Deadly Premonition

by Ignition Entertainment

• Lengthy campaign with over 20 hours of gameplay.
• A living, breathing, persistent open gameworld of investigative mystery, featuring a huge cast of unique NPCs each with their own individual mysteries to uncover.
• Dozens of side quests that will further immerse the player and reveal more of Greenvale?s secret underbelly.
• A combination of over-the-shoulder shooter action, driving, and 3rd person adventure/exploration offers a variety of gameplay.
• Use your profiling prowess to recreate the crime with the various clues and items found at the scene and the dozens of melee, ranged and hidden weapons to defend yourself from the onslaught of evil.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002WSR8BC
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 23, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (162 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,239 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Deadly Premonition is a third-person survival-horror-action game that blends gritty crime investigation gameplay, with a topnotch story and classic melee and ranged combat. Set across an expansive and persistent open world game environment filled with more than 30 non-player characters (NPCs), side quests and multiple types of deadly supernatural enemies, Deadly Premonition offers a unique and haunting interactive gaming experience unlike any other. Story Deadly Premonition follows the adventures of Special Agent Francis York Morgan sent to the fictional Pacific Northwest town of Greenvale to investigate the brutal murder of a young local beauty. Amidst the backdrop of soaring mountains and a town filled with eccentric natives, Agent Morgan must solve the mystery of the Red Seed Murders and stay alive in a place where supernatural creatures and a legendary folklore killer seek to end his investigation permanently. Investigate the mystery and survive the terror in Greenvale with Special Agent Morgan. View larger. Gameplay Action in Deadly Premonition is split between investigative gameplay required to solve the series of murders that have been committed in Greenvale and combat tactics needed to survive the bevy of creatures that inexplicably lurk the town and its surroundings. The game features a persistent open world which the player in the role of Agent Morgan can explore at will, searching for clues and observing and/or interacting with non-player characters (NPCs). The game is populated with more than 30 NPCs, each with its own personality, backstory, etc. These townspeople are wary of becoming the next victim of the murderer on the loose, and one perhaps of being exposed as the killer. Because of the variety of NPC attitudes toward Agent Morgan and his investigation, as well as the persistent gameworld allowing them to have their own schedules which vary from hour to hour, players can stalk them, hoping to reveal clues, character insights and even side quests. Deadly Premonition also contains a wealth of horror-survival combat gameplay. As players crisscross the gameworld in search of clues to the murders, they will encounter dangerous, otherworldly creatures. Some of these like the zombie like "Shadows" can be dealt with using a variety of melee weapons and firearms available in the game, but players will also encounter the legendary axe-wielding fiend known as the "Raincoat Killer". What if any connection is there between these creatures and the murders afflicting the town? That is up to you to determine. What is certain though is that they pose an immediate and very real threat to your survival, making players' decisions whether to run or stand his ground crucial in each varying situation. Key Game Features A living, breathing persistent world of investigative mystery, featuring NPCs with their own individual mysteries to uncover. Dozens of side quests that will further immerse the player and reveal more of Greenvale’s secret underbelly. Engage in open world adventure as you go sightseeing and explore the town of Greenvale while you solve the mysteries within it. A combination of over-the-shoulder shooter action, driving, and 3rd person adventure/exploration offers a variety of gameplay. Use your profiling prowess to recreate the crime with the various clues and items found at the scene. Dozens of melee, ranged and hidden weapons to defend yourself from the onslaught of evil. Lengthy campaign with over 20 hours of gameplay. Additional Screenshots: Crime investigation gameplay. View larger. More than 30 unique NPCs. View larger. 3rd-person survival action. View larger. Frightening boss encounters. View larger.

