Deadly Premonition (PS3) - Video Game Review
I have been wanting to review this game for some time, however this game has always been a bit of a quandary for me. I find the premise of this game to be fascinating, however it took me three times to actually complete it. I would equate this game to an intriguing book left on a coffee table in which I frequently kept going back to pick at. Like my review of Resident Evil, the version of this game that I played is also a "director's cut." I'll make sure to discuss the difference of the original and the director's cut.
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Deadly Premonition is a survival-horror game with open-world elements that centers on murder mystery. It was originally released on 23 February 2010 for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. It was developed by Access Games and directed/designed/written by Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro (it was also co-written by Kenji Goda). The director's cut of the game was released in 2013 for PC and PlayStation 3, while this version was also ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2019 under the name of Deadly Premonitions: Origins. In 2020, a sequel to Deadly Premonition (Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise) was released, exclusively to the Nintendo Switch. The game has received incredibly polarizing reviews that wildly range from a 10/10 rating from Destructoid to a 2/10 from IGN.
The director's cut of the game adds numerous additions to the original title that include updated controls, enhanced visuals, previous downloadable/premium content, and additional story content that frames the overall game. It's a solid amount of additional content that clearly outpaces the original.
FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan (please, call him "York," everyone else does) is dispatched to the sleepy town of Greenvale to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman. York and his imaginary friend, Zach, will have to track down the Raincoat Killer and his/her ties to mysterious red seeds that have appeared in other unrelated murders. York will get help from the town's people and sheriff's department, but everyone in the old logging town is a suspect.
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In effect, this game could be argued as "Twin Peaks: The Video Game" as there are numerous similarities between the two, although I want to clarify that the story/characters/setting are all directly distinct from the show. The strangeness of Twin Peaks is definitely present in the game though with some characters baring striking similarities. If you liked Twin Peaks, you'll love this game.
I found the main story of this game to be pretty fantastic, and it continues to not only keep this game relevant today, but even vastly makes up for the game's numerous technical failings. I spent a lot of time deducing who might be the killer and how the evidence implicated certain suspects but I ended up being surprised on numerous occasions. To be fair, this story is mainly linear (although there is some minor player agency), so York handles most of the deduction whether you can figure it out or not.
For the most part, Deadly Premonition plays similarly to Resident Evil 4 as a third-person shooter. There are numerous sections where York goes into a sort of "Profiling" mode where he examines crime scenes that become plagued with other-worldly beings (I'm just going to call them "ghosts" as York doesn't seem to actually name them anything through the game). During the profiling segments, York has access to numerous weapons to include firearms and melee weapons. The shooting is satisfactory, but hardly ideal while the melee combat is just awful. Like Resident Evil 4, York can't move and attack at the same time (although he can ready a melee weapon and move). I rarely ever used a single melee weapon in the game as it put York in unnecessary risk as most enemies are close-range combatants. Of course, York has unlimited ammo for his handgun (and ready access to ammunition for his other firearms).
3I'm not going to mince words here: Deadly Premonition is an ugly game. For a game set in the country-side, most of the natural world looks poorly textured and close-up inspections of most items just don't look good. I'll contend that the character models are pretty serviceable for a game of its age (I'd say the models are comparable to Mass Effect's). The setting rarely deviated from either "small country town" or "dark, grimy corridor" and when it did, I was typically unimpressed.
What did impress me was the use of music and the game's voice acting. The music of this game enhances the atmosphere perfectly as there's great background music for both the most foreboding and chilling of moments, as well as the most absurd and ludicrous moments. Every time "Life is Beautiful" (aka Deadly Premonition's whistle theme) played, I wanted to whistle along and knew that York was about to do something completely strange.
Speaking of York, his voice acting is fantastic. York's ambivalent nature really shines in the game and frequently had me cracking up as something horrifying might happen and he'd be so nonchalant about the whole ordeal. I specifically recall one situation where York was captured by the villain and he calmly advised them that their course of action was incorrect. York's many one-sided conversations with Zach is also hilarious as York frequently had some strange pop culture fact to discuss (the game literally opens with York telling someone over the phone about the nature behind Tom & Jerry's co-abusive relationship).
Unfortunately, like most mystery games, this one doesn't have much in regards to replayability. You are free to explore Greenvale and finish the side-quests, as well as replay any of the combat segments of the game. Furthermore, there is a "Special" mode that players can access in the main menu to check out special features like the game's soundtrack, photos, and cut-scenes. Despite all of that, there is no New Game + mode, so players should be aware of that as the game will wipe the previous save and lock the players out from the "Special" mode. I found this to be a bit of a nuisance as I unlocked an infinite flamethrower at the end of the game (via a side-quest) and would've found it more interesting to go through the game again with these weapons at the ready. At the end of the day though, I didn't find myself all that interested in returning to Greenvale anytime soon. It's a good game, but I'd wager it's a "one-and-done" kind of game.
The Best of the Best: The story of Deadly Premonition, and its murder mystery plot is fantastic.
The Worst of the Worst: The shoddy frame-rate and performance issues nearly kill the game.
The game is at least worth an attempt. I have no doubt that many will not be able to make it past the game's ugly graphics or its awful frame-rate/hitching. I definitely don't fault those that pass on this game because of that, however I think those that keep going will be pleasantly surprised with a wonderful story. This game definitely isn't perfect, but it's also not trash. Despite my misgivings, I wish we got more games like this today. There's something special about it, even if it frequently fails to stick the landing.
----------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments--------------------------------------------------
- I kind of figured Zach was more than an imaginary friend, but had no idea that York actually was Zach's alternate personality. That was a pretty interesting reveal.
- I actually thought York might be the Raincoat Killer on numerous occasions because of some of his erratic behavior.
- I loved that this game had the guts to reveal the real villain of the game almost immediately upon York's arrival to Greenvale by putting Forrest Kaysen's initials in his coffee!
- The game had me convinced that George Woodman was innocent. I thought that Emily might even be guilty, but I figured once George revealed his back that he was innocent. Little did I realize he'd go super saiyan and attack me with a giant axe...
- I loved the reveal of George Woodman, but didn't like the demonic twist of Kaysen being some kind of demon. I felt that it kind of robbed the reveal of who the Raincoat Killer was.
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