GK 1 remake... It's awesome!

[faerieevenstar]

Dudes. I finally played the GK 1 remake, and it's every bit as awesome as I thought it would be. Fellow adventure Game fans, I urge you to play it!! I also wrote a blog post about it, so read there so I don't have to say it all here again!

Anyone else played it too? What did you think?

http://adventuregamegirl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/gabriel-knight-sins-of-fathers-20th.html

[Babar]

I got a copy of it (shoutout of thanks to my man Ben Guro!), but haven't gotten around to playing it yet.
Are you saying it is great compared to other stuff these days, or is it awesome even compared to the original. Because the art style does not inspire me with confidence.

[nihilyst]

I love the original for its atmosphere, story and suspense. Is there a sensible reason to check out the remake instead of playing the original again? (<- no rhetorical question, albeit it sounds like one)

[yamipanda]

I like the original more, but the remake is good too. There are some changes and new puzzles that are both good and bad. I liked the confessional-puzzle . This might seem like a small detail, but one big improvement is that you now don't get to visit his grandmother until a few days into the game. That gives the player time to get into the story before getting this huge infodump about Gabriel's family.
I wish they could have gotten the same voice actors though. Not that the new ones are bad, but it was just really cool that dr Frank N Furter was friends with Luke Skywalker.

[Cassiebsg]

I really don't feel the need of a Gk1 remake... if they however remake Gk2 and Gk3 as original Gk1 with same voice actors, I would run and buy those! And mind you, I have not bought a game in over 15 years! :p

[faerieevenstar]

I go into detail on my blog, but they absolutely kept the atmosphere. The art style works- it really does. I was a little nervous because I didn't know if they would spoil something that I found so inspirational in my past, but because Jane Jensen was still the main influence over the game, she kept the atmosphere true. They tweaked some bits to improve them (as Yamipanda said with the infodump- much easier to make sense of) and it just looked and felt the same but better. There were some new puzzles too, but I really felt they were a little flat compared to the old ones personally, but other than that I am thoroughly impressed with it, as a game alone, and as a comparison to the original.

My biggest problem is the Tim Curry-esque voice. I don't know why but I hate it. I adore Tim Curry and am a huge RHPS fan, but in my mind, that voice is NOT Gabriel. The first time I played GK1, I had a no-speech version (I don't think there was speech available at first? I think they released that later...) and then in GK2 I liked the game, but damn that actor was annoying. I must admit, I haven't really played GK3. I didn't get it at the time for some reason, and I actually got it last year, but the interface is so horrible I can't play it, and Tim Curry's voice doesn't fit to me.

One of my favourite bits in the new GK1 was the graphic novel cutscenes- they were so beautiful, and really added to the mood I thought. And if there was any doubt about the overall feel of the game, I still nearly pooped my pants at the bit with zombies in the burial mound and was clicking save every five minutes even though I knew what was going to happen... after all "save early, save often" was thoroughly drilled into my skull!

I feel it was, in some ways, more successful than the Monkey Island remakes, which I know some people hated (I'm not one of them, I liked them, but saw their point) as the GK artwork, was simply stunning. None of it was rushed. It was very intricate down to the dust dancing in the sunlight. It definitely jazzed it up for me.

[Snarky]

It's probably fair to say that there's some debate over how successful the new graphics are, particularly the character models, but also the overall composition and aesthetic of the backgrounds; everyone seems to like the cutscenes, though. I've also seen some people say that not letting Gabe visit his grandma on Day 1 detracts from his characterization, since in the original you get to see a nicer side of him early on. (And arguing that if necessary, they could have delayed the family history info dump without blocking off that whole location.) And that other ways in which the game has been linearized are annoying and ridiculous in-game. I'm sure some of this complaining is just inability to accept change, though.

I found the original UI ridiculously cumbersome (you have to rightclick-cycle through, what, 8 different verbs?), so I think I would particularly appreciate them simplifying that, even if it is some form of the dreaded verb coin. But between the graphics and Tim Curry, I would still go for the original if I ever felt like replaying it.