Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition Impressions

"Hoodoo you Voodoo"

I could sit here and talk about how this 20th edition reminds me of old times playing Gabriel Knight, or well I couldn't since the game precedes myself. Here's a fresh impressions take on a game that's celebrating its 20th Anniversary and I'm playing it for the absolute first time. First off there's a nice comparison of seeing the far improved graphics versus the ancient ones and it definitely looks a lot better.

I enjoy these comparisons to see how far gaming has come in a short span, though I feel the graphics could have perhaps been done a little more intensely. Overall that really isn't much of a deal in the scheme of the game, just something I thought should be mentioned. You play as Gabriel Knight which has been having these awful nightmares surrounding voodoo death murder events.

It's quite spooky to a degree as by the dialogue of others this has been happening quite often recently. From there we talk to the lovely assistant to collect information and head over to our detective friend for clues. This spirals into a journey, though with the demo provided we were only able to play through two days of Gabriel Knight.

Within these two days I did get a great impression on what this game's about and what sort of happenings are going on. Movement is simple enough and done in 3D design with easy to use menu systems. You can chat and manipulate events to further your progress like getting that silly mime to follow Gabriel about.

It's neat that was an idea back in the day, though for some scenes I might have wanted more additional things going on to make it feel more alive, but still it perfectly reflects what an HD remake today would require. I also thought the voice acting fit well with the game as I'm sure some would be scared of the big change up in that respective area.

Gabriel Knight is definitely looking good and fit for the new age of gaming, excited to play the full game through! Watch out for our Interview with Jane Jensen and an eventual review of this 20th Anniversary Edition in the future.

Impressions Made on PC during Demo