The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery

The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (Also known as Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within) is a point-and-click full-motion video mystery adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line in 1995. The game is a sequel to the previous Sins of the Fathers, once again written and designed by Jane Jensen.

Plot
Following the events of Sins of the Fathers, Gabriel Knight has immigrated to Munich, Germany in his uncle Wolfgang Ritter's mansion to become a full-blown Schattenjager. His duties are soon called upon when he's asked by inhabitants of a small village to investigate a string of murders they believe to be perpetrated by a Werewolf.￼

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Rather than be a graphical game like it's predecessor, this one has recorded video and actors used instead, and the performances by the actors are pretty decent for the time. On the other hand, outside of cutscenes, characters are rendered in cool looking pixelation.
 * 2) Yet another intriguing mystery that takes an even darker tone than it's predecessor, with even fewer cheesy moments and a very well written story with many interesting twists overall. It deals with many intense themes, like the murder of a child, which it thankfully doesn't show to avoid being mean spirited.
 * 3) The game is about twice as long as it's predecessor.
 * 4) Easy enough puzzles that still, once again, require you to think outside the box.
 * 5) Gabriel's development from the previous game remains consistent. Now he's less sarcastic and witty and more serious and sympathetic to others while still cracking the occasional actually clever jokes. He also now actually has money after making a successful book about the previous game's Voodoo Murders.
 * 6) You play as Grace in a chapter looking for Gabriel.
 * 7) Characters who survived the previous games return to help Gabriel and maintain contact with him through mail.
 * 8) Now, it adds a bit of educational value about Germany and it's culture along with plenty of historical locations. This time, Gabriel stays in one country since all the mystery and lore is German.
 * 9) Like the previous game, the tone gets darker and more legitimately disturbing as time goes on. Only in this case, it even starts quite a bit darker.
 * 10) Plenty of likeable new characters in addition to the returning ones.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The acting, while not terrible, feels like kind of a step down compared to the excellent voice acting of the original.
 * 2) The quality of the footage hasn't aged too well.
 * 3) Only one ending this time, unlike the first which had two.