Grim Fandango is loosely based on the Mexican Day of the Dead festival. You play the part of Manny Calavera, a travel agent for the Department of Death in the Land of the Dead, who must sell a certain quota of premium travel packages to make up for some misdeeds he committed in his mortal life. Unfortunately for Manny, all the good clients seem to go to his co-worker and rival, Domino. Manny winds up getting the dregs of society who barely qualify for a walking stick to see them through their four-year journey, much less a trip on the Number Nine, the luxury train that whisks the good souls to the end of the line in splendor.

Graphically, Grim Fandango is stunning, with a mix of modern settings and fantastical landscapes inspired by southwestern architecture. Everything has been lavishly rendered in three dimensions, offering up a world to explore that is unlike any previous adventure game. One of the game's great innovations has to do with the way Manny interacts with his surroundingsinstead of requiring the player to scour each scene with a mouse pointer, Manny's head will turn to look at interesting and/or movable items. This also serves to hide the interface, drawing you even further into the game world. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that you can even play with a gamepad, although this control method can be a little tricky at times.

As beautiful as the game is, Grim Fandango really scores because of its well-crafted plot, brilliant soundtrack, and amazing voice acting. As we've come to expect from LucasArts, offbeat humor plays a key role throughout the game, and while there aren't very many laugh-out-loud moments, I found myself chuckling quite a bit at many of the verbal exchanges between characters, as well as Manny's comments and observations. This is truly high quality stuff, on par or better than most big-screen Hollywood productions.

For the most part, the puzzles are seamlessly integrated into the story, but some of them are awfully clumsy. Even when I knew exactly what to do, it sometimes took a ridiculous number of attempts to get in just the right position to pull off the solution. Without the firm knowledge that you are on the right track, you can easily assume that there is another course of action and go off in search of a solution that doesn't exist. But although the puzzles can sometimes get in the way of the story, the payoff is well worth it. Though Grim Fandango is not a short game by any means, you'll still feel it ends too soon. Viva la revolucion!