Top Secret Magazine Grim Fandango

In that past, there have been many adventure games. Some even include 3D graphics, such as the quickly forgotten, and much underrated BioForge by Origin. Mixing together a good story with challenging puzzles to make the perfect blend of adventure game is not an easy task, though Lucas Arts makes it all look like child's' play.

You play the role of Manny Calavera, travel agent to newly dead souls, employed by the Department of Death. Following an old Mexican folklore, after death you are sent to the 8th world, known as the land of the dead. To pay for all of the mistakes or wrong doings you've made in your previous life, you must make a 4 year journey to your final resting place. Your job as an agent of the Department of Death is to accumulate a certain number or premium souls to pay for your ticket on the Number Nine, a bullet train that takes the 4 year journey down to 4 days.

In the past, Manny hasn't had much luck with his job. His clients never seem to qualify for the premium package. After some hard times, Manny gradually discovers that things aren't quite what they seem. That there is corruption somewhere in the chain of command. Someone is stealing innocent souls for personal gain. Your commander, Salvador, noticed this too, and decides to do something about it. He's attempting to build an underground army of agents to fight this injustice, and you are going to be one of his first agents. Salvador decides that he needs a secure way to communicate with his field agents. Seeing that the radio that they have is a hopeless wreck, Salvador decides to raise an Air Force of carrier pigeons for this task.

The carnival, celebrating the day of the dead.

Don't fall!

This is where you, the player, come in. Your first assignment is to retrieve a few pigeon eggs from the rooftop of a high sky scraper. This isn't going to be as easy as it might sound (if you can call that easy, since you cant go inside the building). To get to the roof, and retrieve the eggs requires some thinking.

The puzzles in Grim Fandango are ingenious. Most are obstacle type puzzles while others will vary. The interface is very simple and easy to use, and doesn't interfere with gameplay. Unlike most other adventure games, it uses a keyboard interface to find your way around rather than the traditional mouse point and click interface.

Graphics are spectacular, even on low end computers with no hardware acceleration. Speaking of low end systems, Grim's requirements will please those of you with low end computers, as it only requires a Pentium 133, and runs quite well I might add.

The sound is some of the best I've ever seen...err... heard in a computer game ever. And the voice acting is top notch, Hollywood movie quality.

I have yet to see a major flaw in this game. A few minor clipping errors now and then maybe, but nothing too serious as to distract from the gameplay.

To summarize, Grim Fandango is a game with a great story, and with superb graphics and sound. I highly recommend this fun, and highly addictive 3D adventure game to anyone with a computer.

Company:
Lucas Arts
www.lucasarts.com

Category:
3D Adventure

NOTES:

Interest: 92%
Maniability :90%
Graphics: 93%
Sound : 92%
Originality : 95%

TOTAL : 93%

Requirements:

Operating System:
Windows 95/98

Processor:
Pentium 133MHz or better

Memory:
16 MB of RAM

Hard Drive:
3MB

Sound Card:
Windows compatible sound card

Video:
2MB SVGA video card OR 3D card

Joshua Westhoven

DEMO

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