Deadly Premonition

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About

Deadly Premonition is a survival-horror game directed by Hitedaka Suehiro, aka SWERY. The game follows detective Francis York Morgan as he attempts to solve a series of murders attributed to "The Raincoat Killer" in a small Washington town. Though divisive among critics, the game developed a cult following due to its bizarre storyline which tonally and narratively was heavily inspired by Twin Peaks, offbeat humor, and janky mechanics and performance. Roughly a decade after its original release, it was re-released on the Nintendo Switch and a sequel is set to release July 10th, 2020.

History

Development on Deadly Premonition began in 2004, when it was titled Rainy Woods.^[1] After Rainy Woods was scrapped, its assets were repurposed and developed into Deadly Premonition. The game has a real-time feel, meaning players can explore an open world operating on a 24-hour schedule. NPCs will move about the town according to their individual schedules, and York will get hungry, smelly, and bearded unless the player addresses these needs. To move about town, York has to drive or walk around, though a fast-travel system is unlocked by completing an obscure sidequest. Deadly Premonition released for the Xbox 360 on February 23rd, 2010. A "Director's Cut" version of the game with some upgraded graphics and additional content was released in 2013.^[2]

Sequel

In September of 2019, Nintendo announced that the original Deadly Premonition was available on the Switch and that a sequel would be released on July 10th, 2020.^[3] The game is called Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise. The story follows Morgan working on a case in Le Carré, a thinly-veiled version of New Orleans.

Reception

Deadly Premonition received polarized mixed reviews on its release, with some critics loving the game and others hating it. Many felt it was a game that had achieved a balance of interesting narrative and technical awfulness that gave it a "so-bad-it's good" quality. The game received a 68/100 on Metacritic.^[4] Destructoid gave the game a perfect score, writing, "This game is so bad, it's not just become good. It's pretty close to perfect." IGN^[5] gave the game a 2/10, writing, "Awful in nearly every way… Terrible controls. Terrible pacing. Terrible sound effects. Terrible visuals." In 2012 it entered the Guinness Book of World Records^[6] as the "Most Critically Polarizing Survival Horror Game."

Online Presence

The game has retained a cult following in the years after its release, with players continuing to revel in the "so-bad-its-good" nature of the game. On YouTube, it was played on the Super Best Friends Play channel in 2013 (shown below, left). Game Grumps played for a small portion of the game in 2016 (shown below, right).

A subreddit for the game, /r/deadlypremonition,^[7] has received over 2,100 subscribers since its creation on August 1st, 2011. There, users share memes about the game. For example, user CFGLiam made a That Damn Smile meme on July 9th, 2020 (shown below, left). On July 8th, user CaptainVladmir posted an Other Game Leaks edit about the upcoming sequel (shown below, right)