Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within help

[dark-daventry]

Ok, so I've started playing the Gabriel Knight series. Yes, I have never played the series before, I admit. I wish I had started sooner. Because the first game was amazing. I have now started the second game. It's amazing, except that I can't progress past chapter 1. Gabriel will not talk to his lawyer. I've followed walkthroughs to the letter, but whenever I click on the sign, he says, "It's just an office building". I've tried the game in both Windows and Mac. No luck. My windows is Windows 7 64 Bit. My mac a macbook pro, latest software and all. On the mac, I've run the program using both DOSBox and Boxer. On windows, I only tried DOSbox. I'm at my wits end here. I want to play this absolutely fantastic game, but I can't progress further until this problem is resolved. I also posted on the gog forums where I got the game, but no response in the 17 hours that it's been live. So, anyone know how to potentially resolve the issue?

[tessspoon]

I kinda vaguely remember this issue, but I don't remember how to get past it

Maybe I'll load it up and see if I run into it.

[KatieHal]

You've read the letters and noticed the address of the building on them, right? Have you tried clicking on the door near the sign to just go in...?

[dark-daventry]

I've done everything. I've read the receipt that Klingmann had in his coat, and I put it up to the mirror. I clicked on the door... I can't figure out what the problem is, and it's beginning to annoy me. I'm stuck so early in the game. If there are other things I was supposed to read, none of the walkthroughs mentioned them.

(Posted on: March 21, 2011, 03:36:33 PM)

I think I figured out the problem. I missed one small detail at the beginning of the walkthrough. The walkthrough is structured in bullet points, but two things weren't bulletpointed, so I skipped them. Note to self: Read the entire walkthrough next time. Thanks for the help guys!

[KatieHal]

Or try playing without one

[dark-daventry]

Or try playing without one

Nah; walkthroughs work for me. I still get the full experience of playing the game. I just have a little extra help. Without a walkthrough things would have gone FAR worse than they had. I'm still solving each puzzle (granted I have something telling me the solution to each puzzle, but I'm still putting in the solution manually).

[Lambonius]

Or try playing without one

Nah; walkthroughs work for me. I still get the full experience of playing the game. I just have a little extra help. Without a walkthrough things would have gone FAR worse than they had. I'm still solving each puzzle (granted I have something telling me the solution to each puzzle, but I'm still putting in the solution manually).

How is that the full experience?  The only way you could get less of the full experience is if you played the game with your monitor turned off or trained a chimp to click the mouse for you.

[KatieHal]

To each his own, I suppose. I prefer trying it on my own before I go to a walkthrough--I *try* to do so only when I'm totally stuck, but sometimes I end up going to it before I get that stuck.

[Lambonius]

To each his own, I suppose. I prefer trying it on my own before I go to a walkthrough--I *try* to do so only when I'm totally stuck, but sometimes I end up going to it before I get that stuck.

Heh...I suppose that would have been the nicer way to put it.  *evil laugh

[KatieHal]

Always here to try and educate you on niceness, Lamb

[dark-daventry]

Or try playing without one

Nah; walkthroughs work for me. I still get the full experience of playing the game. I just have a little extra help. Without a walkthrough things would have gone FAR worse than they had. I'm still solving each puzzle (granted I have something telling me the solution to each puzzle, but I'm still putting in the solution manually).

How is that the full experience?  The only way you could get less of the full experience is if you played the game with your monitor turned off or trained a chimp to click the mouse for you.

