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Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut – Game Review

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Title: Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut
Developed By: Access Games
Published By: Rising Star Games | All Interactive Entertainment (Australia)
Based On: Deadly Premonition for the XBox360

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Console: Playstation 3
Genre: Psychological Horror
Classification (AU): This title has been rated MA15+ for Strong Themes and Bloody Violence
Review Conditions: Australian Edition, Playstation 3, Retail Copy

The mysterious town of Greenvale with Deadly Premonition:The Director’s Cut and discover more secrets through the new scenarios, bask in the beauty with redefined graphics and move with greater freedom with a complete control overhaul. Greenvale, a sleepy town in the US mid-west, has fa en prey to the Red Seed Murders. With local law enforcement unaccustomed to the high profile nature, it is up to FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan to find the murderer, unravel the mysteries of Greenvale and survive the locals.

(Official Description)

1

2010 played host to a couple of psychological horror video games, in particular for the XBox360 console. The most notable of which was Alan Wake, which released in March by Remedy Entertainment ended up eventually picking up my Game of the Year 2010 award for its great harmonization of storytelling, visuals, music and gameplay. The second of these titles was Deadly Premonition, which outside of Japan was only released on the XBox360 and due to a combination of the annoying region lock for the console and Rising Star Games choosing to pass up on an Australian release due to classification concerns, I have been unable to play until now. Now that the game has been released internationally on the Playstation 3, the company decided to give an Australian release a shot and “lo and behold” it even walked away with an MA15+ classification (Take that Atelier Totori Plus!).

While I cannot compare the differences between the two releases, I do look forward after more than two years to be able to share my thoughts on this game with you…. and while there are many flaws with the game, for every flaw there is something they do surprisingly well.

2

Storyline

I have always considered the storyline of a game to be an important aspect in its overall enjoyability and charm, and Deadly Premonition is all about it. Players take control of FBI agent Francis York Morgan (aka. York) who has been tasked with travelling to the rural former-logging community of Greenvale where a young woman was found murdered under suspicious circumstances. From the moment he arrives in the town and even beforehand, he is drawn into a case that is truly fitting of the psychological horror genre. With a wealth of characters and potential suspects, a brutal series of murders against young women in the village linked with a set of cases involving red seeds and an uncanny number of seemingly supernatural events plaguing the town and York himself… this has gone down as one of the more memorable storylines I have come across in recent years.

To be forewarned, while the initial constructs of the storyline may sound simple, pretty much from the get go you will realize that at its heart Deadly Premonition contains a complex storyline with several elements that come off as strange, unexplained or even over the top given the seemingly normal setting you are placed in. Granted you will go through considerable portions of the game being spoon-fed small snippets of information or otherwise left to wonder, which eventually come together as a very…. different ending – elements of the storyline to this day are left to much active speculation.

While some characters are inevitably targets of the murderer before you get to delve too much into their storyline, the sizable cast is made up of a plethora of personalities further enhanced by different facades. You can develop these characters through the events of the main storyline as well as their own smaller individual side-stories you can access via the games open world system. To that extent, all characters feel rightfully placed in the game, and all contribute well to the overall mix. In particular, York makes for an interesting and eccentric protagonist whom while harboring a tragic childhood and a friend in his mind by the name of Zach has a range of different emotions and can recite many fun tidbits on 80’s films and the grizzly tales of past cases in particular.

I respect the storyline of Deadly Premonition, therefore while it has been out for so many years outside of Australia I am going to end my comments here. However, I can happily say that just from the storyline alone I was impressed with what SWERY65 and the rest of the team at Access Games were able to produce.

Now… surely the rest of the game can live up to the high expectations set by the storyline right? RIGHT!?!…..

Unfortunately production values were pretty low overall.

3

Design

When released, Deadly Premonition: A Director’s Cut was promoted to include a graphical overhaul including redrawn textures, improved lighting and new shading. As I have nothing to compare it to I cannot comment on anything other than the fact that I thought the lighting events were pretty good. However, aside from that one bonus positive, things go downhill for this game. Unfortunately the visual quality is pretty lackluster overall for the game across the board, with adequate character models with animating / facial expression issues and environments that look bland and definitely not up to the standard I was hoping to see from even a current-gen console title from 2010. Looking at the design rather than the quality aspect,  I did appreciate their decision to make the game an open world environment and in the more populated areas of the city it looked generally well designed. But especially considering the long road trips you are put on pretty much every chapter – there are several areas of the map that could use more visual stimulating – to stop the gamer falling asleep more than anything else.

