Deadly Premonition

     Deadly Premonition isn't the best game sure, but it's got its own amount of quirks and oddities that will make you either hate it, or love it. While I was trying to think of how to describe it to a friend, I came up with

"It's Resident Evil 4, in an open-world environment, also has some not so great driving, and features a small American town filtered through the eyes of a Japanese developer. Oh and apparently it has a lot of Twin Peaks parallels." As cigarette-smoking Federal Agent Francis York Morgan, you're sent to the small town of Greenvale to investigate a murder connected to a few he has run into elsewhere. After a short conversation with his friend Zach, he then crashes his car into a forest trail and this is where the gameplay actually starts off.    
      
      Controlling like what Resident Evil 4 would have if it were on a Dreamcast, it takes a while for everything to click. It also plays a lot like a modern third person shooter during these parts except that you cannot shoot while moving.

People expecting a deep, rewarding or thrilling adventure from the combat will be sorely disappointed because it feels like it's a vehicle to get you from one story point to another. Speaking of vehicles, after your first encounter/quick time event with the Raincoat Killer, then you get out into a main road of Greenvale and meet your supporting cast Emily and George. 
                                                                                                                                                                        

         York, Emily, George and the rest of Greenvale's citizens are really a big part of what makes this game so special. What it lacks in gripping action it makes up for with a pretty cool detective story. Most if not all of the population of Greenvale are quite memorable, and you feel attached to the characters once the credits get rolling.
     
         Unfortunately yes, you do have to suffer through some pretty bad production values. While the character models look alright, some of the animations are nightmare-inducingly bad animations, the environments are terrible looking, driving is oh so tedious, you'll swear the game only has four musical pieces and near the end of the game, the weapons got so weak that it took more than two pistol clips to kill one of those evil clown zombies.  
    
      Why a good score then? It was quite the different experience, and not a bad one either. If you really need a reference point, it's Resident Evil 4, with an open world, and some not so good driving, but eventually those problems become less and less uh, problematic. With a $20 price tag, it's a pretty fun romp through a pretty out there kind of game.