Deadly Premonition

As a bunch of people have independently concluded this is Twin Peaks the video game. But the videogame is kind of a low grade piece of garbage. I almost leaned towards a 6 because the gameplay is so bad. But the story, the characters, and the style really put it in a class of its own. It's why it's a cult classic.

Let's start with the bad so we can end on the good. The gameplay is a weird mix of survival horror and open world. The survival horror is pretty bare bones. It has some really weak shooting (that I still enjoyed more than Alan Wake lol) with braindead enemies that you can mostly just run past in the levels. There's basic puzzles in these combat areas that someone with a lobotomy could complete (I'm not complaining cause I hate puzzles). Each location is a chance to gather clues to further the plot. Sometimes you get chased by the Raincoat Killer. These are tedious scenes where you basic jiggle the joystick back and forth to run and then have QTEs you have to hit to dodge things. The 8 times I died in the game were all during these obnoxious scenes.

Then the open world part. It's one of the most bare bones open worlds ever. You basically are tasked with driving cars that handle like absolute shit around this barebones map just to get to your next destination. And they place stuff SO fucking far away. It's incredibly tedious. Add in the fact that the game crashes sometimes I legitimately probably spent 3 hours of my 13 or so hour playtime just driving between places. Horrific.

Now, while these things made me dread actually playing the game, I was hooked with the story. It's SO reminiscent of Twin Peaks. Murder in a small town of a young girl everyone likes. You're an outsider from the FBI investigating named Francis York Morgan but everyone just calls him York. The game starts off with him talking to himself in the car about Tom and Jerry and smoking cigarettes in a very stylized way like it was shot for a film and then promptly crashes his car. Even the scene where he crashes the car is insane, he's seemingly accelerating through the forest for a while and THEN rolls the car and crashes it.

Everything is stylized but York and the murders are the main focal points. York has many idiosyncracies but the most notable is the fact that he has an imaginary friend named Zach that he communicates with continuously. That and he seems to be linked to some alternate reality. The murders are all cabal affairs with lots of symbolism.

The story is great for its twists and turns but what I think really sets it apart is its heart. Each of the characters is fleshed out with numerous bits of dialogue on the side. You get a feel for who they are and how they relate to each other. That makes it so as the story goes on and more of more people die and are tied up in the conspiracy beneath the surface it hits that much harder. I can't recall being more pissed than when Emily died at the end. I so wanted York/Zach to finally find love. And when it's snatched away at the last minute I was so angry and sad.

All in all I loved the story but hated the game. A similar report on Alan Wake but I thought the characters in that game were hollow and the story honestly wasn't even that interesting. Worth a play? Maybe. A Let's Play might be better. It's more about being exposed to the style and the characters and the plot more so than any part of the gameplay.