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Grim Fandango

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Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango LucasArts Classics cover
Developer(s)LucasArts
Publisher(s)LucasArts
Designer(s)Tim Schafer
EngineGrimE
Platform(s)Windows 95 / 98 / ME / 2000 / XP
ReleaseSeptember 30, 1998
Genre(s)Adventure game
Mode(s)Single-player

Grim Fandango is a graphical adventure computer game released by LucasArts in 1998. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use three-dimensional graphics. Grim Fandango was lauded by critics and adventure game fans as one of the best games in the genre and beyond (see Reactions section).

The game was the brain-child of Tim Schafer, who had previously worked on LucasArts' Monkey Island series as well as Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle. Based on Aztec beliefs of afterlife, the game charts protagonist Manny Calavera's four-year journey through the Land of the Dead toward the Ninth Underworld - the final destination of all dead souls - in search of a woman named Mercedes "Meche" Colomar.

Gameplay

The player controls Manny as he seeks the fate of Meche in the Underworld. The game uses the GrimE engine, rendering backgrounds in 2D, while the main objects and characters are represented in 3D, and allows the player to move Manny with a keyboard, a joystick or a gamepad. Manny must collect objects and talk to the various inhabitants of the Underworld to solve puzzles in order to progress in the game. Like most other LucasArts adventure games, the player cannot ever get in a "dead-end" situation that would prevent progress forward due to "death" (as it applies in the Underworld) or some other unfortunate incident.

Plot

Characters

The cast of Grim Fandango. In front center are Domino, Meche, Manny, and Sal. Glottis is in the upper left and Hector is on the far right.

The Afterlife consists of the souls of those that have passed away, appearing as skeleton-like figures, and demons that assist in the workings of the Afterlife. Many of the characters are Mexican and occasional Spanish words are interspersed into the English dialog, also known as Spanglish. (In a strange twist, however, one of the Latino characters, Toto Santos, speaks Hungarian.) Many of the characters often smoke, which follows a film noir tradition. The user manual observes that everyone who smokes in the game is dead: "Think about it."

Manuel "Manny" Calavera (Tony Plana)
In atonement for his sins in life (although he seems not to know exactly what sins he committed to deserve his fate), Manny works as a travel agent (in actuality a psychopomp, at once a Grim Reaper and a put-upon salaryman) selling travel packages to the recently deceased. The righteous dead have earned a four minute trainride on the luxurious No.9 train through the underworld to the afterlife proper; to those less deserving Manny can only offer a walking stick and a four year walk. Manny himself is trapped in the undead city of El Marrow, working for the Department of Death until he can earn his own passage, a fate even worse than the walking stick. But his efforts are continually thwarted when the good clients are snapped up by his office rival Domino Hurley, and Manny's efforts to find out why embroil him in a dark conspiracy. Manny is emotionally attracted to Meche but shows signs of denial towards his feelings for her. Calavera is Spanish for "skull."
Mercedes "Meche" Colomar (Maria Canals)
Meche is Manny's illegally obtained client, whose case puts him on track of the corrupted management of the Department of Death. Even though she has led a very virtuous life, the DOD's computer system mysteriously does not grant her a ticket for the No.9 train, and when Manny learns of that and looks disappointed, Meche runs off, venturing towards the 9th underworld on foot - which is a dangerous thing to do. After being fired from the Department of Death, Manny, feeling responsible for Meche's fate, tries his best to track her down. Most of the time, however, Mercedes manages quite well on her own. She is not only good, she is tough and smart as well.
Glottis (Alan Blumenfeld)
Manny's replacement driver and later on a trusted friend, Glottis is an enormous orange demon/elemental spirit, who served as a mechanic at the Department of Death. When Glottis is fired from the Department of Death for helping Manny, he becomes his companion in the search for Meche. Gifted with amazing mechanical skills, Glottis improves the DOD's standard car into a hellish hot rod, which he and Manny come to refer to as "The Bone Wagon." Glottis was summoned up from the Land of the Dead and given, in Manny's words, "one purpose, one skill, one desire" to drive, or perform auto maintenance if no driving jobs are available. If he goes without doing either task for too long, he will become sick and die. Although he can become violently ill by ingesting foreign substances, little else seems able to kill him: he spends a portion of the game without a heart, for instance.
Hector LeMans (Jim Ward)
Based on actor Sidney Greenstreet and The Third Man's Harry Lime, Hector LeMans is the boss of the criminal underworld of El Marrow, specializing in ticket profiteering.
Salvador "Sal" Limones (Sal Lopez)
Salvador Limones is the head of the LSA (Lost Souls' Alliance), an underground organization that fights against Hector LeMans by all means necessary. Limones recruits Manny in order to have access inside DOD's system.
Domino Hurley (Patrick Dollaghan)
Domino is one of Manny's fellow travel agents at the Department of Death as well as his constant adversary. At the beginning of the game, Domino and Manny have a tense professional relationship as the former has become more successful at the DOD.

