Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition

Now with crisp, modern-day graphics and sound, the Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers remake is a provocative story experience whose aim is to challenge, enlighten, horrify and enthrall. And it succeeds, apart from a few questionable gameplay decisions and a lack of final polish.

It doesn't really matter if you're an old fan or a new player: Gabriel Knight is still a game worth of your time. And the 20th Anniversary Edition is the best way to appreciate its qualities.

Sins of the Fathers is an excellent point-and-click adventure offering a strong and engaging story.

A true classic revitalized that's easy to recommend to anyone who enjoys a great story, with bonus content to boot for those interested in videogame development or history.

While it has its flaws, this new version of Gabriel Knight is as powerful and as suspenseful as it was 20 years ago. Let’s just hope it paves the way for the return of the legendary hero and the much awaited Gabriel Knight 4.

A worthwhile remake of the classic Sierra point-and-click adventure game. However, big-time fans of the original will most likely dislike some aspects of the newer incarnation.

Beautiful characters, beautiful dialogue, great atmosphere with thrilling sequences, mystery and some sparks of comedy. The classic by Jane Jensen is still a joy to play.

A good remake, with some annoying issues, for one of the best graphical adventures of all time.

Quotation forthcoming.

Sins of the Fathers is possibly the best showcase of the golden era of point’n’click games. [13/2014, p.71]

The first Gabriel Knight is a legendary game, but unfortunately the remastered version doesn’t meet the sky-high standards of its paragon. Although the game is technologically flawed, the storyline and atmosphere are as good as they were 20 years ago. [Nov 2014]

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father was a treasured addition to Sierra’s stable of old school adventure games. The anniversary edition of the game is readily accessible to those who have no history with Gabriel Knight or even Sierra games.

Although Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is still a great story, with some really gripping sequences and a great cast of characters, the Anniversary Edition doesn’t really add much to the experience.

A great remaster of a great adventure game, very recommended if you already played it twenty years ago or if it's your first time.

This remake of the legitimately classic Gabriel Knight takes a few missteps, but succeeds in putting the 90s adventure in contemporary digital hands.

This a remake done right and the care and attention that has been invested in it will delight existing fans - hopefully winning over some new ones, too.

No matter if you're playing it for the first time or if you just want to relive the original, this is a great update of a game definitely worth playing.

It's both love letter and time capsule, for fans and for the newly curious. In a few years, when it's faded almost completely from memory again, I look forward, not to playing it, but to finishing it, and remembering it fondly yet again.

Well-done remake of a classic for old-school fans with a few problems regarding controls and animations.

So if you’re a fan of adventure games and you don’t mind some adult content (including profanity and grisly murders), then the 20th Anniversary Edition is certainly a game you should consider purchasing.

If the updated look and feel gets you to play this classic for the first time, it was a worthwhile endeavor.

For players new to the adventure genre, this package offers a great opportunity to play one of the best adventure titles ever made. The compelling crime narrative, intriguing characters, and great puzzles are all there, and an integrated hint system minimizes the need to alt-tab to a walkthrough. It's a shame that this remastered version squanders much of the charm of the original, though—I can't see it converting those cold on the genre, but fans and players interested in adventure gaming's roots would do well to check it out.

The higher resolution leads to a sort of spatial uncanny valley, leaving the world feeling a little cold, a little off.

The good intentions on the technical and visual part show more love for this pumped up classic, but the outcome is not that great. Thankfully Gabriel Knight had an intriguing story, good written script and good puzzles back in the day, because those things are still here and make Sins of the Fathers a decent game.

The original game’s feeling is still intact thanks to great writing and intriguing puzzles. From a technical standpoint the remake could have gone a little further, but the experience is streamlined for the younger players.

For those of us weaned on old-school click-and-point adventures (or anyone who wants to experience Sierra On-Line’s glory days), there’s no question - this is a must-play. The rest of you may be fascinated by its anachronisms, but still be dazzled by its dramatic story and classic puzzles.

The game took me a solid half a day to play through completely so it should probably take a normal, switched-on person half of that time to complete.

Those big pixels back then may not be for everybody anymore, but despite their low count, they managed to give every screen its own appeal, style and distinctive character. As good as the story and some of the puzzles still are, this aspect didn’t carry over. The remake is visually completely forgettable.

Always preferring the original classic adventure, this remake is a call to the new adventurer. It’s a valid, bur not excellent reinterpretation with a new look that will draw the eyes of those who missed the golden age of graphic adventures, but it is an good opportunity for fans to travel back to New Orleans from the hand of its original creator.

Despite the technical issues, my displeasure with the voice acting, and the addition of the hints in the conversation tree, underneath it’s still very much the Gabriel Knight I fell in love with back in 1993.

What it ultimately comes down to is this: Although it suffers from some of Phoenix Online Studios’ usual technical issues, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition is a perfectly valid way to experience one of the best point & click adventure games of the 90s.

Nicely done remake that shatters the veil of nostalgia and reveals the mistakes of the original. Fortunately remake also brings the story we can't see these days anymore. Must-have for all adventure fans. [Issue#247]

A decent but badly composed document, a decent but not exceptional game nowadays. Partially, its weaknesses were not visible until today, partially, the game's cosmetic improvements are accentuating or directly responsible for them. And even those are quite questionable.

or every great point, there's some small, nagging nick in the experience. While the strong narrative and precisely delivered story is as mature and dense as it's ever, and positively carries the experience, it's also beginning to show its age.

Gabriel Knight is absolutely a must-play game, but this is the absolute worst way to play it.

Despite several improvements the 20th anniversary edition of the classic adventure feels overall as a dated experience. The higher resolution backgrounds still capture the mystic New Orleans-feeling that defined the original, while for example the facial animations are simply awkward. There are a few goodies for fans of the original and the story still holds up pretty well.