Only for the Nostalgic – Grim Fandango Remastered Review

To a great extent, Grim Fandango is an example of how NOT to design a video game. The "puzzles" are mainly arbitrary inventory puzzles that make no sense and are "solved" by the brute force method of applying every inventory item to every hot spot in the game until something happens. The poor design of the puzzles is exacerbated by the game elements that move about with no warning or that don't appear or don't work until the game is ready to let you solve that particular puzzle. Furthermore, the interface for the inventory is slow and clunky, and it uses repetitive animations that cannot be skipped. The game uses pre-rendered 2D screens instead of 3D movement, and there are no indicators for where a screen transitions to another area. Furthermore, doors and pathways can be difficult to spot, making it hard to find your way around. This difficulty is not helped by the finicky movement controls. There is no map within the game, so unless you can remember all the areas and how they connect, you may get lost frequently. In at least one place, the game actually showed Manny running in the wrong direction, making it even easier to get confused about how to navigate the game's environment. Unfortunately, the puzzles require a lot of travel back and forth, and Manny has a tendency to go the long way around. Furthermore, many of the transitions from one area to another include slow-running animations that cannot be skipped. Add in the clunky interface for the inventory with its own oft-repeated animations and you'll spend a lot of your time in this game just figuring out how to get places and wrestling with the interface. Because nearly all of the "puzzles" make no sense, unless you use a walkthrough, you are likely to spend a lot of time wandering about aimlessly and trying stuff at random. This might be more forgivable if the interface were better and the scenery were beautiful, but although there are some attractive design elements, the world is a bleak, ruined dystopia. The game does have its virtues. The sound is good, and the music is excellent. The noir vibe enriched with dark humor makes for an unusual atmosphere and a game environment that is fun to explore, despite the clunky interface. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it is well paced, has a well-developed character arc for Manny, and is enough fun that you're not likely to care too much about plot holes. The voice acting is both good and bad. The delivery is just fine, but some of the voices sound worse than fingernails on chalkboards. Glottis is the worst offender, and he's with you through the whole game. In summation, this game is best left to people who played it in the past and are now nostalgic about it. For new players, there isn't enough that's good enough to make it worth struggling with the painfully clunky interface and trudging through brute force repetition in order to get past the "puzzles". Not recommended. Update: I did NOT leave a 5 star rating for this game. So how come that's what you had for my rating, Apple?
Review by player58z on Grim Fandango Remastered.