Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (refered to as "GK3" from here on) is the latest installment in Jane Jensen's ever-improving Gabriel Knight series, and despite some changes this game still carries the feel of the first two. Although, I don't think it is as good. The game doesn't use paintings such as the first adventure, and doesn't use FMV such as the second adventure, but a 3D world. This, obviously, means that playing the game would be best (not required though) played with a 3D card. I would reccomend a VooDoo2 or 3 because it is my experience that the game looks best with 3DFX cards. It should work with my RIVA TNT2 Ultra, but it just doesn't look good. A flaw of the graphics designers, since the TNT2 Ultra is a superior 3D chipset.

Gabriel

This plot of this game is centered around a small French village called Rennes-le-Chateau, which is actually a real place in France. The game begins with Gabriel being invited for a weekend at the home of a currently dethroned royal scion. Grace is there, along with Gabriel as the "Trusty Sidekick." However, as Gabriel investigates further into the royal family he discovers that the family has been haunted by what is believed to be a secret cult of vampires. As the first night of Gabriel's stay begins, the Prince's infant son is kidnapped. Although Gabriel tries to find the kidnappers, he fails and loses their trail. As the characters further investigate the mystery they discover an ancient mystery that deals with heavy religious themes. One of the bigest mysteries has to do with the "bloodline" of Jesus Christ. The interesting thing is that this story is a real mystery. Whether you believe in it or not, you can read The Templar Revelation to learn more about the mystery. I don't want to spoil the story, so I won't say any more. You want to solve the mystery?! Play the game!

My first impression when I opened this game was that it constantly crashed on my Pure 3D II, but a quick install of the newest drivers fixed that problem! This game is great, not *quite* as good as the second game but still pretty damn good. The adventure is in 3D; and I must say that the 3D graphics look pretty good, although not quite as good as it could have been. The game, obviously, is a little heavy on the system requirments. Although it will run on a Pentium 166, I would strongly reccommend having a Pentium II and atleast 64 MB of RAM. The more, the better. I have an Intel Celeron 400 MHz with a VooDoo2 amd 128 MB RAM, and at 800 by 600 it runs good, but a little choppy in large game areas. The game starts with Gabriel playing, but later on you also play as Grace. The puzzles are just as hard, if not harder, as in previous games. The game is divided into 3 days, and each day is divided into several timeblocks. This makes the flow of the game faster and more exciting. It also makes the game seem more life like.

What I really like about Gabriel Knight 3 is that although the game utilizes very modern 3D technology, it still has the appeal of the previous games. A true historical mystery is intergrated into the game just like all the others, the story is fascinating just like the others. I still think that The Beast Within was a little more interesting, but I am glad Jane Jensen still knows how to create a top notch story.Gabriel sneakin' around The story involves the mystery of the Holy Grail and the real life group of knights known as the Knights Templar that lived approximatly 900 years ago. The location the game is based on is rural France, in a town called Rennes-le-Chateau (sorry, but I can't ge accent marks on this PC!) Gabriel is quick to make his smart-ass comments about everybody and everything in the game. Sometimes, his comments are a little overdone and can be annoying, but not enough to make the game bad. I will say that the dialogue is poor though. That really is the only bad part of the game. The characters never take things seriously, they usually just spout out poorly written sarcasm.

The game introduces a whole new group of characters, each with their distinct personality. Gabriel interacts with a lot of the characters, and manages to make fun of most non-americans. Especially the French. Mosely is around for Gabriel to poke around, it is kinda funny in a cruel way how Gabriel makes fun of him. Of course a sex interest is introduced into the game. This time it is a young French woman named Madeline Buthane who is the leader of a tour group. Gabriel has some interesting things to say about her.

The gameplay in this game is very simple, even simplier than in Gabriel Knight 2. That is a mixed blessing, although I think that it overall works better than the first two games. The mouse moves around around a little arrow, that lights up when it is on something that can be manipulated. When you click, a number of various verb images appear. You can sniff objects, tough objects, comment on them, pick them up, practically anything. That is what is good about the interface, it is simple yet powerful. The only other real problem with the game is that the storyline is stilted. The pace doesn't flow naturally at times.

Overall, this is an excellent game worthy of the title Gabriel Knight. Although it simply is not as good as Gabriel Knight 2 or Gabriel Knight 1 in terms of plot or character development. If you can get past a slightly stilted storyline and poor dialogue, you will find a fun and compelling adventure game that carries on the Gabriel Knight tradition.