Grim Fandango

Grim Fandango was one of the top games of 1998. It's made by LucasArts the people behind the Star Wars and Lucasfilms related games.

This game is taken place in the land of the dead. The place where people go to when they die. Only it's different from what you would expect the "Afterlife" to be.

In this universe you are first met by a Grim Reeper who'll be introducing you to your new living style in the land of the Dead. Grim Reepers are more like Travel agents who'll give you a good profit.

If you lived a good life you'll receive the good profits like a car, be on a boat cruise line and if you lived a great life you'll get a ticket for the 009 Express which leads to the 9th Underworld where you can live peacefully for eternity. And if you lived a bad life you don't get either of these opportunities.

Mandy Calavara is a Grim Reeper working for the D.O.D.(Department of Dead). He's been a great salesman and getting great clients right until he's been getting lousy clients who aren't worthy of getting a 009 ticket. Mandy's been on the bottom list of achievements for awhile. And he's wondering why other Salesmen get good clients while he doesn't.

Through out the game you control Mandy who'll be solving the mystery and finding out the secret of who's really behind the scheme of taking all the 009 tickets.

You get to collect items and figure out puzzles and solutions. And interact with several mysterious and random characters.

The have nice 3-D background and great voice acting. CGI is a little old but it's still well done.

I recommend this game to those who like to play a game that does rule.

Another fine game of Lucas Arts. They keep amazing me with the game they develop. If you're familiar with the lucas arts type off games then you'll know what I mean. If you're don't familiar with the lucas arts games, try one.

This time it's about corruption in the land of the dead. You're the character Manny. He is a salesman trying to sell good trips to the dead people so they can travel to the next life or something. He finds out that the good people all have to walk to the dangerous land of the dead he knows that there must be a plot. First Manny is a salesman then his adventure goes further in the woods with his henchmen Glottis (he is very funny guy, if you like happily ever after (the bunny) then you'll like this fellow to). Then he's is a club owner with Glottis in the city and much more. As you can read there is a great variety in the game that causes no boring moments.

The game is directed just like a movie. The humour is very very professional en great. You'll only need about 2mb video ram but the graphics are all they need to be. The sounds are also very clear en full with detail.

When I played the game I wasn't bored for one moment. The cutscene, ingame infrastructure en the conversations are one of the best I ever experienced.

If you like adventuregames, great plots en bones and stuff ... try this game.

On of the finest adventuregame I ever played.

Ah, the golden days of yore, when you could find adventure games of this quality often. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. The golden age is over, but every once in a while a game appears out of the dusk that blast through to the mainstream. This game blew my mind (and that of many others), it was voted game of the year by many sites (totally unheard of for an adventure game). The graphics are very impressive, I am not usually a fan of 3D-graphics, but the jagged, iconographic style suits the theme (which is a curious mix of film noir and a south American folklore). Of course, the greatest thing about this game is the story; it is an epic tale of a man's redemption after his death, delightfully free of usual American sentimentality and with numerous references to film noir. The narrative style is highly cinematic and the excellent voice action, along with great music, helps convey the atmosphere beautifully. This is as close to an interactive movie as you can get. That, however, does not mean that the game is too easy, you will easily spend hours on this game. This game represents everything that makes this genre great, I can't recommend it enough. By the way, if you want more of the same, I can also recommend The Longest Journey from Norwegian developer Funcom.

This game is smokin! I loved the witty dialogue and jazzy music. The scenery makes the sometimes impossible puzzles worth solving to see. I have to admit I cheated and went to online walkthroughs for help, but this game was really fun for the most part. It's a little odd that I found Manny almost attractive. I mean, the guy is a cartoon, he has no skin, but he's such a snappy dresser! And he's really cool and funny. Thanks again to those guys at LucasArts for making a wonderful game. I also loved Jedi Knight, and of course I'm a major Star Wars fan.

Put simply, this is one of those games you have to play before you die.

Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts is one of those studios that has a well-deserved and rabid cult following even years after it has ceased to support its classic titles, and Grim Fandango is perhaps their greatest achievement. It's Monkey Island with heart, Full Throttle with depth.

Although Grim Fandango has its share of one-off gags and one-liners, its humor is more situational and cumulative than typical humor titles, which gives the entire storyline a kind of cohesiveness that is supposed to happen only in the movies. Seeing characters at the end of the game and finding out what they've gotten up to in the two years since you last ran into them is unexpected and satisfying. Each Act takes place in a new location, but maintains threads of connection with previous Acts that entirely avoids the Where Am I Now, What Am I Supposed To Be Doing And Why Do I Care? syndrome that so often afflicts adventure games, particularly more recent ones.

Although graphics junkies will find that the 3D modeling leaves something to be desired, the artistry that went into the creation of each character (and there are many, many characters) will thrill adventure fans. The voice acting is superb, and the puzzles are, for the most part, refreshingly intuitive and sensible.

The Latin American film noir setting is entirely original, a selling point which cannot be understated. It's absolutely nothing you've ever seen before and nothing you're likely to see again, and for most PC gamers it's a cross-cultural experience that is unique in the realm of PC gaming. You'll learn, you'll feel, you'll laugh, you'll hope, you'll cheer.

Without a doubt one of the best PC games ever released.