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IGN Review of Deadly Premonition
Deadly Premonition is the definition of a system seller. Once you play it, you'll want to go sell your system. That may seem like a harsh statement, but it's been a long time since I've played any boxed retail game on any system that feels this amateurish.
If Deadly Premonition were to release eight years ago, we'd probably be hailing it as the Shenmue-killer. It's got an entire city to explore, citizens to talk to and side-quests to find all tucked inside a survival horror package. We of course would have been deluding ourselves. Deadly Premonition isn't just outdated in its look. It's fundamentally bad.
Where to begin? I've been following Deadly Premonition with interest for ages, ever since a wacky trailer was released at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007. It looked like a Twin Peaks knock-off, and when I later learned it would be a survival-horror game I was intrigued. I don't think the final product could be any more disappointing.
From there the investigation will begin. You'll be introduced to Greenvale's quirky inhabitants. You'll wonder why Agent York has an imaginary friend named Zach that he talks to. You'll search for clues and canvas the town, taking part in mini-games like car races or fishing to pass the time. Actually, you'll probably turn the game off before you get that far.
Deadly Premonition gives about the worst first impression a game ever could. The controls are a bad version of what you get in Resident Evil -- there is no free camera movement and you can't move while using weapons or reloading. The battle chatter -- particularly that of the enemies as they die -- is downright awful. The graphics make this title look like a bad PS2 game.
Things don't get much better, even if you can convince yourself that the story and quirky sense of humor the game offers are enough to make up for all of the technical shortcomings. The pacing is more than enough of an excuse to give up on Deadly Premonition. Driving from one end of the town to the other -- as you'll be required to do repeatedly -- is painfully slow, as is the transition from one screen to the next. And the game will make that slow transition every time you pick up an object.
Every battle sequence feels like it is simply cut and pasted from the one prior, with only a few boss fights and poor quick-time event button prompts to break up the monotony. The game will easily last you over 20 hours, but it feels like very little of that time is spent doing anything poignant.
There are a few bright spots in this mess. The goofy characters and twisted story are pretty intriguing. There are a few game mechanics -- such as a beard that grows on Agent York if you fail to shave it or flies that begin to hover around you if you don't change suits often enough -- that give Deadly Premonition some charm. The voice acting during conversations isn't so bad either, which is surprising given how awful the sound effects are and how often the small set of "moody" songs repeat over and over and over. That's not even to mention the near-broken directional audio. Playing this in 5.1 surround sound is a joke.
Deadly Premonition isn't very difficult, but it should be mentioned that it is possible to find yourself stuck in a situation with no recourse. Missions can't be restarted (they can be replayed, but it kicks you back to the main menu after the replay rather than allowing you to continue on) and the game only allows a single save file. If you happen upon a tough boss battle -- which will only be tough because of how poorly the game controls -- and find yourself low on health and ammo, you may just have to give up and start over. Or quit.
©2010-02-22, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
If Deadly Premonition were to release eight years ago, we'd probably be hailing it as the Shenmue-killer. It's got an entire city to explore, citizens to talk to and side-quests to find all tucked inside a survival horror package. We of course would have been deluding ourselves. Deadly Premonition isn't just outdated in its look. It's fundamentally bad.
Where to begin? I've been following Deadly Premonition with interest for ages, ever since a wacky trailer was released at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007. It looked like a Twin Peaks knock-off, and when I later learned it would be a survival-horror game I was intrigued. I don't think the final product could be any more disappointing.
From there the investigation will begin. You'll be introduced to Greenvale's quirky inhabitants. You'll wonder why Agent York has an imaginary friend named Zach that he talks to. You'll search for clues and canvas the town, taking part in mini-games like car races or fishing to pass the time. Actually, you'll probably turn the game off before you get that far.
Deadly Premonition gives about the worst first impression a game ever could. The controls are a bad version of what you get in Resident Evil -- there is no free camera movement and you can't move while using weapons or reloading. The battle chatter -- particularly that of the enemies as they die -- is downright awful. The graphics make this title look like a bad PS2 game.
Things don't get much better, even if you can convince yourself that the story and quirky sense of humor the game offers are enough to make up for all of the technical shortcomings. The pacing is more than enough of an excuse to give up on Deadly Premonition. Driving from one end of the town to the other -- as you'll be required to do repeatedly -- is painfully slow, as is the transition from one screen to the next. And the game will make that slow transition every time you pick up an object.
Every battle sequence feels like it is simply cut and pasted from the one prior, with only a few boss fights and poor quick-time event button prompts to break up the monotony. The game will easily last you over 20 hours, but it feels like very little of that time is spent doing anything poignant.
There are a few bright spots in this mess. The goofy characters and twisted story are pretty intriguing. There are a few game mechanics -- such as a beard that grows on Agent York if you fail to shave it or flies that begin to hover around you if you don't change suits often enough -- that give Deadly Premonition some charm. The voice acting during conversations isn't so bad either, which is surprising given how awful the sound effects are and how often the small set of "moody" songs repeat over and over and over. That's not even to mention the near-broken directional audio. Playing this in 5.1 surround sound is a joke.
Deadly Premonition isn't very difficult, but it should be mentioned that it is possible to find yourself stuck in a situation with no recourse. Missions can't be restarted (they can be replayed, but it kicks you back to the main menu after the replay rather than allowing you to continue on) and the game only allows a single save file. If you happen upon a tough boss battle -- which will only be tough because of how poorly the game controls -- and find yourself low on health and ammo, you may just have to give up and start over. Or quit.
©2010-02-22, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved