Post by bramblett05 on Jan 31, 2015 21:23:36 GMT
Ok first Double Fine is an excellent company and I love their games that I got to play. 2nd if you would have told me in the beginning of last year that a classic adventure game that belongs in a temple sealed up, would be coming to playstation well I would have laughed. We all know if it isn't TellTale it isn't an adventure game but even they have something in common and it's called LucasArts which made classics like Day Of The Tentacle, Sam And Max Hit The Road, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade and also this one which I'll be reviewing today......GRIM FANDANGO!!!Ok enough with the intro and on to the game: you play as Manny (no that Manny though does make you wonder now) Manuel Calavera and you are a travel agent at Land Of The Dead who is trying to get your premeiums gone so you can get out of limbo but you always get the clients who don't qualify for any packages. The game style is film noir think something like Casablanca or for people who don't watch movies and just play games, Max Payne 2. There's a theme with mostly Aztec beliefs on the afterlife and while it's dark it still has that humor thrown in. The adventure style is not the same as moving your mouse to a picture and click to an action icon, no you can now see Manny look around at the points of interest and with the lighting affects that have been added, it just makes it look marvelous...to a point.
Remastered terms have people thinking that EVERYTHING changes and your mostly right: sound, graphics, effects and etc. Though I gotta say sometimes new Manny kinda feels weird with old backgrounds but after watching the behind the scenes of this, I'm just glad it's out. I do have two other complaints one being in certain areas Manny is verrrrry small like I'm in the nose bleed section small and that's when he moves slooooow luckily the R button makes you run faster. Another problem is the aspect it runs which mostly means the better solution is playing with the black bars but other than a weird game bug in the Dam I had no problems though some objects I noticed float in the room like the shot glass in Domino's room after use sometimes. Puzzles can be weird to WTF level and since there's no hint system around well you gotta rely on trial and error...or just look on the web you cheater.
You meet a crazy cast of characters in this 12 hour game that explores this tale in a period of 4 years my favorite being Glottis and Eva though all the characters are just awesome in their own way. When you meet Mercedes just prepare for the film noir to kick in to full drive even though from start to finish it spews it out to a excellent T. The sound is even better than before with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra a added in to make an old soundtrack even better. Item management is still the same with you picking items out of your infinite amount of pockets till you have what you need but rarely do I see that has a problem though auto saving would have been great just saying. The one thing that I'm glad they kept in was the FMV because nothing makes you remember old pc/ps1 games like those and these stay just as good as before and very nostalgic unlike some remastered versions who blended them into the game. My closing statement is this: WE NEED THIS! We need more adventure classics from LucasArts for Vita and well everywhere for us to show our kids/future kids that THIS was gaming in the late 80's early 90's and somehow got replaced with FPS games and sequel after sequels from money hungry developers. Truthfully I may pick on it for happening but I'm glad Resident Evil is on PS4 now for the same reason. Games are art just like movies and music are and Grim Fandango just sets the bar for what TellTale has done now even though most of the crew was in LucasArts and LA has set a milestone that to me Sierra couldn't win against even though Space Quest and King's Quest were an awesome series. Kudos for Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions for not giving up bringing this back to the Grim fans and classic adventure fans.
+ One Of The Best Of All Time
Dark themes and humor go together just like PB&J
Awesome lighting in the remastered version
You can switch between classic and remastered.
- Mini Manny moves at mini speed
Old backgrounds with new character texture looks weird
Some odd bugs here and there at times