Posts Tagged ‘Deadly Premonition’

So yeah, remember that post about the triumphant return of DoFuss? It not far back, maybe four posts… and two months ago. Not so successful I am sure you will agree. It isn’t that I have stopped gaming, in fact I have been playing more, its just the little time I have had in my last months in Japan are being directed at enjoying my time rather than maintaining the site. My editors on other sites however have still been requesting content so out of a desire to keep them happy I have some writing has been dabbled in (and because if I did nothing there it the possibility I would either drink myself to death or fall in to a pit of self pity at my inability to fulfil even my own mediocre goals) so here are links to a few of them.

With that said there is a podcast here waiting to be edited, and a string of articles planned that I may find time to write as soon as I ship all my consoles back to the UK later this month leaving me with little else to do. So if you are interested in DoFuss content keep an eye on here. If, however, you are interested in any of my digital scribblings cast your eyes over the links bellow to catch up with some of the games I have been playing and my opinions of them. Also you may notice among the below links a portal to the Independent’s website, funny story there, my work on Gamepeople was quoted but I don’t honestly know if the quote makes any sense or if I simply was drunk/having a dyslexic moment when I wrote it, I mean, ‘convincingly scary’?

Yakuza 3, Death Spank, Blur, Contra 4, Limbo, Otomedius Excellent, Split Second, Sonic 4 – Episode 1, Vanquish.

Alan Wake – The Signal, Demon’s Souls, Death Spank, Limbo, Halo Reach, Castlevania – Harmony of Despair, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Ni No Kuni, Castlevania – Lord of Shadows.

Deadly Premonition

‘The Asylum’ is a company that piggybacks on the popularity of theatrical blockbusters, producing movies with similar titles at a fraction of the cost. Yet somehow they are always entertaining. Deadly Premonition is what would happen if ‘The Asylum’ made a game.

Deadly Premonition is a third person survival horror with a distinct B-movie vibe. Developer Access Games appears to have played Silent Hill while watching Twin Peaks, and subsequently decided to make a game out of the experience.

Some truly creepy adversaries.

A gulf of difference exists between the visual fidelity of Deadly Premonition and it peers, but it seems to revel in it. No apologies are made for the low-resolution textures, instead utilizing the indistinct nature of the graphics to set the imagination running, allowing them to be truly disturbing.

With some outright broken controls the game is pretty hard to get to grips with, but perseverance pays off as you are treated characters straight out of a David Lynch movie. The protagonist, agent York, stands proudly at the front of this cast with his multiple personality Zach. York’s interactions with Zach provide an elegant justification for his constant ham-fisted exposition, and an excuse ’80s movie monologues, which prove entertaining if you can get past the laughable voice work.

Deeply flawed but entertaining, it is an instant buy if you live in North America where it was released on budget. Unfortunately it is harder to recommend at the £50 price tag of the Asian release.

Damn it, I did it again. A week of protracted writing and piece meal additions to an article left it nearly unintelligible. On the plus side during this torturous process I discovered that the fundamental conceit of the article was false, based on what I believed my own gaming proclivities to be, rather than what they actually are. Initially I was asserting that good character design is integral to making a good narrative focused game. Be it a title that allows you to make your own choices, or follow a predestined path, if a game does not create a sympathetic or relatable role or motivation for the player then the experience will fall flat. If that flaws last sentence has you fuming at your computer, I can see why, because I was clearly wrong.

Having conceded my error in judgment, I set about deconstructing why I had arrived at my conclusion in the first place. It transpired that in forming my theory I had approached the topic from the wrong angle. Like water hitting a ladle when washing up, my inaccurate positioning of the idea had resulted in misdirected spray, and the appearance of wetting oneself. My error is plain enough in retrospect; a character has little affect on a good game, but it can make a mediocre game better, or a god-awful game bearable, by creating an incentive to continue when gameplay alone is not enough.

2D, and no matter how much I enjoyed the game I can't in good conscience argue otherwise.

