"Challenging Puzzles with humor that keep you occupied for weeks"

Grim Fandango has excellant 3D graphics. When I first saw it the graphics were the first thing that I noticed because of the smoothness of the characters and the backgrounds clearly showed that the creators worked very hard on the game. When I found out it was a mystery I bought it right away. The game was everything that I had hoped for too.

The Gameplay of Grim Fandango was very good. It kept me at the computer for 4-6 hours every day because I thought it was so fun. I think the characters is what made the game. Every one had its own personality and how it would answer back. The funniest character in the game was Glottis. A huge orange hipo type thing that is somewhat on the slow side. Every time I saw Glottis and saw throughout the game different scenes that he was the comic relief never faled to make me laugh. The game itself is intermiediate in terms of difficulty. Most puzzles are the usual type and experianced gamers have no trouble getting into the game. For people who aren't into puzzle games much the manual has a guide for the first puzzle that gives you an idea what it is like. The controls are the only thing that really got me frustrated at times. You can't use the mouse to control the main player and you can't go up to a corner with things like:File, Options, Help, Save. You can only look at one thing in your inventory at a time also. Besides the control the gameplay was great.

I can't tell you much about the gameplay because you start out looking for one thing, then end up with something totally different. The game begins in the World of the Dead where you play as a skeleton(everybody is a skeleton) that offers packages for new arrivals to travel through a 4 year journey to the place where your soul can finally rest. The better your life was, the better the package. the best package is the Number 9 Train that gets you there in 4 seconds instead of 4 years! You, Manny Calavera, are starting to worry because you get all the bad clients that can only receave packages like walking sticks or coffins with styrofome packing. Manny must then get a premium client(one that can afford a Number 9 Ticket) or else he is fired. In the game you go through 4 years(or 4 chapters) where you are on an ongoing search for your premium client. That's all I can tell you because the rest is to good to tell.

Like I said before, the graphics were amazing. There were some things I didn't like however. I have two 3d VooDoo 2 Excelerater cards linked together and sometimes when the people started to talk they would repeat two or three words over again like, how are you how are you... and it would glitch sometimes. The colors of the people that were picked out fit each caracter well. Like Glottis is orange and you can't take him seriously. You can tell the bad guys right when you look at them because of their look or what they are doing. The movies were great and never slowed down, which is pretty amazing if you've seen the movies in the game. The sounds were nothing I took great notice of in the game. The music wasn't special but set a mood for you every time you went to another screen. Like when you on a misty dock the music changes eerie and makes you want to leave that place right away. I think the creators took some time in choosing and mixing sounds for music.

The replayability isn't much. If you didn't talk to someone with all the options or missed someone completely then it is a good idea to replay the game and try new stuff out. When I played it my second time I noticed if you run down a certain set of stairs Manny will fly down the railing instead of walking. I'd say the game is worth replaying 3 times maximum. The puzzles don't change in any way so there really is no GOOD replay value. I bought the game for $45.00 and I think it was worth every penny. I had been wanting this game for a while but I wasn't hearing anything special about it when it came out, until I read a review in a magazine that rated it 4.5 stars out of 5. I read the entire review(which is a thing I seldom do) and bought it the next day.

I wasn't let down at all except for the controls which is the only reason I gave it an 8 instead of 10. If you have the cash I thing you should buy it soon, or if you don't have the cash just wait about a month and the price is sure to go down some. Grim Fandango is one of the best games I've played(next to Final Fantasy 7 that is)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99