Grim Fandango

Age Group: Age 8 and Up, Adults Type: Puzzles/Memory, Thinking Games, More Fun Price: $30

Description:

Your Name: Manny Calavero

Your Job Description: Facilitate the journeys of the Newly Dead to their destinations in the best style possible, according to how they've lived their lives. (Read: a travel package salesman on commission.)

Possible Complications: Your boss hates you, your co-worker keeps getting all the best clients, and if you can't get a decent client soon, you'll be sprouted (don't ask).

Enter the world of Manny Calavero, the hapless hero of our story. Manny is employed at the Department of Death in the Land of the Dead, marking time until he can work off his debt to society and take his own trip toward eternal rest. However, there are a few stumbling blocks in his path: his coworker keeps getting all the big clients, his boss is just looking for an excuse to fire him, and there appears to be some sort of conspiracy to steal the best travel packages from deserving souls, leaving them to make their way as best they can to their destinations.

In this well-constructed atmosphere of classic film noir meets Mexico, the detectives are hardboiled, the dames are beautiful but dangerous, the conversation consists of wisecracks, and everyone smokes and drinks. Fans of such film classics as Casa Blanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep and others will relish the subtle nuances. Representative of Mexican culture, the characters are all designed to look like the popular skeleton figures displayed during one of Mexico's holidays, The Day of the Dead.

In true 3rd person graphical adventure-style, players direct the actions of Manny, and garner clues by picking up items and having conversations with various characters.

Features:

• Great story
• Humorous dialogue
• Inventory items
• 3rd person adventure
• Beautiful artwork

Technical Aspects:

Installation was a snap, but I was unable to play this game in 3D for some reason. I have an iNvidia TNT 2D/3D video card, but the game didn't recognize my machine as possessing a 3D card. However, the game still looks fantastic in regular mode.

Unlike most adventure games, this game is not a "point and click" game, but a game that utilizes the keyboard. This is a hot topic of debate among long-time adventure players, many of whom dislike the difficulty of moving their character around with the keyboard. When I purchased this game I was a bit apprehensive about this, as I'm totally pathetic at eye-hand coordination, and can't play console type games because my hand is always trying to move in the opposite direction I really want to go in. Well, Manny and I tended to run into the wall frequently, and I never did get the movement down pat, and true to form, I kept moving him the wrong way first. However, I soon got used to this, and found it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the game any at all! As there was no time pressure, I always eventually got Manny where he needed to be.

There are a few places where it's extremely difficult to get in either a doorway, or an elevator, but these are few and far between.

The graphics are truly beautiful, and wonderfully evocative of both Aztec and modern Mexican influences, blended in with film noir era clothing and lighting.

With a text option included, the hearing-impaired will have no problems enjoying this game to the full.

Report and Conclusions:

This game is rated Teen (13+) by the ESRB ratings board, mostly because of tobacco use/drinking, and some suggestive dialogue, which is really very tame. Skeletons, Land of the Dead, Department of Death; these items may seem scary, but are not. Instead, this game is filled with gentle humor. True, the characters all smoke, but so did everyone else in the 30's and 40's, and this is the era that this game is striving to recreate in a sense. And, like the game manual says, "everyone who smokes in the game is DEAD. Think about it."

If you're looking for a game for your teen that offers gyrating strippers, females with distorted body parts, spraying blood from machine blasts, lots of cursing, or other so-called "mature" content, this isn't it. Instead, what you will get is thought-provoking puzzles, with plenty of humor that is right up a teen's alley. A remarkable game for ages 12 and up.