Grim Fandango Remastered provides little polish to the original and for the large part feels like a game from a bygone age made accessible to today’s audience. This is exactly where the remaster hides it beauty with just the right amount of modernisation as the core content it presents is a timeless classic. Who cares about small issues like the weird aspect ratio?!

Story of Grim Fandango

As soon as you start the game you are welcomed with a cutscene introducing a travel agent for the undead, Manuel “Manny” Calavera as he tries to work off his debt before moving on. His wits and comedy make for a very interesting main character who is supported with a most wonderful array of side characters that range from an incompetent but highly energetic coat girl to a workaholic secretary with a secret. There are new characters being constantly introduced and split between the 4 chapters of the story. The story is based on the undead with Mexican influences. The Classic Noir styling makes for a wonderful world, and is backed by with a unique art direction that works so well to convey the ever changing serious-to-comedy theme.

Remaster Quality

At the peak of its career, it was a shining star for Lucas Arts, but both have now fallen from grace. It was only Double Fine’s interest that made it even possible for the game to stage a comeback in 2015. Just like a Charles Dickens novel, the story is a time tested classic which is fun no matter when you partake in it. It is amazing to see the game transition from a tank-based control scheme to a point-and-click adventure to the point that first time players would not believe that this was not the intended control scheme of the original.

First, let’s look at the changes such as High resolution character textures, Remastered Audio, New control schemes, Lighting effects and Director’s commentary. What has not changed is the old school nature of the game with no objectives or hints shown on a screen, a slow and cumbersome inventory management system, extraordinarily creative puzzles (read illogical or difficult) and the lack of an auto save function. But these were the staples of the old times, some purist would say and I would agree. It seems like Double Fine’s intentions were to keep the game as similar to the original as possible while modernising all that they could without affecting the gameplay. The nostalgic gamer in me is happy for the change, while for the lazy modern gamer in me the solution to any difficult puzzle is just a quick search on the internet.

The soundtrack has also been redone and it sounds just wonderful, The smooth jazz and upbeat orchestra are a gem to listen to and the soundtrack has found its way near the top of my music selection. For the audiophile, Grim Fandango Remastered has a lot to offer with a mix of an orchestral score, South American folk music, jazz, swing and big band sounds. This is an amazing audio selection and should be compulsory listening for Music lovers. You can find the free original soundtrack (Not the HD remastered) using this link from the official website. The voice acting by the Spanish artistes infused with slight hints of the native accent give a sense of style to the game. The spoken dialogue is well narrated with much modulation that conveys emotions amplified by the score. Yes there were a few annoying characters like your demon driver, but they are annoying by design, which some may call over-friendly.

What I did find annoying was that the remastered characters stood out from the background texture. There is a clear differentiation where untouched textures still had pixellation and grain while some of the remastered textures did not. That coupled with the fact that the game looks proportionate only with the 4:3 aspect ratio while making no use of the extra space on the side for menu or items made me question the effort put in the remaster several times. In fact the passiveness of the remastering is its biggest strength and weakness.

Gameplay

Grim Fandango Remastered is a 12-hour story, depending on how fast can you solve the games puzzles using its erratic logic. You are thrown into the depp end of the game world as the game expects you to have some basic knowledge of a point-and-click game before playing, unless you want to try the frustrating tank scheme of the original. The basics are similar to any point-and-click game, you find objects and combine them with others to achive the desired result and progress the story. What can make and break such a game is the story and Grim Fandango has one of the best stories I have encountered in a point-and-click adventure game. With many open areas for each chapter you constantly travel between them. The slow pacing of the character was a major annoyance and I found out that the only real way to counter was to hold the shift key during my playthrough. Yes, I could double click, but that did not always work when interacting with objects in the same room.

Conclusion

Nostalgia plays little role in this story made timeless by its presentation and characters. Although no gamer who dislikes the point-and-click adventure genre will go out of their way to play this, those with even a little interest in the genre should definitely check out Grim Fandango Remastered as there is a lot to fall in love with even if you are playing it for the first time. The rewards to bear the mild annoyances are reaped in the form of a rich story and a fantastic sound-piece.[divider]

A note on the Score: We believe it is unfair to judge a Remastered video game in comparison with modern video games simply because the gameplay and design choices in the game were made in a different era and do not compare to modern practices. Given that the game has been remastered is a testament to its status as a great game. Thus, all that is left to comment on is whether the remaster does justice to the original. In the case of Grim Fandango, we find that it does. Thus our rating for this review is purely the quality of the remaster.

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