$100 of Crazy
Deadly Premonition is a bizarre title in many ways. First its price $20. Now that does not happen often. But once you look at the game in action, the price starts making (some) sense. The Graphics, voice acting, and music are just plain bad. At best, the graphics and acting seem reminiscent to the Resident Evil games on the PS2. The music is without peer and I mean that in the worst way possible. And to top it off, the gameplay and controls can be summed up by the word "clunky".
The game plays a bit like a mix between early Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4 but adds a lot of story presentation through dialog with other characters . The combat also includes the "thou shall not move and shoot at the same time" tenant. If playing a Resident Evil style adventure/horror game on the PS2 does not sound appealing, you may just want to take a pass on Deadly Premonition. Other influences include Fatal Frame (enemy design), and Twin Peaks (story and oddball characters).
The big draw and most favorable reviews seem to rely on the game's "so bad its good" feel. Well, I have never bought into that way of thinking. I am not a fan of really bad cult movies (other than " The Thing"). But survival horror is my favorite genre and for $20 I figured it was worth checking out. It certainly is worth checking out and at times its quite engaging. Unfortunately, the games flaws are so glaring, it can be hard to enjoy the gameplay. For example, the music is simply awful and they play it very loud to the point where you can not hear the dialog. But then again, the dialog is so bad you just want to skip it. Unfortunately, skipping text dialog is painful because they only let you speed it up ( Zelda style) so you have to look at it for much longer than it deserves. But if you skip the really bad dialog, how will you appreciate the "so bad its good" ascetic. Confused? Me too.
Other issues come from the bad controls. Driving a car is a mess and they make you drive far to much in the game. Part of the quests involve driving from place and its just boring. The aim controls are also a bit of a struggle but I've seen worse. I suppose it adds to the tension trying to line up all those needed head shots.
With all this negative is there anything worth playing here? In fact, there is. The thing that makes this game intriguing is its story presentation and the oddball characters. At least for a few hours the game does keep you wondering just where its going. The sound design (not the music) has good creepy moments that sustain that uneasy feeling. Some of this "creepy" feeling also comes from the bad acting and animation of the characters. Simply everything in the gameworld is so strange its hard not to feel wigged out.
Once the game opens up, the strangeness starts wearing off and the dullness of the game design starts to take over. For $20 there is a lot of game here if you can stand to play it. It also seems that the developers were not just phoning it in. There is a lot of detail and dialog in the game that make me think the developers really were trying to create an bizarre world with a great mystery. But for me, the terrible game mechanics, boring missions, and music that makes my ears bleed just wore on me after a few hours. So, in the sense that its a unique gaming experience, its worth a look. But only if you are interested in a slower paced, horror game and you enjoy things that are just plain crazy.
After playing a few more hours, I realized that I do like "crazy". I also turned the music down to a reasonable level (50%) and fixed one thing that annoyed me to no end with this game. In general, this does not change my score but I will reiterate this recommendation: If you like "crazy" than this game can be money well spent. For a measly $15 or $20 I guarantee over $100 of crazy. As far as scores, this is why I have never liked giving a number score because much like spacetime, its all relative.
