Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is a 1993 point-and-click adventure game, developed and published by Sierra On-Line for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Windows, and released on December 17, 1993. The CD-ROM version features the voice talents of Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, Michael Dorn, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Leah Remini. The game's story focuses on Gabriel Knight, a struggling novelist and owner of a rare book store in New Orleans, who opts to research a recent spate of murders around the city that have a connection to voodoo. In the process, he is slowly revealed to be a descendant of a German family who are involved in combatting people who use supernatural forces, and discovers a link between the killings and his family's past.The game's production was handled by Jane Jensen, with assistance from veteran game designer Roberta Williams. Critics gave favorable reviews of Gabriel Knight, with praise to the voice cast and story. While the game was not a commercial success, it spawned a series, with a sequel, titled The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, released in 1995. A remake of the game to mark its 20th anniversary, titled Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition, was released on October 15, 2014, for Windows, Mac, iPad, and Android. The remake featured a remastering of graphics and music, a new voice cast, and minor changes in the arrangement of events.Sins of the Fathers takes place within a world where supernatural forces, both good and evil, have existed throughout human history, with any becoming a threat to humanity being combatted by people who specialize in fighting such powers. The story incorporates the mythology, history and background of voodoo - both the Amercanized version found in Louisiana, and the West African version - mixing real elements with a fictionalized version that is central to the game's plot. Locations featured include the real-life city of New Orleans, United States, the fictional town of Rittersberg, Germany, and a fictional burial mound situated within Benin.Plot[edit]Gabriel Knight, a struggling novelist owning a book store in the French Quarter of New Orleans, seeks material for a new novel by researching a spate of killings across the city, dubbed the "Voodoo Murders", with the aid of his shop assistant Grace Nakimura, and the support of his childhood friend Frank Mosely, a police detective investigating the murders. At the site of a recent murder, Gabriel meets Malia Gedde, a local socialite passing by, and becomes infatuated with her, to the point that he uses deception to meet with her during the course of his investigations. His work soon leads him into understanding more about the practices of Louisiana Voodoo through a meeting with two experts on the subject: Dr. John, a voodoo museum curator; and Professor Hartridge, a researcher into voodoo practices. His investigations determine that the police's assumption on mob-based killings is wrong, and that the killer is someone who really practices voodoo.At the same time, Gabriel visits his grandmother to talk to her about his family's past. He learns his grandfather, Harrison Knight, was a German-immigrant born as Heinz Ritter, who felt his family were crazy over the things they claimed to do and left them in order to raise his son Phillip, Gabriel's father, with a normal life. Harrison died when Phillip was eight, shortly after seeing his son develop a strange compulsion to draw and paint dark imagery, leaving him and his mother with debts. Phillip eventually married the wealthy Margaret Templeton, clearing most of his debts while she gave birth to Gabriel. However, both parents died when Gabriel was eight, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother, with Margaret leaving a trust fund he would use to open his store. Shortly after learning of his past, Gabriel is contacted by his great uncle Wolfgang Ritter who invites Gabriel to come to Germany and learn about his heritage at Schloss Ritter, their ancestral castle in Rittersberg, Germany.Gabriel declines but agrees to accept a family journal from Wolfgang regarding an ancestor of his called Gunter Ritter. An entry in the journal catches his attention, detailing a case in which Gunter fought a voodoo practitioner named Tetelo, and had them burned at the stake for committing several crimes, prompting him to wonder if it relates to a recurring nightmare that appears to have similar elements in it. His suspicions of a voodoo murderer in New Orleans are heightened when a suspect questioned by Mosely is later murdered in front of Gabriel, while Hartridge is found dead after looking into an element of voodoo Gabriel had copied from a crime scene. After a python at Dr. John's museum attacks him, Gabriel shows his evidence to Mosely, including a newspaper article from 1810 describing a similar murder, and snake scales that link Dr. John to the crimes.When Mosely disappears soon afterwards, Gabriel decides to infiltrate a voodoo cartel Dr. John is linked to, upon learning of their next meeting. During a ceremony, he witnesses that Malia is the cartel's leader, but that she is possessed by a Loa spirit that was once Tetelo, who recognizes Gabriel as a descendant of Gunter and proclaims him a "witch-hunter". Narrowly avoiding being killed, Gabriel is rescued by Grace and taken to safety. Needing to understand more about Tetelo, Gabriel agrees to meet with Wolfgang, and travels to his family's ancestral home in Rittersberg, Germany. Once there, Gabriel learns that the Ritters work as "Schattenjägers" - the German translation of "Shadow Hunters" - who are tasked with fighting those who threaten others through supernatural means, and that supernatural elements such as vampires, witches and demons exist. Learning from his great-uncle's assistant, Gerde, that Wolfgang left to locate a family heirloom that Tetelo stole from Gunter, Gabriel decides to undergo the initiation ritual to become a Schattenjäger.Upon successfully completing the ritual, Gabriel gains access to a hidden library, whereupon he learns Tetelo likely holds the heirloom - a talisman with immense power - amongst her remains within a mound in Benin. He immediately travels after Wolfgang, and finds him wounded within the zombie-guarded mound. They discover the talisman is sealed within a sacrificial table. Wolfgang, believing Gabriel is the only one who can stop Tetelo, sacrifices himself to allow his great-nephew access to the talisman. After escaping the mound, Gabriel swears revenge on Tetelo. Upon his return to New Orleans, he finds the city battling terrible storms, rising crime rates, and widespread food poisoning and death.A letter found at his book store from Malia reveals Tetelo now has control of her body, and urges Gabriel to flee the city for his safety, revealing that Grace was kidnapped by the cartel. Mosely soon arrives, having been in hiding after suspecting that the cartel has full control over the police and local government. The pair determine to rescue Grace and shut down the cartel by finding evidence to be sent to the FBI. After finding the cartel's hideout - a hidden voodoo temple - Gabriel locates Grace and has Mosely take her to safety, while he pursues after Malia. Confronting her, he uses his new power to bring down a stone idol that empowers the cartel, killing Dr. John, while leaving Malia, possessed by Tetelo, clinging to the edge of a fissure in the ground.At this point, the story features two endings. If Gabriel opts to fulfil his duty, Malia heeds Tetelo's warning that he would kill her and pulls both of them into the fissure to die, with Mosely reflecting on Gabriel's heroism, despite Grace wondering if the world would be safe without Schattenjägers. If Gabriel opts to act with mercy and help Malia (considered the canonical option in the series), Malia reflects that Tetelo's warning was false and understands the Loa spirit is a threat to the world, thus she lets herself fall to her death to end the Loa's hold. With the cartel destroyed, Gabriel reflects on his new status as a Schattenjäger, while Grace wonders if she should postpone returning to school in order to help him fight evil, slowly seeing that both have a new beginning in life.
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