Story

The story unfolds in four episodes, each set a year apart on the Day of the Dead, November 2. It is from this festival that much of the game's imagery is drawn—most of the game's characters look like skeletal calaca figures. Like these figures the characters are not skeletons but depictions of souls.[citation needed]

Manny Calavera is a departed soul, serving the Department of Death in the underworld city of El Marrow by selling travel tickets to the newly-dead: the virtuous win passage on the Number Nine train, which takes their souls to Mictlan in four minutes instead of the four-year spiritual journey that sinners must take. When Mercedes "Meche" Colomar is not allocated the "Double-N" ticket she deserves, Manny realises his colleague Domino and his boss Don have been stealing these from the rightful holders and selling them off to the wealthy for profit, "sprouting" all who get in their way (shooting them with "sproutella"-filled darts, causing agonising death-within-death, flowers growing out through the bone). He joins the Lost Souls Alliance (LSA), a revolutionary group led by the charismatic Salvador, and leaves for the city of Rubacava in search of Meche, his demon driver Glottis in tow. Manny's investigations draw him into a tangled web of corruption, deceit, and murder.

The game combines this mythical underworld with 1930s Art Deco design motifs and a dark plot reminiscent of the film noir genre.[1] The design and early plot are reminiscent of films such as Chinatown and Glengarry Glen Ross.[2] Several scenes in Grim Fandango are directly inspired by such film noir as The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, Key Largo, and most notably Casablanca: in the game's second act, two characters are directly modeled after the roles played by Peter Lorre and Claude Rains in the film.[3][1] Despite this, Tim Schafer stated that the true inspiration was drawn from films like Double Indemnity, in which a weak and undistinguished insurance salesman is involved in murder and intrigue.[1]

Development

File:Manuel Calavera in "Grim Fandango" (1998).jpg
Manuel Calavera, the game's protagonist, in a noir scene outside a nightclub

Grim Fandango was released on CD-ROM only and was fully voiced. The game was designed by Tim Schafer, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle and creator of Full Throttle and, more recently, Psychonauts.

Grim Fandango was an attempt by LucasArts to rejuvenate the graphical adventure genre, which in 1998 was in a decline.[citation needed] It was the first LucasArts adventure since Labyrinth not to use the SCUMM engine, instead using the Sith engine, pioneered by Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, as the basis of the new GrimE engine.[4] Unlike Jedi Knight, though, Grim Fandango mixed static pre-rendered background images with 3D characters and objects.

