The game starts with a man at a desk looking less than happy contemplating life. A character dressed as Death walks in with a scythe in his hand. Cue an intense opening cutscene.
'Sorry for the wait, Mr. Flores. I am ready to take you now'
'Take me? Take me where?' Mr. Flores asks whilst shaking his foot in worry for what is to come next.
'Now now, there's no need to be nervous'
'N-nervous? N-no... I-i-it's just your appearance... It's, well, a little intimidating...'
'Intimidating? Me? But I'm your friend! My name's Manny Calavera. I'm your new travel agent!' A Spanish accents starts to emerge whilst the character dressed as he is talking to Mr. Flores
'I don't want a new travel agent. I want to go home'
'Ha Ha! You can't go home, Celso. You're dead. But you're not alone... Everybody here is just as dead as you. That's why we call it the 'Land of the Dead'. Are you ready for your big journey?'
'No! What journey?' - Celso's face turns from one of utter shock to one of a disheartened nature.
'The Four-Year Journey of the Soul. It is quite a big trip. And I can't lie to you, Celso. It could be very, very dangerous... Unless... you were to take that money you were buried with and buy a better travel package from us. I mean, wouldn't you rather cross the Land of the Dead in your own sports car? Maybe try a luxury ocean cruise? Or, if you led a very good life, you may even be eligible for a ticket on the Number Nine itself!'
'The Number Nine?'
'That's our top-of-the-line express train. It shoots straight to the Ninth Underworld, the Land of Eternal Rest, in four minutes instead of four years. But very few people qualify. Let's take a look at your records' - (The computer screen of Celso's records show that he is not qualified for any of the aforementioned forms of transportation). 'Hmm... well the bad news is the train appears to be just out of your reach. But I still got a coupla tricks up my sleeve here... Mmmmhmmm... Yah-ha. Yes... That's the ticket... the 'EXCELSIOR LINE'! Ahh yes, she's a beauty. That compass in the handle will sure come in handy, too... Oh, you're going to have a great trip. Wish I was going!'
'Why don't you? You could give me a lift'
'Oh, I can't leave here until I've worked off a little debt to the powers that be...'
'Community service, eh? Well, I guess there are some folks worse off than me.'
'Oh, I'll be leaving here soon enough! No thanks to dead-end, no-commission, low life cases like yours, menso'
Manny walks back through the front door to be greeted by his boss's receptionist.
'Hey, Manny! The boss told me to tell you not to leave early tonight. He wants to talk to you about something when he gets back from his trip'
'Tell Don not to worry... I'm not going anywhere, especially not with clients like that. Where do they get these guys? They don't qualify for anything good, so I can't sell anything good, can't work off my time, and I'm stuck. Stuck selling walking sticks to a bunch of burros for eternity. I need better clients. I need a real saint. I need a lead on a rich, dead saint'
The pipes start shaking in Manny's room and a message pops up.
'Mmmm Que es esto?'
----------------
Cutscene has now finished and you are able to move around at your own free will.
First and foremost, a few tips for the game controls. You cannot use a mouse, as it is just a keyboard based game. Therefore, the standard controls apply for walking using the directional keys.
Other controls:
'Shift + Forward directional button' - Run
'E' - To examine an item
'A' or 'P' - Pick up item
'I' - Open your inventory
'Left directional key <-- ' - Pull out previous inventory item
'Right directional key -->' - Pull out next inventory item
'U' - Exit the inventory whilst holding something / Use Item / Talk to character
'Esc' - Exit inventory holding nothing / Skip cutscene
'Pause / Break' - Pause game
---------------------------------
Go towards the pipe and press E to examine the message. Press A to open message. It is a work order message from your boss, Don Copal. According to Don, there is a mass poisoning happening and that all clients must be first come, first served. Go over to the desk and pick up the deck of cards. Exit out the door (you can do so by just walking straight to it not pressing any buttons). Walk down the hallway to talk to the receptionist. You find out that you should be at this poisoning event. After some jokey flirting, head on outside and head to the poisoning. If you go to your left, there are two lifts, one that takes you to the car park, and one that takes you downstairs. Turn left out of the lift and open the double doors in front of you and you will get to the street.
If you stay in the car park, run over to the far left side of the parking lot. Knock on the door using the 'U' button and you will meet Glottis, a ginormous orange mechanic with a mini mohawk. It is a very bewildering sight it has to be said! Glottis states how all the drivers have gone and that Manny's own driver has been told to take the day off. Glottis then says that the only way he can drive you to the Day of the Dead ceremony is through getting the boss to sign a work permit to allow him to expand your car to fit him in!
