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Gabriel Knight 3:
Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the
Dammed
reviewed by Donald Melanson
Gabriel Knight 3 achieves the greatest feat
any adventure game can hope to, it creates a completely believable and immerse
environment. All of Sierra's greatest adventure games hold true to this, not
the least of which are the two previous Gabriel Knight adventures, which were
each ground-breaking at the time of their release. But the third in the series,
Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Dammed, takes things even further.
 Set in the Languedoc region of southern
France, Gabriel Knight 3 incorporates the real-life
Rennes-le-Chateu
mystery, which makes for a completely engrossing storyline. Sierra even
includes a reading list in the manual for those who might be interested in
learning more about the real-life mysteries in the game. Also, like the two
previous games, Gabriel Knight 3 manages to completely capture the area it's
set in, so much so that you may even want to visit it by the time you've
finished the game.
Apart from the story, Gabriel Knight 3 also
breaks new ground in other areas. The most noticeable is that it now uses a 3D
game engine, which is one of the best ever in an adventure game. After the very
effective use of video in the second game, many questioned the decision to
switch to 3D. It is now clear that this was an extremely wise decision. The
player can now fully explore the game world, using an innovative interface that
allows you to move the camera independent from the character.
The voice acting in the Gabriel Knight series
continues to be some of the best around, with Frank-N-Furter himself, Tim
Curry, returning as the voice of Gabriel. And of course, they have Jane
Jensen's brilliant script to work with, which may very well be the best work
from one of the best game designers.
 You
may have heard of some of the controversy surrounding the game. It does, in
fact, deal with subject matter that as far as I can tell no other game has
tackled. Unfortunately, discussing any of it would give away a large part of
the story. So, if you're curious, you'll have to play it for yourself.
My only complaint is that the game is a little
on the short side, but that seems to be true of many great adventure games. But
if Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Dammed is as successful as the first two,
we'll surely be seeing a fourth installment before too long.
Donald Melanson is the editor-in-chief of
Mindjack Magazine. His latest venture is tripledub.net, a new media design
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