Grim Fandango

"Bohemian Rhapsody!"

After advertising his own game in BlondBeards restaurant back on ''The Curse of Monkey Island'', Manuel Calavera is finally in his very own game. Everybody was itching for adventure since The Curse of Monkey Island, and wanted to wait for the fourth Installment, However, During the long wait, Grim Fandango, a spin-off from Lucasart's was released.

Many of past Lucasart's games were a 2D point and Click game, But it seems they wanted to go a bit adventurous again, by making a 3D Adventure game. Lucasarts ditched the point and click method for a little bit, Grim Fandango was born. Ditching the 2D method allowed a fully 3D, Adventure with unlimited possibilities, and beautiful graphics to be 'sprouted'.

Grim Fandango is, unfortunately unknown for it's story, But, let me tell you this, Grim Fandango's story can blow Final Fantasy game's stories straight out of the water, It may have trouble with Chrono and Grandia 2 but it can easily blow a selection of other games out of the water with its unforgettable, Dramatic storyline.

The story starts off in the dead world, Manny(Short for Manuel) Calavera, The Grim Reaper walks in to his office to speak to one of his client's, who has just passed away. Everyone in the dead world, is dead! Well, Anyway, Manual's client has had a bad life, But Manuel explains to his client about the 9th Underworld, a place where the dead can finally rest. There are several ways on getting there, first by walking which takes 4 years, a car, a boat or the ultimate train, THE NUMBER NINE!. His Client has no right for those luxuries and is forced to walk there if he wants to finally rest in piece, so Manuel gives him a walking stick with a compass in the handle. Grim Fandango does not stop there though, You have a lot of play ahead of you, The main story starts off when Manuel steals a client off his rival, and the client is the beautiful Meche. Meche, one of the most sensible people ever was entitled to the NUMBER NINE, But she is forced to walk. What is going on? Is Manuel going to after her? What other adventures await?

Grim Fandango is one of the funniest games I have ever played, It has the right level of humor you would expect from a Lucasarts game, And its not poor humor like the new English Television show, The Sketch Show or as rude as South Park, Instead it has logical and cameo humor, like the walking stick with a compass joke from earlier on. The humor doesn't stop at three-liners, Manual get's a sidekick within the first ten minutes of gameplay, a HUGE Demon Dog, he looks very cute and playful called Glottis. Glottis is one of the funniest and best characters Lucasarts have ever come up with, along the lines of Guybrush Threepwood and Murray the Skull.

Like The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape From Monkey Island, Grim Fandango has voice-acting. Every character, even those with one line have their own voice actor and some voices are funny, cute or angry, and show off personality greatly.

The Graphics in Grim Fandango are brilliant, and so well detailed. Every background is rendered, But I don't think you'll be looking at the backgrounds much whilst playing. Each Character must have around a hundred animations each, The characters have a mind of their own ;).

Been the Puzzle game it is, Grim Fandango has loads of brain taxing puzzles, most are essential to the main story. One puzzle will likely lead to another opening, Like if you screw up the messaging system, You can do another puzzle in the broken parts and do another puzzle. Some of these puzzles will take you week's to master, and usually, it all depends on logic, or something you have seen in the past.

Manny is very easy to control, despite been some small bugs in the game, which take a few tries on getting by (I mean Glitch bugs, not bugs as in insects ;)). Like when you ride a vehicle at certain parts of the game you can get stuck in something, but can be avoided if you tread carefully or exit the current screen.

Grim Fandango is a must by for every PC Gamer and Adventure fan! It is one, true masterpiece.

Summary

Graphics : 9/10
Sound : 10/10
Gameplay : 9/10
Challenge : 9/10
Story : 10/10
Ending : 10/10
Plot Holes : None
Humor : 10/10
Replaybility : 10/10! You'll be coming back for more!
Overall : 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/01, Updated 10/14/01