Game Thoughts: Grim Fandango
I grew up playing classic point-and-click adventure games like King's Quest, Monkey Island, and Sam & Max Hit the Road -- however somehow Grim Fandango never made it onto the family PC.
I've rectified that now with the Remaster, and it was definitely a nostalgia trip. It had the same overall vibes and sense-of humor as the aforementioned games, chock full of the cheeky sarcasm that was a hallmark of the genre.
I think there's a lot of things Grim Fandango did right compared to all those other games. It was designed in such a way that you can't get completely stuck -- there's no winding up on an island missing some random item you were supposed to find 4 chapters ago here, and I greatly appreciate that. To pull this off, each chapter of the game has a fairly limited number of screens and a reset of items which definitely made it a smoother ride than some of its peers.
That doesn't mean the game is above the borderline-impossible-to-solve puzzles that plague the genre. More than once I had to pull up a guide after spending 20 minutes visiting every available screen and talking to every NPC -- only to find the solution was some completely arbitrary connection I'd never have thought of. When I pick up a guide for a puzzle game I like my reaction to be "ahhhh I should have thought of that", not "who the fuck thought of this?". Combined with the excruciatingly slow transition animations in some locations (almost every ladder), I felt like I spent too much time traveling between locations instead of solving puzzles in some chapters.
Visually it holds up great! The remaster did very little graphically outside of a bit of shading and smoothing of the characters. The pre-rendered backgrounds and janky 3D models feel intentional rather than dated, and though much of the game is in somewhat washed-out colours this felt right considering the game essentially takes place in limbo.
The story was definitely unique, fun, and filled wacky characters -- but I wish there has been a bit more depth to it. It felt like the world presented has so much unique storytelling to offer, and there would have been ample room for a story that was funny and thought-provoking rather than just funny.
(Don't get me wrong, there's plenty here to provoke thought, just not much of that comes from the story or character interactions)
Still, for a game from the 90's this does hold up well, and I had a good time getting through it. I'm kind of craving a Sam & Max remaster playthough now, or maybe I'll finally play Day of the Tentacle.