Something's rotten in the land of the dead, and you're being played for a sucker. Meet Manny Calavera, travel agent at the Department of Death. He sells luxury packages to souls on their four-year journey to eternal rest. But there's trouble in paradise. Help Manny untangle himself from a conspiracy...
Something's rotten in the land of the dead, and you're being played for a sucker. Meet Manny Calavera, travel agent at the Department of Death. He sells luxury packages to souls on their four-year journey to eternal rest. But there's trouble in paradise. Help Manny untangle himself from a conspiracy that threatens his very salvation.
One of the most acclaimed adventure games of all time is now back, better than ever. Grim Fandango's epic story of four years in the life (or death) of Manny Calavera, travel agent to the dead, has been remastered to look, sound, and control even better than when it won GameSpot's Game of the Year award upon its original launch. Grim Fandango still stands as a classic of the genre, with unforgettable characters and unique combination of film noir and Mexican folklore.
Grim Fandango Remastered includes:
Repainted, hi-res character textures
New, dynamic lighting
Classic score re-recorded with a full live orchestra
Despite some criticisms, the game is still amazing. Back in 1998 when it first came out, it was mind blowing, and after 20 years it's still great, just not as quite as awesome, and the cracks in the paintwork are beginning to show. I still highly recommend you play the game however, the story alone is enough to keep you driving forward, and when you do solve those at times frustrating puzzles, you feel like a genius. The game is critically acclaimed and held up as one of the best adventure games of all time for a reason...it really is up there with the best of the best. You can watch my full retrospective video here: https://youtu.be/jVor2fvOXQM
The game itself: it's Grim Fandango, it's well-revered enough that I don't need to sell you on that. One of LucasArts' last triumphant hurrahs in adventuring still stands high.
The remaster: normally I'd advocate running originals in ScummVM or DOSBox as appropriate, because remasters usually ruin the consistency of the original art, or outright make it a mess of ugly redrawn Flash-grade spritework and blurry half-hearted upscaling. Grim's a bit different for three big reasons:
1) The original is harder to run, being Windows-era, and ResidualVM getting less attention than ScummVM.
2) The stylized low-poly models are intact, but the rendering is slightly improved, and they now mesh *better* with the pre-rendered backdrops. Remastered Grim is still a 4:3 game with some fuzzy cutscenes, but it's at least not worse than the original, unlike the godawful Full Throttle remaster.
3) Mouse controls! They're not perfect, and seem to have some dodgy hotspots toward the endgame where it can be easier to switch to keyboard/joystick for a moment, but this mostly fixes the original game's biggest pain point. (I don't know how it compares to the patch someone did for ResidualVM to attempt the same.)
It supports gamepads, but this "breaks" the game because with no mouse pointer to move around you will miss important hotspots and be stuck -and this from someone who had beaten it before. NO AUTOSAVE: unlike other reviewers the game never crashed on me, but maybe I was lucky. SOLUTIONS ARE A MIXED BAG -some are quite logical but others not, and sometimes the game seems to be designed to be purposedly obscure -like paths to important places being practicallly hidden, so you wander aimlessly wondering why you can't proceed. Other times they are convoluted, with the game giving no clue at all; or important objects get lost in the background. AT LEAST ONE RENDERING BUG in remastered graphics -in the first chapter, towards the end, the remastered version incorrectly renders an important object, making it virtually invisible. It happens in a part with a bird's eye view. REMASTERED GRAPHICS look nice, but since the original used pre-rendered backgrounds it's not as impressive as it could; however the character models are clearly improved, and for that it's worth it. Shown with the original's 4:3 ratio with an option to scale to widescreen, which distorts the image and potentially leaves important objects offscreen. GOOD WRITING, nice plot, and the mix of Day of the Dead traditions with film noir aged really well. CONTROLS: as I said, don't use the gamepad. Keyboard controls are improved -you can move Manny naturally, but "tank" controls are available as an option. THE USUAL FLAWS FOR THE GENRE: sometimes you correctly guess what you need to do but you can't do it directly, you need to talk to a character; other times you have to wait in position for other characters to do something, then act, with no clue at all. RECOMMENDED, nice adventure, not as illogical as others, but you'll probably consult a walkthrough a few times.
Grim Fandango (GF) revolves around Manny, a travel agent for the dead, who gets caught up in a grand adventure. I recall seeing GF in stores back when it was released, and given its cartoony, day-of-the-dead theme and point-and-click gameplay, I was not drawn to the game. 20 years later, I found myself traveling through the land of the dead, in one of the more unique tales to grace my monitor screen. The game is dated, but there is still a lot to like when it comes to its humor and the weirdly stylized locales in the story.
Gameplay:
Most of GF is just point-and-click, but there are also dialogue options and puzzles. The puzzles do make the game interesting, but a few of the puzzles are rather obscure; had I not played with an online guide, I might have quit before the end. Some puzzles are not really puzzles, but you having to apply arbitrary items to arbitrary situations to move the story forward.
Characters/Customization:
There is no customization in this game. You are simply along for the ride as Manny, who does grow along the way, through the game's four chapters/years.
Story/Atmosphere:
I was initially turned off by the box art and the point-and-click style of this game, but in the end, I was impressed how the creators pulled it all together. The gameplay is often intercut with fully-voiced dialogue and cutscenes, and that dialogue, the humor, and the overall story come together for a truly unique experience.
Graphics/Sound:
I enjoyed the spoken dialogue, and the music was appropriate in the context of the game's various locales. The remaster itself worked fine on my ultrawidescreen display. I ran into two bugs, but workarounds do exist. However, I would encourage players to save often.
Replay Value: None.
Overall Score: 6/10. GF is a bit dated but playable. It probably deserves a higher score if you are even remotely interested in the day of the dead or the after life motif.
Played in 2019-2020.
So The game is amazing!
I am really enjoying it, but the puzzles really get to you, to the point were you have to search up a play through just to get that one puzzle done. Just to realize how easy it was. And You spent tens of minutes trying to finish it just to realize it was so easy.!
I am still giving this game a 5 star rating because it's a good game, it just shows it's age, with no hits or objectives of any sorts. Its a game of its time, but that doesn't mean you cant enjoy such a good game.
My first playthrough went bad.. Like i would of given this game a low review but like i said its a game of its time and i won't judge it for that. Just as how you can't judge an old person for being slow moving.
The second playthrough was the best! I knew what to do and just enjoyed the game. I recommend people finish it, then play it again to truly enjoy it.
Cons
Bugs Galore!
Bugs:
1. The mouse stopped working on me, once. (Character wouldn't do anything when clicking.)
2. Remastered characters lip stopped moving during conversation, once.
3. Manuel Calavera won't leave a building when you click on a door to leave, Happened once in one room. In no other room have i found this issue.
4. When switching between original and new remastered characters the game might have visual bugs or the mouse might stop working. Only fix is to not switch really fast.
If this game had no bugs! It would be an amazing experience, but at times you are taken away by the bugs and glitches.
