As a lover of point and click adventure games I'd been wanting to play this for a long time since it seemed to have the reputation as one of the best. With that being said, it was a bit disappointing overall.

Gameplay-wise it reminded me the most of Escape from Monkey Island, which I think is regarded as the worst entry of that franchise. And while I do remember that game somewhat fondly, I'd have to agree. It's honestly probably a bit worse than this, the only difference is I went into that game with zero expectations. But they're mostly on the same level I'd say.

With a bizarre, hard to follow story, baffling puzzles that I often had no chance of figuring out, and controls that were so slow that they made it even more impossible to try everything I could to figure out the solutions on my own. I think they did improve the input of the controls on the remaster, but the character still moves so slowly that I was often just twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to get across the screen.

The characters, setting, and story have a lot of creativity and charm, but I had a really hard time understanding what was going on, who was who, where we were going, and why any of this was happening. I think in another medium this story could have really shined, but I really struggled to connect with it here. It's not completely without merit, and the puzzles I enjoyed I did enjoy quite a bit. But I found myself mostly frustrated and confused between those moments of enjoyment.

I'm glad I played it and I think anyone who's interested in playing it should play it (with a walkthrough handy, just lower your expectations is all. As iconic as this is, I don't think it holds up very well. Glottis rocks, though.

(6.5/10)

Ahh... The childhood classic! I was pleasantly surprised that it was picked up and re-released in its remastered form nearly 2 decades later after the original's release. You are Manny Calavera, a grim reaper/travel agent in the Land of the Dead, assigned to sell travel packages to the recently deceased people in order to make the trip to the Ninth Underworld more convenient. If Manny makes enough premium sales, which good life-leading people qualify more for, the travel agent will have worked off his time in the Land of the Dead and follow suit (no pun intended). However, despite his professional experience and promising clients, Manny has been caught in a slump with low-qualified sales. Deciding to do things his own way, he finds a special client who could turn the course and save his job: Mercedes Colomar.

Around that point is where the Grim Fandango story starts off, as you familiarize with the noir-tinged environment and solve different problems using your wits and objects you find. The game's Land of the Dead is a modernized take on the description from the Mexican (Aztec) mythology, which makes the world immersive and diverse with both fantasy creatures and real-world cultures. This setting helps the plot stand out more for its originality and can leave some aspects to gamer's imaginations. Besides the Mexican day of the dead as the main source of graphic and aural inspirations, there are plenty of noir-style elements that add to the tone of the experience including jazz and bop music, as well as graphic designs taking cues from the landmarks of early 20th century.

The game characters are colorful and diverse to the point that each one of them sticks easily out. That's why I have a soft heart for Manny's demon companion Glottis of the entire cast. It also helps that, in contrast to the humorous interactions you're provided throughout the game, the plot's darker undertones augments the immersion with the cast as well as the world itself. Tim Schafer and his dev team has succeeded in making the Land of the Dead a stage that's able to leave a mark on the inhabitants and travelers or vice versa. This game shows what can occur around visionary people, the corruptible, the florists...

I've spent over a dozen playthroughs since my childhood that I admit this game as a unique adventure beast with an intriguing depth. Admittedly, some puzzles may suffer the essence of logic to shed light on your progression, so use community hints if you feel stumped. Nevertheless, I would say that this game is a must for fans of adventure games!

Really wonderful characters and great performances. Love the style, love the music, and even some of the exploration is compelling. Rubacava is a really neat level at first, was shocked at how large it was. There can be some great satisfaction from completing certain puzzles, makes you feel clever. Others feel too obtuse to get without hours of trial/error or a guide, and some just require loads of backtracking, which is not fun in this particular game. I don't regret playing it, and the conclusion is satisfying, but not sure I'll go back to adventure games soon. Funky controls too, didn't even try for tank controls, lol.

Played on every platform.
It's the original with S L I G H T L Y better graphics.
I mean it plays on modern hardware (more than the original can say without a patch more complicated than the code of the fucking game).

If you haven't played grim, play it. it's the best point-and-click ever made.

This was the all-star max-budget project from the biggest gaming studio of its era. literally the Avenger's Infinity War of its time.

Holds up in every conceivable way, with excellent characters, story, sets, music, etc...

the highlight is in year 2 when the game starts interweaving its world like the fucking dark souls of point-and-clicks. You solve puzzles by dealing with a huge cast of interesting characters that interconnect as much as the levels do.
For a brief moment this game actually introduced a concept that could have been the future of the genre entirely.

The rest still holds up but isn't as deep, and shortly after this the studio imploded and point-and-click fell out of fashion.

This game is carried by its amazing dialogue and performances. So much so I liked talking to every character just to hear what they say.

Sadly, the game suffers from lack of puzzle logic, conveyance, animation skips which the remaster does not seem to address. At the very least. I feel this game just needed an accessibility option to show what and where the interactables and transitions are on screen to avoid checking everything. As a fan of tank controls, the turn speed is so slow and it does not have a 180 turn that I could not use it viably here. I do like that the puzzles are creative and require thought but I rarely felt clever solving them.

Still recommend this but with a hint or guide resource.