User Reviews (21 - 31 of 193)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Quite Hard, but Entertaining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I had been wanting to play _Grim Fandango_ for a long time, so I was excited to get it as a Christmas present. Perhaps it was that my anticipation was so great, but the enjoyment level of the game didn't quite lead up to my expectations.

The premise is both original and amusing: You are Manuel (Manny) Calavera. Your job as a travel agent with the Department of Death is to sell packages to souls on their way from the 8th level of the Underworld to the 9th and las
t. If a soul has been really good in life, it has earned enough spiritual wealth to get a ticket on the #9 train and make the trip in just hours. "Poor" souls have to walk, a journey of four years. Manny finds out that a ruthless crime syndicate is stealing train tickets and depriving souls of their just rewards. AS he follows the trail of the mysterious and beautiful Mercedes Colomar, he must stand against the crime syndicate and work for the freedom of souls everywhere. Phew!!

There are a lot of really good things about this game. Number one is, you can't be killed. Even in situations that look dire where other game manufaturers would certainly have put a timed puzzle, you have all the time that you need. Thank you, LucasArts! The character development is wonderful, aided by some of the best voice acting ever. The plot is engaging. The art, though an older 2-D style that might bother some players, is a lovely mix of MExican and Art Deco styles, with lots of "Day of the Dead" references (e.g., the characters). I thought it would be hard to relate to weird 2-D skeletons, but I soon knew them as people. And the script never takes itself too seriously, poking good natured fun at everything from revolution to open mic night at the local bistro.

The set up is a good mix of linear and non-linear, with levels that have to be accomplished in a certain order but a great deal of freedom within the level itself. IN general, the game sustains its momentum very well. So often in this type of game you see very complex first and second levels but towards the end the levels get so easy it seems the game developers were running out of ideas. Although the second level was the most difficult, the third and fourth levels offered enough to keep me interested.

On the other hand, GF is very, very difficult -- hard enough that the frustration level at times interferred with my enjoyment of the game. Take it from this experienced gamer: anyone who claims to have completed this game in 12 hours or less was playing with a walkthrough at his elbow, not applying his brain to the puzzles.

The puzzles were strictly the application of inventory variety, with some amount of gathering clues from conversation. I don't usually have any difficulty with these types of puzzles, but two things made them really hard in GF. One was the interface itself. The game is completely keyboard operated and your character turns his head to look at things with which you can interact. Unfortunately, where things are close together, it's hard to tell what it is Manny's looking at. There were several times that I thought I didn't know the solution to a puzzle that I did in fact know, just because I couldn't get Manny in the right place to interact with the appropriate person or item. So I'd go haring off all over the game looking at every other possible solution until I was frustrated enough to go to the hint page, where I invariably found out I was right in the first place, I just hadn't had Manny positioned correctly.

The other thing that makes this game difficult is that many of the puzzles are logical only in retrospect, often because there is a piece of information missing in the middle, requiring the gamer to take such a leap of imagination that you generally only stumble upon the solution by chance. A little more information from Manny, pointing you in the right direction, would have been helpful in some cases. As it was, as often as not I solved the puzzles in a completely random fashion; for only about half of them had I any plan of action.

Despite its cartoony appearance, Grim Fandango is not a game for kids. There is a lot of smoking and drinking, if you object to that (every time you aren't actively playing for a while, Manny lights up. I thought this was pretty funny, but some people surely won't). There are some skeletal sexual inuendoes and quite a bit of violence, both real and implied. The latter is softened a bit by euphemism and the fact that the characters are already dead, but GF is not a light game. Plus, many of the references and jokes that make the game worth playing would probably be lost on anyone under 25.

There is a lot of running back and forth, particularly in the second level: some map or zip feature would have been very helpful. IN a couple of places it was hard to maneuver and Manny got sucked into doors simply by passing them, whether I wanted him to go there or not. Grim Fandango also features one of the grossest puzzle solutions I've yet come across.

It took me 25-30 hours to complete this game. It would have been less had the frustration level not been so high. I give it relatively high marks because it was well done, original and ran very smoothly, but the puzzles really deserve only three stars. For the money, I'd say GRim Fandango is a good buy, but not for everyone and certainly not for those with a low frustration threshold.

Lots of Fun and Humor

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Super game. Hated for it to end! Liked the characters, music and the puzzles. The story line was unique and fresh. Wish there was a sequel on the horizon.

A gem. Purchase it while you can.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

At the risk of rolling some eyes, I'm stating for the record that Grim Fandango should be in every entertainment collection, videogame or not. If you find it for sale, please do yourself a favor and spend the few dollars it takes to own this fine game.

