Deadly Premonition: Directors Cut (2013)

Almost 10 years ago I experienced Deadly Premonition for the first time. I picked it up around 6 months after it’s initial release, no doubt inspired by giantbomb’s let’s play video series that went viral in the winter of 2010. Deadly Premonition is definitely in that zone of “so bad it’s good” cult classics, everyone remembers the “Sinners Sandwich” right? What about the coffee fortune telling, the “Life is wonderful” music or that smile?

York, I love you so…

The thing is, I think that Deadly Premonition is genuinely one of my favourite games of the entire 2010s, perhaps ever. It’s undeniably flawed yes, but there’s just so many great ideas, concepts that kept me invested back then and even now, a decade later as I unlocked the platinum trophy for the PS3 version. To try and sum it up, Deadly Premonition has the feeling of being a hyper ambitious PS2 game, an attempt at an immersive simulation of a north western town in the United States; a rare chance to have an earnest Twin Peaks experience in a video-game. 

Want to feel embarrassed for the medium? Keep spending money at that petrol station baby.

I love this game and well, I find this game genuinely inspiring and makes me want to stretch those creative muscles and explore crafting games/stories myself. 

If I was being overly critical, yes, the production values are poor across the board along with massive technical issues in both the 360 version from 2010 and the ‘Directors Cut’ version released in 2013. The main story outside of York’s personal story and relationship with Emily is a whole lot of ??? And the driving sucks & there is so much of it. 

But man, Jeff Kramer’s performance really brings York to life and raises the entire experience, some of the climactic scenes still resonate with me today, some real emotional gut punches. I don’t think Deadly Premonition is a deep game by any sense of the word. But even the simple act of having scenes of characters talking in a bar, developing relationships, planting *ahem* seeds for future story strands etc, I love it. So when it comes to that choice “to purge things that should not exist” the drama of the scene is earned. There’s a history there between you, the player and the characters involved.

Deadly Optimisation - no back faces on the bridge :(

If you haven’t played it, I would recommend you try it out - Nintendo Switch sounds like the best route to play Deadly Premonition in 2020. The PS3 port I’ve recently played is, in my opinion a dramatically inferior experience. The new cutscenes don’t add anything to the main story really and if anything can confuse proceedings. But the big issues are with the frame rate, visuals and audio. The frame rate is all over the place and only ever feels good when the game is paused, audio implementation is also seriously questionable with stutters when a new audio sample is loaded (e.g. the sound of thunder). But obviously rose tinted glasses aside, I spent a lot of time in Greenvale on the xbox 360, it’s jarring to see things like the car interiors be dramatically less detailed in the PS3 version. The resolution of the game seems to be higher, but at what cost? Oh and if a game could do with texture filtering… this is that game. 

Deadly Premonition is an… esoteric experience, but if you are around my age, loved games like Resident Evil & Silent Hill, have seen your fair share of 80s and 90s films and enjoy the odd rewatch of Twin Peaks you could do a lot worse. 

I’ve already dropped money on the Switch version… I’ll be back in Greenvale in a few years time I’m sure!