Actually, cheating would be less of an experience. The only problem is that it's kind of hard to cheat in most adventure games. And btw, I don't consider using a walkthrough as cheating, though many people I know do. I'm still playing the game, clicking on everything as anyone else would. The only difference is that I have a guide to help me along. I see nothing wrong with that. I still get the full effect of the story. Besides; I'm in a game more for the story than I am a challenge. That's not to say, however, that I'd be opposed to making a challenging game if/when I ever get to making one; I would just focus first on the plot. Also, my dad and I always used a guide growing up; he maintains that these games are impossible without a guide. So I kind of grew up using them anyway. He would always have me read the guide when I was younger (maybe that's why I became such a good reader... Hm, things to think about...), and then when I got older, we'd switch places. I'd play the game and he'd read the guide, telling me what to do. I realize most people play these games without a guide first, and I wish I could; my puzzle solving skills are minimal at best.

[snabbott]

I think if I weren't going to at least try to solve it myself, I would just watch a Let's Play.

[dark-daventry]

I think if I weren't going to at least try to solve it myself, I would just watch a Let's Play.

I've been tempted to do let's plays, but several things have made me think twice. One is my horrible internet connection at school. I can barely load anything at times, so watching a youtube video just doesn't load half the time. Second, I feel I take more of the plot in when it's me actually playing. Third,  I can screw around in the game if I wish instead of watching someone else make all the choices. So walkthroughs tend to work for me. I'm still playing the whole game, puzzles and all. If I found a hack that got me around puzzles, or I downloaded saves when I got at a puzzle, then that'd be a different story. But I'm still completing the puzzles all the way through. I feel no shame in using a walkthrough. You can all criticize me if you wish, but it's not going to change anything. Also, if this comes across as me being upset/mad, I'm not.

[Lambonius]

I suppose it all comes down to what you as the player value in an adventure game.  To me, if the game isn't stimulating/challenging my intellect in some way, I may as well be watching a movie.  It's the same reason I have issues with Telltale's increasingly dimwitted approach to game design. 

[dark-daventry]

I suppose it all comes down to what you as the player value in an adventure game.  To me, if the game isn't stimulating/challenging my intellect in some way, I may as well be watching a movie.  It's the same reason I have issues with Telltale's increasingly dimwitted approach to game design. 

Sadly, I don't even *need* a walkthrough for telltale's games, and I find that very distressing. Needing a walkthrough, in some respects, is actually a good indicator of how difficult a game is, at least in my mind. The very fact that I can get through telltale's games without a walkthrough (with the thought never even entering into my mind) then there's a problem. And I turned off the video of Jurrassic Park in utter disgust about 5 minutes in. I'm sorry to say, but Telltale's games are getting increasingly easier, and not in a good way. And their control method has always baffled me. It's just so wonky. I hate it. I get where they're trying to go with it, but they just can't seem to deliver on it in my opinion. I'm not trying to bash telltale here or anything, but they really need to step it up for their KQ reboot. It has to feel at least a little like KQ to me. With the way Telltale's been going, I'm getting more skeptical each day. Hopefully E3 will have some good announcements on it. I'm trying to stay positive, but it's hard seeing all the stuff they've put out lately... It's not "bad", it's just too easy for my liking. And that's coming from someone who ALWAYS chooses the easiest option in a video game with difficulty settings.

[Lambonius]

I couldn't agree more. 

[darthkiwi]

If you find that playing with a walkthrough is a great experience then - well, if it works for you it works for you. But, I completely disagree that you still get the full experience. Part of playing a game is being in the shoes of the character: not just physically doing everything they do, but also thinking in the same way they do. Granted, GK is about a misogynistic creep who can never buckle down to do any work (and yet I adore him) so maybe the player never completely gets inside his head, but I still think the actual act of thinking about a puzzle and solving it helps you to feel much more connected to the character, and to really understand how the world of the game fits together.

So, for example, in Day 3 in GK1

[spoiler]you have to find out the address of the crazy Catholic lady with the dog. I called all the people with her name in the phone book and found out which was the correct one - but, of course, she didn't want to answer since I didn't know her. So I phoned a pet store which was advertised in the phone book and managed to persuade the shop assistant that I knew the woman's dog, which allowed me to wheedle the address out of her. [/spoiler]

The above example made me think about the game not as a pre-written story, but as a fully functioning city which I was taking part in. It was an illusion, of course, but by forcing me to acknowledge the possibility that the game had a wider scope than I'd imagined the game made itself feel more real, and made me act as Gabriel would act.

