I finished the first game recently and loved it, but I'm having a bit of trouble enjoying GK2. I really want to, but the FMV is hideous compared to the first game's pixel art, the actor playing Gabriel makes him considerably less likable, and the story (at least after messing around for an hour or so) seems to be a bit drier than in GK1. Navigation is sort of a pain, too, since it's less apparent where you can and can't go.

Am I alone here? I think most consider GK2 the best of the three, but it's just not holding my interest like I expected it to.

I was the same as well. Couldn't stand watching and listening to the actors who played Gabriel and co. although Gabriel was definitely the worst. After a while I just skipped it and went on to GK3; aside from a few trivial references to the events in the second title there's not much continuity between the two. I still think the first one is the best, but I found GK3 to be enjoyable too, despite the horribly dated 3D environments and a plot with a rather silly and rushed outcome.

I'm glad I'm not alone with this opinion. Finished the first game last year, and I can proudly say itt was one of the very best I have ever played. I happily rushed to GK2 and, to my deception, I felt the same as you.

The biggest problem in my opinion are the puzzles themself. While on the first game there were some hard ones, most of them didn't last more than a day unsolved. Now, on "The Beast Within", things have gone out of control and I can't find the answers for most of them. Pixel hunting is also a pain in this FMV world.

GK2 is the last one I finished and the only one in the series I finished only once.

For me it was the opposite. I thought Dean Erickson did a splendid job portraying Gabriel Knight. You can tell he's an novice actor, but that he's really comfortable in front of the camera. And his laid-back, carefree attitude is well-suited to the character he plays, especially when contrasted to the German formality of the characters he interacts with. Compare this to Tim Curry's overacting. C'mon, listen to him in GK3. Really, who talks like that...

The problem with Gabriel in GK3 is that half of the time he's a nice and likeable guy, while the other half he's an asshole.
The acting in GK2 didn't bother me that much, the problem was Dean Erickson never looked like pale, messy insomniac Gabriel from Sins of the fathers.

TBW is probably my favorite of the series.

Oh, it has it's problems, for sure. Gabriel's actor plays the part a little too low-key, but Tim Currey's take on the character would probably be a little too over the top for live action. A happy medium would have been great. Grace's actor is by far the worst in the game. She's fine in most situations, but during the more dramatic scenes, she usually goes completely over the top. Anger or annoyance comes off as absolute rage and hate. It's very jarring and makes Grace seem like a psychotic b****. :c

Yes, the sets look cheap, the video quality is terrible, and the CG is downright laughable. There are less puzzles than in the first game, and a few of them are almost nonsensical. Sometimes the game doesn't progress because you haven't looked at something at the right time, or with the right information before hand...that can be frustrating. Also, there's less interaction than in the first game, and less puzzles. It is helpful to think of it less as an adventure game but more of a combination of an adventure game and an interactive movie.

But I promise you, the game's strengths far outweigh it's shortcomings. The supporting cast is, for the most part, excellent....especially Von Glower. The plot is exceptional; though things may start a little slowly, things quickly become very enthralling, with some very spooky and downright disturbing moments. The way it ties itself in to history and mythology gives the story some real weight. Also, it does a great job with the contrast between the Gabriel and Grace segments. Grace is all about connecting pieces of a puzzle methodically, while Gabriel tends to jump into situations headfirst, taking a much more intuitive approach. It plays out great.

Wow. Wrote a lot. Sorry. If you haven't gotten into this game just because of your first impressions, or because one of the shortcomings listed above, I strongly encourage you to stick with it. This game really pays off.

tl:dr - The game has it's fair share of flaws, but the story and pacing are exceptional. The good far outweighs the bad.

The game really takes off as soon as you enter the "Königlich-Bayrische-Hofjagdloge". The fear and concealed hostility of the other members gives the game a really interesting spin: you're part of a group now and not a single "hero".


Doesn't change the fact that one wants to shave Gabriel's head while he is asleep.
But then again, people still watch Twin Peaks today, so bad hair can't be that much of a dealbreaker ;)

It took me a while to get into it too but after I did, it ended up becoming my favourite game of the series. The story is simply fantastic and it scared the crap out of me in some parts. I found game 3 to be the most boring and its graphics the most hideous. Please give it a chance!

As an update, I picked this up again a couple of weeks ago and it has really grown on me. I think Day One is disproportionately weird/hard/confusing/bad compared to the other days (I'm four days in now).

I started playing this a couple of weeks ago and while the pace is relatively slow early on, it really picks up in the latter chapters. Initially Dean Ericsson appears a bit generic, especially when if you have Tim Curry's OTT voice still ringing in your head, but his more down toned appearance actually fits the mood of the game perfectly. This is also one of the few games where full FMV dosn't seems to have been a creative burden to the game designers and many of the scenes are hard to imagine being done in any other way.

Unfortunately Grace's chapters tends to slow down the game and are extremely tedious compared to Gabriel's more investigative chapters which features much better puzzles and a more interesting story. She worked much better as an NPC, but apparently a female co-lead was rather popular in the 90's, just think of Passionate Patti in Leisure Suit Larry and Nico Collard in Broken Sword. Besides that I find this game extremely hard to fault and are glad to hear that most people grows to enjoy it.