Murder Mysteries as Done by Sierra Pt. 2

In the previous part, I mentioned how Sierra was well known for its adventure games. If adventure games were brought up as a topic of conversation in the 90’s, more often than not, games made by Sierra would be brought up and talked about (be they praised or loathed).

I talked about the Laura Bow series (specifically Dagger of Amon Ra) and talked about how the atmosphere can help with setting the creepy experience with some Sierra adventure games. I’m going to do that again with another murder mystery series from Sierra, but this one involves a bit more supernatural activity.

I’m talking specifically about the Gabriel Knight series. The series itself is interesting because of the supernatural aspect of the games. For purposes of this article, I’ll talk about the first Gabriel Knight game: Sins of the Fathers, which, being the first game, is Gabe’s…origin story, you could say. Gabriel Knight, a horror novelist who is also a smooth talking ladies man and a sneak, is struggling on his recent book, “The Voodoo Murders”. He’s basing this book off of actual voodoo murders happening in New Orleans, Louisiana. With help from a police detective named Mosely (whom he grew up with) and his [Gabe’s] assistant, Grace Nakamura, he gathers information on various aspects of voodoo (including some of the Loa, such as Ogun Badagris and Damballah) and starts doing his own little bit of private investigating of the voodoo murders.Now…folklorist wants to dig deeper into what he’s researching…as we all know, a lot of folklorists are SCREWED in this sense because, well, once you start digging too deep, it’s hard to get out of it. This applies to Gabriel in spades, which I will touch up on later in the article.

There’s something about Gabe that’s special, however; he’s a descendant of a family of supernatural investigators called Schattenjaeger’s (or “shadow hunters”) that have been in his family for generations. When there is a job that involves something distinctly inhuman (such as spirits, werewolves and demons), Schattenjaeger’s are called in. Because of this heritage, however, Gabriel is plagued by nightmares; while these dreams are haunting and unclear, they help point Gabriel (and his ancestors before him) into the direction of the supernatural disturbance.

When he starts understanding these nightmares, however, things start taking a turn for the worst. Gabriel starts getting watched; his movements become relayed to other members of a hidden voodoo cartel within the city. His leads start drying up, and, in some cases, dying. He gets several warnings to steer clear of voodoo and his investigations. And before shit really starts to hit the fan, there are several attempts at his life (which become worse as the game goes on).

The supernatural aspect of these games helps keep the Gabriel Knight series in the horror section. There are moments in the game in which you will feel a little bit uneasy by the things that Gabriel discovers. This unease carries over to the other games in the series as well. This leaves me with this bit of parting wisdom:

1) SUPERNATURAL FORCES DON’T FUCK AROUND!

--Choco Thunda (10/15/11)

(Images by/from: lparchive.org, Paula Kutvonen, justadventure.com, Nate Wolf, and videogamesblogger.com)