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xyzzysqrlWelcome back to the bleak and endless twilight where humans walk in shadow and unseen things stalk behind them. I am your host: a neon pink squirrel. Are you seated comfortably? Are you alone? ... Are you sure? Good. Good.
I want you to cast your mind back. Back further. Back into the icy mists of Feburary 2014, when I last plunged you all into following the adventures of Gabriel Knight, Shattenjager.
For we residents of the sanctuary of light it has been quite some time, but for Gabriel and his assistant/underpaid summer help Grace Nakimura it has been only a year since he learned a bit more about voodoo than he desired. Yet darkness never slumbers long, and Gabriel is pledged to fight the darkness, and Grace is pledged to make fun of Gabriel mostly because wow he needs to have his stupid ego puctured now and then and...
Okay I can't keep that up.
Hi.
I'm playing Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
Join me, won't you?
So I want to warn y'all of a couple things. First off, this is a FMV-based video game because it was the nineties and we all made a lot of choices we're not proud of. The gameplay parts look fine, they're still pretty high-res. However screenshots of the movie sections are going to come out pixelated like crazy, you're gonna have big ol' artifacts obscuring details, and they don't fill the entire screen. I'm going to do my best to screenshot important moments and explain what we're seeing, but this is gonna be kinda ugly.
That said, I don't have the setup to re-record the entire game as I play it. A lot of people on Youtube do however. There is in particular a nine-ish hour video I have handy. I plan to link this at the end of each update and go "Hey, today's update covered from xx:yy to sq:rl of this footage." I figure for folks who want to see this video-based video game in video format, that'll cover the bases. I hope that sounds okay to you dear readers out there, and I'll make sure to highlight "oh my god watch this scene" moments, whether because of high drama or just because they're straight-up hilarious.
Now that we're like 500 words into the introduction, let's actually start the game. I said above that it's been a year for Gabe and Gracie, but this story doesn't start with Gabriel and Grace, either. It starts much, much earlier in the Prologue. The Prologue is MOSTLY credits and piano music, and it is pretty vague.
A German man locks the door against what sounds like an entire howling ARMY of wolves.
As he passes a nearby table he tosses the keys down onto an establishing shot, which lets us know that it is...
...the year 1750 and also we should ACHTUNG! for Das Biest Von Alfing, I think. The beast of alfing? I bet it eats cats. And then some more German I cannot read, because I only know a little German. I know a bunch of wolves, though. They go awoo. Anyway, moments later a torch appears and sets a bunch of hay on fire. This seems to make this kid sad.
He's one fancy kid though. As he watches the fire burn, the man from before appears behind him and his mom to let them know they should get the crap out of there schnell. (T/L note schnell means fast.) As the town (!) burns behind them, the kid can't stop watching...
... Oh and the OTHER takeaway I got from this prologue?
Is that one of the staff is named CLEMENT V. FRANKENSTEIN. That's a great name! What do you think the V stands for? My guess is "Very".
Okay! Now that we've watched the prologue, we can ... uh, watch the introduction. I'm sorry guys. I would say this is a FMV game thing, except I just remembered that over in Kjorteo's Dagger of Amon Ra playthrough, there was like a prologue, an introduction, a dramatis personae, some witty expository banter to set the scene... so y'know I'm just gonna say Sierra games of the 90s were big on Dramatic Setup in ways they weren't previously.
It's what comes of getting Writers involved in your video games. They keep wanting to like, write shit. Infurating, I'm sure.
It is a dark and thankfully not stormy night in Germany, at the ancestral home of the Knight family. Outside, a crowd of villagers slowly approach.
Deep inside, someone types away at an antique typewriter. His arms are scarred as if someone plunged a ceremonial dagger into them repeatedly. He writes absolute trash and wears heavy jewelery.
His name is Gabriel Knight, and he isn't played by Tim Curry. This is Dean Erickson and he has led a rich and varied life as an actor, sports enthusiast, author, man about Wall Street, etc. Dean will be our live-action Gabriel for the duration of this game. You'll notice, for the record, that Schloss Ritter looks NOTHING WHATSOEVER like the Schloss Ritter of GK1, and our Gabe looks NOTHING WHATSOEVER like the Gabe of GK1. (Also that talisman is hilariously not the same one from GK1 but whatever that was an inventory icon.)
