With the Deadly Premonition Endurance Runs both having reached their conclusion, I did a little thinking on a subject that I've considered before, but with Francis York Morgan's adventure in Greenvale at the front of many of our minds, it's one that's worth revisiting. Sometimes, we get so hung up on reviews, review scores and popular opinion that we end up missing out on something that's special in its own little way. Not necessarily "short bus" special, though that can sometimes be the case, but those special games that feature touches or elements that make them stand out in a good way.
Agent Francis York Morgan is one colorful dude. Deadly Premonition is one such game. It's clunky; there's no getting around that. Yet, it's not so clunky that the game becomes unplayable. Its poor enemies, overlarge world layout, too-slow cars and generally substandard graphics compared to other games of this generation don't paint a good first impression. Some users on this site were even annoyed that the game was receiving as much attention as it did under the argument that "Hey, the game obviously sucks, you idiots." Well, no one is going to mistake it for Red Dead Redemption, but why do we seem so focused on limiting ourselves to only playing the top-shelf titles with near-perfect metacritic averages? Granted, there are games out there that are unmistakably huge, smelly, godawful pieces of shit, and we'd all do well to avoid them when possible. Very few people have had the patience for something like Superman on the Nintendo 64, and the ultimate payoff for actually besting that game is minuscule.
A game doesn't necessarily need to be the best in show in order to be fun. Compared to the bottom of the gaming barrel, how bad is something like Deadly Premonition? Honestly, not very. For all of its clunkiness, the game is playable, and depending on how much clunk you're willing to put up with, the act of playing the game could conceivably be enjoyable without intention for irony. In a similar case, I enjoyed my time with Dirge of Cerberus, the Final Fantasy VII shooter for the PS2. For a shooter, the controls in the game were pretty darn clumsy. Some of the bosses were simple to fight; the final boss being no exception. For all of the flash Square Enix put into the visuals and sound, it is, compared to other games of its era, mediocre. However, despite the clunky feel to the controls and gunplay, I honestly still enjoyed playing it. But if I had heeded the advice of most reviews, I wouldn't have been compelled to give it the time of day.
Dante's Inferno may be more technically capable, but it lacks Deadly Premonition's creative heart. And while Deadly Premonition is certainly deficient in aspects of its design and presentation, there are still things about it that make it attractive. The quirky, memorable cast. The crazy plot twists. The strange, pseudo-Twin Peaks vibe that the game exuded before Alan Wake came along to do the same thing. While the crew at Access Games might lack technical prowess and can't quite reach the heights they're aiming for, they're still aiming high, and while maybe they can't reach Mars, they can at least land on the moon. In a world where larger companies spend more money to develop derivative gameplay clones with horribly generic characters and stories, Deadly Premonition goes places that others don't. Yet only those that aren't bound to the will of obtuse review score metrics or the simply curious with an extra $20 to spend are really the only ones that will ever give the game an honest shot. And really, that's the most disappointing thing about Deadly Premonition. The prejudice toward any game that isn't an immediately obvious "AAA."
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