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    Deadly Premonition

    Game » consists of 11 releases. Released Feb 23, 2010

    An open-world action-adventure game following an eccentric FBI agent as he investigates a series of bizarre murders in the small rural town of Greenvale.

    sixtyxcelph's Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut (PlayStation 3) review

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    Deeply Flawed, but Still Beloved

    With an affable FBI agent who utilizes bizarre techniques to practically divine clues, an unsettling murder of a teenage girl in a rural Northwest town, a peculiar appreciation for coffee, and unusual townsfolk that includes an alternate version of the Log Lady, there is obvious inspiration from Twin Peaks in Deadly Premonition. That was then filtered through Japan. Your character, FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan, is headed to Greenvale, a small town with a recent tragedy: a young woman has been murdered. Not normally an FBI matter, but York has a hunch this is connected to a series of cases he’s been working on. Several women across the US have been murdered, each unconnected except for a red seed found on the woman’s body each time. On his way into town, someone in a red raincoat holding an axe suddenly appears and York veers to the side, wrecking his car in the process. After crawling from the wreckage, he finds himself surrounded by purple fog, red vines, and bizarre zombie-like creatures literally bending over backwards trying to kill him. Thus begins a tale of secrets and murder.

    The writing is the centerpiece for this game. Greenvale is a town full of quirky characters and bizarre dialogue. There’s Keith, a man with a deep appreciation of classic rock and roll, his somewhat older wife Lily who manipulates you into organizing her store room, and their creepy twin boys Isaach and Isaiah. There’s Harry, the rich old man who’s always wearing a gas mask, and his assistant Michael, who speaks only in rhyme. Even your character is quite strange. York is constantly talking, out loud, to an unknown, unseen character named Zach. The case takes you to a variety of strange locales and requires you to do some strange things, like fishing at the waterfall for missing documents. The single word to describe Deadly Premonition is quirky, but it does so in a way that can be very charming.

    But, there are two sides of Deadly Premonition: enjoying the writing and playing the game, and the latter is not a highlight. One of the biggest problems is the large open world; it’s much bigger than it needs to be. There are several interesting side quests, like fishing and card collecting, but not nearly enough to justify the size of the map. There are humorous monologues from York about his love of film and punk rock, but you’ll likely have heard them all long before you’re done driving. And when the driving isn’t tedious, it’s frustrating. The police cars in Deadly Premonition are slow, they handle like boats, and they make a noise that will absolutely drive you insane during long stretches, especially the siren when using the boost. There are quests to upgrade the handling, acceleration, and top speed, and you can even buy other cars eventually, but you’ll still run into invisible walls and bumps that literally send your car flying and stall your progress across the map.

    There are also combat areas peppered throughout the story. From time-to-time, York will find himself transported to alternate, viney locations to defend himself from shambling, other-worldly beings, simply called Shadows, while searching for clues. Unfortunately, the combat is clunky and boring. Guns and melee weapons are aimed from the third person perspective and when using guns you can not move and shoot; you are rooted to the spot when aiming. The variety of melee weapons allow for movement, but those will break after a few uses and be tossed aside. There is a gun with unlimited ammo that you will always have, so you won’t be defenseless, but it’s weak and will need reloading often. I recommend completing side quests early on to unlock the more powerful unlimited ammo/durability weapons. But, none of this makes the combat difficult or even frustrating, just tedious. You can revisit areas for bonus weapons and collectables after completing them, but this largely consisted of me running past enemies and through doors beyond their reach rather than engaging them.

    There are games that are incredibly divisive. There are games that require you to wrestle with shoddy controls in order to enjoy the good parts. There are games with quirky but lovable characters. There are games that are just plain weird. Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut for the Playstation 3 is all of these things. I love this game, but it is despite the flaws in gameplay and design. Textures and models are ugly, the sound design is awful, particularly for weapons and vehicles, driving and combat ranges from pointless to boring, and there’s not enough to do in this open world. But, there’s an undeniable charm to the characters that kept me playing beyond the credits to finish every side quest. I can not recommend this game to everyone. Frankly, I can’t recommend this game to most people. But if you’re willing to trudge through some tedium, there are absolutely things to be enjoyed.

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