Product Description

Deadly Premonition, developed by Access Games, is a third-person survival horror action game which puts players in the role of FBI Agent Francis York Morgan. In the process of investigating a murder, players will examine a series of interlocking mysteries in a remote rural town and will encounter an array of complex characters pivotal to the unraveling of the storyline’s mystery. Suspenseful action sequences will force players to make strategic moves, gliding by enemies in the shadows or engaging them with long-range weapons or hand-to-hand melee combat. Amidst a backdrop of soaring mountains and a town filled with eccentric natives, Agent Morgan must solve the mystery of the ‘Red Seed Murders’ and stay alive in a place where supernatural creatures and a folklore killer seek to end his investigation permanently. From the unparalleled atmosphere, music and mysterious storyline to driving vehicles and exploring the entire town, Deadly Premonition will offer players a unique and haunting interactive gaming experience unlike any other.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 101 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot of ambition for a low price of admission February 25, 2010

By Andrew T. Bedgood

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Deadly Premonition

When I first saw trailers for Deadly Premonition, I was quite intrigued (I love adventure and survival horror games)-so I was going to get this game regardless price or quality (there are so few games in those genres these days that it's hard to get my fix)... and when I heard that it was going to be 20 bucks, I got even more excited (most budget games these days cost 40... which is 20 bucks more than what a budget game cost one console generation ago). I have to say, I've been very pleasantly surprised with this game.

Graphically, it's no showboat, that's for sure, but it's competent--especially for the price. The character models look like high-end original XBOX models, but the environments, especially texture-wise, are rather lacking. I had seen the previews and the price tag, so I wasn't going in expecting Crysis; but if you're a graphics whore, you will be quite disappointed. Regardless of the low polygon count and texture resolutions, I really liked the game's atmosphere--the environments are intriguing and surreal which really helps maintain the game's mood.

The story is captivating and very well done with a competent cast, especially for a budget title, to help keep you engaged for the 20+ hour campaign. It's an odd blend of surreal horror and quirky humor that manages to work well together. It's quite unlike anything you'll experience in a big budget title... the game takes a lot of risks, which is probably why it ended up being a budget title (ie. if they produced the game with a larger budget, if it flopped, the loss would have been much greater--so, they managed to take risks with a low budget to see if it was a formula that worked).

The gameplay may feel a bit dated, but I grew up on games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil and I honestly think it works well for a horror game because it adds a layer of intensity instead of making your character an indestructible superhuman space marine. You're placed in a free roaming town with plenty of places to explore and things to do... like more things to do than a lot of 60 dollar games these days. The vehicle segments can be a chore because they handle like bricks on square wheels, so that's a bit disappointing, but not an entirely game-breaking experience because they're not really a huge part of the game. Some really creative things were done with the time cycle and character management--your character will grow a beard as time progresses, so you can shave that to keep your image more appealing to those around you... if you don't change your clothes regularly, flies will gather around you... stuff like that. It's quite fascinating and is something you don't normally see in games.

The sound design would be my biggest complaint... it's like watching an old movie where the music is so loud and the dialogue is so quiet that it's almost hard to pay attention to what's going on. I turned the bgm music down to 30 and have the voices volume at 100% and it still had issues, so I put on subtitles. The music can also be a buzz kill with only a few songs that cycle during character interactions and key plot points... some of them feel really out of place (there's one happy little diddy with whistling that is just odd to hear when you're investigating a murder... and it WILL get stuck in your head).

If you can muscle through some torturous tunes, the game is really a treat. It has an engaging story with a lot of charm of its own that you won't find in most mainstream games, a lengthy campaign, and a very affordable price. It may not be a looker, but even had this game been released with the standard $40 budget price, it would have been well worth the cash--so, $20 is quite the steal.

133 of 152 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars welcome to crazytown February 24, 2010

By Lars Kingbeard

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Deadly Premonition is obviously not a big budget title, and as such it cant compete with other games in terms of graphics or polish. If you give the title a chance however, you are likely to find that its quirky characters and story will engage your attention in a way that other games with their multi-million dollar budgets simply cannot. With that much money on the line, no mainstream studio would ever greenlight a project as weird as this game.

