Deadly Premonition was released more than 9 years ago, was released on October 2010 for Xbox 360 and later for PS3, and since its departure was accompanied by controversy. This title developed by Hidetaka Suehiro (in command of Access games) was described in his day in ways more than variopintas, for many a cult title, reserved for a very limited and specific niche of players, for others a mediocre work and without much to emphasize.
Today, almost ten years later, everyone is talking about Deadly premonition, but why? Very easy, because Nintendo announced a few months ago that the second installment of the title, Deadly Premonition 2 (a sequel to the first game), is in development for Nintendo Switch. This set off alarms, everyone threw their hands to their heads, thinking about who would develop the sequel to this "peculiar" work, all doubts were quickly cleared, Hidetaka Suehiro, head of the franchise, would be responsible for directing the project.
This brings us here, in order to boost the name of Deadly premonition (and has to get some liquidity while the second part is still in development), Nintendo decided to take out this first part to Nintendo Switch, renaming it with the name of Deadly Premonition Origins. Are you prepared to accompany me on this trip along the town of Greenvale?
A detective story rich in detail
We are the FBI agent Francis York Morgan, a more than proven police specialized in the investigation of paranormal crimes. After a last somewhat complicated work, which left us with a scar on one end of the face, we headed to a small town in the northwestern United States, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. There, in the middle of all that wooded place that adorns Greenvale we will find the cold and mutilated corpse of Anna Graham, one of the neighbors of the town. Our mission will be to discover who committed such a crime.
Two people will help us along the way: George Woodman, the town sheriff and Emily Wyatt, his helper. Apart from Zach, Morgan's "other self," with which he will often engage in monologues that will irritate the rest of the characters, which will lead to quite comic situations as well as absurdities.
The road will be full of plot twists, suspicious characters and some strange dreams in which Morgan he will have to fight for his life, fighting strange creatures, orchestrated by a stranger being wearing a reddish raincoat.
A rough playable section like few
Touch to talk about the gameplay, unfortunately … Deadly Premonition has a rough and rudimentary movement system, which today (2019, almost 2020) is practically unacceptable. The movement of the character resembles the typical "tank" control of certain classic games (for example resident Evil), although worse, much worse than the saga of Capcom.
I also have to tell you about the control of the vehicle, the driving, as in Deadly Premonition you will drive a lot to cover the large portions of land that separate the different areas of the town from Greenvale. Do you remember Morgan's control? Well this section is even worse.
To finish this section I will talk about mission development (the only moderately salvageable within the gameplay of the title). Upon reaching the mission area, we will have to go picking up different tracks, solving small puzzles (often opening doors, or finding certain objects), all this part of research intermingles with action sections, in which we will have to use Morgan's arsenal (melee weapons and firearms). The development is simple, nothing we have not seen before in other games of the genre of survival horror, but it works.
Greenvale, an open world ruled by time
This is one of the most notable points of the whole title. his open world is full of things to do (side missions, main, collectibles …) and sites to visit, in addition, a very important factor to consider when exploring is time, specifically the clock. Time will progress as we play, this means that we cannot access all places at all times (for example, if the hospital is open from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we will not be able to access it after that time ).
One of lime and one of sand
You will be seeing it through the images and videos that I am leaving you in this analysis, so you will already get to the idea that the Deadly Premonition's graphic section is pretty bad. This title, in its origin, was scheduled to be released for Playsation 2, but the problems during development and the lack of funding caused the game to be delayed to Xbox 260, which would cause the technical delay of the work. Deadly Premonition was already ugly in 2010, so in full 2019 it is even more, and its lack of graphic power becomes even more latent.
But not all the audiovisual section of the title is bad, far from it, the soundtrack is outstanding. You have heard correctly, it is wonderful how good it spins with the game, and the quality of the themes. For me, by far, the best section of the whole game.
A port with falling frames
I have to tell you about the Nintendo Switch version, and I'm sorry to tell you that I don't have good news. The port is improvable, not because of the graphic quality (because it is what it is, the title cannot be asked for more), but because of the game performance, have constant frame drops, that do not make the game unplayable, far from it, but that are far from offering a full and satisfying experience.
conclusion
Worship game or mediocre? For me, Deadly Premonition is a game closer to the second, with good ideas and a plot more than remarkable, but with a playable section that is coarse and unacceptable by today's standards. Its spectacular soundtrack conceals a little the graphic level lacks (I insist that it is a PS2 game graphically) of the game.
Definitely, Deadly Premonition is one of lime and another of sand, an intriguing narrative and a shocking soundtrack that unfortunately are marred by a sad gameplay and a graphic section of more than 10 years ago. We will have to see what he does Hidetaka Suehiro and his team for the second part, but of course they have to improve and polish many things.
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