bear with me, it's my first adventure game

[glamrocksuit]

Hello, my name is jess, I’ve posted here once or twice before, but I’ve never really had a reason, until now. You see, I’ve just finished my first adventure game, and my boy eric (mrcolossal) has informed me that this means I must post something about it. Now, I’ve played plenty of video games before, on and off my computer, but I’ve never really played an adventure game, (accept for 6 day assassin of course), mostly because when these games where coming out my boy cousins who had them wouldn’t let me hang out with them cuz I was a girl, and thusly would infect everything I touched with cooties. It’s a serious condition. But finally, this Xmas one of my guy friends wised up and gave me as a gift both the curse of Monkey Island, and Grim Fandango. I was exited to get them both, having watched people play them many times, but I was mostly exited about grim fandango, so I started playing it right away.

The first thing that struck me about grim fandango was that it looked amazing. I’ve seen adventure games before, but most of them were either animated or done with pixels, and watching this game was like looking at candy. Cute skeleton candy. The copyright on the back says 1998, but if it had come out last year I wouldn’t have been disappointed, it just seems like Lucas Arts knew what they were doing, and the art holds up. Not to mention the music and the scenery, everything was intricate and beautiful. My only complaint would have to be about the puzzles. I know it’s like what do I know from puzzles? But those were some of the most inane things I’ve ever had to do! Now this might be post game frustration talking here, but man, I can’t remember when I’ve been so frustrated at a game in my life. And I’m not going to lie to you I cheated my ass off. I think I got as far as the forest out of El Marrow before I started looking up hints online, and that’s mostly because I’d watched eric play the first part a while back and had a vague idea of what to do. It wasn’t so much that the things I had to do where unreasonable, as much as I just had no idea how I was supposed to know to do them.
For example, one of the most frustrating points in the game for me was the sign post in the forest past El Marrow, relatively in the beginning of the game. See, there’s this sign post, that points towards Rubacava and el marrow, now when I walk over to it lights up and I look at it, this is a good sign that I’ll have to do something with it, that much I can tell, but once I’ve picked it up, that’s another story. I figure it’s a sign post so when I place it somewhere it’s going to tell me where to go, so I place it and sure enough it points in a different direction. The only problem is it’s not pointing in any specific location it just randomly keeps pointing to the left of the screen. My options at this point are to either stick the sign in the ground over there, or to walk into a room I originally drove into with glottis made up of tunnels that lead to nowhere.  This seems like the most obvious choice because otherwise the room would be useless. This should be easy right? I should just walk in and plant the sign and it will tell me where to go and eventually something will happen right? Wrong, I wound up spending the worse half of a day walking around in circles and pulling my hair out because nothing was going on and I was getting nowhere. When I finally checked the strategy guide it told me that the only place I could stick the sign for it to work was an itsy bitsy patch of discolored dirt on the floor that I could barely see. ARG! The game is full of puzzles like these that I would have had no idea how to solve without help.

The other part that made me stick to the strategy guide snuggly for the rest of the game, was Rubacava, because as far as I can tell I ‘m pretty sure I was walking dead, despite being assured that that’s impossible in a Lucas arts game.  In this part of the game Manny owns a casino, and the players job is to eventually get many on a boat out of there to find Meche. Now this may have been just hasty playing on my part, but I was under the assumption that I couldn’t screw up, so I decided to explore the entire grounds first, and then figure out what to do, unfortunately, I wound up doing 2 of the puzzles in the wrong order and somehow closing off some of the other options to complete them in the process. It’s kind of a long story, but I’ll just say that by the time I had done what I had done, some of the characters that I needed to talk to in order to proceed with the game were now unable to talk to me. Or maybe they were just giving me the silent treatment cuz I’m such a crappy player. Either way, I had to start over and use the guide to get out of it. The last and most frustrating part of the game for me was not with a puzzle, but a terrible glitch in the game that made me want to bury my head in sand for like a year, words cannot describe it, so I’ve drawn up a diagram:

 
As you can see that is not many but an evil many clone who has taken over and refuses to leave the conveyor belt so that he can pull the lever and continue with the game. I did however eventually find some help and figure out how to avoid the glitch.


Now, you would think that after all of this frustration I would want nothing to do with this game wouldn’t you? But that’s not the case at all. In fact I think its one of the best things I’ve ever spent my time on.  see I started out wanting nothing more than to rant about how angry I was but the truth is that when the game was over, all I wanted to do was write about what a great guy Manny Calavera is. And what a wonderful story it was, how all of these great ideas about religion and culture and death came together to make this sweet, stylish, quirky little game. How much I loved the clothes and the scenery, the giant map and all the skeleton’s unique faces and the beautiful Mexican and 1940’s styled music. How sad I was when Salvador or any other character died.  How the story spans over 4 years, and how that makes Manny’s search so much sadder and his character so much sweeter and full of depth.  I mean he really is like one of the best guys ever. And somehow I don’t think I would feel that way if the game hadn’t put me through so much, because in a way I realized that I was only so completely frustrated because I wanted so badly to keep playing and to be a part of the story. I think I realize now what makes these games so alluring to you guys and gals, because someone could say, why didn’t they just make a movie? And that wouldn’t be enough for me, because I didn’t just sit somewhere and watch the actions of a few people in a place unrelated to me, for a while there I got to be Manny Calavera, and that’s a big difference. Anyway, I loved this game, on to Monkey Island I guess, but I’ll tell you right now guy brush better be one hell of a fella to follow up Manny.

