American McGee's Grimm, Episode 4

Puss in Boots
8/25/2008 7:50 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

Of all the episodes of American McGee's dark fairy tale opus that have come out so far, I've clicked with this one the most. Any game that features carnivorous bunnies is OK in my book. Beyond that, the game's twisted light-to-dark imagery worked particularly well in the context of the story of Puss in Boots.

That is to say, for once I could get fully on board with the dwarf Grimm's hitherto rather petty attempts to punish the main characters of the story even more than fate already had.

For those of you whose only experience with Puss in Boots is the gallant, swashbuckling ball of cuteness from the Shrek films, the actual fairy tale paints him as a far more devious and amoral creature.

An old miller dies and his possessions are divided up amongst his three sons. The oldest one gets the mill, the middle one gets the mule, and the youngest son gets the shaft, receiving nothing but the old man's cat. Throw some boots on Puss, however, and he suddenly becomes a talking genius who masterminds a clever series of events to permanently reverse his master's fortunes.

First off, Puss catches some rabbits and presents them to the king as gifts from his master, whom he styles the "Marquis de Carabas." Then, the cat orchestrates a fake robbery to pretend that his master's clothes have been stolen so that the king gives him some princely finery to wear. Next, Puss strong-arms the local peasants into telling the king that the surrounding countryside belongs to the "Marquis," and finally, the cat tricks the owner of the local castle -- a shape-shifting ogre -- to transform himself into a mouse, which the cat promptly eats, leaving the "Marquis" free to take the castle for his own and marry the princess, who has apparently fallen in love with him in the span of an afternoon.

The story of Puss in Boots is morally ambiguous at best. The miller's son appears to live happily ever after with his smokin' hot princess wife in a giant castle with lands as far as the eye can see, despite the fact that his ill-gotten gains were won through deception and intimidation. So, although he might hate to admit it, Grimm's efforts to make the son and cat's lives a little more difficult actually paint him as the good guy.

Case in point: In the original fairy tale, Puss in Boots lies to the king by saying his master was attacked by robbers to explain how he lost his clothes (in truth, Puss just hid the nasty rags so that the king would take pity on the "Marquis" and give him some fancy new duds). After the player, as Grimm, has altered the scene by walking through it to transform the scenery from happy go-lucky to putrid and dark, bandits do actually show up and start beating the crap out of the miller's son. Serves him right...

The incident that put me firmly on Grimm's side for the rest of the episode, though, was when he helps the long-suffering bunnies -- who had been caught by the cat and were destined to be the main ingredient in the king's dinner -- to exact their revenge. At the scene's climax, Grimm butt-stomps the rabbit to turn the meek creature into a big, mean nose-twitching machine that goes on a rampage through the castle.