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

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing story and challenging game makes this a must buy!
Review: The third in the mystery-solving series, GKIII not only improves on the series but on the genre itself!

For those who enjoy games that involve more thinking and amazing storylines, this game is definate buy. It was the first Gabriel Knight game I had ever played, and when I was finished I wanted more. The plot alone is so deep and enriching that you'll want to play just to see what happens next.

My only problem involved the difficulty of some of the puzzles. It's not that they were too hard, but that they seemed a little ridiculous. Some seemed to beg for the purchase of a walkthrough, and I admit I did some "walkthrough" searches on the net, but it was worth it to see the ending.

I thought the graphics were great, especially the detailed scenery which is an almost exact duplicate of the real French town of Rennes-Les-Chateau. One of the high points in the game was Robert Holmes soundtrack, which relied mostly on creepy, atmospheric piano pieces. It really added to the experiance.

Anyone who enjoys puzzle-based suspense games should give this one a try... ... it's more than worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Gabriel Knight III an interesting mystery....
Review: This is the first "Gabriel Knight" game that I've played, and I'm definitely looking forward to playing more games in the series. "GKIII: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned" had its moments of brilliance.

The characters were well developed, with distinct personalities. The voice acting, however, ranged from decent to shame-on-you bad. Case in point: Tim Curry as Gabe Knight. His accent seemed to shift wildly from Southern to...something unidentified. Hall of shame nominee: Scottish thugs proclaiming: "We're Scots, God help ye!".

The graphics were generally detailed, but pixellated. 3D models had a tendency to cut in and out of the screen.

There were plenty of places to explore in the chateau, museum, church, and town of Rennes-le-Chateau, and in the surrounding countryside. The puzzles were often difficult, and I frequently found myself backtracking for missed items. Also, there is a lot of downtime in some of the timeblocks so I found myself wandering around for a while trying to kill time.

The storyline was genuinely unlike anything I've ever played before. Although the initial premise is that of a vampire cult kidnapping a child, the ending drastically reinvented the story of Jesus, which is sure to offend many. I *still* don't understand half of the cutscenes and ending months after playing it.

There was a lot of dialogue to sort through, and many locations that I had to backtrack through, so this game kept me busy for quite a long time. "GKIII" is not for everyone's tastes, hence the M rating. It deals with vampirism and a reinvention of the death of Jesus. It was definitely thought provoking and entertaining, and if you're a fan of mystery and the supernatural then "Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned" is worth a look.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic game
Review: While the third installment of the Gabriel Knigh series takes third place in the series(in my opinion, mainly due to the ending where I think Jane Jensen overstep a few boundries she shouldn't have), it is still a fantastic gaming experience that is EXTREMELY rare today and when the game was release. Part of what makes this game great is that it is a TRUE Adventure. Since the game industry which had once spurred with creativity had changed direction for the worst when greedy capitalists took absolute control and decided their new customers won't want to bother trying something new or understanding games and genres the selection of games and quality have declined to a unprecedented low. This genre, Adventure, as it is presented in this game and the entire series embodies what games used and are SUPPOSED to be like! Normally I never write review but one review I spotted for this game was so very ignorant and misleading that somebody needs to point out the numerous errors. It seems that Mr. Jason Moore does not want to put effort into learning anything about the series that he purchased a game from. First of all, NO game from the Gabriel Knight series is based on ANY book! Jane Jensen wrote the Gabriel Knight series as GAMES and afterwards wrote the books which are based on the games. You cannot get a very good understanding of the characters from the books as much as you can from the games. The main character is of higher quality to a person who played the earlier games from the series but still well crafted and has an interesting personality(And yeah, Jason Moore, he IS southern! He's from New Orleans!). The graphics engine displays very good graphics which would be pleasing to anyone but it is very heavy on the CPU and would seem buggy on a slow machine. Calling graphics outdate is a clear sign of ignorance of games. Graphics can NEVER be outdated, just poor. And GK3's graphics are neither. Graphics must fit the presentation of the game.Calling graphics outdated would be like calling using paragraphs in a book outdated. As far as Jason Moore's comment on story: This is an adventure game! It's all about the story! The story is the single most important part of an adventure game! The story in every Gabriel Knight are incredibly well written and intriguing. Jane Jensen is a fantastic writer who is few can come even dare to match both in game design and in books. You never have to read the books to play the game. In fact it is impossible to read the book to understand the game because the books are written after the games and the GK3 book has never even been written as far as I know. Gamers like the one previously mentioned are exactly the kind who caused the game industry to rot. Most game players do not even know what an adventure game is any more(RPGs and Adventure games are very different genres, contrary to miscategorization on many sites, including Amazon.com).

