Getting through Grim Fandango wasn't easy when I played it in 1998, when it won Gamespot's Game of the Year award. And the 2015 remastered version by Double Fine Productions is no easier. In fact, it's pretty much the same, beautiful game, but with repainted, high-resolution character textures and new, dynamic lighting. They've even re-recorded the classic score with a live orchestra. Pretty both visually and aurally, it's one of the most critically acclaimed adventure games in the history of critically acclaimed adventure games.
You play Manny Calavera, a white-collar reaper at the Department of Death. He's like an employee at one of those tourism offices, except he sells travel packages to the Underworld. Currency in Calavera's world consists of good deeds and sins, and Calavera is working them off in a stylish suit. He comes from an age where smoking cigarettes was still considered cool.
But when the game begins, Calavera is in trouble. Business hasn't gone so well recently, and he's going to lose his job unless he manages to sell off a premium travel package. In the process of trying to save his job, Calavera uncovers ... a massive conspiracy. What else?
The film noir style game spans across four years of Calavera's life in four separate game chapters. Calavera, despite being a bag of bones, has great personality. He is, in his cold, empty ribcage, a salesman. There are a slew of other memorable, quirky characters cast in this game as well. But not all of them are Calavera's best friend like the fat, loveable Glottis who also happens to have a gambling problem.
Inspired by the Mexican Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) cultural celebration, Grim Fandango Remastered is a classic, which means patience, deep thinking, puzzle-solving and a lot of conversation. If you didn't play it the first time around, then grab yourself a copy, make some tea (or pour a glass of wine and a light cigarette), and enjoy a game whose story will enthrall and engage you without all the fancy tricks offered by newer games. If you've played it before, you should grab it anyway, because revisiting the old has never, never felt so damn new. Or maybe, I'm just obsessed. You tell me.