The graphics are far from terrible, and in a way they have a certain charm that requires you to use your imagination to fill in the blanks. Deadly Premonition reminds me of the sort of bizarre japanese games that were de rigueur on the Dreamcast, games like Illbleed, Maken X, and D2. The investigation is over 20 hours long and there is an abundance to see and do in the town of Greenvale. Gamers with an open mind who would like to see something different, or maybe just to revisit an earlier era of far-out gaming that is now all but dead, should not hesitate to give Deadly Premonition a shot.

206 of 238 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deadly Premonition: Less Polish, Miles More Depth March 28, 2010

By Kyle Johnson

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Deadly Premonition has been met with a number of bad reviews. It occurs to me that they seem to follow a similar thread. Allow me to demonstrate the general consensus among those who so vociferously detest this product: "THIS GAME IS AWFUL BECAUSE OF THE GRAPHICS, AND SINCE THE GRAPHICS ARE AWFUL, IT MUST THEREFORE BE ASSUMED THAT THIS GAME IS AWFUL. TOTALLY WEAK GRAPHICS ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE TO A GREAT GAMING EXPERIENCE. ONE STAR! ALSO, I SHOULD NOTE THAT I AM NOT RATING THIS GAME FOR THE GAME ITSELF, BECAUSE I HAVE NOT PLAYED IT."

I, however, have played this game. A lot, in fact. I sunk around 50+ hours into the whole experience and found the game to be engrossing and easily worth the twenty dollar asking price. So how could I be so wrong, having played the game and all? Because I didn't know the truth. The ineffable yet utterly obvious fact: good video games didn't exist prior to Modern Warfare 2. There was no such thing as a good game for the NES or Dreamcast. There was no system seller title for your Nintendo 64 or Playstation. Forget what you thought you knew about Perfect Dark or Symphony of the Night or any of those games you thought were "good." Childish thoughts, those. Those games could not be good. Have you seen the graphics? They're SO bad, guys!

If you are on the fence, please disregard the negative reviews for this title, as they are incredibly redundant and almost totally useless. The drawbacks to this title are pretty notable once you crack it open, so there is little or no point to spend so much time hammering them (never mind making them the entire focus of your ire). And yes, some may consider them core elements of what essentially makes a video game. Graphics are not "next gen." Controls take some getting used to. Translation sucks sometimes. Audio is a little out of whack. Got it? Good. The difference between Deadly Premonition and so many other games with similar problems is that it manages to excel past so many of its peers on other levels to a point where it more than makes up for its problems. I personally assure you that, despite these shortcomings, the flaws are not egregious enough offenses to kill what is a very unique, if unpolished, gaming experience. Deadly Premonition is not a game that needs to look great to win favor, because its beauty comes from the story, which is an incredibly rare thing for the format.

I find that the problems so many people have with this game are born from being duped into believing that a game's primary objectives are looking as slick as possible and providing a quick-moving, kill-happy multiplayer component that will provide plenty of loud explosions to scream over in order to call some kid in Tulsa something vaguely homophobic or racist. But the real goal of video games is, and has always been, having fun. And Deadly Premonition is a lot of fun. It isn't strong as far as graphics are concerned, to be sure. However, for anyone who has ever enjoyed a title on an older-gen console and would find themselves drawn back to it for the game and not the look, this isn't an issue. Portions of it drag, and the combat, particularly with the boss fights, can become redundant and stale. The complaint about controls is invalid, particularly with those who enjoyed the earlier games of the Resident Evil/Silent Hill ilk. The character controls like a tank, but that has never been an issue when one considers how great, say, Silent Hill 2 is. We have become so concerned with games being bigger, faster, stronger that people tend to disregard things that make games fun. Mediocre graphics, somewhat frustrating combat, and tank controls did not hinder any of those early survival-horror classics from becoming just that. And my feeling is that this same distinction will befall Deadly Premonition with time: a classic. Once you settle in and get familiar with Greenvale and its inhabitants, it's a ride worth taking. And that's a big turn off for a lot of potential players. The fun is not in endlessly playable and thoroughly mindless slaughter, or marveling at how pretty it looks. Today's gamer, for the most part, is a pay me up front type. They generally want bang-bang action and they want it fast. Deadly Premonition is a slow burn. It takes its time to tell the story, because that is what is at its core. The fun is in the investment in the town and the characters who occupy it. It's feeling a connection to what you are playing, and feeling that you are a part of it, rather than a removed entity mindlessly pressing buttons. Deadly Premonition, more so than any other game I've ever played, sucks you in and completely envelops you in the world it creates. And while it may deter some gamers with shorter attention spans, it will inevitably pay dividends for those who have a mind to stick with it.

