Last year, the concept of a horror-based computer adventure was almost unheard of, except for a couple of old Infocom text games. The main exceptions were the Alone in the Dark games and a newcomer from Sierra called Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. These games were very different in style. While Alone and Alone II were comparatively wordless and action-based, Gabriel Knight set most of its macabre mood with lengthy conversations and well developed characters, not to mention the voices of Tim Curry, Mark Hamill and Michael Dorn (on the CD-ROM version). Well, the witch-hunter from New Orleans is about to make his comeback this summer in Sierra's Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within, but there's been such a revamping of the game design that you might not recognize the old boy.

	While Sins of the Fathers was an instant critics' darling for its subtlety and excellent writing, the animated graphics, though effective, still left something to be desired. But this time around, Gabriel can benefit from the construction of Sierra's million dollar multimedia studio, built for their other big upcoming fright-fest, Phantasmagoria. The look of the two games is quite similar, but Phantasmagoria is more similar to a Stephen King thriller, while The Beast Within has more classical gothic elements.

	It seems that one of the regular themes of the Gabriel Knight series will be the menace that lurks under the veneer of civilization in any old culture. The first game established Gabriel's ancestry and destiny as a shattenjager, or witch hunter, while he investigated voodoo related murders in New Orleans. In the second part of Knight's story, he pursues the thread of his family history even further, bringing him and his secretary, Grace, from the French Quarter to the part of Germany that used to be called Bavaria. Much of the story revolves around the Bavarian Hunting Club, which Knight manages to become a member of by virtue of his German heritage. (His real name is Ritter.) The two visitors soon find themselves caught up in an adventure that involves composer Richard Wagner, King Ludwig II and werewolves! 

	All of the characters in The Beast Within are digitized actors shot against a blue screen, with ornate computer-built backgrounds inserted later. Unfortunately, this means that Gabriel Knight will not be played by Tim Curry this time around, since Curry looks nothing like the established character.

	But while the first Gabriel Knight was one of the first computer games to feature established celebrities, there is no plan to follow this pattern with The Beast Within. Designer Jane Jensen told us that while the casting is still not confirmed, the "wish list" is full of international celebrities mainly known in America from art-house movies. Jensen is determined that this game have an accurate atmosphere and German actors playing German parts, rather than Americans with hokum accents.

	Grace, Gabriel's secretary, mainly stayed in the background in the original game, but she will be a much stronger and more determined character here, following her own investigative leads, and coming up with important information that Gabriel could not have gotten on his own.

	The Beast Within, like its predecessor, is designed for mature audiences. In keeping with the revisionist tone of recent gothic films like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Interview With A Vampire, the representation of the werewolves is a very sensuous one. The interpretation will be familiar to those who know the legends, but offbeat enough to keep the player guessing.

	As the ranks of horror games grow, the Gabriel Knight series continues to stand out in the field like a Hitchcock classic in a field of Friday the 13th sequels. The Beast Within will satisfy the gamer looking for subtlety in their scare.