One of the games that cemented Tim Schafers reputation for creating fantastic games. This is a classic Point & Click adventure from 1998, so keep a spoilerfree guide open if you aren`t up for trying each item combination.
In a little longer than 10 hours Grim Fandango tells the story of Manny Calavera. He is a guide for the dead working in the department of death... selling them packages how to reach their after life depending on how good they were on the other side. Sadly Manny isn't doing so well, he only gets the loser souls who aren`t worth anything. But this is only the beginning, you will puzzle your way all around the afterlife, through cities and forests and oceans. And you will learn that Manny is a suave and cunning businessman who manages to turn nearly every situation to his advantage.
The underworld is astethically styled after the aztecs and wonderfully brought to life by the story. The dead built their own unique society with the same vices already present in the living world. the atmosphere is a little grim noir themed, but still with humor in it. While the polygon count on the characters may be low, the world itself is beautifully pre-rendered.
Grim Fandango is great, and the remaster with mouse controls is absolute peak with the added traditional mouse point&click interface. Though, mouse controls don't really work for every occasion in the game, but it's pretty minor issue overall.
Shame the remaster couldn't really clean up the cutscenes, as those are VERY crunchy with the late 90's video compression. Kinda same for the static backdrop graphics. The in-game lighting did get a lot nicer!
I've been meaning to test out https://hexagon.codes/grimhd - someone seems to be ai-upscaling the backdrops to modern resolutions & color depths, they seem very nice on the screenshots. So you know, disclaimer: haven't tried it myself, can't endorse it, and if you do: scan it for nasties first.
I was getting ready to take one look at these and write them off as looking just a little too sharp, but honestly, with how bleak the visionless hyperrealism of today is, the original design shines straight through. I might use this.
I played Grim Fandango about halfway through last year and I really liked it, although something else grabbed my attention.