Oh, and the fact that the whole concept of the Land of the Dead and the four-year journey to eternal rest, has its roots in Aztec beliefs (although I later found that this was mentioned in the game manual as well). Apart from noting that I quite liked it all, and that there was a certain film noir flavour to certain sections of the game, I thought nothing more about this until some I did a bit of internet “research” and found some rather detailed prattle about the art-deco design of the buildings and the numerous references to specific films from the film noir genre. Aside from the fact that most characters are dead and resemble skeletons, there’s a 1930s feel to the game world. Your more successful rival at the DOD, Domino, is suitably pleased with himself.īeyond that, the style of the game is fairly distinctive. Likewise, anyone expecting the usual Star Wars or Indiana Jones references to crop up is likely to be disappointed, there aren’t any portraits or statues of Max the rabbit lurking about, and no-one is going to invite you to ask them about Loom TM. While it’s definitely a funny game, it’s definitely not from the same stable of wacky cartoonishness as the likes of Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle. While such a set-up doesn’t exactly represent a major sea-change from the usual LucasArts fare, Grim Fandango nevertheless sets itself aside from its point-and-click predecessors. Desperate to catch a break, Manny uncovers a conspiracy which, as ever, gets him in deeper trouble than he thought possible. Recently, though, Manny seems to be out of luck when it comes to the clients that come his way – they don’t qualify for anything that pays commission. To do so, Manny works as a travel agent at the Department of Death, picking up souls from the land of the living and selling them a travel package to get them through their four-year journey in as great a comfort as they can afford. Our hero is Manny Calavera, a soul who has a debt to pay for things he did while he was alive, and for whom salvation must wait until that debt is paid off. Instead, let’s talk about Grim Fandango itself, which is set, funnily enough, in the Land of the Dead, a place where souls reside during their four-year journey to eternal rest. We could speculate on whether the poor retail performance of Grim contributed to the general conviction that the adventure game was “dead” or that the death of the genre meant that people overlooked this game, but we won’t bother. Despite healthy critical acclaim, Grim didn’t sell too well, or not as well as LucasArts might have liked, and it ended up being their penultimate adventure release (the last being Escape from Monkey Island). Because whatever vague combination of half-reasons persuaded you that you weren’t missing out on much (my own were: “the back of the box doesn’t make it sound that good” and “I couldn’t get the demo to work in 1998”) you can be reassured that plenty of other people felt the same. I mean, you can ridicule yourself a little bit, but, you know, don’t go too crazy. Whatever reservations you have about the game, you’ll soon cast them aside and then, later, ridicule yourself for having them in the first place.īut when you get to this stage, don’t be too hard on yourself. If, like me, you’ve somehow omitted to play it, then I advise that you rectify this situation as soon as is humanly possible. To anyone who’s played, and enjoyed, Grim Fandango – as I now have, finally, so I include myself in this – these are clearly the actions of a moron, because this is one of the finest adventure games ever created, up there with the very best that LucasArts have produced. Manny decides to take matters into his own hands.
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