That's a running theme, and probably why they decided to get the crap out of the various areas of GK1 and do something all new. Honestly I like Dean's performance but he doesn't...
Y'know what, I love this game but I have some problems with it. The thing is, if I start getting into my mild issues with GK2 this early, we're gonna be stuck in the goddamn intro movie forever. Let's get through that before I start bitching, right?
Gabriel types vigorously away at whatever he's working on (can you believe this dude is a published author?) and stops to gawk at it as he draws a complete blank mid-line.
"Out... fell..." he mutters, and then facepalms so hard he gives the foley artist a minor stroke. Seriously, s'like *KA-THWACK*. Dude hit serious meat.
He's rescued from his little writers-block prison by Gerde! Remember Gerde?
Yeah that's not what Gerde looked like either, but I guess after a year living with Gabriel the fruhstuck's on the other foot and the potatos are in the pantry. I have no earthly idea what that means. She informs Gabriel that some people are here to see him. Also, he should be wearing the talisman. He must wear it ALWAYS.
"Damn thing's heavy." Gabe grumps with the sort of poutiness that used to be reserved for haircuts. Still, he hefts it up, slings it on around his neck, and heads out to see what the people want.
"Shouldn't those be torches?" Gabriel jokes. The locals don't seem amused, though. (Maybe because they're in Europe, so flashlights ARE torches.) They haven't come to see Gabriel Knight, the author. They have come... for the Shatterjager.
"What makes you think y'need a Shattenjager?" our hero nervously asks. You can see on his face, he REALLY hasn't given much thought to that whole business. Not in quite a while.
The bearded man in front is the spokesperson for the ground. He introduces himself as Werner Huber, and his cousin (hat dude next to him) is named Sepp. Sepp's problem is at the root of this whole thing. Two nights ago, it is explained a bit longwindedly, Sepp's daughter was playing outside when a huge wolf attacked her. It left with... pieces of the child.
"That's horrible." Gabriel nonemotes, rattled-looking. But... isn't that a job for the police?
"The police, they think it is wolves escaped from a zoo. This is not the first such killing... and if it is not stopped, it will not be the last." Huber replies.
"...I'm not... really sure what you want ME to do...?" Gabriel hedges. He's really, REALLY trying to get out of this one without having to leave the castle.
Werner looks at Gabriel like he's the biggest idiot in Germany. "The killer is NOTwolf VULF. It is werewolf VAHRVUUUULF. And you must hunt it down, and KILL IT." he explains as if Gabriel is five. Gabe still isn't sold, but Sepp chimes in with my favorite line of the entire intro:
Sepp: "THE WULF LOOKED! AT ME. ITS EYES. WERE HUUUUUUUMAN! IT KNEW WHAT IT WAS DOOOOING. IT KNEEEEEEEW!"
I'm sorry, Sepp. This is incredibly cruel but I'm not sure how you can tell ANYTHING is looking at you. I want to note that in the actual shooting script for GK2 (which I have handy because, uhm, reasons) Sepp is explicitly noted as having "tragic eyes".
Anyway.
Werner eventually gets around to the armor-piercing question: "You wear the talisman. ARE you the Shattenjager now? Or... are you not?" Faced with this, all Gabriel can do is stand up, put on a brave face...
(Yeah that'll do) ...and reply "I am." With that settled, well. Gabe basically has to do this. Gerde goes to pack his things.
The next morning, Gabriel wakes up on the couch at the Sepp family farm with a sore arm.
It's time to actually play Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
NEXT TIME: We actually play Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
(This gameblog entry covered timecodes 0:00 to 9:59 of the NintendoComplete Beast Within playthrough.)
I want you to cast your mind back. Back further. Back into the icy mists of Feburary 2014, when I last plunged you all into following the adventures of Gabriel Knight, Shattenjager.
