31 Oct, 2010
What is bad and what is good? Define good and bad for me… DO IT! I used to think I knew what they both meant, but then this game appeared in my life and I’m having to re-learn the English language.
Everything about Deadly Premonition cries out “Bad game”. The controls are iffy, the graphics are pretty terrible and various elements of the whole thing are just cheesy as anything. You think I am going to be evil to this game right? Wrong… I love it! I’ve had this game 2 days now since its UK release and both days I played it for about 6 hours because I could not bring myself to put it down – Only the eventual threat of starvation led me to turn it off.
The first thing people mention is the controls. They are odd to say the least, just forget anything you’ve ever learned about 3rd person shooter controls because these change them 100%. For instance, you shoot by holding down RT, aim with the left stick and fire by pressing A. So yeah they are weird but I saw someone say previously that “they are nothing like anything I’ve ever seen”. Ah but they are you see, remember Resident Evil? The original ones I mean? If you flash back to one of those you will see pretty much exactly the same control scheme. What they have tried to do in this game is replicate the original survival horror control scheme but in an over the shoulder shooter – a bold move but not really a bad one if I’m totally honest. The vehicle handling does suck though, no argument there.
The graphics are bad I have to admit, but then again, I really don’t care. There’s so much to this game that makes me forget that what I’m seeing isn’t all that impressive. The story is great and very mysterious, I’m truly excited to see what happens next every time I turn it off. It’s a mix between Twin Peaks, Criminal Minds, Silent Hill and Me, Myself and Irene… You’ll see, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
I love the gameplay, the switch between the Detective work and the full on horror shooter is just awesome. Reason being, it just happens for no reason and I have yet to be told what triggers it and for what purpose. It’s just random and unexpected and I adore it. Not to mention the weird Joker faced, broken back zombie things, they are terrifying to be put up against in a narrow hallway. They walk backwards toward you, bent over backwards as you fight to shoot them in the head, hopefully getting the “Nice shot” word of approval from York, the Protagonist.
Why is it cheesy? Well the background music switches from peaceful, playful whistling to 70’s cop show music and back again during cutscenes. This might be funny in itself, but when it does it while you are in a serious story segment in a morgue, it just cracks you up. You break fences and other things to claim bonuses to your Agent status, which is just ridiculous. However needless vandalism in games is never a bad thing. Each character has their own freeze frame introductory scene which is just the epitome of cheese and every character has about 4 or 5 animations total. So for instance when Handlebar Moustache Cop is angry, he flails his arms like a complete pansy kid having a tantrum but then returns to his normal stance.
So that’s all I want to say about this game because you have to experience it. Honestly, unless you’ve played it you will just be like “what do you like this game for?” Without a doubt it is the most surprisingly incredible game I have played for a while and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to laugh like a fool and then scream like a sissy.
Well that’s me decided then! We got a copy of this in at the store I work at, retailing at £24-pissing-99! I’d heard good things about it along the grapevine so I’ll definitely be picking this up.
Was going to buy this today, but neither of my town’s major game stores had it :/ Still looking forward to getting it though, even though I may have to order it online!
I’m trying to remember when the game launched over here in North America… but I picked it up, and as much as I wanted to love it (it was hilarious – the Tom & Jerry conversation had me in stitches) – I could not get into its tank-like controls. Perhaps one day I’ll give it another chance.
The phrase ‘brilliantly shit’ springs to mind.