Customer Reviews

Grim Fandango

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're reading this review, you may be under the impression that I'm trying to oversell it. Perhaps I am. It doesn't matter; this game deserves it. Hands down, I have never seen a more beautiful and challenging game. Every scene is a postcard. The music is so perfect you think they chose the playlist first and worked the game aronud it. It made me laugh, though the humor is wry and subtle and may be hard to appreciate. It made my eyes water, though there's no heavy-handed sentimentality. You'll fall in love with the characters, whose voices are perfect. When something goes wrong in the story, you'll feel genuine delight or devastating depression, depending on the situation. Lucasarts could easily have made a movie based on the interesting characters and elaborate cutscenes alone. (And, for my money, I hope they do...)

The game is not perfect, but in an industry fixated on violent first-person shooters and manufactured WarCraft clones, Grim Fandango is a welcome breath of fresh air. They say the adventure game is dead; this is proof to the opposite. It is a disappointment that the game sold poorly, because it's just this kind of game that makes me glad I own a computer.

I don't go for adventure games, personally. Ninety percent of the time, I prefer shooters. But this one...man, it's so weird, so unique, and so GENIUS through and through, how can you not love it?

Here's the story. Manny Calavera is a low-level salesman trying to earn an honest commission and make a decent day's pay, but it never seems to work out for him. His boss is constantly on his back, he's routinely snaked by a competitor, Domino Hurley, and the right sales never come his way. It's a lousy life to have.

Especially if you're already dead.

That's the twist; Manny, and just about everyone else in the game, is dead. This whole game takes place in the Land of the Dead of Mexican/Aztec folklore, with a strong Art Deco influence, with heavy doses of '30s crime noir thrown in. Everyone in the game is fashioned to look like the sugar skeletons used in Day of the Dead festivals (called 'calaveras'; get it?).

Manny works in the Department of Death, trying to work off his time for his misdeeds when he was alive. He does that by trying to sell 'travel packages' to the recently deceased, so they can make their four-year journey across the Land of the Dead, until they reach the portal leading to the Land of Eternal Rest. The quality of life this person lived determines whether they get to use a car, a luxury liner, or the exclusive No. 9 train, which speeds its passengers there in four minutes, instead of the customary four years.

Unfortunately, the kind of lowlifes who keep coming Manny's way only deserve walking sticks at best, which does absolutely nothing to help Manny work off his time. So, he decides to take matters into his own hands and STEAL the right kind of client.

And that's when he gets in over his head.

The story is pure crime noir with a technicolor twist, like Raymond Chandler meets Tim Burton. The plot Manny uncovers is convoluted, brilliant, deeply twisted, and diabolical like you've never imagined possible. It's also incredibly, unspeakably funny. Tim Schaefer is one absurd individual, make no mistake.

Yes, it's an old game, I know. But the true classics know no age, and this is a classic all right. So take advantage of the price, snap it up, and book a trip with your new favorite travel agent. He's waiting for you...

If they made more games like this, I'd be a pauper. Intelligent, funny, easy to use, easy to solve, and no bloody chess problems. It's also thought-provoking, gorgeous, well-written, and as believable as talking skeletons and elevator demons can make it. One of my favorites that I play over and over again. One caveat: At least one puzzle seems to be tied to processor speed, so if you have a fast machine you'll need to download a patch from the manufacturers' website. Well worth the trouble, though.

I just finished this game, and I really enjoyed it. If you like adventure games, you'll love this. The graphics are spectacular, and there are many new areas for you to explore as you journey though the game. There are many more areas in this game than you typically find in any type of computer game. Plus, the characters are great, and it actually has a storyline that would stand up quite well all by itself. My only complaint would be that some of the puzzles didn't make sense to me. At one point, you take a piece of tape off the wall, and all of a sudden a character will talk to you who never wanted to talk to you before. That's just one example. Many of the puzzles do make sense, though. I still think this is a game that any adventure gamer would enjoy.

Words really can describe how wonderful this game is. The first thing you will notice is the incredible graphics (note: a 3D card is not required!.) Everything is drawn in great detail right down to character traits and facial expressions (who would have thought a fleshless person would be so good with expressions.) The story is also very entertaining and added with the graphics, it makes this a very absorbing adventure. This is one of the few games that I can't say anything negative about. This is a must have!