Grim Fandango is not at all fast-paced compared to games in action or sports genres, but it is impossible to get bored while playing this game: the characters are fantastic (the first cutscene involving Meche--where she and Manny meet--is impressively gentle and touching in its brevity, two genuine feelings generated so naturally in Grim Fandango and unmatched in any other game I have played); the humour is unparalleled in videogame-dom ("What a relief. I was beginning to worry that our car wasn't ostentatious enough."); the world is absolutely fascinating and inexplicably natural in its surrealism; and Manny actually turns out to be one heck of a hero.

The puzzles are completely organic to the situations in the game, with a couple minor exceptions. However, upon a second play-through even the trickier puzzles usually become much easier to comprehend within the context of the game.

This game is a marvel. I suspect that every player will remember Grim Fandango warmly.

Soar like eagles on pogo sticks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

In the vein of Monkey Island and Space Quest, we have Grim Fandango, one of the funniest yet emotionally poignant video games ever released.

Manny Calavera is a Grim Reaper/travel agent who guides the recently deceased to the town of El Marrow to begin their four year journey of the soul in the Land of the Dead. He sells them packages to aid in their journey that vary depending on how well the "clients" has lived their lives. At the top of the line for the most righteous, they can qualify for a ticket on the "Number Nine express", a speedy train that will take them to paradise in four minutes rather than four years. If they've been somewhat less that good, they qualify for little more than a walking stick (though the compass in the handle will surely come in handy!) or being packed in a crate with foam. For reasons unxplained, Manny is forced to work in his dead-end sales job for a certain amount of time before he can even begin his own four year journey. In an act of desperation, he steals a competitors saintly client, Mercedes Colomar, to boost his sales and is shocked to find he can't qualify for anything more than the lowliest packages. Devastated, Mercedes runs away in tears leaving Manny wondering if someone is defrauding the system...

The game that follows is filled with great characters, a wonderful plot that pays homage to classic film noirs like Casablanca, the Maltese Falcon, and the Fat Man, and logical environmental puzzles that make sense to the context of the game. Though the game didn't sell well and we will most likely never see a sequel, own a piece of gaming history that you will treasure and quote with your friends for many years to come.

With bony hands I hold my partner
On soulless feet we cross the floor
The music stops as if to answer
An empty knocking at the door
It seems his skin was sweet as mango
When last I held him to my breast
But now we dance this grim fandango
And will four years until we rest.

Simply the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I think this game is simply the best game I've ever played. I think about it, after the fact, all the time. The visuals are gorgeous. The voice acting is superb. The soundtrack is good enough that I actually listen to it by itself! No other game has influenced me so much as this. Do whatever it takes to play this game.

LucasArts have done it again

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: November 25, 1999
Author: Amazon User

If you liked Full Trottle and love LucasArts' games in general, you'll love this game. It's one of the funniest games I've ever played. The way all the charters talk hispanic is enough to me laugh out loud. Manny Calavera is the most likeable anit-hero you'll ever have the pleasure to control, in this fantastic Land of The Dead adventure game. Who said the adventure games was dead. Grim Fandango proofs them all wrong...

Very, very cool.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is uniqe. It's an adventure game with 3D graphics and lots of cutscenes that add to the fun of the game. It is very challenging and I must admit that I have used a lot of help with it because some puzzles are so bizarre, but when I eventually figure them out, everything is somewhat logical, however strange it is. This sits right next to Riven and Obsidian at the top of my "best adventure game" list. I would recommend this to anyone who loves adventure games and to anyone who can think "out of the box" easily. The price is nice and cheap for the game which seems that it should cost more (having 2 cds).

Who can't like Grim Fandango?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: November 13, 1999
Author: Amazon User

It's amazing, funny and totally engrossing. Unlike some adventure games, a lot of the time you can see where the story is going. Characters are lively, graphics are amazing, and the whole thing is well worth any money.

The Most Entertaining Game to hit shelves in a long time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 05, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I'm a lover of adventure/puzzle games, and this one is one of the best I have ever played. If you like games like Curse of Monkey Island, Shivers, Myst...you will adore this. It's got a VERY good story line, the puzzles are hard but solveable, and you can't seem to stop playing it! The lands you travel to are amazing, the soundtrack is great...there's not one thing I didn't like. It's also hysterical. It makes for an exceptional experience..I was sad when it ended. Kudos to Lucasarts!

One of the Greats

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 06, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Grim Fandango combines every element you look for in an adventure game in a fluent and involving fashion. The plot, the comedy, the political intrigues, an occasional romance... All right here! One of the things I found most amusing was, whenever Manny (the main character) manages to build his life (or is it death?) up again, you (the player) takes over and manages to ruin it in a day! (Whew, think I got enough parenthesis in!) If you enjoy an easy-going adventure game with a great story to tell, this game's for you!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions