Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This is truly the next step in interactive fiction. While you may think of computer games as just kids stuff, "Gabriel Knight - Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned" will change your mind. Imagine stepping into your favorite mystery novel, and becoming one of the characters. You get to walk around, explore, question suspects, solve puzzles, uncover secrets... This game has everything: mystery, romance, history, great dialogue, beautiful European scenery. If you've never played a computer game before, make this your first! And if you are already a gamer, this game is like nothing you've ever played before. It brings adventure gaming to a new level.

P.S. There are two other games in this series, which give great background to this story. You don't need to play them first, but you can find them both in the title "Gabriel Knight Mysteries: Limited Edition".

This game is the epitome of adventure games. It has a great suspense story, which half based on history. The Gabriel Knight games have really made history a really interesting. This incarnation of Gabriel Knight has an excellent 3D world. The graphics are way better than the first game and there is no interactive movie wierdness of the second. The game is organized in time blocks. After you finish all the tasks for one block you move to the next. This gives an excellent effect of time flowing by as you proceed through the game.

The puzzles are intuitive, as they always are in Gabriel Knight game, but not easy. There is no trying to use towel with a fish to try and accomplish your next task. I also loved the non-inventory puzzles with Grace which did involve some creative thinking.

The game has its usual installation troubles on XP as with all other Sierra games. But I dont blame them, the game wasn't designed for XP but it still works on it. So here is the tip: When the installer asks you that it wants to run its tests before installing, do *not* run the tests. They will fail. And you will have to restart your computer in order to try again. The game will install, even if you dont run the tests.

I have just completed the Game Gabriel Knight 3 Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Dammend and I would like to share my thoughts to all perspective buyers.

First and foremost It is a GAME... Not to be taken seriously by people... I say this because the Adventure mystery revolves around the enigma of "The Holy Grail." This is very contreversial because it touches on the "alternate" theories which are Heretical to the Christian faith. Again not to be taken seriously... I myself am a Devout Roman Catholic who happens to love a good mystery and I did not find the game offensive in my faith.

I have been a follower of the Gabriel Knight mysteries and I was not dissapointed with this third installment. The story is engaging and intelligent. It dares to ask the question which is often left out because of the Religious Taboo surrounding it. It is intended mainly for entertainment and not as a vehicle to bash the faith.

A little known fact to first time players, this game took 2 years to complete. It is a marraige of current 3D animation technology and 2 years of historical reaserch of the enigma in the real life mystery of Renne Le Chateu, a contreversial town located in the old country of France.

The voice acting of Tim Curry who reprises his role a Gabriel Knight is excellent. He brings the character of the New Orlean Cajun back. The cast of characters are great, all having their own agenda and mystery to solve. The sound track is flawless and the location is enticing.

The game engine used was quite revolutionary. I am using a old 233mhz computer and it still ran smoothly with the aid of my old voodo card.

I highly recommend this game to Mature and Open minded players. To my fellow Catholics out there.... It is just a game.

It's now been about a year since Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned was released, which means I've had plenty of time to ruminate on it. Like the rest of the gaming world, I waited and waited for GK3, moaning in frustration every time the release date was pushed back. But when it was finally released, I was completely unready for the final product.

Sins of the Fathers, the first Gabriel Knight game, was a triumph, an incredible story coupled with what was at the time state of the art graphics. Tim Curry's witty portrayal of Gabriel was weakened only by his absolutely dreadful attempt at a southern accent. The Beast Within was not as impressive to me, having lost Curry, and using then-popular live action animation technology that bloated the game to six unwieldy disks.

Now comes GK3. Tim Curry returns to the gaming role he was meant to play. We have a new engine, developed specifically for this release, and an incredible new story, based on the International bestseller "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", but with Jane Jensen's inimitable imagination working overtime.

Game play is a little strained here. I confess to having to resort to a cheat book once or twice because the puzzles seemed insurmountable or because I knew what to do, but couldn't make Gabe do it when I needed him to. The graphics are terrific, very worthy of the amazing story.

I've read a great deal about Rennes-le-Chateau and have been thoroughly caught up in the mystery of it. It's obvious that Jane Jensen and her team were, too. They bring the secret of the tiny French town to life.

You don't have to have played the other two games to enjoy this one, but you may find yourself tracking them down just to stay in the company of Gabe and his sidekick, Grace Nakimura.

Happy gaming...

I have been a follower of the GK mysteries eversince it's conception. I was one of the persons who have been regularly logging on the Sierra website for the past two years waiting for the development in GK3. I was always patient cause I know quality will never be sacrificed. I tell you YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED! It DELIVERS, a THRILLING RIDE which encompassed WIT and HUMOR. I give Tim Curry 11/10 in doing GK once again. Once more I remove my hat off to Jane, GREAT JOB!

I was sorry to end the game -- you get very attached to the characters, and the historical background is fascinating. I liked the video in GK2 and would have to say that the villain there doesn't have an emotional equivalent here, but Grace gets to play an even more important role. Music is great, and there are lots of Easter eggs and humor as well.

If you are a religious Christian, you may not want to buy the game; the ending has the potential to offend.

I am truly sorry that GK4 appears to be unlikely, I would by it in a heartbeat.

This is the third time when a Gabriel Knight fan can meet his/her hero in the adventure game by Sierra Studios. And I do not dare to say that Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is the best adventure game ever created! Let me clarify it:

1) Story: Games created by Jane Jensen were always well-known for their perfect storyline which draws you into its mystery from the very beginning and reveals all secrets and the very end. This game is not an exception - Gabriel is invited to France by Prince James of Albany to explore enigmatic nature of his only son which, as a descendant of very ancient and hermetical family, is in danger of kidnapping. Gabriel and Grace accept the invitation and meet Prince in his mansion. The troubles come very early - although all doors and windows are securely shut and guarded, Prince's kid is kidnapped at night by two strange visitors. Gabriel immediately pursues the kidnappers and after following them to a train and hearing them say "San Greal", he is suddenly bumped to his head and falls to unconsciousness. He wakes up in a station of Couiza and losts the track of kidnappers in a small village Rennes-le-Chateau, fabulous with mysteries more than two thousand years old. Gabriel starts to face one of the most fearsome investigations he ever did and asks himself the most curious questions. Can be kidnappers related to a tour group of treasure hunters who share the local hotel with Gabriel? What really is the Holy Grail? Can be vampires involved in the case? And who is still one step before him?

2) Game System: Gabriel Knight goes to 3D in the most original and playable way you can imagine. All landscapes, interiers, persons and objects are beautifully modelled and animated in real-time. Moreover, you can place your view camera anywhere to see every detail you want. It means that you can explore all objects in your current scene without moving Gabriel or Grace which pushes the playability even higher. In non-interactive animations the camera automatically finds the best location. What more could you want?

3) Dialogues: If you played Sins of the Fathers, you will be more than happy that Gabriel's voice is provided by Tim Curry again. Wow! Other characters are also spoken very pleasantly, with a little French accent which perfectly fits the environment.

4) Music: The soundtrack maintains the high level established in the first two Gabriel Knight games. It greatly completes all kinds of scenes and makes you shiver in dangerous game parts.

5) Other: There are several original features which I never seen in any other adventure game.
- Sidney computer - using this computer to analyze mysterious documents and search hidden messages in images is simply excellent and unforgetable
- Open architecture - you can extract any picture, character, sound, music, etc. from the game and replace it by your own

So, what is the conclusion? If you are not familiar with adventure games, try to start with this one. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Gabriel Knight has been a highlight of the Sierra titles since the first game came out years ago. BotS, BotD continues that tradition in a fully rendered 3-D environment that lets the player become immersed in the scenes of the crimes that truly adds to the fun of being an investigator of the paranormal, like a mix between CSI and The X-Files. Though the puzzles can be weird at times (getting cat hair with scotch tape to make a fake moustache), and the locals French accents get annoying, you'll love the story, adore the characters, and start to hope that Gabriel Knight 4 comes out very soon.

In fairness, I haven't beaten this game yet, but man is it great. I love adventure games, but for whatever reason, they all seem to be dying. Well, Gabriel Knight may just be what cures this. The 3D graphics make it so that when you're stuck, you always feel like there is still something to do. You can move around the rooms and watch what people are doing, analyze information, dust for fingerprints, and in general enjoy the interactivity. I haven't run into any major bugs, either, which is nice. By the way, if you like the plot, you would do well to read the non-fiction book it was loosely based on, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," which details Sauniere and Rennes Le Chateau.

I can't say that the graphics are the best I've ever seen - the backgrounds are gorgeous but, with a lot of things, expecially the people, you'd think the game designers had never heard of a curve in their lives. However, the game itself made me forget about all that. Gabriel Knight is his usual chauvanistic self, but, in spite of that, his relationship with Grace is further developed in this game. The puzzles vary in difficulty, but I never felt as if any of them were impossible. It's easy to see that a lot of research went into the story in this game, and, after finishing the game, I was interested enough to read some of the books they got their research from (there's a bibliography in the game's booklet).

Amazingly enough, this game is also replayable - if you do the minimum amount of things necessary to win this game, you still won't have seen everything in the game. There are places you don't have to go, things you don't have to see, and even alternative ways of achieving the same goal, that all create reasons to play this game again. Except those areas of the game where you can die, or get caught by the bad guys, none of that will change how the game ends, but it's still interesting to go back and look for the things you missed - you even get points for the things you do, so you can tell how close you are to seeing everything the game has to show you. And for those of you who, like me, play these kinds of adventure games because you don't like getting killed or having to kill things, don't worry, most of that happens at the end of the game.