What I Played Today: December 7

Deadly Premonition

I didn’t actually play many games today, but I did watch a game being played for a good two-and-a-half hours, which is similar. The game in question has been purported to be one of the worst games to come out in the past year, and I have to wholeheartedly disagree. It appears to be a competent game, which was developed for the wrong system and written by someone with a fair idea, but virtually no chops. It also does a bunch of weird things, but does them in a way just odd enough to be really entertaining camp.

The problem is the game gives a really bad first impression. The opening cinematics features terrible graphics, a terrible song, absolutely confusing imagery, insane behavior, and probably the unintentionally funniest wrong sound cue I’ve heard. But once you get into the game proper, you start seeing some heavy atmosphere and some poorly-implemented but useable controls, and an intriguing story that slowly builds.

Probably the best part of the game is the protagonist, the decidedly weird FBI agent York Morgan, who spends about 30% of the game talking to his imaginary friend about movies from the 80’s, and doesn’t seem to get human interactions. He is more of an enigma than the actual mystery of the town, as his near mystical powers of fortune-telling and odd backstory that links this case to his past, as well as how calmly he handles being suddenly thrust into a hell dimension populated by zombies who walk in reverse and shove their hands in his mouth.

But the town is given a weird characterization as well, with distinct characters and weird coincidences, like the impossibly huge hotel staffed by a single octogenarian, the police station that separates their keys with squirrel keychains, and the moneyed son of the town founder who wears a gas mask at all times. It’s a weird place, and the odd tempo of the game makes it all that much weirder, with character reminding you that they really need to get to hospital before it closes fourteen hours from now.

But I like the game, mainly because it makes the story interesting (the same way that Alan Wake handled it, and of course, both coopting Twin Peaks’ style), but also because the cutscenes are really entertaining to watch because of how everything isn’t quite right, and the dialogue is delivered as hammy as possible. I like it; I think I’m nearly tempted to pick it up.