Deadly Premonition

Boy, hasn't it been a while? Ever since the last blog, I've found out I passed my exams and bought a ton of games. And not found a job. So let's ramble on and on about a game, everyone loves that, right?! :D

And don't worry, I'd never just copy my post about a game I have been playing from FH in an attempt to get more people to read it... Never!

Perish the thought.

I've recently bought the Director's Cut of Deadly Premonition for only €2,50, which was 90% off. The game itself is some kind of weird combination of So Bad It's Good and So Genuinely Good It's Brilliant, I'm not sure how to even describe it, but it's a bizarre mash-up of several genres, with you assuming the role of FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan (Please, just call him York, everybody does) as he instigates the ritualistic murder of a local teenaged girl. It's with full confidence that I'd say that Francis York Morgan is by far the best protagonist I've ever seen in a video game and the one I know the most about after playing the game, he is a delightfully quirky, flawed yet likable character and much of the game is as much about his personal story and growth as solving the murder case.

Clear as a crisp spring morning!

The game takes elements from all kinds of genres, the plot itself is mostly structured as a mystery game where you need to talk to people and gather clues, but there's also a very prominent open-world exploration theme because you're encouraged to investigate on you own and follow around the 30-something NPCs who all have their own daily schedule as they go around their daily life, going out to a diner, shopping at a local convenience store, go to work or relax at home. It's probably the most alive-seeming open world I've ever seen in a game just because it knows to keep its scope relatively small and focus on individual NPCs who you can meet at your own leisure before the plot even decided to dictate you should meet them. 

Neither can I!

There's also elements of maintaining York's hunger and tiredness, as well as changing clothes often so you don't become a Stinky Agent bit a Trendy Agent, as well as having the option to shave your beard or let it grow wild. If any of this sounds like a pain, you really don't need to worry since the game throws foodstuffs and beds at you, and you get plenty of money to buy it because the game rewards pretty much any action you can take, a move I'm sure was intentional to create a ridiculously over the top video-gamey feel. You can't drink a cup of coffee or check the weather without the game awarding you money for it. A lot of the game seems like it pokes fun at such video game elements, like having a Resident Evil-like bizarre squirrel key fetching quest filled with trivia about squirrels or making you solve a more Silent Hillish chess-related puzzle in order to visit the local potato-chip obsessed doctor.

Trust me, he's not joking.

It's not all great though, since the game does have somewhat clunky RE4 style combat, but that can be mitigated by doing sidequests for the various colourful characters in the game that award powerful and infinite ammo guns as well as very powerful melee weapons with infinite durability. Or you can whack enemies with a guitar, which also works surprisingly well. Honestly I had more fun with the clunky combat because most of the time I was dropping enemies like they were flies, which is satisfying after a long period of interviewing townspeople and rearranging storerooms or fishing for sabers and cans of tomato sauce.

Taking the power of rock to the next level.

The biggest problem with the game is that the PC port of it is knows for being rather buggy, but with some bugfixes and patches you can avoid the major brunt of that, and there's also mods that enhance the game by reducing some desaturation the game got after the Director's Cut version came out. I remember how difficult it was to get the game going, but once I got things set up it rarely crashed, and it helps that there's abundant save points and you get paid for frequent saving and saving is really quick too.

Me whenever the game crahses

Really, the game itself is wonderfully bizarre and I think it has a peculiar way of telling its story which is both very videogamey but also feels much more natural at times than most games as well as having a sort of humour that can be easily mistaken for being poorly written or bad when it's really intentional and all the funnier as a result, just looking for weird/funny scenes should show you just what I mean. ∞ YouTube ∞ ∞ YouTube ∞∞ YouTube ∞

I finished it a few days ago, clocking in at around 57 hours, quite the deal for 2,50. Too bad the deal's off now, though. I hope to make another blog soon again, one that's not just a ramble about videogames, perhaps? Not that I have a topic in mind... Hm, I guess I could always go for "A tale of Laser and Lords". 

Just kidding.