I should have realised my mistake earlier. Coming at the topic from two bad games, I’m Not Alone and Deadly Premonition; I was trying to shoehorn quality titles in to my argument to support a shaky premise instead of looking at my evidence. In trying to argue Gears of War worked because Marcus was driven by simple relatable emotions, I neglected that it was the quality of the game that propelled Marcus beyond his two-dimensional nature. To say this clearly the reason I’m Not Alone sits as perhaps the worst game I have every played, while Deadly Premonition is entertaining, is because of each titles lead protagonist.

I could no doubt find multiple other games to help me inform my position here, but Deadly Premonition and I’m Not Alone are ideally suited for comparison as they so closely parallel each other in key areas. From the onset neither game does anything to impress. Graphically both offer bland flat environments that look like original Xbox offerings. Yet somehow both succeeded in creating fantastically ghoulish adversaries whom have to be dispatched through combat that is unwieldy due to unusually (and at times antiquated) interface decisions. These are just a few examples of the vast array of problems each game possess, which leaves them fundamentally flawed. Yet where Deadly Premonition rises above the sum of its parts, I’m Not Alone is sent spiralling ever lower from its position second-rate.

Initially I thought that the root of the separation of each titles success originated with their stories, but both feature investigations of occult powers that offer some genuine (if poorly presented) intrigue. Managing to hook me with their underlying stories alone was not enough though, because while I found myself wrestling with Deadly Premonition for numerous hours, I’m Not Alone protagonist quickly soured me.

Agent York is fascinating, his presence alone providing much of Deadly Premonitions appeal.

Deadly Premonition centres on a FBI agent York, an interesting character who suffers from multiple personality disorder, leaving him constantly talking to his other personality ‘Zack’. He is detached, but believable so. Like a Jeff Goldblum character, Agent York frequently disappears inside his own thoughts, delivering insightful, or at the very least amusing, monologues. It is fascinating overhearing the half conversations he has with his other persona, especially when he reminisces about eighties movies. He provides a draw that, combined with the Twin Peaks styled story, extends far beyond the games limited core.

In contrast I’m Not Alone’s lead, Patrick Weber, is a shit (I would use stronger language but I am scared my mom will read this post). From the start he is over confident, condescending and generally a dick to everything that crosses his path. Add to these flaws the fact there is no sense of trepidation at the otherworldly abominations he confronts, and the result is a distant character, who (unlike York) has no reason to be detached. With every emotion he displayed being at odds with the tension of the story and the unease I felt as a player, it became impossible to empathise with him, so the motivation to follow his tale quickly faded. Ultimately I’m Not Alone failed for me because I was more interested in seeing the ghosts that attacked Patrick find some measure of peace  from their plight by killing him than I ever was in helping him escape the mansion.

This is Patrick. We don't like Patrick, or his silly little soul patch.

Characters are not as key to a games success as I initially supposed, but I still feel they can work in conjunction with other factors to support weaker titles. Perhaps this is commonsense; after all we play games for the ‘game’, but part of me always believed I was more interested in their narratives and worlds, with the play mechanic just serving as my locomotion through them. On reflection I realise that I have been lying to myself about my own habits. As I look at my own collection I see the answer staring back at me, games with interesting premises that I have abandoned because of poor gameplay, while other titles with appalling stories and characters sit finished thanks to core mechanics that entertained.

We did it, two shows in one month. Darren and I are back in the saddle and ready to take you on an hour of gaming and sandwich exploration.

Kicking it off with heaven and hell, we visit the KFC Double Down (pictured above) and the problems with Japanese sandwiches. Darren reveals his new found love of Robot Unicorn Attack in what we have been playing, while I do some quick hits on a number of my recent distractions. News features a few choice topics from the last two weeks, which I hoped would enable Darren to engage in conversation about contemporary games. I wasn’t very successful. Games as art is the subject of our main discussion. Inspired by Robert Ebert recent post that declared they could never be, we talk at length about the merits of games and where we think they sit within the spectrum of art and design. And, as always, we wrap up with Darren’s Old Games.

Enjoy the show, please leave comments if you have any and feel free to get in touch if you have any suggestions or questions for us here at DoFuss. Remember to check back for the next show in two weeks.

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