Head back to talk to Eva and try to get her to pass on the permit to get signed by the boss. You will find this reaches a dead end.
Head downstairs in the elevator and out onto the street. Head towards the left where there is a gathering of sorts. Talk to the clown / mime. Get as many balloons as possible out of him, preferably one of each. Go to the next tent and pick up a few loaves of bread too.
Now go down the side alley just to the side of where Manny works. There you find a long cord of rope. Climb up the rope and walk towards the window. You automatically crawl through the window frame. Upon checking the computer, you find it is Don's computer which you find is rigged to automatically respond to intercom messages. Use the computer to change the response to 'Ah cripes, Eva! Just sign it yourself, will ya! I'm busy!' Go back out through the window and head back to the office where you talk to Eva regarding the work permit note.
Once you have the signed work permit, there is a cutscene where Glottis starts work renovating your car. Once he's finished working on the car, he drives you to the Poisoning where you are met by a very surreal, disjointed scene of what looks like an American cafe! On the floor is a soul 'struggling to be free'. A soul which Manny will want to help his business. Take out your scythe from your inventory and use it on the person wrapped up.
Cue cutscene...
'You'll get plenty of rest this way, Mr. Martinez, and you'll be safely padded by the foam created when these two chemicals mix, like this.'
You find out his name is Bruno Martinez and his only desire is to acquire something that will help him move his legs. Manny has other ideas, and in turn only offers him a mug with the logo 'Today is the First Day of the End of your Life' on it.
Don Copal walks in on Manny's 'meeting' with Bruno and exclaims 'I gotta be a hard ass when I got lazy sickle wavers like THIS jolly boy working for me! Manny, you couldn't find a sale at a yacht club!'
Manny and Don get into a heated argument regarding the clients Manny gets his hands on, saying that they are not good enough to compete with the other travel agents at the Department of Death. Don threatens to sack Manny if he doesn't get a premium sale client on his next excursion.
'No job! No way to work off your time! Just your fancy suit and your big smile and a whole lotta time to kill!'
'Hey, who you calling scumbag? Why, I oughta --'
Manny has had enough, he fills the coffin up with a doughy chemical substance to keep Bruno quiet. He walks out of the room and starts muttering to himself. 'I'm sick of just waiting around waiting for a good lead. Like it's going to fly in here tied to a brick. It's time to take one'
Head up towards Manny's office and you see Domino Harley's office door open. Go in there and talk to him. You can ask whatever questions you want but there won't be any leading answers. He bagged himself a premium sale with a nun and all Manny has to show for his Poisoning adventures is the midget Bruno Martinez. Manny needs to find a way to get a premium sale worthy of note and fast. Head on back upstairs to the parking lot to talk to Glottis again. A note on the door says that he is at the junkyard.
Head downstairs to where you put Bruno. This time, you find a one eyed pink ogre walking on all fours. He seems to be the janitor who is a bit frustrated with beer bottles being put in the messaging tubes. He left the door to the right of the double doors open though so go into there. You find out that it is the communications hub for the Department of Death. Pick up the fire extinguisher on the wall. None of the items in your inventory at this stage can be used to open the door to get to Domino's messaging tube. You have to find a key to open the door. Go out of the room and across the hallway where Bruno is being kept. You have the two types of packaging chemicals in tubes that you can use that combine to make a foamy substance.You can fill up the non-blown up balloon with this substance. Go back to Manny's office now and put this newly filled balloon into message pipes. You will need to put two filled balloons down the pipes in order for this to work. You can also put loaves of bread down the pipes but this will do nothing to the mechanism. Once the filled balloons have reacted with the mechanism, the chemical substance fills the inside of the mechanism with foam. Go down to the vault now. You will find the maintenance worker fixing the system. Lock the open door so that once the maintenance man is finished fixing the system, the vault remains open when he shuts the door behind him. Before you head back into the vault, holepunch (found on Eva's desk) one of your cards from the pack you picked up in Manny's office. Once you have done this, head back into the vault and use the card on the red tube. Manny has found the perfect premium sale client needed to be noticed within the firm.
Cutscene to Glottis on top of a excessively pimped out company car. Manny and Glottis go to find their new client - Meche Colomar. However, she does not pass the test to get a ride on Number Nine. Head out of Manny's office and head towards Eva at reception.
