I Was a Teenage Adventure Gamer
Grim Fandango vs. Blade Runner
Matthew Desmond is our Teenage Adventure Gamer and Coffee
Boy.
In 1998, two great adventure games were released. Blade Runner was
released right before Christmas of 1997, but we still like to think was
1998 because it won a couple of awards in that year. And just a few days
before the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival, Lucas Arts released the highly
acclaimed Grim Fandango. It is only fitting that these highly anticipated
games get a good compare-and-contrast article. Why? They’re both good
adventure games and both have good plot lines. We’ll start with Grim
Fandango.
Set in the Land of the Dead, you step into the role of Manny Calavera.
A travel agent, also known as the Grim Reaper. Manny is stuck working
for the Department of Death until he sells a certain number of premium
packages on the Number Nine Train to the Ninth Level of the Underworld.
The unfortunate thing for Manny is that all of his most deserving clients
don’t get their rewards in the afterlife. As a matter of fact, some don’t
even qualify for as much as a walking stick to help them through their
journey to the Ninth Level of the Underworld. So, one day Manny decides
that he is going to get a good client, or else.
The first big puzzle of the game is finding a way to get that golden
client. And I am not going to give away any of the puzzles. After you
find this client, who is practically a saint in life, however, when Manny
gets her back to the DOD HQ, he finds out that he doesn’t have any suitable
methods of transportation for her. He promises her that he will get everything
straightened out. But she quickly leaves and Manny begins his epic quest
to find Meche.
The premise of Blade Runner is that you are a cop in Phillip K.
Dick’s Blade Runner universe. You are part of the LAPD’s Blade
Runner unit, which is designed to hunt and kill replicants (androids with
an attitude problem). But it’s not called killing, it’s called retirement.
You find yourself in the role of Ray McCoy, a Blade Runner. Just like
in the movie, there are some escaped replicants roaming around in Los
Angeles and you have to find them and retire them.
Ray McCoy’s epic quest begins at an animal murder (murdering an animal
is actually worse than murdering a human being due to the fact that most
of the critters of the earth were wiped out during World War III). After
Ray finishes up, he goes back to HQ only to discover that replicants could
have killed these animals. He begins trying to find these skin jobs (another
name for replicant.)
Now, let’s start the comparison. With Grim Fandango and Blade
Runner, you can choose the dialogue; however, with Blade Runner,
if you tick someone off, they might remember it. With Grim Fandango,
if you make the wrong dialogue choices, you can always go back and
pick the dialogue again.
Also, the graphics in both games are excellent, along with the inventory
systems. Well, Blade Runner doesn’t really have an inventory system,
but it does have a notes system, which keeps excellent track of anything
significant you come across. And in Grim Fandango, if you take
too many items, for instance, too much bread, when you leave that area,
all of the excess stuff you don’t need will be removed–this streamlines
the inventory system rather nicely.
Both games have some good voice acting as well. I found myself chuckling
quite a bit at the conversations in Grim Fandango, and in Blade
Runner I found myself wondering exactly what the characters would
say next throughout the entire game. Overall, though, both games have
some similarities, but they stop here.
With Grim Fandango, there are no true fighting scenes. In Blade
Runner, all you do is shoot and kill and try to solve this mystery.
And of course, in Grim Fandango, to my knowledge, there is no way
you can die. In Blade Runner, you better watch out, ’cause, man,
those reps will kill you if you let ’em. And yes, doing stupid things
in Blade Runner can kill you. But then again, stupidity is the
number one killer in America, if you ask me.
The longevity of both games is quite different. In Blade Runner, the
story branches out, but Grim Fandango’s story is linear.
Both are excellent games, and I think that anyone who is remotely interested
in adventure gaming should give either game a look.
