Deadly Premonition ?

Grumpypants

Anyone played this on 360 ? I picked it up in HMV for 17.99 and it has mixed reviews from a 10/10 from destructiod (not that that is worth anything) down to 30% from other sites. Very mixed bag and so far im not too confinced either way.

Its very like the resident evil 4/ Alan wake games so far but with even dodgier controls and camera angles. Not sure is i should press ahead with it or is it a piel for garbage any thoughts?

Mr Freeze

Queue Retr0gamer!

Retr0gamer

Get past the initial chapters and the game totally opens up into a massive sandbox environment with some really clever touches and a weird attention to detail. It has it's problems like the dodgy controls and repetitive combat but stick it out. The story is very well written and way better than the likes of alan wake and heavy rain.

It's a weird one. Low budget and cheaply made yet at the same time has one of the best videogame stories ever and some truly great sandbox moments. The acting is pretty good as well and excpetional in the case of York.

If you didn't get on with something like No More Heroes then it might not be for you.

Grumpypants

Ill stick with it i got to the bit where the raincoat killer jumps up and you have to dodge him.... i got killed !!

calex71

Bought this a while ago , this thread has reminded me to actually start this game

Grayditch

Played an hour or so. I'm enjoying it despite it's absolute ugliness and gaudy controls!

ShaneU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OUP_Z3iZPs

Love this game, completely bonkers

Grayditch

I am also loving this game and it's use of certain music at the most innapropritate times!

Retr0gamer

I love how the game is so low budget yet there's a stupid amount of attention to detail in some of the most minute things. Stuff like the real time beard growth and the way the game has only about 6 music tracks that are repeated all the time yet very car you buy has it's own music just only when you drive that car.

mickydoomsux

Easily my game of the year. An utter mess technically but pretty much the most memorable and unique gaming experience i've had in years.

Bought it and the controls are diabolical. Only played for about 20 minutes though, so it might improve?

Quigs Snr

This arrived today... haven't started yet, please tell me it controls better than Alone in the Dark on the 360, which I have just finished, and quite liked, despite it's many flaws, not least of which was the fact that controlling the character was like trying to take a cruise liner around a Forumula 1 race track.

Fanny Cradock

Somebody posted an amusing link to a complete playthrough of the game. It is worth a watch (not the whole thing obviously) if you come across it. I think the link can be found somewhere on the last DP thread that was started here.

Grumpypants

Quigs Snr wrote: »

This arrived today... haven't started yet, please tell me it controls better than Alone in the Dark on the 360, which I have just finished, and quite liked, despite it's many flaws, not least of which was the fact that controlling the character was like trying to take a cruise liner around a Forumula 1 race track.

I haven't played alone in the dark for a long time but this controls really poorly.

Retr0gamer

Deleted User wrote: »

Bought it and the controls are diabolical. Only played for about 20 minutes though, so it might improve?

The action segment of the game is not what you are playing the game for and are by far the worst segments of the game. It;s the open world sandbox that moves in real time that you get to later on is where the real magic is. Controls aren't that bad anyway, it's not like there's loads of fast action that absolutely require precise movement. It's a slow game. You aren't playing uncharted 2.

Cherry_Cola

Playing through this at the moment aswell and must say I absolutely love it!

Sure the controls are crap and graphics not up to scratch but the story is good and it's hilarious in places. It's such a rip off of Twin Peaks but I think that's what makes it even better!

Grumpypants

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

Playing through this at the moment aswell and must say I absolutely love it!

Sure the controls are crap and graphics not up to scratch but the story is good and it's hilarious in places. It's such a rip off of Twin Peaks but I think that's what makes it even better!

Yea it really is like they said here make a David Lynch film but go nuts make it mental

Grayditch

You're going to have to forgive it a LOT, let's just say that. It seems to be rewarding, though.

I downloaded the Soundtrack. I love the Main Title track. It's amazing. The whistling song is gas.

cherryghost

I didn't forgive all the problems with it.

