American McGee's Grimm, Episode 3
alt="Boats Light"/>This episode introduces a lot more platforming gameplay.
It's hard to imagine that the story of The Fisherman and His Wife could be made any darker than it already is. A cautionary tale against the evils of unfettered greed, it tells of a destitute fisherman who snags an enchanted fish on his line but releases the fish on the condition that it give him and his wife a luxurious palace in which to live. But the fisherman's wife is not satisfied, and orders her husband to ask the fish to upgrade the palace to a cathedral so that she can be made pope. Still wanting more, she next declares that she wants to be made "unto God" -- at this point, the fish gives her back the dirty old shack that she started out with.
The couple (she an avaricious shrew, and he a meek weakling) would appear to have gotten what they deserved, but Grimm, the ugly little dwarf who delights in bringing out the dark side of fairy tales, feels that the couple could be punished a little bit more.
alt="Pirates Dark"/>Watch sailors turn into bloodthirsty pirates. Yarr!
As in the previous episode, Little Red Riding Hood, Grimm's presence doesn't alter the story in any way so much as it simply alters the environments: His touch creates a twisted parallel universe where everything is a little bit nastier. The biggest change this time around is the beach setting with crabs, palm trees, and docks with boats that unload barrels of milk as their cargo (when Grimm touches these, they turn into barrels of rum -- naughty!).
A couple of things I'm noticing: One, the series is starting to get "gamier." I discovered a power-up sitting on the beach that gave Grimm a temporary speed boost. It was an arbitrarily placed one-off, and seemed to have no discernable purpose (in terms of being used to get through a specific puzzle or situation), but it's a sign that maybe we can look forward to a wider variety of power-ups being introduced in later episodes.
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alt="Vortex light"/>The episode's final scene is a spinning maelstrom -- bad news for those prone to motion sickness.
Second, the game would also appear to be evolving into more of a platformer, judging by the sequences that had Grimm hopping among the boats and floating crates of the beach's harbor. It occurred to me, as Grimm floated along on a piece of driftwood and did what he always does when left to his own devices (piss golden liquid in a high, strong arc in front of him), that it would be much more fun if you could actually urinate on things from afar to turn them dark. I found myself fantasizing about sending swathes of pee out into the water, spraying bushes and trees, and even targeting unsuspecting birds. Maybe this gross little game is starting to get to me...
Grimm's misogynistic ranting against the fisherman's wife (he even drops the b-bomb) and heavy-handed potshots against religion were this installment's weak points, although the characters in the cathedral transforming from saintly altar boys to red-robed maniacs -- is it just me, or was this a deliberate reference to Monty Python's "Spanish Inquisition" sketch? -- redeemed the episode.
Check back here for a look at the upcoming episodes, Puss in Boots, which will be released on Aug. 21, and The Girl Without Hands, coming on Aug. 28.
