Deadly Premonition

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NokkonWud
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Re: This Weeks Show: Deadly Premonition

Post by NokkonWud »

We are covering Deadly Premonition for issue 93, recording Friday, September 9th.

Please leave your opinions on Deadly Premonition and we may well read it out on the show.
Sly Reflex

Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by Sly Reflex »

Deadly Premonition. As a game it's actually really bad. As an experience it is unparalleled.
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Chopper
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Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by Chopper »

Image

I'm not usually one to get emotional about games, but let me get this out of the way: The Director's Cut is an absolute disgrace.

The inclusion of a framing story that makes no sense (telling a story of serial murder to a young child), robs the story of it's momentum, and provides a saccharine and wholly unnecessary wrap-up, was a serious misstep. The fact that they couldn't release anything even remotely competent as to the audio and visual requirements was unforgiveable. Words and phrases missing in the middle of sentences in the audio, subtitles written by someone with a poor command of English - 'Where' instead of 'were', 'loose' instead of 'lose', one of the characters looking for a pedant [pendant]. Add the technical issues which caused the game to slow down, and the refusal to fix any of the technical issues that existed in the original, and it was a real mess.

That said, I played originally on the Xbox, and was blown away by this game. I liked the gameplay for the most part - the obstacles that were put up, such as the rotating map, actually helped to form a more immersive relationship with the game world, as you had to plan out every journey by imagining the directions in your head - okay, first left, continue on a mile, second right, stop, look at map etc. This won't work for everyone, I'm sure, but I found it interesting. Added to a small thing like planning a journey, was the requirement to eat, shave, sleep, etc and the idea that the world and people continued with their daily chores around you, and you had to be in certain places at certain times, meant the world became very real to me. This was epitomised by the town hall scene, where you could sit in the car park and watch people arrive at different times. Allied with this was the fact that I had complete freedom to go off piste, and visit the characters outside of the plot sequence, and have meaningful interactions with them. I'm all about the world building in games, so I loved the game for this.

York himself was an amazing character, and the central conceit of a personality divided, and how that linked in with the player controlling the main character, was and is stunning. That, and the eventual resolution of the problem, is probably the most amazing thing I've seen and experienced in games.

In the years between the original and the Director's Cut, I'd read some interviews with Swery and had formed the opinion that he was a bit of a bluffer. So I came back to the game wondering if my initial assessment of the game would hold up. Despite the reservations noted above about the Director's Cut, I was delighted to find that there was real genius on display here, and it wasn't that Swery had just lucked out. I don't know if he'll ever repeat it, but this game was an amazing achievement.
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delb2k
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Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by delb2k »

First this comment is on the original version and not the recent directors cut.

DP is a genuine curiosity to me on a number of levels. It is a title that trades heavily on its idiosyncrasies and curios in the hope that it keeps the player interested enough to complete its fairly long playtime. It appears to ignore many of the advances in mechanics that have happened prior to release while simultaneously trying to build a narrative that is impressively ambitious. It is a title that in many ways as split as the main protagonist.

What DP did for me was to find a way to carve out a compulsion based on both a world and story that felt so magnificently off kilter as to become something genuinely interesting. Whether by design or by accident the story held that bizarre middle ground of being almost un-intelligible while also making enough sense to provide a desire to progress. As a player I always knew what was I was expected to do next, albeit I may not have completely understood what had just happened just minutes before. The voice acting was awful, wooden and dry but in the most bizarre of ways this just seemed to fit the world that had been created on screen. Greenvale almost feels like something from an old TV show, full of performers doing no more than just barely playing the part assigned to them in the driest way possible. And the interactions between York and his imaginary friend Zach, especially during the car journeys, were so reminiscent of the crazy MGS codec conversations that I began to look forward to them simply because I wanted to find out what they were going to discuss next. The whole resolution of his character is something that is surprising, uplifting and immensely mental all at the same time. Plus the ending is all sorts of mad in a way I found both hilarious pitch-perfect in execution.

The graphics are incredibly basic and routinely blurry but oddly this again felt like part of the charm instead of poor execution. The vehicles handle like bricks and have all the speed sensation of a lawnmower. The town feels incredibly lifeless with no real sensation of community, almost like it is completely removed from any idea of civilisation. In any other title we would slam these sort of factors as being entirely unacceptable, but weirdly it all seems to fit the bizarre nature of what has been created.

