Deadly Premonition’s great characters and crazy story line make it a great game worth playing, the problem is that it isn’t very fun to play. If you’re willing to look past the lame combat and bad controls you will see a game brimming with charm and wackiness that makes the whole thing worth while.
• Developer: Access Games
• Publisher: Rising Star Games
• Reviewed on: PlayStation 3
• Release Date: Available Now
If you are coming into this review having already played the original release of Deadly Premonition which was released on the Xbox 360 back in 2010 you might want to stop right here. The updates and changes made in The Director’s Cut are neither substantial or big enough of improvements to warrant another purchase. The graphical improvements make the game look a little better, but the “new graphics” also make the frame rate worse. The new story bits are ones you could sum up in a sentence or two and would only appeal to die hard fans. The best changes are the updated controls, but even then they aren’t up to snuff compared to modern, tighter control schemes. The Director’s Cut is only available on the PS3, but I did not get the chance to try the new additions of 3D support or the Move controls, so I can not comment on those.
That being said, if you have not played Deadly Premonition you really should. I won’t talk a lot about the story because I don’t want to spoil anything so you are safe to keep reading. You play the role of FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan who is assigned to investigate a murder that occurred in the sleepy small town of Greenvale. The murder seems to be related to York’s previous cases which is why he being called in to assist in what seems like a bizarre homicide investigation The story revolves around Agent York working with the local police department to try and catch the killer and uncover the mystery as to why this has been happening. The story is a pretty standard “who done it” but the twists and appropriately uneven tone presented throughout makes it far more interesting. The residents of Greenvale are all fairly standard character archetypes but with enough of a spin to make them fit in with the weird story and somewhat unsettling environment. York himself is a pretty great character and his monologues allow you to better understand his thoughts on the investigation as well as get some interesting back story on him. York can be a pretty goofy guy at times and when paired with some of the supporting characters quite a few funny scenes happen. The story, characters, and tone is what you will get the most out of in Deadly Premonition and once the credits rolled I felt it was well worth the price of admission.
How delicious is that sandwich? Play the game to find out!
The actual gameplay of Deadly Premonition is a survival horror game with open world elements. The combat is 3rd person shooting like in Resident Evil 4. Actually the combat feels a lot like Resident Evil 4 in that it is dated and clunky. You plant your feet when you aim so you can’t move around which is pretty bad in 2013. The enemies can be bullet sponges, but thankfully the combat isn’t very hard. The actual aiming feels either too loose or too stiff depending on the weapon you are using. The shooting is quite a mess, but I never found it particularly challenging and died very few times throughout the game. You can freely explore Greenvale in a traditional open world style. Missions will take place in various locations and there are collectibles and side quests spread out through the world The driving is pretty bland and slow. Navigating the map is way more of a pain than it should be. I also found myself getting stuck on the geometry many times while driving. The physics also freaked out on me a couple of times resulting in my car bouncing along the road, nothing game breaking however. The townsfolk of Greenvale have plenty of side quests to keep you busy throughout the game, but can only be accessed at certain times in the day and during certain chapters. The rewards are usually pretty good and some rewards upgrade your guns and vehicles to make using them a lot easier. The side missions have pretty good setups and add back story to whoever the quest giver is or to Greenvale in general, so if you are into getting every bit of story out of games you will not be disappointed. Not all of the side quests are winners, but I felt compelled to do quite a few of them as most of them were fun and rewarding.
The absolutely weakest parts of the game are the quick time events. For something called a quick time event they feel like the slowest part of the game. Not only do you sometimes have to shake the the analog stick awkwardly to escape in a chase sequence but the animations do not match with what you are doing. It seems like every quick time event is just an opportunity to show how slow Agent York could be at running or climbing up on a ledge. The quick times events are also used to do tasks games normally don’t require from you. Many times in the game you have to complete awkward quick time events to run away from bad guys or climb up on incredibly small ledges. The quick time events don’t fit and are so poorly done you have to wonder what was the point in the first place.
If you are looking for good shooter, Deadly Premonition is not for you
Graphically the game looks pretty bad. Flat textures, weird animations, and an inconsistent but playable frame rate may put some people off. Some of the character models look alright though. The poor frame rate is better when you are inside buildings but even then it can be pretty noticeable. The voice acting is pretty cheesy but considering the dialog coming out of these characters mouths it fits perfectly. The sound effects are pretty bad in the way that everything sounds super cheap and incredibly fake. It seems like developers wanted these over the top sounds to fit with the rest of the game, but in the end they just become annoying. The graphical and sound presentation from Deadly Premonition are certainly not the weakest parts of the game however.
Despite all the things Deadly Premonition had going against it, I really loved playing it. Greenvale was a cool place to visit and it’s residents made it feel alive and fun. There frankly aren’t enough murder mystery video games and while Deadly Premonition’s story might be completely crazy, the plot did sink its teeth into me pretty good. If you haven’t already played Deadly Premonition this version is pretty good compared to the original Xbox 360 version, pros and cons considered. Deadly Premonition is a pretty good example of an “unique experience” that wouldn’t really work on any other medium. Don’t let the graphics, controls, and mechanics get in your way. It’s a really neat game that deserved a better re-release than The Director’s Cut delivers, but if you have never played Deadly Premonition before this version is going to be perfectly fine for you. It really is a testament to how great the characters, tone, and story is, that despite all of it’s issues Deadly Premonition can still be a recommendable game. Isn’t that right, Zach?
