Grim Fandango Remastered | Game Review

LucasArts' classic Grim Fandango has finally been resurrected for the new generation of gamers. Originally developed for PC and released in 1998, the adventure game has been given a bit of polish and shine, and re-released on PS4, Vita, Mac and PC.

But visual polish aside, not much has changed in 17 years. That's a good thing in this case; Grim Fandango has managed to retain all the personality and charm that it had in the original. You play Manny, whose sole job is to sell travel packages to the recently deceased, working to get himself out of his current situation. The dialogue is punchy, the jokes are wry.

The game is a lot more involved than we’ve been used to in the intervening years, so be prepared. You can’t zone out or play this on autopilot, you have to pay attention to almost everything or risk missing out on an important element of the story. In the special features, there’s the option to replay the dialogue transcript, but there’s no way to replay visual cues.

Visually, the game translates well, although there are a few weird bugs every now and again, with characters’ movements becoming jumpy on occasion. Designed in the time when polygons were obvious, the basic art style is still the same, but just a little more refined. You can switch between the remastered and original visuals just to see how much of an improvement there has been.

If you’re interested, there’s a director’s commentary too, which can be accessed at the touch of a button and provides some inetresting background as you go.

Might be a little hard going for those who've never played its original incarnation, but Grim Fandango Remastered is worth the effort.

[  grimremastered.com ]