Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

About Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

The Beast Within is the second Gabriel Knight game, written by Jane Jensen and released by Sierra On-Line in 1995. Unlike the first game's drawn art, it's filmed: real actors move through photographed scenes of Germany, and every action leads to a video sequence. It's sold on GOG and on Steam, where it's called The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery.

Gabriel, a New Orleans bookseller and writer, has learned he is the last of the Schattenjägers, a family of shadow hunters. Villagers in Bavaria ask him to look into the death of a little girl killed by a wolf. The papers blame wolves that got out of the Munich zoo. Gabriel isn't so sure. His assistant Grace Nakimura, meanwhile, follows a parallel trail into the life and death of King Ludwig II and a lost Wagner opera.

The story runs over six chapters, and you play Gabriel in some and Grace in others. Each chapter has a set of things you must get done, in whatever order you like, plus optional scenes that fill in the backstory. You talk to suspects, poke around farmhouses and a hunting club, pick up items and use them, and travel on a map of Bavaria that can highlight the places still worth a visit. It's a slow, talky mystery. The dread comes from the killings, a bloody case file and a hunt club with a very strange back room, not from being chased.

Critics loved it when it came out, and players on Steam and GOG still rate it highly, mostly for the story and the music. If you like FMV adventures or werewolf stories, it's well worth the time. Play Sins of the Fathers first if you can, since this one picks up where it left off.

How to play Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

1. Click to move, look, talk and use items in each filmed scene; the cursor changes to the action that fits what is under it.
2. Question people about each topic and examine places to gather clues about the killings.
3. Select an item in your inventory to make it active, then click it on a person or object to use it.
4. Use the map to travel between Munich, Rittersberg and the other places that open as the case moves on.
5. Switch between Gabriel's and Grace's chapters as the story alternates.

Tips

• Play the first game first; the story follows on from it.
• Talk to everyone about every topic; conversations unlock the next steps.
• Ask for a hint on the travel map: it marks the places where something is still left to do in the chapter.
• Lost the thread? Gabriel's past conversations and Grace's notes can be reviewed from the menu, and watched videos can be replayed.

Questions