The exploration of individual areas, complete with Resi 4 controls, were routinely the sections I disliked the most from a purely gameplay point of view but each one did manage to create a impressive sensation of suspenseful nervousness in me. But I hated the way York controlled; I thought the gunplay was really weak and the exploration routinely basic to the point of feeling like padding in many cases. It took me away from the parts I enjoyed and placed me in an arena I regularly did not want to be in. The parts where it needed to be a game, where the more esoteric aspects could not be brought to the fore, are where it failed the most to really envelop me into its world.

By all the standard metrics DP is a title that should be panned and identified as something to avoid. Poor graphics, appalling acting, bizarre characters and mechanics that feel from a previous generation would normally indicate a death nail to this title. And while I think simply saying charm is what pulls this through those problems is simplistic the environment Swery creates seems to be one where all of the above problems appears to be OK, if not almost fitting. Oddly the world feels incredibly consistent due to it being middle to low quality. There is a degree of buy in required, and if the story and main character are not interesting to the player then I can imagine there is nothing here that would make them interested in progressing but for those that find an aspect to latch onto it does provide a compelling experience where its lack of polish provided a sense of character to proceedings for me.

It may never be strictly be a great game, but it can be a great experience if the mindset from the player is right.
Roy42

Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by Roy42 »

I'm finding it hard to put into words properly my opinion of Deadly Premonition; and that's really annoying me. I do want to say something about the game, I just can't get it out right.
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NokkonWud
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Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by NokkonWud »

Roy42 wrote:I'm finding it hard to put into words properly my opinion of Deadly Premonition; and that's really annoying me. I do want to say something about the game, I just can't get it out right.
Well you still have a few days and we'd love to hear your opinion on it.
The Sonic Mole

Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by The Sonic Mole »

Deadly Premonition is as mechanically flawed as it is utterly compelling, and contains more personality than the majority of AAA titles in existence. An amazing video game.
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Sean
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Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by Sean »

Been trying to finish this before the show this week, since I'm editing, and, I think I have to accept that, that probably isn't happening.

I want to love it as much as the rest of you guys do. And, part of me truly, honestly does. I just don't know how much longer I can stomach playing it. It's been simultaneously one of the most fascinating and unpleasant experiences I've had with a game. I have a genuine appreciation for a lot of what Deadly Premonition has to offer, but, I kind of feel like I'm wasting my time playing it, when, I could just watch the game on YouTube, since the story/characters/environments are the best parts. Maybe I'll just do that, instead.
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Chopper
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Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by Chopper »

What did you not like about it, Sean? :D

delb2k makes a great point there when he talks about something to latch on to. For me the hook was the humour - and not necessarily the more surreal stuff like the sinner's sandwich which was a bit too wacky. I loved it from the scene at the start on the bridge, where York is introduced to George and Emily. It's weird and a little outlandish, but I thought it was very funny.

I would disagree with delb2k where he says that the characterisation and voice acting was terrible. For the minor characters, like Anna's mother or the Rocker in the store, yeah some of those were terrible. However York, Emily, George etc were all developed nicely and had a number of complex things going on. I thought these were great naturalistic characters and were acted well.

I didn't mind the gameplay apart from the QTE stuff. That chase through the lumber mill is pretty much the worst thing in gaming for me. The rest of it was fine, but I don't mind janky gameplay too much - it's all about the overall package.
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delb2k
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Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by delb2k »

I should say I think the characterisation is pretty good it really was just the acting I felt was flat to just plain bad. Where the designers take the characters I quite like, but those voices were painful at times for me.

But oddly appropriate as well. It really is a set of contradictions sometimes.
Roy42

Re: This week's podcast: Deadly Premonition

Post by Roy42 »

Still haven't been able to articulate my thoughts properly; looks like I'll miss out on the show, but I'll keep thinking.
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Re: Deadly Premonition

Post by InsrtCoins »

The Deadly Premonition issue of the podcast was interesting, although it was a shame no one recording had watched through Twin Peaks. When I was playing DP, I was watching through Twin Peaks at the same time and it really helped my playthrough. In a way, both taught me how to "read" the other. There are many parallels between the shows that extend even beyond the very similar premise to insanely specific details of setting and characters, such as Twin Peaks' log lady being translated almost directly into DP's pot lady Sigourney (and, for those of you who have played it, Alan Wake's lamp lady).
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