You will be confronted by Don and Domino regarding how Manny tried to sabotage a client for his own benefit. You will end up being thrown in the office at the parking lot where you originally found Glottis. Knock on the door and an shadowed individual asks 'So, Manuel, have you thought about what you have done?' Keep asking this guard questions until you prove that you want to blow the identity of the DOD out of the water for its crooked nature. You find out that he is called Salvador and that he works for the LSA, otherwise known as the Lost Souls Alliance. He shows him around their miniature base underground. Along with finding out Eva works for the LSA, Manny is told that the LSA believes that the DOD are taking naive souls away from their rightful destinies and leaving them with nothing more than to go on a long and treacherous trail.
In time, after talking to both Salvador and Eva, Manny finds out that they need carrier pigeons, pigeons that you will find on the roof of the DOD (accessible if you climb up the long draping line of ties down the side alley). This is where your bread will come in particularly handy. If you haven't already picked up a loaf of bread, then you can collect it from the stall next to the mime / clown. You need to find a bowl or something to put the bread in to as well.
Salvador is very grateful to Manny for getting these carrier pigeon eggs for him. He calls them 'shimmering wings of justice' and looks to use Manny for future work once they have their computer up and running. Talk to Eva. Remember how she needs your teeth? And remember how you picked up the gum guard from Dom's room? Go back to the garage and put the 'Fil-a-dent' that was in the coffee-esque dispenser into the mould and then put the gum guard into your mouth. Give this newly waxed filled denture to Eva so that they can access the DOD computer database.
Cutscene to Manny being escorted down the underground tunnel out of the city by Salvador that will lead you to the edge of the Petrified Forest. Your inventory now is only filled with the fire extinguisher and your scythe.
Go towards the bottom of the screen and you will find Glottis. He too has been fired from working at the DOD and he feels so disheartened about it he reaches into his chest, pulls out his heart and throws it into the forest, before ultimately collapsing in a heap. He starts snoring loudly. Go and find his heart. The first path down to the right is where you will find his heart. However, it is stuck in a spider's web and you cannot get it out by using your scythe. To the right of the spider web there is a pile of bones. Pick one up. Throw it at the spiders web. Take out your scythe and use it on the web. The bone is used in the same way string is used on a bow and arrow. The heart is released from the web. Go and find the heart and give it back to Gladdis.
------------------------
Cutscene to Don talking to a certain Mr. LeMans saying how he will hope to find the missing woman. During this cutscene, Mr. LeMans confirms that the DOD has had a severe sense of favoritism and corruption. At the end of the scene, LeMans sprouts Domino with a allotment's worth of marigolds.
------------------------
Head to the car which Glottis is driving and go down the path to the middle right of the screen. To drive the car, use the directional keys. You reach some sort of scientific lab where there is a mechanism sucking the marrow out of the trees. If you turn the generator off, Glottis can put weights on the tree to help it be pulled down so it can make a 'Bone Wagon'. However, no matter how many weights Glottis puts on the tree, it doesn't budge. You have to put the wheelbarrow on the wires so that he puts a weight on each time.
The first wire on the left controls the top left part of the mechanism.
The second wire across controls the bottom left part of the mechanism
The third wire across controls the top right part of the mechanism
The fourth wire across controls the bottom right part of the mechanism
Now this took a while for me to figure out. I tried counter acting each side with one another by moving the wheelbarrow onto another wire whilst Glottis was putting weights on the tree but none of this worked for me. So this is the way you sort it out.
Make sure that the left side works as one, and that the right side works as one. To do this you will have to go over the individual wires with the wheelbarrow until this happens After you have done this, turn the generator off. Whilst Glottis goes up to sort out the weights, turn the generator back on. He will spin around on the wheel holding on for dear life but will aid the tree in falling down! Now you have an even more elaborate car than before.
Once you have done this, head over to where the sign was next to where Glottis was lying down before. Pick up the sign and take it to the clearing where there were the twelve entrances under the tree trunks (down the path on the left). Now this bit can be quite annoying and frustrating if you don't know how to do it! At first, I put the sign post in the middle of the clearing and went to each tree trunk it pointed to, taking the sign post with me each time. This just made me go round in circles. In time, I found the way to do it was to put the signpost in the middle of the clearing, run over it with the Bone Wagon, then drive the Bone Wagon out of clearing so that it is just Manny and the sign post there. Pick up the sign post and place it in the middle of the clearing. Once it points to somewhere else in the clearing, only go a few steps in that direction before placing it down on the ground again. This causes the earth to shake and the trap door to a secret passage to unveil itself.
Go down the stairwell into the secret passage. Look at the sign at the bottom right of the screen and it will say the following:
'They'll tear you apart, bone by bone...
and build with you a human throne...
Their buck-toothed king will sit upon
What once was you, but now is gone.
This key unlocks the gates of hell,
Steady traveler, use it well!'