For we residents of the sanctuary of light it has been quite some time, but for Gabriel and his assistant/underpaid summer help Grace Nakimura it has been only a year since he learned a bit more about voodoo than he desired. Yet darkness never slumbers long, and Gabriel is pledged to fight the darkness, and Grace is pledged to make fun of Gabriel mostly because wow he needs to have his stupid ego puctured now and then and...
Okay I can't keep that up.
Hi.
I'm playing Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
Join me, won't you?
So I want to warn y'all of a couple things. First off, this is a FMV-based video game because it was the nineties and we all made a lot of choices we're not proud of. The gameplay parts look fine, they're still pretty high-res. However screenshots of the movie sections are going to come out pixelated like crazy, you're gonna have big ol' artifacts obscuring details, and they don't fill the entire screen. I'm going to do my best to screenshot important moments and explain what we're seeing, but this is gonna be kinda ugly.
That said, I don't have the setup to re-record the entire game as I play it. A lot of people on Youtube do however. There is in particular a nine-ish hour video I have handy. I plan to link this at the end of each update and go "Hey, today's update covered from xx:yy to sq:rl of this footage." I figure for folks who want to see this video-based video game in video format, that'll cover the bases. I hope that sounds okay to you dear readers out there, and I'll make sure to highlight "oh my god watch this scene" moments, whether because of high drama or just because they're straight-up hilarious.
Now that we're like 500 words into the introduction, let's actually start the game. I said above that it's been a year for Gabe and Gracie, but this story doesn't start with Gabriel and Grace, either. It starts much, much earlier in the Prologue. The Prologue is MOSTLY credits and piano music, and it is pretty vague.
A German man locks the door against what sounds like an entire howling ARMY of wolves.
As he passes a nearby table he tosses the keys down onto an establishing shot, which lets us know that it is...
...the year 1750 and also we should ACHTUNG! for Das Biest Von Alfing, I think. The beast of alfing? I bet it eats cats. And then some more German I cannot read, because I only know a little German. I know a bunch of wolves, though. They go awoo. Anyway, moments later a torch appears and sets a bunch of hay on fire. This seems to make this kid sad.
He's one fancy kid though. As he watches the fire burn, the man from before appears behind him and his mom to let them know they should get the crap out of there schnell. (T/L note schnell means fast.) As the town (!) burns behind them, the kid can't stop watching...
... Oh and the OTHER takeaway I got from this prologue?
Is that one of the staff is named CLEMENT V. FRANKENSTEIN. That's a great name! What do you think the V stands for? My guess is "Very".
Okay! Now that we've watched the prologue, we can ... uh, watch the introduction. I'm sorry guys. I would say this is a FMV game thing, except I just remembered that over in Kjorteo's Dagger of Amon Ra playthrough, there was like a prologue, an introduction, a dramatis personae, some witty expository banter to set the scene... so y'know I'm just gonna say Sierra games of the 90s were big on Dramatic Setup in ways they weren't previously.
It's what comes of getting Writers involved in your video games. They keep wanting to like, write shit. Infurating, I'm sure.
It is a dark and thankfully not stormy night in Germany, at the ancestral home of the Knight family. Outside, a crowd of villagers slowly approach.
Deep inside, someone types away at an antique typewriter. His arms are scarred as if someone plunged a ceremonial dagger into them repeatedly. He writes absolute trash and wears heavy jewelery.
His name is Gabriel Knight, and he isn't played by Tim Curry. This is Dean Erickson and he has led a rich and varied life as an actor, sports enthusiast, author, man about Wall Street, etc. Dean will be our live-action Gabriel for the duration of this game. You'll notice, for the record, that Schloss Ritter looks NOTHING WHATSOEVER like the Schloss Ritter of GK1, and our Gabe looks NOTHING WHATSOEVER like the Gabe of GK1. (Also that talisman is hilariously not the same one from GK1 but whatever that was an inventory icon.)
That's a running theme, and probably why they decided to get the crap out of the various areas of GK1 and do something all new. Honestly I like Dean's performance but he doesn't...
