Deadly Premonition: First Impressions

There are times when I latch onto a trivial entry in the vast body of human art and achievement and over-analyze the stuffing out of it. Like when I say that Maniac Mansion is the origin of all that is good or interesting in video games or that the meaning of life can be found in Beetlejuice. These things just speak to me in a way that Wuthering Heights or Battlestar Galactica just don't.

Deadly Premonition is one of those magical things. I intend to give it a "proper" review at some point, but there is a lot I have to say about it and I haven't even begun to scratch the surface. No spoilers in terms of plot, but if you don't want to know about "the pickles" in glistening, agonizing detail then I suggest you go do something else, like reading a fine June 2009 article about Spy Groove or play an exciting game demo.

If you are not aware, Deadly Premonition is the incredibly Twin Peakes-esque story of an FBI agent, Francis York Morgan, investigating the murder of a beloved local girl in a small town. Only he's totally crazy and always talks to his imaginary friend, Zach, and also is menaced by spooky creatures. The first thing that struck me is that the player character is not the main character. You think that you're playing as York, but you're Zach, the guy he's talking to. This is a space that I for one love to see explored, but not enough to play more than a couple hours of Contact for the DS. Think about it really for a minute: this guy has been receiving otherworldly commands from someone with outside information about his situation who wants to accomplish certain goals but with a callous disregard for his safety. Of course York is crazy, but he's making do as best he can. It's like that movie I totally didn't see where that guy hears his own life being narrated. On car trips, in lieu of a radio, you can actually have York go on for quite some time about 80s movies and his fetish for women turning into cats. True story.

It's like a deconstruction of the medium. There are things in normal games that are bizarre since they're abstracted gameplay elements from real life, and since you realize that's what they are you just kind of ignore them, unless you're the author of a crappy comic about video games groping for the day's lame joke. For example, the Pay 'n' Sprays in the Grand Theft Auto series. You drive in, they paint your car in a matter of seconds, fixing any damage and erasing your wanted level, no matter how many military guys see you drive into the garage. This is absolutely absurd but not a problem for anyone. DP has a similar mechanic where you get a car wash, either by the sexy lady attendant or the gross dude, for about $15 that repairs your car. Thing is, absolutely everything that happens in the game is abstract or surreal or just off somehow, which makes "normal" sort of weird game things like this stand out as being wrong. You're actually thinking about how strange it is that the game does something like fixing your flaming squad car with just a damp rag for less than half of what you just paid for a pack of crackers. This is DP's triumph, that it calls into question the way normal games are done.

It's this close to being an actually, legitimately good game. Sure, the production values are super low and the least appropriate music is playing at all times, but it's still totally playable. I don't find the investigation and the shooty bits an obstacle to get through so I can see the next hilarious cutscene. I'm actually into it. The horror elements are genuinely creepy. But, as my boyfriend pointed out, every frame of animation looks weird like those Half-Life comics people make using Garry's Mod.

Oh yeah, "the pickles." They come in a can. Labeled "the pickles." And I know where you can get an infinite supply of them. Also, I picked up a turkey sandwich trading card and thought, aww yeah, I'm going to eat this sandwich only to be bitterly disappointed.

I think you need visuals to understand what I'm talking about here. This is the cutscene that convinced me that this game was something I needed in my life:



And this is the one that made me go down to the store and buy it: