It's busted. The frame rate sucks, the performance sucks, the animations are insanely stiff, and a lot of gameplay feels half baked.

But I love it. It's got that same weirdo charm that I get love out of Twin Peaks mixing with it's Japanese fanbase all wrapped up in what I can only compare to Euro-Jank. I actually don't hate a ton of the ideas in this game or think they're bad. I think they're all pretty solid and have been reused in better put together games. But they're also notDeadly Premonition.

Everything just works together in its own way here. Almost like lightning in a bottle.

Deadly Premonition has such a reputation for being either the best thing in the world or the worst thing in the world, so when I finished it for the first time I was shocked to find out that it's actually....good.

The characters, jank animations and swerve from twin peaks into anime bullshit at the end are big highlights. Deffo a game you can have a good time playing through with a pal. Also shout out to the surprising number of unique side quests as well.

Now if only the shooting segments weren't actual ass...

I think this is the best game I have ever played. Often unsatisfying, often infurito make a game ating, consistently interesting. The entire mystery could have been spoiled for me and the narrative would still be enthralling.

The weird combat is mostly mitigated by the fact that it's mind-numbingly easy and fast-- you can practically skip through most of the game's dungeons by just running in a straight line to the next door, especially if you get the wrench early on. Also, I would not have finished this game if not for looking up how to find the radio-- be warned.

In my honest opinion, this is the closest I've ever seen a game come to true literature. Verbose, convoluted, unwieldy. I'll avoid saying much more since I don't want to spoiler-tag this review. Above all else, I'm glad I stuck with it for a bit. It almost lost me early on more than once.

P.S. Arguably, Deadly Premonition spoils a few plot elements from Twin Peaks, so maybe watch that first if you care. The game is heavily inspired by it, maybe even to the point of plagiarism, and it contextualizes many of the game's themes and visuals. Also, Twin Peaks is simply the best show to ever air on American cable, so please check it out anyway.

This is not a great game. Technically speaking. The controls are loose, the shooting is mediocre, the graphics are laughably dated, the performance is iffy, some portrayals are cringe inducing, and it's buggy to hell and back. But looking at this game in this way is, in my opinion, looking at it wrong. This is an experience worth having, with some of the best developed characters, one of the most detailed and realized worlds, and probably the most lovable protagonist ever put to page. I can't help but smile whenever I'm driving around town and York starts rambling about whatever movies he has on his mind at that moment. The story is incredible too, with tons of spine chilling moments and some of the most wild twists and turns. This game has to be experienced, to prove that a game doesn't have to be "fun to play" to become an instant classic. This is not a "so bad it's good" game, this is just an incredible game throughout. Just avoid the PC version. That one is a barely functional disaster.

This game is the only horror game I’ve managed to finish and maybe will be for a long while, with it’s goofiness and more light hearted stuff helping me get through it (even if it wasn’t that scary.) Aside from some glitches and early Xbox 360 jank making it to this remaster it was still a fun romp through this thriller of a story with twists and turns and some nice gameplay moments. I recommend if you don’t mind the graphics, weird stories and a few glitches getting in your way since it’s genuinely fun.

To be reductive, it's "The Room" of video games. This game is bewildering and weirdly problematic but I somehow find it too quaint to offended by it. Swery is an insane person and we need more people like him having more freedom to make games. The game wants to be Twin Peaks but clearly doesn't actually understand David Lynch. It's supposed to be horror(?) but I find the gameplay strangely relaxing. I don't want to make it seem like it's pure shit though - it's genuinely very creative and good in a lot of ways. Play this Switch version, I hear it's nerfed which makes the experience less obnoxious. If you like camp/so-bad-it's-good, this could be your thing.