Rating:
Summary: Jenson Has Done It Again
Review: Ms. Jenson has again kept me enthralled in the next sequel to Gabriel Knight. Ms.Jenson has a wonderful way of working true historical fact into emersive fiction.

I must admit that I wasn't thrilled with the graphics, even though that didn't put me off the game at all. I would really have liked to see the actors from the Beast Within return as I thought the represented the characters in Sins of the Father perfectly.

The game itself is hard but you do have a difficulty level you can adjust. Some of the puzzles were a tad hard - especially the SIDNEY sequence. However, once you get them, you feel a great sense of accomplishment.

The story itself revolves around a kidnapping of a Stewart heir, the mysterious, real-life village of Rennes Le Chateau, Vampires, the Crusades and the bloodline of Jesus. A thoroughly enjoyable and interesting plot!

I hope Sierra will continue on to make Part IV. Kudos to Ms.Jenson!

Rating:
Summary: Good story, great puzzles
Review: I finally got around to playing the entire Gabriel Knight series. For the rest of you who haven't, you're missing out. These are positively the best 3rd person adventure games ever made.

It's hard to review GK3 on its own merits without comparing it to GK1 and GK2. First off, going directly from GK2 to GK3 was a shock, as the former is done entirely in FMV and the latter used 3-d CG technology. When GK3 was made, this was fairly new and not as polished as it is today. The environments are well done, but I had a hard time with the characters. They didn't look quite right, and a lot of their movements were stylized and unrealistic. I got used to this as the game progressed. However, I still find that I relate better to 2-D characters (as in _The Longest Journey_ or GK1) than I do to 3-D representations that are trying so hard to be human and not quite making it.

The script and voice acting were often not quite what I had come to expect. I particularly was not fond of Tim Curry's portrayal of the title character, a fact which struck me as odd, as I loved his work as Gabriel in GK1. But in GK3 I thought he had a little too much tendancy to go over the top, particularly with Gabriel's wisecracks, which sometimes seemed more suited to Beavis and Butthead. Gabriel as a character grows and changes a lot over the course of the games, and I don't think Curry's portrayal was true to that fact. I was also puzzled and irritated at Gabriel's sudden inability to pronounce French. He had a beautiful accent when French terms came up in GK1; what happened to it? Whether this was due to the actor or the director, it was a poor choice and it bothered me.

However, Gabriel Knight 3 is still a great game. Like the others in the series, it is quite long and takes a lot of thought and a lot of close attention to detail. I liked that the NPC's had lives of their own and moved through the game in ways that were unpredictable. By keeping close track of them, sometimes stumbling on interactions and conversations, you can get a much larger picture of what's going on. I thought this added a lot to the realism of the game. You don't have to see everything to complete the game, but attempting to do so both makes the game last longer and makes it very replayable.

Every Gabriel Knight game pushes the limits of the genre by utilizing special interfaces. In Gabriel Knight 3 the special interface is a computer within the game. In addition to being vital to solving one of the main puzzles, this internal computer offers a wealth of information on a variety of subjects. You can spend hours just searching the database and reading the entires. I thought this was very cool.

The puzzles in GK3 are generally a mix of standard inventory-based, timed activity, and arcade. Often you have to wander around a lot to figure out what you need to do next. One particular puzzle stands out as one of the best thought-out and most complex puzzles I've ever come across in gaming. In it you must solve a riddle by analyzing and linking various inventory items. It's a very long puzzle and some people might find it frustrating, but it was the thing that really caught and held my interest. If all I have to do is talk to people and find inventory items, I don't feel like I've really done anything. There's plenty of that in GK3, but you also have to stretch your brain.

I really enjoyed John DeLancie's performance as the villain. I also enjoyed the depth of interaction between the main characters, and I am very impressed with the amount of research into esoterica that Jane Jensen put into this and the other games in the series. If you are at all of a mystic bent, or have any interest in what might be termed the occult, you will like this game.

You can play GK3 without playing the other games in the series, but I think it wouldn't be as enjoyable, as the background information gives so much insight into the characters and their relationships. Still, if you're looking for a great story and challenging puzzles, don't pass up Gabriel Knight 3!

Rating:
Summary: The best adventure game by Sierra Studios!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: How can you give this less then 4 stars?
Review: Truly a great adventure game. Now I was an "old-school" fan of adventure games back when developers cared about that genre. now adventure gaming is a dying breed, with only about one or two new adventure games coming out a year and most of those slipping through the cracks where only devoted fans hear about them. True fans are forced to the classics. Now this game in my mind is one of the true great adventure games along with the monkey island series, space quest series, and heros quest series. The game itself may confuse some non-adventure gamers, who don't understand the point of adventure games, but it will leave a great taste in your mouth when you finish it. Regardless if you played the past two Gabriel Knight games you can pick up the plot pretty easily and it draws you in and never lets go. Sneaking around churches and cellars hearing screams and seeing claw marks help set the mood of terror and suspense throught the whole game. This game is similar to one of the movies where the movie dosen't become great until the end when it all wraps up. A must buy for adventure fans, and for those gamers sick of shooting the same space aliens!

Rating:
Summary: The Best Tale In Years
Review: A scary intense story with deep felt characters and a world of mystery. It is truly a game that will make you care and wonder about the exciting conclusion of the adventure game that ends the story Beautifuly.

Rating:
Summary: the best Gabriel Knight
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Baffled By Reviews
Review: I purchased this game after having read the several positive rewiews others had written for "Gabriel Knight 3." I'm not sure if the majority of reviewers are fans of the books themselves and therefore are fans of the game. (And possibly, for those reviewers who have read the books, it may have given them information needed to determine character direction.) I found myself aimlessly searching for items, with no hint of an idea to what the goals were in order to complete one time slot, yes... the game is "leveled" in time slots, and begin another. Hours of aggrivating gameplay, searching over and over the same locations, musing on whom or what I had forgotten in order to progress. Well, after hours of prolonged irritation, I finally logged on to a GK3 walkthrough site and learned that I HAD already collected all the items required, and HAD already spoken or eavesdropped to all the characters needed. In fact there seems to be an order to which things must be done. (With absolutely no indication, during gameplay, as to what order that may be.) The walkthrough insisted I needed to return to a certain location to progress to the next level. Ironically this "location" is exactly where I had last saved the game. So, knowing this, I took an enjoyable walk around the same room for awhile, like I had several times before, when the game finally decided that I have had enough BS and loaded the next level. (A huge step, I had just completed the first time slot.)
Besides the aggrivating gameplay there are many more negative perks to look foreward too:
-Annoying main character. (He sounds like a southerner hopped up on a mixture of an aphrodisiac and crack.) If there were a way to kill him I would have.
-Annoying supporting characters.
-Horrible graphics. (Outdated.)
-Storyline? What storyline? (Didn't read the book.)
This game will take it's place, without being completed, among my other "worth while" games and collect dust.