American McGee's Grimm, Episode 1
Making fairy tales disturbing again
8/5/2008 6:58 PM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 2
Erin Bell
Status: Going over the new site with a fine-toothed comb.
That's just the beginning. You'll need to charge the Dark-o-Meter ever higher, from Stinky to Foul, Rotten, Repulsive and more, to advance all the way through the story. As he does so, Grimm will gain the ability to turn ever larger objects rotten.
From pretty village to putrid cesspit -- Grimm teaches the boy about fear.
Gameplay is more exploratory than challenging; the first episode, at least, can be described as a light platformer with a few jumps to make, some slight danger in the form of potentially falling into water or lava, but nothing frustrating or particular taxing. The entire episode can be completed in about half an hour, which looks like it's going to be the norm for the entire series.
There's plenty of juvenile grossness -- fart sound effects, the fact that Grimm's default resting position is with hands on crotch pissing a yellow arc of fluid out in front of him (thankfully, you only ever see him from the back). There is also, however, some twisted imagery that would be genuinely cruel if not for the game's angular, cartoonish graphical style (again, an homage to
Katamari Damacy), which makes it easier to watch scenes of children getting impaled on playground equipment, or criminals in gallows with platforms that crumble so that they start to hang, making choking sounds and wriggling on their ropes for the rest of the level.
If there are allegories to be found here, I think I've missed them. In fact, the game's entire introductory chapter left me confused about the game's purpose. Is
American McGee's Grimm making an artistic statement, or is it all just a gross-for-the-sake-of-being-gross piss-take? The verdict will no doubt become clearer over time, but if all if the episodes end up being hefty doses of the latter, then it could be a mighty long series.
This feature was based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Check back here for a look at the upcoming episodes,
A Boy Who Learns Fear is Little Red Riding Hood, which will be released on Aug. 7, and
The Fisherman and His Wife, which will be released on Aug. 14.