Visually the game drew inspiration from various sources: the skeletal character designs were based largely on the calaca figures used in the Mexican Day of the Dead festivities, while the architecture ranged from Art Deco skyscrapers to a Mayan temple. Staying true to its film noir style storyline, many of the game's locales visually evoke a feeling of a stylized post-war America, with its roadside diners, shady bars, hot rods and neon signs. Grim Fandango successfully mixed all these elements, with GameSpot noting the "beautiful art direction" and calling the visual design "consistently great".[5]

The game's music, featuring a mix of an orchestral score, South American folk music, jazz, swing, and big band sounds, was composed at LucasArts by Peter McConnell and inspired by the likes of Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman as well as film composers Max Steiner and Adolph Deutsch. The period music further helped to support the noir setting of the game and earned Grim Fandango recognition by GameSpot as having one of the best ten game soundtracks ever.[6] The score featured live musicians, including a mariachi band from San Francisco's Mission District, and enjoyed a limited release as a stand-alone soundtrack album.[7]

Reception

Grim Fandango received nearly uniformly positive reviews. GameSpot praised the game, saying "Grim Fandango thankfully avoids the obvious" and "derives its humor from its situations and characters [...] without making fun of itself, helping to create a believable world."[5] PCZone emphasized the production as a whole, "with its expert direction, costumes, characters, music and atmosphere [Grim Fandango] would actually make a superb film."[8] The review at Game-Revolution had Manny himself explaining that "as far as an artistic accomplishment goes, my adventure gets all 5 leg bones",[9] while IGN summed its review up by saying: "the bottom line is that Grim Fandango is hands down the best adventure game we've ever seen."[10] Despite the praise the game's storyline received, however, both Gamespot and IGN noted that there were some difficulties experienced with the interface. IGN also stated that it was one of the reasons they did not give the game a perfect 'ten' score.

Despite its high quality, good reviews and numerous awards — including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 1998, beating classic titles such as real-time strategy StarCraft, first-person shooter Half-Life, and action-adventure The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — Grim Fandango was viewed by many as the final nail in the coffin of adventure games. The game sold about 95,000 copies up through 2003 in North America, excluding online sales, based on data provided by PC Data (now owned by NPD Group).[11] It has been often stated as a fact that the game failed commercially,[12] even though, according to LucasArts, "Grim Fandango met domestic expectations and exceeded them worldwide".[13] However, Grim Fandango failed to be a blockbuster hit unlike many previous LucasArts adventure games, thus tarnishing the image of the demand for adventure games for years to come.

Awards

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

  • Game of the Year (nominated, 1999)
  • Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics (nominated, 1999)
  • Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development (nominated, 1999)
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music (nominated, 1999)
  • Computer Adventure Game of the Year (won, 1999)

GameSpot:

IGN:

GameSpy:

AdventureGamers:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Celia Pearce (2003). "Game Noir - A Conversation with Tim Schafer". "Game Studies". Retrieved 2006-04-16.
  2. ^ Tim Schafer (1997). "Grim Fandango Design Diaries". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  3. ^ "LucasArts' Grim Fandango Presents a Surreal Tale of Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Land of the Dead; Dramatic New Graphic Adventure from the Creator of Award-Winning Full Throttle Expected to Release in First Half 1998". Business Wire. 1997-09-08. Retrieved 2007-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Bret Mogilefsky, Lua in Grim Fandango: "Setting up framebuffers, loading up resources, even displaying 3D characters thanks to Jedi Knight's rendering library."
  5. ^ a b Ron Dulin (1998). "Grim Fandango for PC Review". GameSpot. Retrieved January 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "The Ten Best Game Soundtracks". gamespot.com. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
  7. ^ "Grim Fandango Files". LucasArts. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  8. ^ Steve Hill (2001). "GRIM FANDANGO". PCZone. Retrieved January 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Manny (1998). "Dang! I Left My Heart In The Land Of The Living!". Game-Revolution. Retrieved January 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Trent C. Ward (1998). "LucasArts flexes their storytelling muscle in this near-perfect adventure game". IGN. Retrieved January 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Sluganski, Randy. "(Not) Playing the Game, Part 4". Just Adventure. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  12. ^ "Review: LucasArts' Grim Fandango (1998)", Matt Barton, Gameology.org, November 5 2005
  13. ^ Christof, Bob (2000-06-26). "" Lucasarts ziet het licht"" (in Dutch). Gamer.nl. Retrieved 2007-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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