Grim Fandango

"A Epic Tale of Crime and Corruption in the Land of the Dead."
What a good game.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for these kind of adventure games. I played Myst again recently, and my boyfriend insisted that I try Grim Fandango and Obsidian.

Obsidian is ridiculously hard. I firmly believe that someone had to think in a certain way to solve all the puzzles, and its not quite the way that I think. I got a bunch of them, and most of them I could solve with just a hint to get me started. I think the biggest problem is that they set up a puzzle in such a way that you know its a puzzle or part of a puzzle, but you have no idea what to do to get started, or how it fits in the big picture, or what your name is. You really just know nothing for some of them. For the rest, you know exactly what to do, but the puzzles are very long and complex. Despite the toughness factor, its a very interesting story and fascinating puzzles.

Grim Fandango, on the other hand, is just the right level of hardness with an overabundance of fun. The game is put together with such attention to detail that I was blown away. (The credits have two pages of Quality Assurance Testers) Made in 1997, the graphics aren't something to ooh and ahh over, yet you can't shake a fist at them either. For the tools and computing power they had, they did a very good job. The land of the dead is just as pretty and strange and cool looking as you'd expect. The characters are awesome, and the voice acting, of which there is plenty, is great. The main character, Manny Calavera, always has a witty quip for everything, items, people, stuff you can activate, conversations. Everything has a sort of Mexican feel to it, from the voices to the storyline and the music. Speaking of music, the soundtrack is amazing too, I wish they sold a cd of it. Everything about this game is wonderful. 8 years later, and its still one of the best games I've ever played. Definitely the best adventure game.

I'm tempted to hunt down the team that worked on this and beg them to make another game. (You hear me?? If you still exist, make another game! You are amazing, and godlike in your game making skills!) For the rest of you, if you can track down a copy of this game, I highly recommend it.

Update: OMG, you can download the music. *le faint* Lucas Arts still has a good website up for this (Amazing, considering it's hard to get Maxis to admit that they ever made such a game as Sim Ant), and you can download 3 of the music tracks. *love* Lucas Arts will always have a little spot in my heart now, no matter what they do.