Review: American McGee's Grimm

A darkly humorous take on classic fairy tales, complete with blood-spewing whales, wolf chunks, and pee.

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I've told the REAL tale of Cinderella and Pocahontas to some of my friends and they just called me a sicko.

I still think Penny Arcades version of American Mcgee's Strawberry Shortcake would take off though.

I remember being told the morbid version of Little Red Ridinghood as a small child. I probably didn't understand it, but on reflection, it makes sense to why I'm so messed up now.

I like the idea of this game and it sounds like fun. Might have a look into it.

Also: In before Necrowanson.

Awful! Just awful!

If you think American McGee's last game "Bad Day L.A." was bad. Avoid Grimm at all costs.

The game idea sounds good, but the execution is just horrible. Bad voice acting (I think one guy speaks all roles.), ugly graphics, bad writing. Jokes are stupid and not funny.

Hey at least you can play the first episode for free *shudder*

The_root_of_all_evil:
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I still think Penny Arcades version of American Mcgee's Strawberry Shortcake would take off though.

If they don't get sued... (I'd still buy it though)

I have a free 6-month gametap subscription to Gametap from the Coke Rewards program, so I gave these games a shot. I thought they were fun once or twice, and playing some of the fairy tales I had never heard of was interesting, but I got bored quickly. You can die by falling in water, but there's no penalty for it, so it really just becomes an annoying waste of time to even put the water in. The voice acting was bearable for me, but I have learned to tune out non-sensical quips in the middle of gameplay. I will admit to getting tired of hearing the line "romping, stomping, butt-kickin goooood" very quickly. The game does remind me of Katamari Damacy, but it's nowhere near as challenging or addicting. My biggest problem was the fact that the loading screens all mention special power-ups like super buttstomp or flaming pee, but I never once found a single power-up over the course of playing five episodes. Overall, I think the game is at the level of a good online flash game.

I played episode one and didn't really find it all that entertaining. The story was "A boy learns what fear is" which maybe is a bad episode to start with since it's one I don't think many are familiar with it. The basic problem, to me, was that the "happy" version of the story is actually pretty macabre. For instance it has a mass hanging scene. Meanwhile when Grimm finishes his work it's only moderately darker than the original, which I've just looked up on wikipedia. The original is full of horrifying events involving the undead and beating old men for treasure. It has some pretty good examples of situations that actually have some dark comedy in them.

One man advises him to stay the night beneath a gallows, where seven hanged men were still hanging. He does so, and sets a fire. When the hanged bodies shake in the wind, he thinks they must be cold, so he cuts them down. Their clothing catches on fire, and the boy, annoyed at their carelessness, hangs them back up again.

American McGee's Grimm, however, seems content to vomit on everything and call it a day.