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Tie: Best Adventure: Sanitarium and Grim Fandango
Sanitarium
Adventure games continued their remarkable renaissance in 1998 with a number of stellar releases. Two in particular stood out in our minds, and we liked them both so much that we ultimately did not have the heart to pick one over the other. So this year's Adventure Game of the Year is a tie.
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Sanitarium, from tiny DreamForge Intertainment, came from out of nowhere to provide the creepiest, most compelling, and best-told story of the year, bar none. Starting from an utter cliche of a plotline - you wake up and you don't know who or where you are - Sanitarium builds in intensity until you simply cannot stop playing.
Filled with moments that are both terrifying and moving, Sanitarium gets under your skin like few games ever have.
Grim Fandango
For the second year in a row, following The Curse of Monkey Island, LucasArts has struck gold in the adventure-game genre. Grim Fandango, however, is more than just another adventure game. It's a groundbreaking, utterly original masterpiece, combining first-rate storytelling, unforgettable 3D graphics, and the biting humor for which LucasArts adventures are so well known. In an industry overloaded with brain-dead copycat games, Grim Fandango positively bursts with creative energy, melding Mexican Day of the Dead folklore with '50s film noir. Manny Calavera may be just another dead guy, but in LucasArts' able hands, the story of this dead guy was one of the gaming highlights of this or any other year.
Other Finalists: Redguard, Bethesda; King's Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity, Sierra Studios; Blackstone Chronicles, Legend/Red Orb
Next: Role-playing Game of the Year
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