Once I started playing 'Grim Fandango', I could not stop! This is the most creative adventure game I have seen in a long time. Not only is the storyline captivating, the attention to detail in this game is very impressive. As a fan of both art deco and film noir, I found 'Grim' to be a total delight! Some of the clips which move the storyline along are so well done, I could have sworn I was watching a movie. I have even played 'Grim' multiple times after completing it just to watch those clips again!

My only (minor) complaint about this game would be that there were one or two puzzles which were just about impossible; I have not come across anyone who was able to pass these difficult challenges without consulting a walk-through. However, if you're looking for an engrossing, dazzling game, this is the one!

I've played every adventure game from Zork to Riven, and I must say that Grim Fandango emerges as the leader of the pack. Most games aren't fun after you've beaten them, but I find myself returning to GF again and again. The graphics are stunning; the puzzles are challenging without being too frustrating or distracting you from the story, which is as interesting as a good detective movie. The voice acting- as always in LucasArts games- is superb. The music is so good I'd buy a CD of the soundtrack. The gameplay is immersive and fairly easy to master, except for the frustration involved in using just about any of the elevators in the game. After a session of GF, I find myself speaking with a Latin accent and wanting to call people "Manny" and "Meche." The entertainment value of GF is worth much more than $.

I think this game is simply the best game I've ever played. I think about it, after the fact, all the time. The visuals are gorgeous. The voice acting is superb. The soundtrack is good enough that I actually listen to it by itself! No other game has influenced me so much as this. Do whatever it takes to play this game.

Although still a gamer (or at least an interested former gamer), I have been sceptic about games as of late. Almost no game has managed to captivate me at all for the last 5+ years, and that is tragic. But I don't give up on the medium, largely because of this game. Grim Fandango is proof that video game design can be an art, and as video game art, this is a masterpiece.

Of course, Grim Fandango is really only 1 part game, and 5 parts story. If you have played any Graphic Adventure game before, especially one by the fantastic Tim Schafer or his contemporaries Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, than you should know the gameplay already. If you haven't, then it is going to seem weird, ungame-like, and maybe even boring. What makes this game so great is that it is really a vehicle to drive the story more than anything else. With the fantastic music, graphics (for it's time), voice acting and dialogue (by far the best dialogue in any game before or since), you could be more than entertained watching this as a movie. However, it is more than obvious that an interactive game is the very best way to tell this story, and all the characters, conversations and plot twists are designed to take advantage of your interaction with them.

Replacing the point and click style that dominated the adventure game genre since it replaced the text adventure style, this game uses a new keyboard based interface. It is the same interface (almost) later used in the (dissapointing) fourth Monkey Island game. While it is better used in this game, it still isn't as good as the old mouse system. If there is any complaint to make about this game, it is that.

I recomend this game to anyone. If you haven't played an adventure game before, this may turn you on to the genre... which might actually be misleading, because no other game gets as good as this one. Adventure game lovers would have already played it, chances are, unless they are old fogeys who haven't played it because other new adventure games have been sub-par. If this is you, I understand your frustration. But this game is a beacon of light in the dying genre. It was the game engineered to save it from extinction, and it should have worked. But it didn't, and now it is more like a swan song.

I never realised how much Grim Fandango had taken over my life in the short space of time that I had been playing it until I came to uninstall it a bit ago... The short Mexican guitar trill brought back all of those memories...

At first I wasn't sure whether or not to buy Grim. It had good reviews, nice packaging, but sounded a little silly...thank god I did in the end. Even my sister enjoyed playing it, and she doesn't like Adventure games! With beautifully rendered back drops, cut scenes which will leave you drooling, real-time characters who really seem alive (!) and a wonderful change of atmosphere for every year, Grim Fandango is a peak of pure pleasure. If you half want to buy this but aren't sure, I will promise you now that you WON'T be disappointed! Oh, and the game seems to last for ever, as well, and the story line run up to the end will have you on the edge of your seat until the shocking climax shoot out!