The Grim Fandango follows the adventures of Manuel Manny Calavera a travel agent for the department of death. The game is split into four acts which take place on the 2nd of November spanning four consecutive years. The first act starts in El Marrow where Manny is working as a travel agent for the department of death in order to pay off some debt "to the powers that be". Manny's job involves selling his clients travel solutions in order to reach the Ninth Underworld, the packages they qualify for is dependant on how good they have been in they're previous life's. Manny is constantly getting bad clients that must make the four year journey, and is told by his boss, Don Copal that if he doesn't find some better clients he will be fired. In order to avoid losing his job Manny with help from Glottis a speed demon who Manny befriends and recruit to be his driver steals a client from his work colleague Domino Hurley, however to his surprise when he puts her details into the system she only qualifies for the four year journey, when she should have qualified for tickets on the number 9, a luxury express train which takes passengers to the Ninth Underworld in four minutes rather than four years. Manny goes to confront his boss as he believes this is a mistake and is told that it is his fault and that he is fired from his job, then he goes back to his office to find her she has gone. Manny investigates further and finds out that his boss has been denying people tickets and giving them to Hector LeMans , a boss in the criminal underworld so he can sell them on the black market at extortionate prices to those who can afford it. He also meets Salvador Sal Limones the leader of a small underground group called the Lost Souls Alliance who knows about Hector LeMans plans and recruits Manny in order to help their cause. Knowing that he is powerless to stop Hector at present he decides to try and find Mercedes on her four year journey so he can make things right. With help from Salvador Manny reaches the Petrified Forest where he meets Glottis again who has also been fired from the department of death. The first act ends with Manny arriving at the small port town of Rubacava and discovering that he has beaten her there so he decides to wait until she shows up. The second act takes place in Rubacava exactly a year after the end of the first act, the town has grown a lot in a year and Manny is now owner of a nightclub/casino. In this act Manny discovers that his old boss has been sprouted, and when Mercedes finally shows up she is instantly kidnapped by Domino, who takes her away on a boat. Manny then gets a job aboard a ship so that he can follow them. Another year passes and you move on to the third act, Manny is now captain of the ship which he got the job on at the end of the second act. In this act Manny tracks Domino to a mining plant at the edge of the earth where he and Mercedes are held hostage by Domino along with all the other clients that they have stolen tickets from. At the end of this act they escape and Domino is killed trying to stop them. Act four starts at the terminus for the number nine train. However the gatekeeper to the ninth underworld won't let them pass without their tickets believing wrongly that they had sold them. They then travel back to Rubacava and then on to El Marrow which is now fully under Hectors control and have now been renamed to Nuevo Marrow. Manny then regroups with the Lost Soul Alliance and finds out about Hectors current activity. He also discovers that Hector is not only stealing tickets but making counterfeit tickets. Manny is able to defeat Hector and then return all the tickets to their rightful owners and in return receives his own ticket. The game ends with Manny and Mercedes boarding the number nine train for their trip to the ninth underworld.
The main strengths this game has is the excellent characterisation; despite the large number of characters in the game they are all extremely well presented. The story is also very well written, this is not a game that you play through purely for the satisfaction of beating it rather it's because the story keeps you engaged and you are actually interested in what happens to these characters. Another big strength this game has is its unusual blend of styles. It has a plot and characters straight out of the film noir genre twinned with Aztec beliefs about the afterlife