Adventure Gamers - Forums

Me reading that thread title:

Just kidding!

CaptainRottingham - 08 October 2015 06:02 PM

Those 3D polygons are rough

In contrast to EfMI and Simon3D and other games with those early polygons, Grim Fandango is the only game where they fit the papier-mâché Day of the Dead skeletons, imo.

and the awkward camera angles…I spent 20 min just trying to position Manny in front of the greenhouse entrance so I could walk in.

You can make the movement character-relative instead of camera-relative. It helps - you don’t change directions just because the camera angle changed. A workable control scheme, imo.

Anyway, love that they went for it with this title, i guess when it came out it was unique and stuck in a lot of people’s hearts.

Well, for one I find the game insanely hilarious, and I often quote it in daily life (even to people who never heard of Grim Fandango - although I limit myself to “Viva la Revolución!” and “Loteria!” then).
But to me, the main attraction is Year Two, Rubacava. That part is imo the pinnacle of adventure gaming. Rubacava is a big place so there’s lots to explore, but it’s not so big that you’ll get lost. The environments are beautiful, and the game’s ‘noir’ atmosphere is at its peak there. Pure awesome.

I don’t think that playing a game like Grim Fandango in 1998 when it was originally released, and now 17 years later playing the game for the very first time, can really be compared!

Its like if you watch Casablanca now for the very first time, then you are bound to get disappointed and think “Is that really it?”, but it is nevertheless one of the great classics.

The game is of course the same, and the test of a true classic is that it can withstand the test of time. But a lot has happened in the meantime, both with technology, game standards and what we expect from games, and with people and the world in general, and that obviously has an impact on how we experience a game like GF.

Grim Fandango is one of my personal all time favourite games, but when I recently replayed it I was actually a bit disappointed. What I remembered as being big epic scenes that simultaneously triggered every single emotion in my brain like normally only a Steven Spielberg movie can, now suddenly felt flat and like something I have seen a million times before - most likely because I have, but in 1998 I hadn’t.

In 1998 it was in many ways a very unique game, especially in the form of the story, but also as a 3D direct control adventure game. Since then thousand of games and movies has used the same story elements, and 3D has improved so much that GF now feels completely outdated, similar to watching a B/W movie now.

Anyway, I agree that Rubacava is in every single way, by far the best part of the game.

I haven’t yet played the remastered edition of it, so this is fully based on the original with a mouse click interface installed.

When I played GF the first time, I didn’t really like it as a game because of the tank controls and I also though the inventory system was too gimmicky for it own good. I loved the story and the atmosphere though (but I guess almost everyone did and does. It still is a great setting).

Later someone did a mouse control scheme for it for ResidualVM and I played GF through again using it. It improved the game immensly. Using it made it more clear that the original control design of the game was a HUGE mistake (just like it was on any game using it, like the Alone In the Dark or original Resident Evil), as there really was no difficulties what so ever controlling the game with a mouse (despite some minor bugs that were present on the first versions of the mouse control mod, but were fixed out after I reported them to the mod maker).

Curse of the Monkey Island has the same flaw. I really liked the story and the humour the game has, but the control mechanics of it were so ackward, that it ruins the game.

CaptainRottingham - 08 October 2015 06:02 PM

A little too ambitious for it’s own good maybe, lost somewhere between the land of dead, film noir, and Myst. 

Myst eh,an obvious troll comment,if i was admin add to anything goes right away.

The ONE thing I would slightly change about Grim is the very square-angled, “normal” architecture. It’ll never happen, but I’d love a version of it with slanted, Chuck Jones, DoTT-like environments - I feel they’d fit the characters a lot better (early 3d renderings weren’t that pretty, either). But that’s such a small gripe for an absolutely incredible, incredible game. And yeah, Rubacava is deffo THE best adventure game location out there. With GF Remastered, DoTT special edition, Broken Age, I have a feeling a new point and clicker from master Schafer should be upon us soon. Please let it be so

Grim Fandango..meh?

Nah.

Related to my architectural wishes

http://grimfandangoart.tumblr.com/

I’m all for the dressing down of this game. The LucasArts/Monkey Island/Tim Schafer quirkiness can wear a little thin at times and this game falls victim to it with characters like Glottis. I said it.

Now the origonal 1998 PC game I would have to agree with. The controls of the game took some getting used to. Some puzzles were very difficult to solve more from the controls than anything else.

Now, the new remastered edition I played it on my PSVITA has much improved controls and I give it a big thumbs up.

I have never played Grim Fandango though I’ve got a physical DVD in my library… (Yes, kill me, right now! Then again I’ve got tons I haven’t played either!)

I have to say I’ve always found the look of the characters off-putting. I don’t really like deaths and depicture of it. Maybe if it was more cartoonish, but it looks too realistic to me. I prefer colorful characters!

But it’s a fact : the first games we play in a specific genre / atmosphere have the biggest effect on us.
For example, Final Fantasy 7 is considered the best game for the people who discovered the series with this episode, while the people who played FF6 or FF8 first consider them to be the best!

So it’s very hard to make an unbiased opinion on a game, especially years after. You have to take the context into consideration.

COWCAT - 09 October 2015 02:06 PM

I have to say I’ve always found the look of the characters off-putting. I don’t really like deaths and depicture of it. Maybe if it was more cartoonish, but it looks too realistic to me. I prefer colorful characters!

The surroundings are pretty realistic noir, but the characters are very much cartoonish. The skeletons are based on papier-mâché calaca figures.

Enjoyed being able to play without tank controls in the remastered version! Also the commentary was interesting. Fantastic setting with a relatively straightforward story but that’s not an issue. Stories don’t always have to be a convoluted mess.