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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Some of y'all have probably read me talk about and generally be very praising of this game on GAF over the year(s), which might sound surprising cause if you look at the games meta-scores, it's sitting in the 60's, which usually means an average or below average game. But I genuinely believe Deadly Premonition might be one of the most ambitious titles of all time, as it does things even modern AAA games can't do properly these days with their hundreds of millions in budgets. And Deadly Premonition did all this as a game that launched for the low-budget $19.99 price.
The quickest way I can entice some of you into checking it out? "It's an unofficial Twin Peaks game". The 'young girl murder setting off the story' setup, small town vibes, quirky cast of characters and the rogue-ish outsider FBI investigator with a love of coffe are all plot points ripped directly off of the show and the original character model for the main character looked closer to a handsome Kyle Maclachlan than the final games would, and George, a central character, looked a lot more like Harry S. Truman.
But what is Deadly Premonition? It's an open world game with a living breathing world with dozens of NPC's who have their own daily routines and patterns. They do things in the world irrespective of your involvement, including shady stuff that can lead you to hints of who the killer(s) might be if you keep a track of NPC activity either in person, or over the game's city map. The gist of the gameplay involves doing story missions like a standard third person action/adventure game, shitty combat followed by 'investigating' crime scenes and even a hearty vehicle component where you can choose between a dozen or so different cars in the game, each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. In theory, this is what Remedy planned Alan Wake to be, before they scrapped most of the games open-world concept and turned it into a linear action game, it's fully realized here in all of its zany Japanese wackiness. Hell, this game even did the "Let your beard grow out" thing half a decade before The WItcher 3 would.
And yes, wacky it is. I reckon most people here have cursory knowledge of the game through some of its dialogue, odd facial expressions etc, but don't let that fool you. Underneath the PS2-looking graphics is probably the most endearing cast of characters I've ever seen in a game. They all have their unique quirks and by the time the credits roll, you'll be familiar with all the key players and their antics by name, and you might not wanna leave the town of Greenvale. The general plot is, like I said earlier, just Twin Peaks with more super-natural combat mechanics with some really good twists and turns, and if someone hasn't played this game, I'd highly recommend avoiding over-indulging on the content online, as the mystery is a key component.
This game also has the great misfortune of some of the shittiest ports after the original Xbox 360 release back in 2010, which is one of the key contributors of why a lot of folks think "oh yeah it's that game that runs like shit", most of that was added thanks to the often-single-digit frame rate on the PS3 and Switch re-releases. They both were titled "Director's Cut" but honestly, I would not recommend either as the first version someone picks up. The PC version had a lot of work put in by Durante himself, but even then it's one of those cases where it might work for you or you might not even be able to get past the intro even with all fan-mods applied. The only real reliable way to play the game right now is either original Xbox 360 hardware, or emulation, be it the BC emulation of the X360 version on Xbox One or Series, or running the PS3 or Switch versions on their respective PC emulators. The PS3 and Steam Director's Cut versions added some extra scenes at the start and end of the game but those were deemed as non-canon by the director and removed by the time of the Switch re-release as they don't make sense with how Deadly Premonition 2's story went (and DP2 is a whole another can of worms I'm not going to talk about right now, in short, it absolutely sucks in all ways).
I know many on GAF are more fond of Japanese developers over Western developers these days, so if there's one thing I can say to convince that group to check Deadly Premonition out, is that DP is peak Japanese creativity on display. It's what happens when a developer with grand ambition tries his best to stretch out a meager budget to try and make his approximation of an open world game.
Some bonus content to round up the thread:
1. The game's original title was Rainy Woods, it was shown at TGS 2007. After this showing, the game went dark for a long while before re-emerging in 2009 and releasing in early 2010. Modifications were made to some characters and two small-people were removed and replaced with two kids. Likely because it was *WAY* too much Twin Peaks, reportedly the game's developers were contacted by the Twin Peaks license holders (the voice actor for the main character said this in an interview).
Trailer and renders of how David (York's old name) and George looked before.
2. Giant Bomb's Endurance Run playlist for the game, which was a lot of peoples, including my own, introduction to the game proper.
3. The famous F.K in the Coffee scene that's most people's go-to for the game.
4. An exhaustive video covering all the ports and re-releases of the game and how they all fucked up the original game one way or the other.
Time stamped to where the comparisons begin.
5. Some screenshots of the game by yours truly, captured on Series X on my latest playthrough. Sadly, this is an un-enhanced game, i-e no resolution boost, so it plays at 720p, however you get the added benefit of V-sync at all times, 16x anisotropic filtering and auto HDR.
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