Actually, Gabriel Knight 1 IS awesome O.O

[Lambonius]

I've heard if you like GK2, you'll probably like Phantasmagoria, as the FMV is supposedly not quite as horrible in that game.  But I can't really say from experience.  Also haven't played Sanitarium, but that is one of those games that I remember got rave reviews back in the day.

[Rosella]

I enjoyed Phantasmagoria. The puzzles were generally pretty sensical and I found the plot to be really, really interesting. The endgame still creeps me out.

The second Phantasmagoria is pretty terrible though, I've heard. Instead of buying it, I'd recommend watching The Spoony One's Let's Play of it.

[Bludshot]

I enjoyed Phantasmagoria. The puzzles were generally pretty sensical and I found the plot to be really, really interesting. The endgame still creeps me out.

The second Phantasmagoria is pretty terrible though, I've heard. Instead of buying it, I'd recommend watching The Spoony One's Let's Play of it.

I heard that Curtis...

[oberonqa]

GK1 is indeed an awesome game, but I find myself leaning towards GK2 as the best game in the series.  GK1 had a great atmosphere, great characters, and great story.... but GK2 took all of that and dropped it (and the main characters) into Germany... a place where they were definite outsiders.  This played perfectly in every facet of the game, which lends a certain chemistry between the player and Gabriel/Grace because all three of these entities are outsiders in the game.  It definitely works and I loved every minute of it.

That and I felt Van Glower was a treasure as a villain.  Heck... I love the fact that it's not even obvious that Van Glower is the villain until the very end of the game (the game does a great job at delivering red herrings when it comes to the identity of the alpha wolf).  But more than anything else, I like that Van Glower is presented as an actual person.

[Bludshot]

I actually just finished Chapter 3 after the talk with Von Glower.  He really is a great villain and sadly not well known when people look at the best gaming villains. 

I really love how beneath his cunning and abrasive philosophy, the guy is really just lonely.  He inherited the curse from his father and struggled with it for centuries.  He spreads the curse not of malice but his desire for true companionship, a desire that is sadly at the root of all the trouble and murder in GK2.

It's a real shame there aren't more tragic villains in gaming, they are always the ones that stand out from the horde of cliched diabolical villains who are just evil for evil's sake. 

[Cez]

Von Glower is one of the most interesting video games villains in the history of videogames, and back in the 90s, I remember he being in the top 5 of a top 100 compilation I saw somewhere.

Its a shame that these games have been forgotten so easily by the industry. Sierra in general.

But yeah, he is just too awesomely written, a real gem you don't normally find in videogames.

[Ninjes]

*Ahem* so there's a Jane Jensen collaboration happening with Cognition, and per her blog (and/or a crazy dream I had not too long ago), she has a storyline or two of the next GK just sitting around collecting dust...could be an interesting opportunity...

I just played through the GK series this year after being harangued by a friend to do so.  Regarding the graphics, it seems there was an industry-wide period of poor choices made solely to accommodate "exciting new technology" at the expense of giving us a good, well-integrated gaming experience.  Not all graphics systems work for all styles of games.  A visually pleasing game even from older eras is still quite playable, I believe, pixels and all.  The uniting factor for GK, and why I played the whole series through despite what I thought were questionable style choices, was Jane's storytelling, because, dang it, I LIKE the characters in it.  The problem is not that there was a bad ending to GK3, but that it was a cliffhanger-page-turner end to a chapter, but not to the whole story.

Really, if you could sucker her into finishing out the saga with the graphics and voices that fit the world of GK, it would make my year.  Just a thought

[snabbott]

Someone asked her about that at the Ustream event, and she said it was possible. She also mentioned, however, that she owns the Dark Matter IP, so a sequel of that might be more likely. If people can convince Activision that there's enough interest in a GK sequel, though...

On a side note, I started the downloads of the GK games this morning. I've already played GK1 (a long time ago), so I'm going to start on GK2 tonight.

[Bludshot]

You should enjoy it, but the FMV format does require a bit of patience.  Unfortunately the werewolves look ridiculous. 

One more thing, and this goes for the first GK game as well, but some of Grace's dialogue doesn't really age well, a real remnant of the 90s.

[glottal]

I have yet to play GK2 (I know, I know) but I actually like GK3 more than GK1.  Yes, it is a more deeply flawed game than GK1, but GK3 caters to my particular tastes better.  While I was skeptical of the whole 3D graphics at first, once I got the hang of it, I found it much more immersive than the 2D of GK1.  I love old pixelated computer art, but I feel more present in the scene when I can go zooming around polygons.  I also really enjoyed eavesdropping and spying on various characters, something you can't do much of in GK1.  Also, you could finish GK3 and miss half the story, so I like having all of the extra room to explore the location.  There is Le Serpent Rouge, which is one of the finest adventure game puzzles ever.  And then there is the relationship between Grace and Gabriel ... I happen have a soft spot for [spoiler]romances where the girl ends up ditching the guy after all.[/spoiler]