[Jockstrap]

Yeah, I loved this game too it was really beautifully made.  I loved the cutscenes and the art and the characters and the music. I totally agree with what you said. I also had problems with th conveyor belt but I overcame them. And rubacava was pretty hard, but I was never  a walking dead. I also just want to mention some of my favourite cutscenes. I like the one at the train station towards the end, when the bird flys out and Manny gets captured. I really liked the cinematography of that scene. Another scene I loved was the very start of year four where you see Manny and everyone else walking and it looks like they've been walking for a long time and it feels like they've been walking for a long time. It kinda felt like I had been playing for four years and was nearing the end of my long journey. I really liked this game.

[m0ds]

I haven't read your full post but the diagram really reminds me of that movie about a manaquin. Remember? Near the end she's on a conveyer belt or something. But anyway.

Welcome to the forums, Jess

And GF is a great game, but I've played greater..

[Barcik]

I can think of no better game to kick off your adventuring with than Grim Fandango. This is so much more than mere ineractive-fiction - this is art. Manny is the greatest character to ever walk the screen, and Grim Fandango is so masterfully crafted.

About the puzzles, I don't think they were so hard. It's one of the few adventure games I managed to pass without any hints, in fact. I can see how the interface can cause some problems with the puzzles, but generally they were smart, diverse and nicely spread.

Expect Yufster preaching about the great-ness of Tim Scafer any second now.

[SSH]

Well, due to my lack of spare time I've been playing GF for about 9 months now and haven't got too far: still in Rubacava Year 2. Not stuck though, still exploring. However, I must say that the sign in the petrified forest did require me to look at UHS, and a couple of other times I missed Manny's head turning to the vital hotspot, so didn't know it was there...

[Gankkizz]

I loved Grim Fandango! It was the first adventure game I ever owned (not the first one I played though)

I agree with Barcik. The puzzles weren't so hard and the puzzle with the sign in the petrified forest was one the easiest puzzles, IMHO...

[MrColossal]

the time she mentions where she saw me beat the beginning of the game was a very frustrating time for me

i've played tons of adventure games and i've played GF before but there are some real stinker puzzles in that game that basically rely on your willingness to walk back and forth from room to room trying something different while Manny gives you a new interact message saying that he needs holes in the card now. [the only reason i put holes in the card when i first played it is cause the hole punch rung up for some reason as a hot spot not cause i had solved a puzzle]

it frustrated me to no end and jess fell asleep.

and if i were to choose an adventure game to pop her cherry it wouldn't have been GF, i'd have gone with a point and click game, probably Monkey Island, and then work her through to Grim Fandango.

But anyway welcome to my bed--- er I mean the forums!

[m0ds]

It's like you're related or something!

I reccomend TeenAgent ! I don't know why, but I think that game is great for any beginner, whether they consider themselves a beginner or not. In fact, I reccomend it to anyone!

[Meowster]

Man, Indiana Jones is Awesome!!!

Er, I mean Tim Schafer! Tim Schafer!!! And do you know he created some other brilliant and unusual games as well? He designed and created Day of the Tentacle with Dave Grossman, and he also designed Full Throttle, and... Psychonauts! But that is another story.

The thing I like about Grim Fandango is everything.

[Duke Acosta]

I'm the loser who gave jess the games.  I do agree that the GF's puzzles are pretty wanktastic but I've never really played LucasArts games for intuitive puzzles.  I went to Sierra and the 7th Guest and Myst games for that.  I went to LucasArts because they could tell a wonderfully engaging and entertaining yarn.  It didn't matter that to open a door I had to go through some rube-goldgerian process instead of turning a knob.  The story was so intriguing that I wanted to find out what was behind that door, dammit!

I also agree that GF probably wasn't the best introduction to adventure games.  Unfortunately, I lost my Sierra games to an ex-girlfriend and I've long since crushed up my Sam n Max CD and snorted it so it would be part of me forever.  Oh well.  What've I been writing?  How did I get to this forum?  Sleep deprivation and being at work in the morning make for amusement.

[Goldmund]

Playing GF I've felt that the puzzles were so unforgiving and - at times - weird because Lucasarts released so many adventure games before and they simply didn't want to repeat themselves.

[Ytterbium]

I had to use the walkthrough most of the time too, but it's still my favorite game of all time.

[Dave Gilbert]

So Eric brought his gal to the forums.  Hey, Jess. We met one year ago at the Casanova bar in the east village on my birthday.  I have a cute picture of you two someplace...

[rodekill]

Hi Jess.
I'm Erics man-stalker.
His art makes me want to eat his heart so I can get his powers.

PS: Play Monkey Island.

[glamrocksuit]

awww you're all his man-stalker's to me! and i've been stalking you guys over eric's shoulder since i met him, so that makes us... total strangers who bizzarely know alot about each other? anyway i wanna play monkey island but i have to admit i'm a little intimidated. there's a lot of hype around that game.

p.s. i love eric's art too, but i already ate his heart, and there's no power in there, just blood, and lego peices.

[Squinky]

Yes, Monkey Island is the crap, just go into it without any expectations and you'll be all happy inside...You ought to try playing Loom also...I really dug that game....

I still have not played the Grim Fandango, will it play on XP?
Probably not...beh...

[MrColossal]

that's what she has Squinky, there are some patches you may have to download also if your computer is wicked fast [there's a puzzle you can't get past from what i understand]

[TheYak]

I still have not played the Grim Fandango, will it play on XP?

Gave it to my ex for Xmas so she could play it again, running superbly on a Gateway 1.8Ghz w/ 256 RAM & GF3ti200/Win XP SP1 with no special patches or slow-downs.  I was surprised.

By the way, I'm getting the feeling that Eric's gotta import AGS friends since nobody here likes him.  

[rodekill]

Great.
So what do I do now for powers?

[JimmyShelter]

Great.
So what do I do now for powers?

Probably something with getting bitten by a poisonous animal or getting exposed to radioactive material.