Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition Review

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition is exactly what it sounds like: a ceremonial remastering of the Sierra 1993 classic, by developers Pinkerton Road Studio and publisher Phoenix Online. Those old enough will likely recall the slick talking, duster sporting, motorcycle riding New Orleanean Gabriel Knight from behind rose tinted shades of nostalgia - it was a great adventure in its time. But what about those who didn’t catch the amatuer writer-cum-haphazard investigator first time round? Is there space for Mr Knight’s exploits some two decades since his first appearance on the point and click adventure scene; and some 15 years since his last?

For the point and click scene has changed quite a bit since then. In 1993, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers was considered rather cutting edge, reflected quite rightly by its review scores at the time. Since, the genre has peaked, fell away completely, and then enjoyed a recent revivalism amid the growing popularity of the indie spectrum.

The 3D models do look far prettier than the originals

The 20th Anniversary Edition retells the story of bookstore owner and struggling writer Gabriel Knight, who becomes haunted by nightmares relating to a recent string of local voodoo-inspired murders. These acts of black magic malpractice are the source material for Knight’s upcoming book, therefore it isn’t before long that he becomes pretty obsessed, adopting the role of a vigilante investigator as he researches each murder case.



In 2014, everything looks better than before as Sins of the Fathers has been completely overhauled. Character models and animations have been reworked, upgraded from two dimensions to three, backgrounds have been redrawn, and the game’s voice acting has been re-recorded - with some completely new narrative spliced in to boot. The user interface has been completely reworked, making it easier to navigate and converse with each area and its NPCs, and the world map is less cluttered. Although the details were omitted from the most recent press release, these changes should work well with the originally proposed iOS and Android editions, should they come to light.

Another welcomed addition to the game’s menu display is a multi-layered hint system and a more extensive journal which this time round includes neat features such as concept sketches and developer interviews. The linear progression ‘day cycle’ returns, meaning the story cannot progress to the next day’s plotlines until a series of objectives are satisfied. The order in which these criteria are met is once again down to the player, however, and the revamp appears have shuffled certain key events which keeps things relatively fresh.

There are some noticeable rough edges in all that is new - some irritating audio overlaps, and glitching character motions, for example, and, even considering the higher fidelity graphics on display, they’re still not all that great to look at. But these are not Sins of the Fathers’ biggest misgivings. No - Gabriel Knight himself is by far the game’s most frustrating feature.

As do the one-on-one interactions, now with facial expressions

You see, Grabriel Knight is, well, a bit of a dick. He’s a sexist and a misogynist, and the game’s dialogue rarely misses a trick in portraying this. Throughout the game’s entirety, his bookshop assistant and on-call researcher Grace bears the brunt of his laddish ‘banter’, however the majority of these quips and ‘jokes’ are either unfunny, unnecessary, or both. In the original Sins of the Fathers, Grace’s tone was rather cutting, often frustrated with Gabriel, often putting him in his place. In the remake, the language remains the same, but the tone is now one far more endearing, which only serves to - or at least attempts to - validate his misogyny. It’s all a bit ‘Ah, that Gabriel, what’s he like?’ as opposed to ‘No, Gabriel. Fuck off.’

For those unaware, it probably should be noted here that Gabriel Knight was created by Jane Jenson of King’s Quest fame which, for me, makes it even more baffling as to why she decided to make her protagonist such a sexist prat in these ways, as it regularly feels forced. It could be argued that in 1993 this sort of narrative might have flown a little further under the radar than it does today - but that doesn’t mean it was acceptable then, and certainly doesn’t mean it’s acceptable now.

Character issues aside, Sins of the Fathers Anniversary Edition faces another major problem: its place in the modern market. In 1993, Sins of the Fathers was successful as a compelling and serious in tone point and click adventure - something there wasn’t that much of back then. Thereafter, Broken Sword - arguably the best point and click series (certainly considering its first two instalments) - entered and dominated the fold. At the turn of the century, the point and click genre began to falter, and come 2010 was almost non-existent.

Telltale identified and capitalised on the burgeoning indie renaissance period which followed and redefined the point and click spectrum with The Walking Dead, and have since done equally well with The Wolf Among Us. In essence, the bar has been set ever higher over the course of the past 20 years, to the point where a new lick of paint alone was never realistically going to be enough for Gabriel Knight 2014 to succeed.

The crux? The landscape is now totally different; and there’s an equally as distinctive difference between booting up outlets like GOG and revisiting a classic, and forking out 15 or so quid for what is supposed to be an overhaul and an improvement of an original. Times have changed and so too have our expectations.

But Gabriel Knight really is such a dick

Yes, things look prettier. But scratch the surface to plumb the depths as the saying goes, and Sins of the Fathers Anniversary Edition’s flaws become that bit more glaring. The polished aesthetics may well be enough to sway those avid nostalgia hunters, but I can’t be sure that new players will be at all interested.

There’s a famous Doug Larson quote that goes: “Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days” Unfortunately for Gabriel Knight’s 20th Anniversary Edition, the lead character himself - much like his dated wit - isn’t sharp enough to carry this off.

When Gabriel Knight isn’t in conversation.