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Horsin’ Around with Deadly Premonition

I first saw some cutscene footage from Deadly Premonition via some links on Twitter from Shane Bettenhausen - a long-time writer for EGM and 1UP who now works at the company that localized the game. Judging by the baffling cinemas and overly-enthusiastic Tweeting by Mr. Bettenhausen and some other notable game journos, I just wrote the game off as a "so bad it's good" horror game. It wasn't until a few reviews popped up here and there that I picked up on the game's "quirky" slant - comparisons to cult classic Twin Peaks abounded, and my interest grew. It wasn't until I saw Deadly Premonition get a "it's so terrible but really, actually great!" write up on Something Awful by Lowtax himself that I knew I had to have it.

In most ways this game is awful. Like, awful to the point of questioning even paying $20 for it. Load times are long, text crawls along and makes annoying "beeps" when there is no recorded dialogue. The control scheme for combat doesn't make any sense (right trigger to ready weapon, left to aim, A to fire??), and combat tools (pipes?) wear out too quickly. Most sound effects are laughable (and even inappropriate: a cat squeel for a squirrel), though the voice acting is surprisingly decent. Driving around town is next to impossible, the steering is so broken.

The prologue section wherein our hero Agent York arrives to town was super linear and visually tedious - narrow paths with wooden fences all around. I almost quit playing so I could go back to the comfortable world of Batman: Arkham Asylum (which I am playing for the first time, and yes, it's awesome). But when I emerged from the woods and found myself on the long road into town, I really realized the potential in the game (even with the scenery of PS1-grade mud textures and pixel trees).

Once in town, I slept up at the hotel and had breakfast with the "wacky" proprietress. Then I drove (more like crashed) the short distance to the Police station where I had to find keys with squirrel-shaped fobs and sort out which was a Southern Flying Squirrel so I could progress to the evidence room. It should be so terrible but I couldn't stop!

I actually think an apt comparison for this game would be Earthbound. Like Deadly Premonition, Earthbound was not a pretty game when it came out in the USA, but it's specialness was in it's tone. There is a charming Japanese-take-on-American culture here that I haven't seen since and it is funny and successfully self-aware just like Earthbound.

Anyone who really likes video games and has for a long time will find a lot to appreciate in this game. I know that I am more excited to play this than to beat Arkham Asylum. I woke up thinking about Deadly Premonition, and I've been thinking about it all day. Unlike Arkham Asylum, which is polished to a T and made to appeal to as many people as possible, what's appealing about Deadly Premonition isn't obvious. In fact, it dares you to probe its mysteries and eccentricities.

The only thing nagging me is the "what if?". Imagine if a studio like Rockstar had put their all their technology and gold into a game like this? This is THE game I wanted to play high school: a game combining the atmosphere of Silent Hill with the open-world possibilities of GTA III. If this came out for PS2, Xbox or (even better) Dreamcast, it would have been one of the best of its generation. As a 2010 game it can barely compete, but the game is so ambitious and honest in its quirkiness that I have to love it.

On a side note, I actually read on Wikipedia (snort!) that Deadly Premonition was so similar to Twin Peaks at it's E3 debut in 2007 (?!) that it was significantly delayed to find a more distinct identity. If you haven't seen Twin Peaks, I strongly reccomend you do. I think that Twin Peaks' first season (only six episodes) is fantastic - one of the best examples of what TV can achieve as a medium. It combines the supernatural and offbeat characters with soapy melodrama to be really interesting and unique. But the second season is boring and aimless enough to rival anything on TV in the 90's or 00's - with a leaden sense of confusion drowning any plot development. If you thought Lost was bad at having no purpose, Twin Peaks alredy did that twenty years earlier.

About Paul

Paul has been playing games since he cut his teeth on an old Atari 2600 in the early 1990s. He has played every console generation since, and currently jams on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and DSi. He proudly does not own a Wii, and goes back and forth on whether he'd want a gaming PC (he did his fair share of Mac gaming back in the day though). Games-wise, Paul came up in the world a pretty big JRPG nerd, but now he's mellowed plays mostly anything good or weird. He does maintain a pretty impressive collection Playstation 1-era RPGs.