"One of the Best LucasArts Games, One of the Best Tim Schafer Games, One of the Best Adventure Games. Period."

I've always loved Tim Schafer's work. Day of the Tentacle is one of the crowning jewels of the adventure genre, and Full Throttle was great fun while it lasted. Grim Fandango is definitely his most polished game in terms of the production values; the game has the look and feel of a big budget animated film. Schafer's wonderful sense of visual design is there, and despite being a bit reminiscent of Tim Burton at times, it manages to feel almost entirely original. That achievement is all the more impressive when one looks at how much inspiration Schafer took from other sources. I can see Chinatown, Casablanca, and Glengarry Glen Ross in there, among other films, but the style and attitude of Grim Fandango set it apart. Not to mention the creativity of the story itself...who in the world dreams up stuff like this?

It's the tale of Manuel "Manny" Calavera, a travel agent for the DOD (Department of Death) in El Marrow, one of the many cities of the underworld. His job consists of selling travel packages to, well...dead people. Once a person has passed away their goal is to get to the Ninth Underworld, "the land of eternal rest", and the better a person has led their life on Earth the faster the mode of transportation they qualify for. There are cars, boats, and best of all, the Number Nine train, which jets you there in a mere four days. Unfortunately for Manny, none of his clients ever qualify for anything good, while another agent named Domino is consistently scoring the quality corpses. Manny starts to think something is up, so he steals one of Domino's clients, Mercedes Colomar, a woman who led a nearly sinless life. Somehow she doesn't qualify for a decent travel package! Manny realizes that there's some kind of serious corruption going on, but before he can do anything about it, Mercedes walks out to face the underworld alone. His mission is simple (or not so simple): He must find Mercedes Colomar and uncover the shady dealings that have been robbing good clients of their chance at peace. He'll meet a lot of colorful characters along the way, and run into plenty of danger. It'll be loads of fun!

As I mentioned already, the production values are incredible. From the gorgeous and imaginative computer generated backgrounds to the flavorful musical score and top notch voice acting, there's not a weak point to be found. In fact, the 3D characters are the only element of the graphics one could find fault with, but though they are a bit rough looking, it has more to do with the style of the game than with limitations in the technology. The movie sequences are very well done, and loaded with creativity just like everything else. This game is really a beautiful piece of work that's impossible not to admire.

The writing is splendid. In most cases the dialogue is clever and well delivered, and there's plenty of humor, especially when you choose some of the more absurd comments from the dialogue trees. There were one or two moments that were unfortunately rather immature and didn't quite fit the game, but for the most part it's an equally terrific experience for adults and younger players alike (though I have my doubts that any young person could ever get through this game without help). The puzzles can certainly be challenging, especially because they don't all follow logical thought processes (they follow more of what logic might be in the Land of the Dead), but they aren't impossible and they're a great deal of fun to figure out. I was surprised there wasn't any item combining involved, but the game worked fine without this addition.

Now we must explore the only big flaw in this game: the control. Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who is good at fast paced console games; the control in Grim Fandango is very poor. Anyone who follows the Resident Evil series at all knows how much negative criticism they get for their style of control. Well, Grim Fandango uses a similar system where you can choose Character or Camera-Relative control, and neither is any good. Give me Resident Evil control any day of the week over this. Don't get me wrong, I love Tim Schafer's idea here. I can handle not using a mouse. I love that Manny's head moves to look at items of interest, and I'm fine with the way the inventory is handled. The simple fact is, however, that controlling Manny is a real chore. Turning him around constantly is a pain, and when you run him into a wall he'll fire randomly off into some other direction. The running itself is also made difficult in that you can't simply hold down the run button and have Manny continue to run when you change directions. The ideas were good, but the actual implementation of the control is lackluster. Nonetheless, this flaw is not as critical as it would be in an action game. Grim Fandango doesn't require quick reflexes; it's not like you'll have Manny stuck in a corner somewhere while zombies are chewing on your head. The control is frustrating, but ultimately it won't kill you or doom your experience in this type of game.

Overall this game is a brilliant piece of work. From the art direction (Rubacava is great, great stuff) to the highly enjoyable characters, from top to bottom, this is a magical adventure for people of all ages. It would be hard to imagine someone not liking this game. If you want a top notch adventure game, you needn't look any further.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/04