Lest We/Let’s Please Forget: Deadly Premonition
Have you even heard of it? Did you force yourself to forget it? It’s okay, an answer to either of those questions will do. The ‘Twin Peaks’ knock-off/survival horror video game released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows was once a promising looking release for next-gen consoles, only to become a commercial bust. Was it the ten-years-too-late graphics? Was it the god-awful writing and voice acting? Maybe even the agonizing controls? Once again, any answer works.
You play as Agent York, an FBI agent who ends up in the sleepy town of Greenvale to investigate a murder, who is an obvious homage to Special Agent Dale Cooper with his quirky character traits. Other comedic highlights of the game included: the surreal opening scene involving twins discovering a mutilated body, a poorly animated squirrel making chimpanzee noises, cut scenes where the music overpowers the character dialogues, even more Twin Peaks inspired elements… There’s a lot more to see within the game that made it painfully clear why no one should ever play it, let alone buy it.
The hot mess that is Deadly Premonition has its moments though. The quirky characters and twisted story do keep you intrigued. Not taking care of Agent York, like shaving and changing clothes, results in a gradual beard that appears and/or flies buzzing all around your smelly self. The sound effects and music is one of the main aggregators of the game, along with literally driving everywhere (Fast Travel? What’s that?), and the fact that you can’t restart missions they result in failure or your death (hello, main menu). A huge surprise and sigh of relief comes in the form of a flashback, in which you play as the main antagonist (it’s worth the hours of agonizing gameplay).
But it’s these painful elements that make you want to play and finish the game (or just give up and sell it to GameStop for a couple of bucks). It has the right ingredients: Twin Peaks, Resident Evil, Silent Hill… but the controls, audio, graphics, amongst numerous other things, didn’t give people the payoff they expected. Just like milk on the edge of expiration, you can’t help but pull the gallon out of the fridge, take a whiff, and drink it anyways, just like Deadly Premonition.
All in all, I’ll be checking the Xbox Marketplace if it’s compatible with Xbox One, because I just can’t help myself and need a good laugh in the current state of events going on in the world.
