3.5/5 ★ – Tye_Boy's review of Deadly Premonition.

10 months after having started, falling off, and coming back here and there for a while, I finally finished Deadly Premonition. One of the most polarizing games I have ever played. To summarize, pretty good gunplay/horror elements meets strange presentation meets quirky, clunky open world gameplay. Combat is like Resident Evil 4, but more stiff. Navigating the map can be frustrating due to a clunky map system and UI. What made the game worth playing through to the end was the story, cast of characters, and the strange way it was all presented. It’s hard to tell what was done intentionally and what was not, such as incorrect captions, off voice acting, stock sound effects, and so on. What really tanked the game for me was its design. To put it simply, the game design in Deadly Premonition is flawed. One case of this is the game giving no indication about items that, upon obtaining, can make the game smoother to play. This primarily boils down to the radio item, which allows for fast travel. The game never mentioned this, and by the time I discovered it online, I was too far into the game to get it. Another frustrating aspect of the design is the in-game clock. When attempting to do side content, I was left confused and frustrated by being unable to access something until a certain time of day in-game. That wouldn’t be too bad, but what ruins it is the clunky way in which you can skip time: Either by sleeping in set intervals, or using cigarettes. Problem is, if you’re close to a certain time in-game, you cannot use any of those to forward time to where you need it to continue. Because of this, I had to leave my game on in real-time to let the in-game time pass. This killed the pacing for me, but it fortunately only happened a few times. This had to be done to get the game at a certain time of day or night to progress - the main game might I add. Not just side content. Because of the confusion surrounding accessing side content, I stuck to the main game in my 20-ish hour playthrough. Visually, it’s alright. Characters have this porcelain look to them. Environments themselves look pretty good too. The music, however many times it is reused throughout the whole game, is great! Despite my mixed feelings about the game, Deadly Premonition is ultimately a great game. B+