Deadly Premonition Review

You simply have to experience this game to believe it.

Looking at a list of recent releases and looking for something new? Something different? In that case, gather around for a gripping tale of death and devilry...

Our story concerns an FBI agent named Francis York Morgan (call him York, it's what everyone else calls him) who travels to the remote town of Greenvale to look into the murder of a young girl and further his research into the criminal mind. York is a special agent - intuitive, perhaps even psychic - and always talking out loud to his to his alter ego, Zach, about eighties films. But York's mystery deepens as he discovers that this small town murder is linked to something much larger - the Red Seed Murders - and that there are supernatural shenanigans afoot in Greenvale, as well as someone called the Raincoat Killer...

Deadly Premonition is a work of art. Nothing in this game work as it should. The over-the-shoulder combat mechanics are inspired by Resident Evil 4 and are so erratic and insensitive that you are forced to rely on the lock-on system (that will target an enemy further away before it targets your nearest attacker). The driving sections in the open world are marred by the fact that the car will only steer up to thirty degrees in either direction and the speed you take a corner will make no difference to the turning circle. Your car also has a damage meter and a petrol bar, meaning that it's horribly easy to get stranded out in the middle of nowhere (and to run out of rescue vehicle-summoning flares). Combine this with a too-small-to-be-useful map on the HUD and a main map in the pause menu that a) can't be moved around and b) actually changes direction with you, meaning that you never know which way is North and you have an open world experience that seems to hate you.

The voice acting is completely inconsistent with the scene at hand, with characters talking nonchalantly about murder and discussing the making of biscuits with incredible seriousness. There only seems to be five different musical tracks that play throughout any of the cutscenes, one of which - the jaunty 'comedy' tune - has a habit of playing at just the wrong times. The graphics are also hideous, with blurry visuals, appalling character animation and cardboard backgrounds.