A MORTAL MASTERPIECE
BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Grim Fandango Remastered was originally developed by LucasArts, remastered and financed by DoubleA MORTAL MASTERPIECE
BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Grim Fandango Remastered was originally developed by LucasArts, remastered and financed by Double Fine, and released in 2015. It brings back several noteworthy graphical improvements from the original title dating back to 1998.
The game is 100% complete in its pc version.
DEAD, UNDEAD:
The introduction to the game's plot is extremely straightforward and crystal clear. The superb quality of art direction that this title has to offer is already underscored by the extremely creative LucasArts and Double Fine logos alone, which always take the style of the reference game and change from time to time. Thanks to the introductory cutscene, the player is immediately able to understand everything that revolves around the protagonist Manny Calavera, a death travel agent dedicated to earning enough to reach the ninth afterlife. As soon as the movie ends, the player finds himself with a fresh assignment to fulfill and can begin his work immediately. The first thing that jumps out at you, or rather, that does not jump out at you is the lack of a HUD, this is because throughout the game it will be the player's job to unearth the interacting objects, making the adventure more interactive and surprising.
PURSUING DEATH:
The game gameplay is that of a typical early 2000s graphic adventure, with a focus by the developers to move away from what was the usual point-and-click of that era. The Remastered version then made it possible to use the mouse, which was originally blocked. As mentioned above, one of the main features of Grim Fandango is that it does not have any always-on HUD. Like other graphic adventures, there is an inventory of possessed objects and a menu of interactions with objects set up on the map, but unlike other LucasArts titles it is not possible to join possessed objects together. The additional mother feature is, of course, the puzzles. They are varied and almost always require the ingenuity of the player. Some of them, however, rely far too much on dialogue between the various characters. This becomes a problem given the inability to listen to some of them several times, making the solution of the riddles almost impossible to understand and causing them to expire at a mere use of all available options. This forces the player to wander the map in search of often nonexistent solutions. The game plot turns out to be extremely varied. It spans four years where Manny will accomplish various tasks, with numerous intrigues to be solved, both work-related and emotional.
DEADLY GOOD:
Grim Fandango's graphics, whether original or remastered, are certainly one of its focal points. It still manages to be stunning to this day, with extremely detailed and inspired models. Thanks to meticulous techniques put in place by the development team, many of the models turn out to be well-defined and far superior to those out there. The atmosphere that the art in this game manages to create is unmatched, with styles of Mexican folklore combined with the noire of mystery movies. Of course, the animations belong to that era and have remained untouched in its remastered version, so as not to spoil the authors' original tone. Moreover, the variety of environments, always different throughout the journey, grants a style that is always original and never predictable. The conception of the style and the studies that led to its development are noticeable from the minuteness of the details ranging from the backgrounds to the characters' expressions, from their characterization to the interwoven and branching story; all of which led to the creation of this majestic composition.
THE NINTH NOTE:
The music side perfectly accompanies what was described in the chapter above. The extremely inspired soundtrack goes to perfectly enhance every environment and scene in the game, as well as catalyze the setting of the noir style. Finally, an incredibly noteworthy point is that of the voice acting, which is excellent in its English language but reaches one of its highest peaks ever seen in a video game in its Italian version, which takes advantage of the numerous presence of dialects to give additional characterization to the characters.
BUT WHY 9?
PROS:
Grim Fandango is for sure one of those games that once played is hard to forget. The number of positive points is staggering. It is certain that it remains a unique product of its kind but more importantly a game that borders on narrative and illustrative perfection.
CONS:
The real negative point is added by the remastering of the game, which, while adding a myriad of technical and graphical fixes, goes on to create a variety of bugs that are capable of completely breaking the game. Between those that delete game saves, those that completely lock the player out, and those that create amusing graphical glitches, it is almost impossible not to encounter any of them.
RATING
Gameplay: 8
Music: 9,5
Story: 10
Puzzle: 8
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