So, to summarise, the game does not just happen on the screen: most of the game happens in your head. That's why it's a game and not a movie. And if you let the walkthrough do all the thinking for you, you're getting all the plot but you're not getting the full experience: you're watching, but you're not really there.

I'm posting this mostly because, while playing the KQ games, I used walkthroughs all the time, whether I was stuck or not. Once I ran into trouble (which was always very early on), out would come the walkthrough and then it'd be with me for the rest of the game. What's worse is that, while I toned this down a bit for the later ones I played, I went with a walkthrough for the entirety of KQ6, which really deserves to be puzzled through. And I really feel that my experience of those games, of solving those puzzles by actually thinking rather than doing, has been irreparably compromised.

For the record, I do advocate the use of walkthroughs when stuck. Being stuck is not fun and helps nobody. But I'd like designers to make fairer (note: NOT EASIER!) adventure games, rather than let walkthroughs be the norm.

[dark-daventry]

If you find that playing with a walkthrough is a great experience then - well, if it works for you it works for you. But, I completely disagree that you still get the full experience. Part of playing a game is being in the shoes of the character: not just physically doing everything they do, but also thinking in the same way they do. Granted, GK is about a misogynistic creep who can never buckle down to do any work (and yet I adore him) so maybe the player never completely gets inside his head, but I still think the actual act of thinking about a puzzle and solving it helps you to feel much more connected to the character, and to really understand how the world of the game fits together.

So, for example, in Day 3 in GK1

[spoiler]you have to find out the address of the crazy Catholic lady with the dog. I called all the people with her name in the phone book and found out which was the correct one - but, of course, she didn't want to answer since I didn't know her. So I phoned a pet store which was advertised in the phone book and managed to persuade the shop assistant that I knew the woman's dog, which allowed me to wheedle the address out of her. [/spoiler]

The above example made me think about the game not as a pre-written story, but as a fully functioning city which I was taking part in. It was an illusion, of course, but by forcing me to acknowledge the possibility that the game had a wider scope than I'd imagined the game made itself feel more real, and made me act as Gabriel would act.

So, to summarise, the game does not just happen on the screen: most of the game happens in your head. That's why it's a game and not a movie. And if you let the walkthrough do all the thinking for you, you're getting all the plot but you're not getting the full experience: you're watching, but you're not really there.

I'm posting this mostly because, while playing the KQ games, I used walkthroughs all the time, whether I was stuck or not. Once I ran into trouble (which was always very early on), out would come the walkthrough and then it'd be with me for the rest of the game. What's worse is that, while I toned this down a bit for the later ones I played, I went with a walkthrough for the entirety of KQ6, which really deserves to be puzzled through. And I really feel that my experience of those games, of solving those puzzles by actually thinking rather than doing, has been irreparably compromised.

For the record, I do advocate the use of walkthroughs when stuck. Being stuck is not fun and helps nobody. But I'd like designers to make fairer (note: NOT EASIER!) adventure games, rather than let walkthroughs be the norm.

I'll keep this in mind for when/if I ever get to being a game designer. I'm still going to use walkthroughs. They work for me. I feel as if I'm still getting everything necessary, so no harm done to me. Regardless, this information is good to keep in mind.

[rudy]

If you need hints, ask away  . For the full experience, i coincidentally just fully upgraded GK2 in the Chest.

http://www.sierrachest.com/index.php?a=g&id=38&fld=s&gconf=1

[kindofdoon]

How is that the full experience?  The only way you could get less of the full experience is if you played the game with your monitor turned off or trained a chimp to click the mouse for you.

To each his own, I suppose.

I enjoy the juxtaposition of your conflicting diplomatic strategies.