The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (1995)

Gabriel Knight 2 could be a lot better, but there's still a gem underneath its rough edges.

The most noticeable change from the first game (review) is the shift to FMV format. There is plenty of awkwardness and cheesiness in the game's many hours of live action video, as you'd expect. Still, these cutscenes and conversations can be super entertaining. The often over-the-top acting and music only enhance that. It hits a great balance between serious and silly. Aside from some audio mixing issues, the biggest problem with FMV here is just the dead time waiting for video and gameplay to transition between each other.

I really like the story in this one. The setting and scenarios are great, characters are fun, and there's some neat historical background to it as well. Ends well too. I did have some issues with the storytelling, though. The game is a bit overly obsessed with its own dramatic irony, extended foreshadowing, highlighting historical parallels, exposition dumps... While these elements are good in moderation, their overuse makes the pacing in the middle of the game pretty rough.

Gabriel is a bit toned-down compared to the last game. He has a new actor, plus some events from last game factor in, plus everyone around him really hams it up anyway. He could be better as a main guy, but I still liked him. Lots of fun little parts. You also control Grace for half of the game this time, and she is likable as well. One exception is a whole extended plotline of her being super catty and annoying with a woman she suspects of being involved with Gabriel. Feels forced and odd, like they want to make you say, "Women, am I right?!" (Yet it's written by a woman, so... I don't know.)

Gameplay in this is... interesting. Now that it's an FMV game, most of the puzzles are pretty simple in execution, but figuring out what they even are or where to go is not so easy. Playing without a walkthrough would make this already slow-ish game pretty painful. (Luckily we don't have to do that.) Some of it requires huge leaps of logic and discovery, while forcing you to save often and slowly walk all over the place to get to that point. Could be a much smoother ride, but some of the stuff is at least pretty neat once you know what to do.

So to conclude, as fun as it can be, The Beast Within may be better watched than played. It also certainly could use some trimming down. Either way, it's a journey I'm glad I took. It's a worthy successor to the first game, extremely memorable, and a very solid example of the potential that FMV adventure games had.

You know what? Fuck this game. This game has me absolutely sold in so many ways; it does so much right. The cheesy FMV acting; Jane Jensen's incredible ability to write such likeable characters; a plot as impressive as the one found in the first game (a difficult task in and of itself.) And yet, yes, fuck this game.

When playing a point and click game, I shouldn't have to constantly wonder to myself, "Now what am I trying to achieve here?." It should be clear to me. There's a million and one ways to make it clear. But this game rarely ever gives you any indication whatsoever. The most difficult aspects of this game have not been the puzzles that have been presented to me - though it does suffer from the occasional 'who in the absolute shit-wank would've thought of that?' puzzle. The difficulty has been working out just what the dick the game wanted me to do, wherein I believe the problem lies.

I shouldn't be having to think of this as a 'game'. I shouldn't be having to wonder what it is the game designer is trying to get me to do. And yet there has been more than one occasion where I've completed all the tasks I've been presented, only to be left lost and without direction. Welcome to me roaming around the fucking map for 3+ hours talking to everyone AGAIN, examining everything AGAIN, waiting to hit the right trigger to let me actually continue playing the cock-wombling thing.

If it wasn't for Von Glower making me question my sexuality, I'd have moved onto other stuff by now.

It's a shame because I LOVE what it is TRYING to do. It's just not doing it very well. I'm on the last chapter and I'm struggling to have the patience now. I'm salty as piss.