Grim Fandango
Hey, it's LucasArts. It's an adventure game. It's even Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle), how could it possibly fail? Well, it seems it can't, this game is good. It's also quite original, not only for an adventure game in generla, but also for a Lucas Art adventure.
Take the interface, for starters. It also doulbes as the main character, Manny Calavera. That's right, no buttons, no nouns, no nothing but your hero in a full-screen enviroment. But it gets even more innovative: there's no mouse support! Now there's something you don't see every day, right? The only thing you can use the mouse for is starting the game from Windows, from there on you have a choice of the keyboard, joystick or gamepad. In all, it resembles Little Big Adventure more than any "normal" adventure game.
For a LucasArts adventure, it also comes across as surprisingly non-whacky to me. Dialogue, graphics, music and plot, everything is just a bit or two more serious and dark. It's not really a bad thing, but I can't help missing some really zany jokes.
The story also carries a lot of uniqueness. It's based on Mexican folklore and Day of the Dead celebrations, and it takes place in the land of the dead. Characters are modeled after the Day of the Dead celebration dolls, and truly look special. Enviroments, mood and plot however, are heavily inspired by Film Noir. It sounds like a strange mix, but it actually works very well. Manny Calavera is a sort of traveling agent, selling the best possible travel package to souls starting their journy toward the ninth underworld. However, corrupt elements are cheating souls on their rightfully earned journeys to make profit, and that's about where the game starts. All the souls Manny get only seem to qualify for the lousiest and slowest means of travel, even though they really should have a lot better. Something is rotten, and you're going to uncover it.
Puzzles and problems are logical once you figure them out, the trouble is getting to that point. I think adventure game beginners woul have appreciated a little more in the way of clues here and there, I would and I don't qualify for newbie anymore ...
Enviroments are pre-rendered while the characters and other objects are polygon-based. It looks and works fine, my only complaint is that there is a lot of walking around to do, especially once you get stuck somewhere for real. I really feel Rubacava could have used a few more short cuts. Also, it can be difficult to spot exits to other screens. Sometimes you can walk past the camera, sometimes don't. Something indicating possible exits , like Manny looking at them as he does with ohter points of interest, would have been nice.
I have a few more minor complaints, what did you expect? Turning feels a bit slow, and vehicle driving feels a bit jerky. And when you run, it's easy to miss a narrower passage, get turned around by the walls and end up in the wrong place altogether. Screen switching also feels strangely slow at times, but that's even more minor.
This is a game which I feel requires some time and effort to grow to its full glory. It definitely doesn't hook you immediately the way Starcraft or Command & Conquer does. But it's well worth your time, we're talking master storytelling here. If you're into adventure games, and you should be, you should have this game, period!