Y'know what, I love this game but I have some problems with it. The thing is, if I start getting into my mild issues with GK2 this early, we're gonna be stuck in the goddamn intro movie forever. Let's get through that before I start bitching, right?
Gabriel types vigorously away at whatever he's working on (can you believe this dude is a published author?) and stops to gawk at it as he draws a complete blank mid-line.
"Out... fell..." he mutters, and then facepalms so hard he gives the foley artist a minor stroke. Seriously, s'like *KA-THWACK*. Dude hit serious meat.
He's rescued from his little writers-block prison by Gerde! Remember Gerde?
Yeah that's not what Gerde looked like either, but I guess after a year living with Gabriel the fruhstuck's on the other foot and the potatos are in the pantry. I have no earthly idea what that means. She informs Gabriel that some people are here to see him. Also, he should be wearing the talisman. He must wear it ALWAYS.
"Damn thing's heavy." Gabe grumps with the sort of poutiness that used to be reserved for haircuts. Still, he hefts it up, slings it on around his neck, and heads out to see what the people want.
"Shouldn't those be torches?" Gabriel jokes. The locals don't seem amused, though. (Maybe because they're in Europe, so flashlights ARE torches.) They haven't come to see Gabriel Knight, the author. They have come... for the Shatterjager.
"What makes you think y'need a Shattenjager?" our hero nervously asks. You can see on his face, he REALLY hasn't given much thought to that whole business. Not in quite a while.
The bearded man in front is the spokesperson for the ground. He introduces himself as Werner Huber, and his cousin (hat dude next to him) is named Sepp. Sepp's problem is at the root of this whole thing. Two nights ago, it is explained a bit longwindedly, Sepp's daughter was playing outside when a huge wolf attacked her. It left with... pieces of the child.
"That's horrible." Gabriel nonemotes, rattled-looking. But... isn't that a job for the police?
"The police, they think it is wolves escaped from a zoo. This is not the first such killing... and if it is not stopped, it will not be the last." Huber replies.
"...I'm not... really sure what you want ME to do...?" Gabriel hedges. He's really, REALLY trying to get out of this one without having to leave the castle.
Werner looks at Gabriel like he's the biggest idiot in Germany. "The killer is NOT
Sepp: "THE WULF LOOKED! AT ME. ITS EYES. WERE HUUUUUUUMAN! IT KNEW WHAT IT WAS DOOOOING. IT KNEEEEEEEW!"
I'm sorry, Sepp. This is incredibly cruel but I'm not sure how you can tell ANYTHING is looking at you. I want to note that in the actual shooting script for GK2 (which I have handy because, uhm, reasons) Sepp is explicitly noted as having "tragic eyes".
Anyway.
Werner eventually gets around to the armor-piercing question: "You wear the talisman. ARE you the Shattenjager now? Or... are you not?" Faced with this, all Gabriel can do is stand up, put on a brave face...
(Yeah that'll do) ...and reply "I am." With that settled, well. Gabe basically has to do this. Gerde goes to pack his things.
The next morning, Gabriel wakes up on the couch at the Sepp family farm with a sore arm.
It's time to actually play Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
NEXT TIME: We actually play Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within.
(This gameblog entry covered timecodes 0:00 to 9:59 of the NintendoComplete Beast Within playthrough.)
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no subject
Date: 2016-09-02 01:50 am (UTC)That being said, the old man there actually did a really good job with this performance, especially since I'm sure at least half of it had to include delivering his lines with a straight face and pretending not to notice... well. I'm still really not used to the later Sierra games where they hired competent actors.
That being said, I'm really glad you're doing this series because it's honestly a little eye-opening already and you haven't even started the gameplay yet. It's very easy to look at one FMV-tastic screenshot of this game and write the entire thing off right then and there--goodness knows that's what I did--but now you're forcing me to take a closer look and I'm already very pleasantly surprised to find, hey, there's a lot of good here! So, thank you for that.
no subject
Date: 2016-09-05 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-05 09:34 pm (UTC)