Deadly Premonition

I've played through this game twice now and the charms of the game didn't hold up well on second playthrough. There wasn't a lot of reward for exploring this game deep. I encountered a lot of glitches and frustrations– which made this revisit even more of a chore.

I'd recommend a playthrough, though.

Deadly Premonition may come off as an inside joke on account of its shoestring budget and kooky, off-brand Twin Peaks premise. The first couple hours of gameplay do nothing to dispel that assumption, as you traipse through ridiculous cutscenes and shoot inexplicable zombies in "RE4-but-bad" action sections. But then the town opens up, you're given a car, and the game basically sets you free for most of the time. Exploring the world of Deadly Premonition would feel like a chore if it weren't for the key addition of driving everywhere, which ensures that you're always playing and not just fast-traveling from a menu. You won't find Witcher levels of sidequest depths or hidden collectibles here, but you also won't find another game that attempts to reproduce the cozy "life in a northern town" ambiance of Twin Peaks while also leaning fully into its anodyne absurdity. I don't want to imply that Deadly Premonition is solely for Twin Peaks fans, but if you can get on the wavelength of one, you can probably get on the wavelength of the other. In any case, if you want a laid-back adventure game where you can just drive around aimlessly, and the usual open-world games don't do it for you, try this with an open mind.

such a strange , long, unique game. the gameplay parts of it (shooting, driving, collecting) are a bit undeveloped and weird, but they're fun enough (but why do you have infinite ammo?) but the real seller is the story. and i usually dont care for story at all, but here its compelling and just weird enough to make you want to get the next piece of the puzzle over and over until the finale. but yeah, the finale is really fucking stupid and wacky it just becomes a bit TOO cheesy towards the end, after all the serious shit you do the finale makes it all seem like a joke (giant retard monsters etc...)

7/10

Deadly Premonition is such an underdog game. It by every considerable metric should be a failure of a game. The visuals are terrible for 2010, seventh gen standards. These would look dated on the Wii, let alone the PS3 and Xbox 360. The gameplay stutters, the AI is idiotic, the audio is mixed and mastered like crap. The game at so many fundamental angles should be a total failure.

And yet, it really is a masterpiece.

Deadly Premonition manages this balancing act of visuals that are just competent enough, gameplay that is fundamentally doable, and a legitimately A-list story with a super immersive world, that it really provides an uncanny, incredible experience. It's hilarious, it's enthralling, it's mysterious, and it's captivating, despite all the low budget gruffness and programming incompetence that went behind it. I've never played a game this deeply flawed yet this utterly brilliant in my entire life. Truly a one of a kind experience, a must play for gamers who like weirder types of games.

I can't wait to see a proper sequel to this project. DP has so much potential, and with competent visuals, a way better map (that is the worst part of the game, navigating the map is brutal), tight and modernized gameplay, and that extra coat of polish, and DP2 could be one of the best titles ever made. DP1 as it stands is a cult classic, who despite its flaws, manages to be that one in a million budget title that provides an incredible experience.

It's like a Silent Hill parody gone absolutely right and wrong at the same time. 9/10

This is basically Twin Peaks the video game, you have your main FBI agent, your quirky towns folk who run various local businesses and have odd traits, the police station folks, the flirty females and damsels in distress and you even have your log lady equivalent but now she's the pot lady. I mean this is almost Twin Peaks in heart to a tee, and quite honestly it sort of works. The games plot revolves around a mysterious ax murderer terrorizing a small northwest town in the forests and you have to find out what's going on by investigating the locals and checking out the paranormal happenings a locations. I mean the game is a mixed bag. The story is decent, the characters are actually quite memorable, the dialog is hilariously bad, and there are a number of really funny and odd moments. Plus the catchy Mario sounding whistling song.

But the gameplay and variety is just awful. The games gameplay mostly consists of driving around in a car around town and going quest to quest and doing local side tasks for the locals. The side quests in this game are basic tedious fetch quests and finding things for people or driving people around. There are some odd ones, but those are few and far between. The main story itself has some of the most tedious quests you basically are put in a building and have to clear out monsters and progress through, the combat in this game is just awful. It is so awkward and clunky feeling and the aiming is odd. Plus its so repetitive and unrewarding feeling. Every time I got to a new part of the story I just wanted to rush through the combat sections and get to the end to progress the main story and get to the more interesting segments. Plus another annoyance were the time limits, the game basically forced you to arrive at the quests within the time limit or you have to reload, it felt kind of like Dead Rising except instead of just failing you are forced to reload. Either way, most of the combat and gameplay got repetitive fast since it was so boring and poorly executed, and the game had very little enemy variety.

But that's really what this game is, a mostly story focused game with quirky characters, a mystery murder that has plenty of weird twists, an odd and bizarre World where nothing feels quite right or normal, and a main character who loves to have conversations with his double personality. So this game really isn't bad and worth playing for the story, characters, and mystery alone, but I just wish the gameplay and tedium to get to the interesting moments was less, it just feels like they added the gameplay to this as an afterthought.