I'm somewhat torn with this game. On the one hand, I find it to be a masterpiece that hasn't quite caught on with people around the globe. Despite it's US and Japanese release earlier in the year, consumers passed it by when it had enough fine with it to go with. On the other hand, I hate it because of all the bad things wrong with it that were solved years ago. But we'll get to that.
You play as "FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan (Call me York, everyone does.)" and your job is simply to go to a small town named Greenvale and help solve the murder of a young woman named Anna. Aside from just gazing and smoking (didn't I just see a chain-smoking character in Vanquish?), you find that you have a personal interest in this case. A string of other murders have occurred across the country with similar deaths. The weirdest thing about the game though, is the main character who keeps on speaking to a non-existent person named Zach who, after guessing throughout most of the game, I figured was just you. When he's not talking to Zach about the crime scene, he's talking to him about movies and his knowledge is vast. He mentions Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Deadly Spawn, Friday the 13th, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Jaws, Tremors, and practically every other movie you can think of. As if that weren't a creepy enough thing, the murderer who is killing these people while you're all jolly about great biscuits and great movies could be anyone in the town.
The biggest parts of the game are investigating and exploring some fucked-up alter-dimension with "Mysterious Shadows" that bend over backwards and keep on dashing toward you like Starkiller in The Force Unleashed. Trust me, it's weird. The control is weird as it takes a Resident Evil combat style and, just like in that series, I find holding down the right trigger, moving the analog stick, and pressing A to be just painful. Melee's fine until you realize that just a couple attacks and your weapon is useless. It's an okay combat system, but it doesn't deserve any awards.
Another thing that's simply atrocious is the camera. When on foot, like in Resident Evil 4 and 5, the camera sticks right there on your shoulder and it's a pain to handle. It gets even worse when you drive. Not only does the handling of the vehicle suck harder than anything else in the game, the camera keeps going in the other direction than the one you're turning into! Come on, even GTA III back in 2001 got the camera right and that was pretty much the first sand-box driving game. That's pathetic. Let the camera burn in hell.
But back on topic! While in Greenvale and not in "Creepy Shit Land" as I like to call it, there's some things you can do in the open-world that few other games have ever tried. For instance, Agent York requires food and sleep which is something I can find is only required in The Sims and it's spin-off and Fallout New Vegas' Hardcore Mode. Along with that, you must also change outfits everyday and send them to the dry cleaners or the people around town will dislike you and your stench. What my favorite thing is is the beard. You can actually grow a beard in real time. No, I'm not kidding. You can shave daily like a normal person if you wish. There's also a bunch of collectors cards that you can just grab as the map tells you where they all are. While I'm on that topic, I might want to mention that the map sucks as well. Really? Didn't we salve that issue 6 years ago with GTA: San Andreas? That let you see the ENTIRE game world in one screen and let you place waypoint markers, neither of which this game has. Yet once again, let the map burn in hell. Anyway, there's more actions you can perform and even more open up to you after the first day and I feel that all of this obsessive detail makes me fit more into the world than many games I've played in my life, though all of those other stupid issues pull me out entirely.
Other than that, there isn't much more to the gameplay but the presentation is something that I have to mention, procedure or not. Aside from the aforementioned map and camera problems, I find that everything else is going wrong here as well. The animations are laughable, the graphics would've fit in in around 2008 for the 360, character models aren't all that intricate, water is a bunch of repeated blue tiles, voice acting is mediocre, there's only two different pieces of music (which play whenever they feel like it), and I found the creepiest thing of all on top of our already creepy main character: his smile. Whenever I saw that smile, I thought I should sleep with the light on. Seriously, it's so damn creepy! He looks like a pedophile or something. Plus, there's captioning issues, lip-synchronization abominations, and much much more.
It sound bad for this game, sure, but I guarantee you that anyone who likes a good creepy atmosphere and has a deep love of films is sure to love this. Thankfully, I have both traits and I found this to at least be worth my time. For others, I wouldn't recommend it and I have a give it a score that isn't all that great.
Score: 6.0
Great atmosphere and obsessive detail to the world, but feels unfinished in too many departments to recommend to everyone.
Plenty of games have made a name for themselves as being proud of the fact they’re not to everyone’s taste over the years.
I mean I can do without nintendo games if given the choice. They are not nearly as mature rated as the average.
Yeah but I use my Switch OLED primarily for anime booba style games (visual novels and JRPG's) and ultra violent FPS's. Far from kid friendly, lol
The problem with that line of though is that games have never been as much "for everyone" as in 2025.
The only thing that's not for everyone in gaming lately is the gatekeeping. Devs will try to appeal to as many people as they can, but if you dare have your own tastes and prefer something a bit more obscure, then you have "L takes" because at the moment, popular opinion equals right opinion.
So devs should simply own the fact they water down their games and go Hollywood to please everybody. Then indies will go back to being trendsetters that are different from AAAs, instead of being roguelike and gacha copycats.
Okay, but "games I'm not meant to love" means I won't play them.
Games are for fun. They're their own art, it's a disservice to reduce them to interactive stories. You can focus on making your audience entertained on a positive way and still stand out.
No game is for everyone. Some games are more mainstream or casual friendly but there is always someone who won’t like it. Same with anything else
TNS: "This is a list of five terrifying games that have all been inspired by the Silent Hill franchise in one way or another."
Deadly Premonition is a weird, weird cocktail that doesn't go down smooth for everyone, but it's still absolutely worth sampling.
It’s sooooo janky but the story is so good and the agent is so quirky I loved it thouroughly, the story is that good that you can actually make it through all of its jankiness and issues .
It’s a diamond in the rough and rough is saying lighly.
This game deserves a remake out of any game I can think of .
If they fixed the combat ,driving and movement this would be one of my favorite games all time and it already is in a way.
The first time I turned on my flashlight was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in a game. His suit just sort of lights up. There's no physical flashlight in his hand--hilarious. It's also the only game I've played to truly capture the delightfull quirkiness of Twin Peaks. I'm with you on how much I like this game. Despite all of its flaws, it's a genuinely fun experience. "My coffee warned me about it," is probably my favorite line of all time in any video game.
I still haven't played the sequel, but I will some day.
I enjoyed this back during ps3 days. I'd buy it again if they re released it fixed up a little. I had fun with it.