I will echo the comments made in other reviews about the frame-rate issues that have been well duly noted in the Playstation 3 edition which are reportedly much worse than the XBox360 release. The odd thing is that this generally comes in spikes, and while I didn’t have too many frame-rate issues during general gameplay when it came to picking up an item (Which then shows you the item against a black screen) the speed would sometimes drop down to less than a crawl and there were occasions I was almost certain my console had crashed. Of course, with prominent frame rate issues I would strongly recommend avoiding or limiting exposure to the stereoscopic 3D functionality unless you want to walk away with a headache.

Also…. the producers really needed to take a leaf out of Alan Wake and get their flashlight mechanics working. Seriously they didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that York has an illuminating nipple that he can turn on and off in lieu of a flashlight.

4

Music / Voice Acting

Deadly Premonition genuinely has a few hidden gems in its soundtrack, however for the most part it comes down to the same handful of tracks used repetitively throughout the game. The use of some of the tracks can on the occasion be a bit iffy, with a more light hearted track going with a mood that I felt could have been better enhanced with a more serious or somber track – or so forth. Also, even in scenes where frame-rate issues were not present, the sound became notably choppy and jumpy at points.

The game comes with a full English dub and the quality of it varies between characters and scenes. Recording quality I thought could have been a bit better, but the characters respective voice talent went well. Perhaps the most frustrating element of the voice acting was those of the shadow monsters that appear during the otherworldly horror combat sequences. Irrespective of the shadows appearance there was almost always the same voice associated with them and a small handful of lines – and hearing every shadow saying the same “I don’t want to die!” line felt repetitive.

5

Gameplay

While the aesthetic and auditory elements of Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut were well below the standards I would expect from any game this late in the generation, there are a few redeeming qualities in terms of gameplay that are worth noting. The open world aspect of the game is quite interesting, and while there is a lack of things to do outside of side-quests, was interesting to watch how they have incorporated this to submerge gamers in a more realistic experience. While driving around the expansive region of Greenvale the residents do generally keep to a realistic schedule and if lucky you can even watch them drive past in their cars going to their next destination. I decided to test this in one of the earlier main story events where all the residents were asked to attend at the town hall at a certain time. It was interesting watching at least every named character a few minutes in the lead-up to the deadline roll up to the hall in their car. Sure none of them ended up having the routing programmed to head inside but it was a nice touch.

I noticed that one of the promoted features of this release were improved controls, so I take it that they were pretty bad / average in the original XBox360 release. Fortunately the controls worked rather well with no real struggles of camera angle, aiming or general moving. Looking at the gameplay it turned out to be simple but well implemented. At several moments during the game you will be required to traverse through red vine-ridden labyrinths which are filled with shadow creatures for York to find clues in. Featuring over-the-shoulder gameplay and an auto-lock-on (R2 Button), there was nothing overly complex with the system and by the end your success more or less relied on the number of bullets or weapons you have at your disposal (Weapon durability is worse than Wii title Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon) and hopefully not forgetting to have York eat or sleep. Aside from your generic shadow monsters, the game also throws in a few unique puzzle-types of enemies which make for a nice change, but the lack of variety at times does leave areas of this game more tedious than anything else.

6

Driving is another integral component of Deadly Premonition, and taking into consideration what I discussed about in the DESIGN section of this review it isn’t too bad in short bursts. However, given the lackluster driving speeds of the police vehicles, the long distances you need to travel and the occasional inability to find a drivable vehicle anywhere nearby where you are standing make it sometimes more of a headache to get to your destination. Better map mechanics would have also been a nice addition while they were in the process of upgrading, given how the mini-map is on zoom and if you are travelling down a linear road it is nice to know what turn you need to take and when.

Other than this, there are a few little fun gameplay mechanics to throw your time into, but unfortunately you shouldn’t go into this title expecting the wealth of activities present in say… a Yakuza (Ryu Ga Gotoku) game. Outside of the main storyline and side-quests there is very little to do in this open world, but at the same time I think going down the open world route and offering a harmonization of action and investigation mechanics somewhat made up for  its more prominent faults.

7

Final Words

Appreciation of Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut really comes down to your preferences in a game. If you are after a fantastic psychological horror storyline or even a solid storyline in general than this game might be up your alley. If you are looking for more of a gameplay-oriented title or visually stunning graphics…. this may or may not be your cup of tea. Personally, I found Deadly Premonition to be a unique gameplay experience that appealed to my personal preferences, albeit could have used much refining to make it a truly memorable playthrough.

FINAL SCORE
Storyline/Character Development: A+
Design: D
Music/Voice Acting: D+
Gameplay: C+
Replayability: C
Personal Opinion: A
Overall Score: B+

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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