names slightly, as I recall. I dug it. This and the sequels always did a great job weaving history with the supernatural. A tradition carried on in [i]Assassin's Creed[/i] series. It's [i]edutainment[/i], people. [h3]Fin[/h3] All said, I still enjoyed my time with the remake. The story's still there and it's fun. It took me a while to get past the downgrades—I would have preferred a fresh overhaul—but it's still peak 1990s point-and-click at it's heart. Maybe check out that one instead—it's on Steam too: https://store.steampowered.com/app/495700/Gabriel_Knight_Sins_of_the_Father/