It's a terrible game with some utterly stupid set scenes

Retr0gamer

I feel the good far out weighs the bad. Most people have a problem with the combat in the game but the gamem isn't about combat it's about the story and the investigation and the crazy stuff that can happen in it's sandbox world.

Grumpypants

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I feel the good far out weighs the bad. Most people have a problem with the combat in the game but the gamem isn't about combat it's about the story and the investigation and the crazy stuff that can happen in it's sandbox world.

Did this thread make you go back and play it again today ??

pablomakaveli

I just picked this up as well today after seeing it mentioned a few times in different threads. Probably won't play it for a while though since i've a few other games to get through first.

Retr0gamer

Grumpypants wrote: »

Did this thread make you go back and play it again today ??

Finished FF13 so decided to get straight back into it. Today has been a Starcraft 2 binge though.

fatguy2k1

just started playing this last night. horrble graphics, clunky controls and yet i can't put it down. as already been noted, it is Twin Peaks:The Video Game

Grumpypants

The poor combat controls are only surpassed by the poor walking controls which are surpassed by the hopeless driving controls. The graphics are poor and the map is useless. But i like it but my god you shouldn't have to fight so hard against a game just to get around.

It does get a whole lot better once you get the sub machine gun

Retr0gamer

I don't think it's that bad control-wise. The only terrible parts are when it goes into a fixed camera and it gets confusing and awkward. Other than that it's functional, nothing better, nothing worse. Car controls get a lot better when you get the better cars or do the sidequest for th radio that lets you teleport to any previously visited location (an absolute lifesaver).

Grayditch

Christ, I cant wait to get a better car or teleport to destinatons!

NeoKubrick

It's just bad game design. Instead of creating a film, the developers created a film within a game. It's like the developers stop and pause the film every five minutes to force you to play a full game of monopoly to progress to watch the next five minutes. If the game was as good as monopoly, you could play it, but it isn't. If the film was as good as the high standard of actual films, you could watch it, but it isn't. However, if the story was as good as that high standard, then the developers would be producing a film and competing in the film industry rather than creating a film and calling it a game.

The perfect example of the game's bad design is opening the map. To quickly open the map, the player presses the 'back' button, but to close the map, the player has to press 'B' twice. So, instead of two clicks on one button, to quickly open and close the map, the player has to use two buttons and use three clicks. It's an unnecessary interface design and any game designer would instinctively know that and correct it (but that's the point, they're filmmakers not game designers). This bad interface design is made worse by the fact that it's difficult to orient yourself in the world with a map that moves relative to the player's direction and therefore, the player has to consult the map a lot. That's one example of bad design and it is consistent throughout the rest of the game.

The brown saturation is a blemish on the visuals.


It's a great example of how top-down development does not work.

Retr0gamer

I think it's more an example of a developer with zero budget being way too ambitious. I actually think the game is quite an achievement that they crafted something with so little bugs when you look at the overly ambitious games from russia and eastern europe being just as janky but being riddled with bugs a lot of which are game destroying.

I'm willing to forgive any game any amount of jankiness if the experience is interesting and unique and in the case of deadly premonition it's unique, clever, hilarious, fantastically written and acted and in some cases there's some genuine genius game design. Every other developer is pumping out the same game so even if it's a bit unpolished I still think SWERY and his team deserve a lot of credit for making such a unique game in a world were every game can be grouped into about 4 different genres. Often when a developer tries something new in gaming there's a certain amount of jankiness since it's new territory. Just look at Dagger Fall, GTA 3 or Operation Flashpoint.

It's the experimental art films of videogames, flawed but trying something new and stepping into new territory. If you are looking for perfect game mechanics then you're doing it wrong. Enjoy the game for how different it is from anything else.

