Oula, calm down, I can already see you leaving there. Don't get me wrong, Grim Fandango remains a great game and even in 2015, it's easy to understand why it's considered a video game monument, along with several other LucasArts productions of the time. For those who, like me, missed it at the time, a little scriptwriting reminder is in order regarding the relative exoticism of the pitch. Based on a Mexican folklore created from scratch at the beginning of the XNUMXth century from pieces of pre-Columbian and Catholic beliefs but also from the work of artists like Posada or Manilla, the game takes you to the Eighth World, the Land of the Dead . This is where souls pass before entering the Ninth World, that of eternal rest. You play as Manny Calavera, salesman in the Department of the Dead. The latter is responsible for collecting the deceased and offering them the appropriate mode of transport to their final destination. Depending on their good deeds, some will indeed be able to go directly to the Ninth World by train, while the less well-off will have to go there on foot, risking getting stuck on the way and wandering forever. Life is hard, death too are crunchy.
Death suits him moderately well
You have to admit that a screenplay like that is quite unforgettable. Terribly original, carried by colorful characters and chiseled dialogues, supported by a very strong, very marked universe, Grim Fandango also marks the spirits (ha, ha) by its jazzy music and its exceptional artistic direction. Mixing the influences of art-deco (which finally fits quite well with the period of introduction of the Day of the Dead in Mexico) and film noir already cited many times in previous analyzes of the game, the LucasArts game relaunched today Today by Double Fine retains a unique artistic touch which is expressed in particular through its pre-calculated 3D spreadsheets. Yes, unquestionably, the base material is really nice. But to be completely honest, it's hard to justify the use of the word "Remastered" attached to the title of the game. Indeed, beyond the work on the lights, only the 3D models of the characters have been passed into high definition, without being redesigned. The best way to realize this is to switch from the original render to the remastered render via a click on the right stick; an interesting function moreover, if only there had been a little more differences between the two! The same goes for the option to change resolution, which suddenly becomes a gadget. We therefore find ourselves more faced with a port ++ than with a real remake, which is moreover a sometimes faulty port: twice, we had to start our game over, manual saving required, because of a script bug or of collision. Annoying is an understatement.RIGID CADAVERIQUE?
And the observation of the port rather than the remake takes on an additional dimension when we actually carry out the work done on the controls so that they are fully and comfortably playable on the pad! The gameplay has thus been entirely brought up to date and should therefore not shock anyone, more than fifteen years after the game was released. For those who will catch the game on PC, a mode allows you to switch to the controls of 1998. In fact, this mode is also available on consoles but we wish good luck to those who will embark on this enterprise. There's even a trophy for players who manage to complete the game this way. Admittedly, the inventory is still a bit old-school and will require you to scroll through items one by one until you find the right one. But that doesn't take anything away from the quality of the gameplay, which hasn't aged a bit and will force you to rack your brains, to try things, to formulate hypotheses to find the solutions to the puzzles, leaving you always relatively free of your actions. Note also the wise use of trophies on Sony consoles, which encourage you to take advantage of discussions with NPCs. In terms of difficulty and lifespan, Grim Fandango arises there, even if the adventure may vary in length depending on your degree of savvy in the face of the most capillotracted puzzles (and there are some). And it will be necessary to add to that the two hours of audio comments recorded by the development team, compartmentalized in small pieces and activated at any time in the various tables. All this at an additional attractive price: €14,99 on PS4 and PS Vita with cross-buy, and €11,99 on PC.
