Grim Fandango Remastered Reviews

I remember at the age of 9, sitting just outside the Department of Death HQ watching the festivities of the Day of the Dead with Peter McConnell's magical "9th Heaven" playing in the background while my dad sat next to me, invested in the story and watching me walk up and get my eighth worm "balloon animal" from the carnival. 27 years later, 9th Heaven pops on my Spotify playlist every now and then, and the memory of that big yellow donkey float, the celebrations, and my dad and I playing this masterpiece together makes me shed a little tear. Utilising the same engine as their successful predecessor "Escape from Monkey Island", LucasArts delivers a brilliant story centred around the two things that are certain for all of us in life - Death and Taxes. Well, the latter in some format... play to find out! As with LucasArts games of the time, the sound design is BEAUTIFUL. Love this. Thank-you for all of the childhood memories, LucasArts.

Nice game but.. Save often, save to many slots. There are a buttload of bugs, some of which are game breaking. Basically the intro location was the only one where I didn't have a bug that required reloading. And many of the solutions are quite moon-logicky. Can't fault it too much for that, that was the standard back then, but still. Also, for a remaster that came out 2015, it looks like crap. It's not much of a remaster. Glottis body is still around 5 poligons with a low resolution texture, just not as low resolution as the original. Basically save for some slightly better textures, this looks like the original. Go watch a comparison video, often times you couldn't tell which was which. So, if you have the original, there's no reason to get this. It looks like a 2001 retexture of this 1998 game, not a 2015 remaster. This transparent money grab by Tim Shafer and the fact that it's very buggy and many puzzles make little sense makes me want to not recommend this - but it's a nice game from the story and feeling and you can't get the original any more. So.. take the recommend with a grain of salt

I got stuck so many times in this game, and while I loved the story and characters, I found the puzzles and their progression a bit too linear. A lot of them felt overly complicated or just plain frustrating, which might be a big turn-off for some players. I personally had to rely on guides and walkthroughs to get through most of it. Still, it was a great, funny, and beautiful ride!

I found out about this game when i was like 13 and have thought about it ever since i finally got it on sale back in like november and played thur the whole thing with my girlfriend the wait was worth it fucking amazing time please buy tim and the gang always putting up a billion on the scoreboard

⭐ Rating: 7/10 Grim Fandango Remastered is a solid update to a classic adventure game, though not without its flaws. The original 1998 game was a masterpiece of storytelling, atmosphere, and humor, and this remaster by Double Fine Productions does a good job of preserving that charm while making some much-needed improvements. The Good: ✅ Great Story & Characters – The game’s noir-inspired plot and witty dialogue hold up remarkably well. Manny Calavera is still one of the best protagonists in gaming. ✅ Updated Graphics & Music – The improved character models and lighting make the game look better while keeping the original art style intact. The remastered soundtrack is also fantastic. ✅ Point-and-Click Controls Added – A huge plus! The old tank controls are still available for purists, but the modernized controls make the game much smoother to play. The Not-So-Good: ❌ Puzzles Can Be Obscure – Some solutions are frustratingly unintuitive, leading to trial-and-error moments or reliance on guides. ❌ Clunky Animations & Bugs – Some of the remastered animations feel stiff, and there are occasional glitches. ❌ No Major Overhaul – While it's a faithful remaster, it doesn’t go as far as some fans might have hoped in modernizing the experience. Final Verdict: Grim Fandango Remastered is a great way to experience this legendary adventure game, but it still feels like a product of its time. If you love classic LucasArts adventures or enjoy unique storytelling, it’s definitely worth playing—just be prepared for some old-school puzzle frustration. Would I recommend it? Yes, but mostly to fans of adventure games. 🎭💀

I bought this game when I had shoulder surgery and couldn't use one of my hands. Very engrossing, very beautiful and well written. I enjoyed it a lot

Despite GF being on top of some adventure games rankings, and despite loving other LucasArts classics like Monkey Island 1-3 and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Grim Fandango never gripped me back in the day, and it does not grip me now. This is due to a number of problems that add up. One is the graphics - the game was created during the dawn of 3D when 3D was ugly though cool. And it shows. Though LucasArts did an impressive job with the technology available at the time, GF still looks much uglier than the gorgeous 2D hand-painted titles of the same era - e.g. The Dig, Monkey Island 3 and Broken Sword 1. The 3D introduced a secondary problem in terms of controls. The original had obnoxious tank control that made movement a hassle. This remaster mercifully adds point-and-click. But we still have to deal with the confusing and dated camera switches from the same era. A game-breaking bug presents another issue. Toward the end of Act I, there is a spot where you have to switch to windowed mode and to classic rendering mode to be able to progress due to a breaking bug. A quick online search led me to the solution; but it's still kind of lame not to have fixed this in the decade since the release of the remaster. Another problem are the puzzles. Adventure games always had silly puzzles, particularly a number of the classics of the golden age such as Monkey Island, Simon the Sorcerer and Discworld. But Grim Fandango goes overboard. Practically every puzzle only makes sense in retrospect, and I found myself simply following a walkthrough. There is challenging, and then there is abstruse gotcha. All of that said, my impression always was that the game's saving grace were the characters and the story. Well, I got to Act II (out of four), and I can't say I care about the characters or the story. The skeletons and the noir vibe are tolerable; but the childish demon driver breaks all tone and immersion. The game can't decide if it wants to be slapstick or noir and succeeds at neither. So I'm thumbs down here. I think this particular classic is over-rated, and is a good example of why people stopped playing adventure games in the late 1990s.

One of the best games I've ever played. Amazing story, puzzles, writing, world, characters, music, and voice acting. A must play In my books. the only issues I have were some minor glitches and one crash. the glitches were completely inconsequential. The crash was due to me making an obscure series of inputs that the game couldn't handle (the inputs were something like trying to put away an item while exiting a vehicle in the middle of a screen transition in one specific area). Don't let one crash I had turn you away from this masterpiece just save often enough an it'll be fine. If I recall the game itself even tells you to save often. You wont regret playing it unless you despise point-and-click adventure games and the trial and error that comes with them. Even if you do hate sometimes obtuse puzzles that are par for the course with this genre there are plenty of walkthroughs out there for this game that will still let you enjoy the story, characters, and soundtrack. Play this game if you haven't. It's one of the greats.

Grim Fandango is SO GOOD! I finally played and completed this game this weekend. I'm 26 years late to this party BUT I have to say, what a work of art! Low polygon count be damned -- there's such character in these characters. Great music, art, writing, and puzzles. If you are like me and haven't played, go to Steam and get a copy. Make no bones about it. It's a great game!

lowkey one of the best games with proper storytelling and soundtracks , even though i'm on year 1 so far