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When PC CD drives became cheaper
Slowly many games left the Floppy media
Later the developers noticed that
the CD drive could play Video
This gave birth to FMV games
Interactive movies with real actors
generally put on pre-rendered backgrounds
Unfortunately, most of these lack in quality
they have poor acting and bad gameplay
And Sierra?
Sierra had already experimented FMV with Phantasmagoria
and the result was pretty decent
What could be done for the second chapter of Gabriel Knight?
Obviously a FMV, but not one like the others
the best FMV game, let's see why.
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery
"La bestia brutale" translated in Italian
is the direct sequel to "Sins of the Fathers" written again by Jane Jensen
After leaving New Orleans Gabriel moves to the Ritter Castle
In Bavaria, Germany. Inherited from his family
One evening a group of villagers knocks on the door of the castle
a man warns Gabriel about the death of a child killed by a wolf
The villagers suspect is a werewolf
so they ask Gabriel to investigate.
the investigation leads Gabriel and his assistant Grace
to discover secrets about the obscure past of Bavaria
As said before the game uses a cast of real actors
that have been recorded on photographs of places like Monaco
Almost every action leads to a movie
despite the use of FMV the game is a graphic adventure
with investigation, puzzle and dialogues
compared to the previous game now you play also the role of Grace
Gabriel's Assistant
the beauty of the game is in the amount of historical details present
The fantasy elements are mixed perfectly with reality
You also need to explore real museums
discover the story of Ludwig II of Bavaria
and Wagner's lost opera
This mix of elements helps in making the game more real
so real that some fans
went in search of the locations used in the game
The acting is not at professional level
but it sure looks good
the characters were written and characterized very well
in short, the difference with their virtual counterpart is minimum
Unfortunately there are a few things that do not work well
Some puzzles have slightly strange solutions
and there is an Arcade scene ... pretty useless
These are just details that doesn't ruin the story
Also on Adventure Game Shop there is an exclusive italian
edition with comic for only 7 $
You have no excuses, go and play the best FMV game ever created
See you in the next episode ... Ciao!