Every good game deserves a sequel, isn't that right, Zach?
The game is both a sequel and a prequel, and it assumes that you've played the original, so it assumes that you know big twist. As such, it's impossible not to avoid spoiling the original game when talking about this one, so you've been warned. The game follows two different storylines, one set before Deadly Premonition 1, in which you play as York as he came across the red seeds for the very first time, and the other storyline set after DP1, in which you play as an older Zach. York's chapters make up the brunt of the game, as they are pretty much identical to the original game, while Zach's are heavy on the a narrative, with you pretty much just selecting items to interrogate Zach about.
I felt the plot did a good job of tying this new case with the one from the original game, and the final chapter, in which you finally play as Zach, offers a new resolution to Zach, as opposed to how things ended in the original game. I'm happy to report that the dialogue is just as ridiculous, in a good way, as it was in the original game, and we get a new set of quirky characters. I was quite fond of the new location, Le Carre, as well. Heck, I'd say I prefer Le Carre to Greenvale. Adding to this, the new cell-shaded graphics are beautiful, at least when the framerate isn't struggling. That said, York has been flanderized a bit, so all he does now is talk about movies, and things that remind him of movies. It's not a huge deal, but it is a noticeable narrative choice. While I enjoyed the story, as a whole, it wasn't as good as the one from the original game, but then again, it'd be hard to top that twist.
And since I'm at it, they managed to reproduce the wonky charm from the original game. Character models move in very stiff, unnatural ways, that in any other game it'd be immersion breaking, but in this one? It's part of the charm. Even York's awkward smile is back.
The gameplay remains pretty much identical. You are free to do anything from Monday to Sunday, though different places have different opening hours, and NPCs might be in different places depending on the time and day. And just like before, at night pretty much every store closes and enemies start popping out from the ground. Once again, some missions might only be able to be completed on certain days, at a certain time. You still need to eat, sleep, shave, clean your clothes and clean yourself, which isn't as annoying as it sounds, as long as you have a meal and a shower a day, you'll be OK. You also have main missions and side missions. There's one big difference, however, and that's in your means of transportation, instead of a car... you get a skateboard. You can even learn tricks to pull off, and yes, they look and feel as janky as you'd expect.
Unlike the original game, now you are stuck with your gun the whole way through, however, now you can collect materials to craft charms to upgrade York's stats and customize his gun, you can even put elemental bullets on your pistol, and even 'Shotgun bullets". Combat was pretty much an afterthought in the original game, and it's pretty much exactly the same in this one, as enemies fall down very quickly. Melee weapons are gone too, since this time around York can perform a three hit combo, with two punches and a kick.
And these materials? You can find them lying around the environment, or by hunting animals such as squirrels, dogs or alligators. And you can hunt them with your fists. It's really dumb, and I loved it. What I didn't love was how grindy it all was. I mean, non-hunting material just pops up randomly near trees or near marshes, so collecting these and finding the right item you need is completely down to luck, which is honesty a terrible design choice.
And then there are the side missions... you get absolutely nothing to aid you in how to find them or complete them. I'll mention one of the worst offenders, the shower side mission. This one is very important, since if you don't fix the shower you'll have to buy items to cover your B.O. instead of just taking a shower and forgetting about it. It tells you to talk to the Chef, fine, you go to the Hotel's restaurant and ring his bell... and nothing. You actually have to talk to the Chef when he is standing around in the Hotel, but at what time he does that? Who knows. Try every hour and search for him inside, hopefully you'll find him. This side mission has you talking with three such NPCs. It's honestly baffling just how annoying doing side content is in this game.
And some of the main mission are kinda dull too. Midway through chapter two you'll be tasked with doing something you can only do on Mondays. Trust me, at most, you'll be on Thursday when this mission comes up, so that's a lot of waiting, or slowly sleeping every day off until Monday. There's another mission that requires you to find Spinach, and they expect you to try every single vending machine in Le Carre until you find the right one. Hopefully you realize that vending machines are marked on the map, I didn't until I looked it up, and from what I found out, many people didn't either. And not long after, the next mission is a set of collectathons, squirrel tails and anaconda skins. These mission types would be OK if they were optional, but they aren't. And very late in the game, you have to chase a dog for what feels like 15 minutes. I think the original game had a similar mission, but it probably wasn't as bad. Plus, they made it extra annoying. York's base speed is too slow, if you sprint you are too fast. Same with the skateboard, either too slow or too fast, so you are constantly, awkwardly, making pauses to let it get ahead.
And what about combat? It's as braindead simple as it was in DP 1, and I'm fine with that, DP is fantastic thanks to its story and charm, so I'm OK with it being just a means to an end. But every single dungeon is just a set of corridors that lead to more corridors, using the same exact tilesets every single time. It's dumbfounding, and then there's the fact that enemy variety is null. The first chapter has guys with scissors, the red ones chase you and the white ones jump you, but for all intents and purposes, they are identical. Chapter two introduced guys chained to a door, one of them drops crab-locks that explode, the other one crab-locks that don't explode. And the third, and final chapter, introduces another enemy type. That's three character models, for 5 different enemy types, two being slight variations of other two enemies. Was this game made on a shoestring budget? Honestly, what gives? Even the epic last chapter dungeon's recycle the same tileset.
But the framerate is embarrassing, it gets particularly bad when you are on the skateboard. I wouldn't say it's unplayable, but the fact that they thought this was OK is honestly shocking. Dude, the Bowling minigame is such a pain, cause you have to time button presses, but it always feels delayed. And you have to play it at least once to advance the story. How is it that the Witcher 3 port rans better than this game? How?
And I didn't even mention the control glitches, did I? Controls stopped working constantly. It happened at least twice while I was in the overworld, and the only thing I could do was run. Couldn't take out my skateboard, couldn't take out my guns, couldn't sprint, just run. Thankfully, I realized that interacting with something would make them work again. Another time, while inside the hotel, I lost the ability to sprint, but even worse, another time, after eating, I couldn't move at all, I was forced to restart that time, and lost a bunch of progress. Finally, during the last chapter, everything but moving stopped working, again. I thought I'd have to restart again, but crouching fixed the issue. Somehow.
The fact that this game released in this condition is frankly astounding, and I'm aware that the original game had similar issues, but at least back then it was their first attempt at this. With this game they had a chance to make a charmingly wonky game that played better. But instead, it's even more broken than the original, and it learned nothing from its shortcomings. I'll tell you what, though, I think fans of Deadly Premonition, such as I, will probably like the game despite how terrible it is, but anyone else should steer clear, as its issues are bigger, but the charm isn't as enthralling this time around. And I hate how poor the game plays, because whenever I wasn't having issues, I was laughing out loud, I was loving the new characters, I wanted to see how the story would progress.... and then the controls would stop working again.
6.5
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