Back in 2015, Grim Fandango Remastered came out, making it easier than it had been since the original version’s 1998 launch to play one of the most beloved adventure games ever made. Still, even with the attention given to the classic LucasArts launch — one as well regarded as the studio’s The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Maniac Mansion — the remaster didn’t provide players with every one of the updates they were looking for. Fortunately, almost a decade later, fans of the game have just put out a new mod that finishes remastering the remaster for free.
Grim Fandango Remastered changed the original adventure game by replacing its score with an orchestral version, adding in a new lighting system, revamped controls, updating its characters with higher resolution textures, and more. Even with this work, though, the remaster didn’t look as good as it could have, mostly because its background art was still in a lower resolution that didn’t match the updated character models’ improved fidelity.
A new mod called Grim Fandango Remastered HD looks to fix that issue. It’s described on its download page “as a combination of a mod loader and asset mod that AI upscales the original Grim Fandango assets, with 640×480 resolution and dithered 16-bit color, into high-resolution 2560×1920 assets with full 32-bit color.” The mod “tries to adhere to the tone of the original game as much as possible, while sharpening the visuals and eliminating dithering” and “is intended to be played in the original 4:3 [aspect ratio.]”
The download page mentions that there are a few caveats, including the fact that the mod currently doesn’t work on Steam Deck and only supports the Steam version of Grim Fandango Remastered. It also doesn’t upscale cutscenes or videos incorporated into level backgrounds.
You’ll need a copy of Grim Fandango Remastered to install the mod, which you can pick up on Steam right here. To get the Grim Fandango Remastered HD mod on its own, head on over here.
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