Summary
Synopsis
This game seems to be very polarizing at the moment. You either love it or hate it and neither opinion makes much sense.
On the one hand, we have those who hate it. Who look at a 20 dollar title and say "THIS MUST BE GREATEST GFX EVER OR TIS TEH SUX!!!!". These are mostly graphicwhore gamers who are probably better off with a blue ray player and a CG movie with a very well thought out interactive menu. Whether or not they hit pause is the most complex decision they feel safe making.
On the other hand, we have gamers who love things that are not mainstream, just because they are not mainstream. Forgiving whatever flaws this game has based solely on the fact that it didn't come from a big company. This is a form of unqualified elitism that can be best surmised as "Everyone but me is dumb. So if everyone likes it, it must be crap. I like things nobody else likes to be Awesome."
Of course, applying either of these All or Nothing Philosophies to Deadly Premonition is a great way to make yourself look the fool. You either seem like an easily distracted 12 year old with unlimited access to mommy and daddies Credit card. Or you seem like you're freakin crazy when you get caught saying things like "this games gameplay is better then RE5's." or "The combat isn't that bad." So taking a valid, Middle road (ie realistic) approach to this game is really the way to go.
To start us off, lets talk about the worst part. The combat sequences. Their just a heaping helping of horrible suck that all begins with your camera. The game pretends that the rightstick is a camera control right up until it snaps back to the default position upon letting go of the stick. Like some messed up practical joke. Jesus, that is freakin disorienting. And why do this? Leftstick move, rightstick look... why is this so goddamn hard for developers to not play around with. Did they really have to make their over the shoulder gameplay that different from RE5? Did they honestly fool anyone? We all still know where you got the gameplay from so don't make it almost unplayable. And it's a minor gripe, but breaking up the exploration and combat camera's in the options menu meant moving the camera up instead of down my first battle.... (thanks Swery :/)
Speaking of which, the cameras movement itself is finicky as all hell. I ended up aiming at the ceiling half the time. Then the damn floor the other half. Until, of course, I started using auto target. But because of the shittacular camera, going for headshots is pretty much tapping the leftstick in the general direction you want to shoot bullets at. Hoping what you aimed at didn't move too much. (Sometimes they randomly stand there.....) Then tapping back into the correct position. Then hoping to hell the camera decides to cooperate through the whole ordeal. An exercise in tap and pray gameplay. If you are praying to the trickster god Loki of course.
Once you have mastered the intricacies of tap and pray, you realize that the combat mechanics themselves suck ass. Most of the time it feels like you are hitting air. There is very little feedback to let you know you are actually causing damage. Sure, headshots feel like you actually did something, but body shots, for the most part, splatter purple paint all over till something drops.
And what the hell is with all the QTE going on here. There are entire sequences of nothing but QTE. Like the game decided I can't figure out how to runaway on my own. I crap you not, there is a 5 minute long Quick time event where you have to run from the "Raincoat Killer" (tm?) that requires you to waggle the leftstick the whole damn time. Broken up occasionally by some of the most unhurried animations possible for opening doors or climbing obstacles. Picture it, Desperately running away. Followed by opening a door, looking left, looking right, walking past door and waiting for it to close behind you. Then, DESPERATELY RUNNING AWAY AGAIN! I can't tell if the Gameplay needs consistency or York needs bipolar Meds.
And finally.... and this is the last bad I have to say about the game, the shadows.... for something I was so damn impressed by at first (See here) These came across sorely disappointing. They sound horrid, they move horrid and they just come across as utterly thrown together. Like something that needed to be shoehorned into the game at the last second.
And that pretty much sums up the combat experience, shoehorned in to appease somebody. It's almost as if the developers just weren't confident in there oddball detective game and decided they needed to add survival horror elements in there to make it into a game. And there is very little survival (Infinite ammo weapons to start?) nor Horror (are you older than 5? than you can't be afraid of the shadows.) But, as I will get into in the second section, there is a perfectly fine oddball detective game in DP. No Silent-evil-tower (Resident-clock-hill?) needed.
Once you drop the clunky aspect of the combat, this games real meat and potatoes shine through. Though not the most original plot ever (FBI agent comes to small town to investigate brutal crime") there is something about the games presentation. A quirkiness that makes it very endearing.
You play as agent York, a rather "Interesting" fellow to put it nicely. Batshit insane would probably put it more accurately. Especially since he is constantly talking to himself or more precisely, to an alternate personality named Zach (the player?). And I have nothing bad to say about this setup at all.
No seriously, It was damn near genius to keep the fourth wall up this way. You get immersed in the Greenvale environment about an hour into the game, and York belts out little nuggets of gameplay info , backstory and random banter at you, by way of Zach, keeping you drawn in. Right up to the point you hit another combat sequence. Thankfully, for the most part, those are not very long. So you can actually get to the bright part of the game fairly quickly.
The Town of Greenvale itself is a fairly limited Sandbox. Pretty expansive but you are kept out of the wilderness parts by way of impassable hills, fences, bushes (yes, mighty bushes of 1 foot high you no pass) and, in one case, invisible walls. But with all it's barriers there is still a lot to do. 65 trading cards to collect, a skeleton scattered around town, 50 quests to complete (Hurry, there is a murderer in town and he likes to kill those quests starters on ya :P) and lots of cash to find. (ok medals, but they become cash at the end of the chapter)
Speaking of cash, I know the US economy is in bad shape, but I hope we never reach the point where four crackers cost over $40.00 (yes crackers) Oddly enough however, cars are only 1/10th to 1/50th there real world price. You could say they where used of course, but holy crap then on some of the sports cars. Gas however, seems about right :/
Even with all of it's faults the game comes out slightly above average. If they would have just stuck to the case itself and left the "art student horror movie" combat the hell out of the game, it would have been a win. As it stands, the combat portions become an endurance test of your patients and interest. Trudging through a swamp of crap to hopefully find something worthwhile in the clearing. And while what you find is worthwhile, you will eventual get fed up with the swamp altogether and go elsewhere. This game is best in small doses. Hell it even gives you a recap between chapters. For 20 bucks, you can find less entertaining ways to spend your time.
Rundown
Gameplay 45/100
- Combat Sucks, detracts from the whole experience.
- The Greenvale Sandbox is kinda disappointing in it's brevity. You could do everything that's worthwhile in Greenvale in about a day. or 2
- The Murder Case is very interesting, but that is more of a Story aspect than gameplay aspect.
Story 77/90
- The murder Case is the real draw here.
- Characters are quirky and downright hilarious at times. This game almost revels in it's lowbudgetness and that's a good thing XD
- York's banter while in the car made him instantly one of my favorite dorks in a videogame ever.
Graphics 44/80
- Lets face it, it's low budget for a reason. The status screen has a PS1 era feel to it. While Greenvale reminds me of Shenmue for a reason. Those be Dreamcast quality graphics there.
- Characters move like the developers figured "If we can't get motion actors we'll just over emphasize how badly they move." Thomas being the best example of this. But all characters have a unique, if over emphasized movement. Like how Emily walks extremely effeminate, Sigourney looking like she is about to pee herself or whatever the hell Keith Ingram thinks he is doing.
Sound 38/70
- Music for the most part is good. Battle music sucks, but that seems to be the common theme for combat.
- Va work is very well done. With the exception of....
- The shadows voices.... Just repetitive moaning in my ears. SHUT UP!
Replay 25/60
- Replayability seems to be getting all those damn trading cards. Not to bad though
- There's some bullcrap, non stacking difficulty achievements to deal with.
Little bits +4
- IT'S 20 BUCKS!(+5)
- This is a dumb reason for anything, But I think the name Swery is awesome(+1)
- Some of the music is catchy... currently looking to download the main theme.(+1)
- The low tempo moaning of the monsters is just so goddamn repetitive. (-1)
- Seriously Repetitive (-1)
- Did I mention repetitive? (-1)
- It's goddamn repetitive! (-1)
- B-movie-esque (good)cheese factor (+1)
Deadly Premonition overall 6.0 out of 10
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