Rating: 
Summary: Quite Hard, but Entertaining
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Grim Fandango is the best pc game I ever played.
Review: It's charming, funny, smart, clever, interesting, beautiful, intellegent and really really fun. I love this game!
Rating: 
Summary: stupid puzzles. need game guide to solve
Review: The grpahics and story are OK. But, the puzzles are
so stupid, I regret purchasing this game. Luckily,
it only cost 10 bucks. I will finsh this game by
following the game guides found online (without wasting
my time trying to figure them out) just so I can see what
happens in the story. For example, at one point, you have
to get some bones and throw them into a tar pit so that
these flaming rodents will jump in after them. I figured
this out on my own. However, what I didn't figure out was that
I had to do this over and over again until all the rodents were
destroyed (a total of 4 times). I had to read the game guide to
find out I didn't do it enough times. There are even worse
examples of mindless stupidity, but harder to explain here.
I was very disappointed after reading the other reviews
here and anticipating some fun puzzles that are integrated
into the story. Bottom line- in my opinion, not worth the
10 bucks.
Rating: 
Summary: Another fantastic game from LucasArts!!!!
Review: I absolutely loved this game!!! A very original plot along with funny and beguiling characters (Glottis was my favorite) make this a game you definitely don't want to miss! I also thought it was funny how put in a few inside jokes like naming the main guy Manny Calavera (Calavera means skull -- he's dead, by the way) and naming one of the places Puerto Zapato (Zapato means shoe, I suppose they just did that to be funny). There were funny parts, spooky parts, exciting parts -- if you're still reading this, go and buy Grim Fandango right now and don't waste another second!!
Rating: 
Summary: Need some help
Review: This game is really irritating without a cheat sheet.
I almost gave up until I found the hints online. I am now about half way through and I am enjoying the unique design of the game much more. At [$$$] this is worth it just for the visual appeal and cultural variety. I have to chase my six year old away while I'm playing though because, as the rating points out, this is NOT a kids game. (We both like Spy Fox a lot). To sum it up: don't buy this for the puzzles, get the hints and enjoy the adventure!
Rating:
Summary: Already a classic.
Review: Any adventure gamer worth his or her salt cannot be without Grim Fandango. The concept is so fresh and original, you won't be able to keep your mind off it. Be prepared to lose a lot of sleep over Manny Calavera and his world.
Rating: 
Summary: WARNING TO WINDOWS MILLENIUM USERS!
Review: I just received my Grim Fandango from Amazon.com. Silly me--I read the review of the person who bought it, had to get the patch from Microsoft, and had a great time with the game thereafter. That person was using Word 2000--there is no patch for Millenium. I have an unopened game that is of no use to me. I downrated the game because the maker, LucasArts, apparently does not endeavor to assist its customers with the means by which to play their software. The constant media changes that result in a more accelerated obsolescence than anyone in the 1950's ever imagined means that nothing fits, everything has to be replaced and the buyer had better beware. A real disappointment!
Rating:
Summary: Best Adventure Game Ever
Review: I never give reviews, but I just had to say it's the best because it's different, it's smart, it's grownup, the graphics are incredible ... I really hated to finish this game. When I've forgotten most of the details I will replay it again. I've played LOTS of adventure games and this one always comes to mind first. I sure wish they'd make more games like this.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Everyone should own this game. It's clever, funny, original, stylish ... a LucasArts masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: good little game
Review: I liked this game for several reasons. It was visually stunning, the graphics flow very seemlessly. The sotry line is pretty cool and humorous. The puzzles in the game are not overtly hard, some are simple some take some thinking. It did not take me long to play the game but it was a nice, slower paced break from the high action games I normally play. So take a break and play this game.
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