Review of Grim Fandango by Lucien21

Mexican Folklore has never looked this good. In one of the last adventure games to come from Lucasarts you control Manny Calavera, employee of the Department of Death in a four year journey of the soul across the lands of the dead.

Unable to get decent commissions you and your new driver Glottis hijack a poisioning and meet Meche a saint who should qualify for a number 9 ticket straight to the ninth underworld.

However someone has stolen her ticket and you become embrolied in a case of corruption as you chase her across the land trying to put it right.

You will lead Manny through the city of El Marrow, the port town Rubacava, a mining colony at the edge of the world, and the gates of the ninth underworld itself.

This game is possibly my 2nd favourite game of all time. Everything from the artistic look and feel, the cool laid back soundtrack and the fantastic characters (Glottis is possibly the best character ever) and script sings of high quality and fun.

The game hits a high in the second year as a casino owner in Rubacava with a casablanca inspired storyline and atmosphere. Here there are so many wonder locations and characters from your love struck coat check girl, to the morose mortician and the beatnicks at the poetry club. Unfortunatly the later levels never quite hit the same high, but are still miles ahead of most adventure games.

The only real complaint I had with the game is the interface which was fostered onto the game in the wake of the move to 3D. The direct control with a gamepad would have been fine if it wasn’t tank like controls (i.e stop and rotate to turn)and the inventory controls were fiddly resulting in me taking out the scyth all the time by mistake.

Overall though this is a well realise world with a fantastic script that should go down in history as a classic game.

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Time Played: 10-20 hours