Pick up the red key above the sign. If you follow the pathway up then you will reach the stretch of land in front of where the flaming beavers are situated. The key opens the lock to the left of this entrance. You will need to get rid of all the beavers in the Demon Beaver hole before opening this lock though. There are only three beavers you have to take care of. To do this, throw a bone into the tar pool (which you can get to down the path on the left as you enter the cave). As soon as you throw the bone, open up your inventory and change to the fire extinguisher and hold down U in the same direction you threw the bone. The beaver should be extinguished before it hits the tar. Repeat 3 times until there are no more beavers to take care of. Now open the lock with the key you recently picked up.
Upon arriving in Rubacava, head to your right into the fog and mist. Keep on walking until you fall off the cliff and into the water. A captain picks you up and drops you off back where you were so there's no worry of Manny dying at all. He catches a glimpse of the Bone Wagon and goes to have a closer look at it. It turns out he is Dockmaster Velasco. Head up to the cafe. Here you will find Celso Flores sweeping the floor. Not much comes from the conversation other than that his wife is missing and that he has not seen Mercedes Colomar come through the town. If you check your inventory now, you only have your scythe and the photo of Celso's wife. There is a door on the balcony above the cafe which you will need to get into somehow but at the moment you cannot do anything.
Go back to talk to Dockmaster Velasco and show him the picture of Celso's wife. He says that she sailed out of dock 6 weeks ago with an acquaintance. Go back to Celso and break the news to him. Use the captain's log book that Velasco gave to you to show him that this is the case. Celso leaves the cafe, leaving Manny the job of cleaner for the time being...
------------------------
ONE YEAR LATER....
Manny is now boss of the cafe, and is on the balcony above the cafe which we saw earlier. If you go in through the door, you enter Manny's office. On the main desk is the roulette controller. You can change the result of the roulette table by pressing 'U'. Double click U so that it changes the result last minute and this frustrates a policeman and forces him to leave. Pick up the letter on the far table. You find it is a letter written by Salvador, the head of the LSA, informing Manny that the carrier pigeons have hatched and that he hopes to hear of good news regarding the Mercedes Colomar case.
Head on downstairs to talk to Lupe and down another set of stairs to talk to Glottis (who is now playing the piano). They both think (Lupe less so) that tonight is the night that Mercedes Colomar will walk into their lives, a year after their search began. Go into the back room where the betting tables are. Before doing this, walk behind the bar and pick up the bottle of liqueur on the side.
Head back outside and down the staircase where before you were met by fog. You are now met by a moonshine drenched balcony with a silhouetted figure resting on the rails. It turns out to be Meche (Mercedes) speaking through a medium of a bird. She sails away a cruise liner no matter how hard Manny tries to stop her. Dockmaster Velasco fishes Manny out the water yet again. He explains how it will be near on impossible for Manny to get to the destination that Meche is heading without doing several things so that he can board Velasco's ship, the Limbo. Manny must:
1) Find Sea Bee tools for Glottis so that he can work in the engine room
2) Find Naranja - manager of the on board restaurant The Galley
3) Get a Maritime Union Card
Head to the left down the path and then take another left until you reach the train depot. Pull the lever to extend the folding bridge. Go upstairs and you come to an instersection. To the left is a big crowd who is watching a cat race. Manny doesn't want to go near crowds or cats so you can't go down there. Straight ahead is a museum exhibit of a giant multi-coloured cat. There is an open door to your right. Head out there and pick up the can opener above the giant cans of cat food. Use the can opener on the single cat food can.
Go down the path at 10 o'clock to you on the screen. Down that path you will find several Sea Bees. Manny discovers that they think the whole city is crooked. You can't get any tools off of them though as they sold them to feed their families. So you need to find another way of acquiring these tools. A path can be found to the right of the bees. However, at the moment, the lighthouse at the end of this path is locked.
So head back to where the bees are and there is a path towards Blue Cashet. To the left there is a door with an orange light on it. Enter it and once you reach the top, carry on up the stairs on your left and there is a shortcut back to Manny's cafe.
On your right however is another section of Rubacava. You find out it is the crematorium with the coroner, Membrillo. Go upstairs and head into the second doorway. You will find a reward poster regarding cargo missing from dockyard with a suitcase with the initials H.L. on it, as well as a door that only Police Chief Bogan can open.
So here ends Part 1 of the Grim Fandango walkthrough. Part 2 will be up shortly to discuss how to get all three items Manny needs to sail on Velasco's ship, the 'Limbo', as well as the rest of the game! Hope you have found this walkthrough helpful so far and I look forward to completing the game in the near future. See you on the other side!
Jonathan Whitehead
No comments:
Post a Comment