NeoKubrick

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I think it's more an example of a developer with zero budget [...]
[...] there's some genuine genius game design. [...]
It's the experimental art films of videogames, flawed but trying something new and stepping into new territory. If you are looking for perfect game mechanics then you're doing it wrong. Enjoy the game for how different it is from anything else.

That hyperbolia serves no purpose. Obviously, they had a budget and decent relative to independent developers who can't secure publishers and whose games don't have worldwide boxed-distribution. Good game design is relatively cheap; production values drain a budget. I picked an example which does not relate to the budget and it would have had cost "zero" to correct precisely to avoid the weak and delusional counter-argument that the budget caused that bad design and not the developers themselves. You can claim that the poor design and implementation of the map was as a result of the low-budget, but that's absolutely ridiculous.

You can claim that Deadly Premonition is the equivalent of an experimental art film, but then, that claim would be ignorant of the actual independent gaming scene and institutional filters. Experimental art films have fewer institutional barriers and filters than a Hollywood film just as the independent gaming scene has fewer, than worldwide boxed-distributed games. Here, read:

It's been said that combat was a last minute addition once the bulk of the game was completed. If so, what was the reasoning behind adding combat?

The combat was added after we received advice from our publisher that Western audiences would have difficulty accepting a main character who didn't fire a gun. I don't know if that's entirely true, but our audience certainly accepted Agent York.

Source

That's SWERY claiming that they added combat based upon "advice" from their publisher. As I've said that hyperbolia serves no purpose: Deadly Premonition is not the equivalent of an experimental art film and from his response, it's the opposite equivalent (more in common with a Hollywood film). It's not an unique game and there's no new territory the game explores. It isn't that different from everything else (the game mechanics are inferior copies of other games). You claim, but don't quote where I expected it of any game let alone Deadly Premonition, that I'm looking for perfect game mechanics; no, I am looking for game mechanics because it is a computer game. It's a badly designed computer game with some interesting characters and a decent plot: a top-down developed computer game.

That's just the cold truth of the matter without superfluous and pretentious critique. By the way, what exactly were the "genuine genius game design"?

Retr0gamer

You need to lighten up. It's pretty obvious when I said it had zero budget I wasn't meaning it literally and was referring to the fact that it had a much smaller budget than a bigger mass appeal project. Thanks for the statement of the obivous that it was hyperbole just in case nobody picked it up.

You also need to lighten up a bit thinking that every game needs polished game mechanics to be enjoyable. Good game mechanics aren't essential all the time. For some gamescan be good despite their faults because of the experience. For someone who seems to think they are some new games journo type you really don't have much of a clue. There's plenty of games out there that are a bit clunky and horribly flawed but are still a worthwhile experience. The home micro and 90's PC scene were full of these games, maybe I'm more forgiving having more experience with games that are overly ambitious to their detriment but remain enjoyable. Sometimes games are better than the sum of their parts.

As for the genius game design, I refer to the real time movement of people in the world and how it can genuinely surprise you. Go peek in on someone or talk to some one acting suspiciously outside of the main plot and you'll come across some really inconsequential set pieces that will surprise you and add to the setting, story and immersion. The game isn't trying to be a GTA or Resident Evil clonedespite borrowing from these badly. It's got more in common with adventure games. An adventure game that uses a sandbox environment instead of a point and click interface? I don't think there's any other game like that and it LA Noire is anything to go by it might just be the next big thing. If you are expecting a game to rival those two then you're playing the wrong game.

Deadly Premoniton is definitely flawed but ultimately I'm finding it hugely entertaining and for me that's all that matters. I don't really mind that the game developers didn't have the budget to focus on interface design or QA testing meaning that it's 2 button presses to get out of the map screen and the cars handle shoddily because the games one fo the best gaming experiences of 2010. I'm enjoying it a lot more than Heavy Rain which I really liked. Both are adventure games. Heavy Rain is better put together but Deadly Premonition has the more interesting and better written story and in adventure games that's the most improtant thing.