This is because Deadly Premonition takes full advantage of the shift in video games that places greater emphasis on storytelling. The story to be had here is disarmingly interesting, and it is amplified by the wide assortment of characters, each quirkier and more Lynchian than the last. From the gas station attendant who speaks almost exclusively to hundred dollar bills to the Pot Lady (directly influenced by Twin Peaks' Log Lady), each character is unique, regardless of how integral they are to the story. No character is more engaging than Agent Francis York Morgan, who succeeds in being one of the richest characters in video games. While a big point of contention for many has been, of all things, the slowness of driving and getting around in the early going (quick aside: boo hoo), I never felt it was an issue. Reason being, Deadly Premonition provides a character in Morgan who, rather than simply getting from point A to point B, gives the player something to chew on while they do so. The banter between York and Zach, who is essentially the player to a point, is endlessly entertaining, whether it is about the case and the characters involved or about a shared fondness of punk rock and B horror movies. This game doesn't simply use dialogue to advance the plot, nor does it choose to conveniently dump background information into the player's lap in a nicely bundled expository package. It gives the player bits of information, however arbitrary or tangential or bizarre they may seem at the time, that build over the course of the game to form what, for my money, is the strongest ensemble of characters ever put forth in a video game.

And it is because of this investment and trust in the characters from the creators that the story succeeds. Because of this strength, every twist, every death, is felt by the player. The game's conclusion is arguably one of the most effective of its kind because of that relationship with the characters. At the end, there is a choice that must be made. And there is one option that must be taken to advance the game. But it is a choice that I did not want to make, and I tried every other option available before the realization that this was the only way to go. This is entirely to the credit of the story and characters, as over time they become more than simple NPCs and filler. Deadly Premonition is a game that has substantial weight to it, and in that category, it stands without rival.

The argument that this game could have been great or fun were it that it came out on a console a generation ago is absurd, because the last time I checked, a good game is a good game. Bottom line. Were we to play revisionist history, and if Deadly Premonition had come out five or six years ago, it would have been hailed as a flawed but beautiful gem and would have set the bar for developers looking to translate a story to the medium. For it to have been released in 2010 should not effect the perception of what this game manages to do with what it has at its disposal. Arguing this end is the equivalent of suggesting that films of yesteryear are inferior due to the use of practical effects when compared to the application of CGI today. If a film utilizes amazing visuals but fails to be a good movie, it's a pretty looking mess. And so many games today manage to be pretty looking time wasters, which is fine if that's all they strive to be. Junk food is always nice. Deadly Premonition is like a film that is budgeted an eighth of what Michael Bay spends blowing things up on screen. A film whose producers knew that there was no point trying to compete with the glossy sheen of bigger productions and poured its money into screenwriters and casting. And from this effort, they pull something that doesn't look as nice and may have a hiccup here and there, but manages to tell a bolder and more captivating story. It won't see the big box office returns and it won't get immediate recognition, but it will stand the test of time while other films become statistical footnotes that are wiped away by reboots, remakes, and sequels. Deadly Premonition, for all intents and purposes, is a pretty remarkable gaming experience. If you enjoy video games, you are doing yourself a disservice by missing out on it.