A quick post about that Twin Peaks game... I mean, Deadly Premonition

Agent Cooper vs. Agent Francis York Morgan - photos via Twin Peaks Brewing Co. and Neogaf

Deadly Premonition is one big pain in the ass to play. The game controls are unbearable, the graphics are reminiscent of some game that debuted on the N64 years ago, and gameplay is tripped up with frequent bugs and quirky quests that make the whole thing feel insufferably slow.

That said, there are so, so many obvious parallels between Deadly Premonition and Twin Peaks that despite its many faults I can't help but reserve a certain desire to play it just to see how far its mimicry goes. In my first two hours of play last night I've noticed the following likenesses:

• You play as Agent York, an FBI agent from the big city who's come to a small town to solve the mysterious homicide of the beloved 18-year-old girl Anna. Sound familiar?
• You begin the game in a mysterious room surrounded by red trees with the floor covered in red leaves. You revisit this room in your dreams, sometimes at the start of a level. There's no midgets, but there are a pair of creepy twins (that actually replaced twin midgets from an earlier build).
• Agent York is constantly narrating his thoughts to some character named "Zach", not with a tape recorder, but through some communicative device in his head (aka York's crazy???). I assume the player is "Zach", but no-one else in the game speaks to "you" except for York.
• York is very particular about his coffee and biscuits.
• You collect trading cards in the game and they look exactly like the real trading cards for Twin Peaks. (shown above)

Now just so we're clear my fellow Twin Peaks fans, despite the similarities this is not the game you'll want to buy an Xbox for. The game just clearly comes off as the low-budget bastard son of a hypothetical Twin Peaks game. Deadly Premonition has a few things in it that separates it from the tv show, like the whole survival horror gameplay and the fact that Agent Cooper is way cuter than Agent York, but at the end of the day it's painfully obvious where the game got its characters and storyline. 

Since there was never a Twin Peaks game (and I have yet to play Alan Wake), this is acceptable for now, just bizarre. I'll probably keep playing it because, well, I bought it and it's kind of like playing Twin Peaks the game. But man, even the songs from the Deadly Premonition soundtrack all have their Twin Peaks doppelgangers. There's even a (terrible) knock-off Julee Cruise on some of the tracks. Unbelievable!

"Laura Palmer's Theme"   Twin Peaks - Laura Palmer's Theme

"Greenvale"   Deadly Premonition - Greenvale

and

"Audrey's Dance"   Twin Peaks - Audrey's Dance

Thomas Mclaine   Deadly Premonition - Thomas Mclaine

Comments

[David Jacobs]

Of course the next question is - what would an appropriate homage to Twin Peaks as a video game? A collection of surreal mini-games? A text-based interactive fiction game? A MMORPG? Should it have an end?

[.tiff]

A collection of surreal mini-games tied by narrative or an adventure game seems the most appropriate to me, though, an MMORPG where I can play as Audrey or the Log Lady would be dreeeaaaaammmyyyy.

[ScottyG]

So... I typed up a nice long reply but just as I was closing the tab I noticed the captcha that's on your blog now. :\

Anyways, yay for adventures in Greenvale! :D

The game definitely starts out slow (the first "episode" is more than a quarter of the game), and does a pretty bad job of explaining some mechanics (like the time limits), but like you I couldn't help but be drawn into it. And while this isn't a good excuse, if you do certain side quests you'll get rewards that'll help negate most of the annoying parts of the game.

This is definitely a case of story over gameplay. I hope you enjoy how it pans out. :)

I gotta say though that the PSX/N64 comparisons annoy me. Really? Does it really look that bad? Sure it looks pretty bad for a current-gen game, but it's not quite that bad. :P

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u27l7O_9lb0

[.tiff]

Hey Scotty, thanks for commenting. Despite the fact that my man is giving me a LOT of crap for playing this game (he can't even be in the same room when I play because it irritates him so much), I'm trying to stick with it. Most recently I was pretty sold when I was driving at night and Agent York started to talk to 'Zach' about B-movies. This game is a lot more self-aware than it seems at first.

The game controls are still frustrating and there are so many bugs, but I'm enjoying myself thus far. Maybe it's not nearly as bad as N64, though the graphics are the definition of unrefined and the repeated textures are an eyesore I haven't experienced since the N64 era. I do enjoy the layout of the small forested town though, so things aren't all that bad.

[ScottyG]

Hehehe, yeah. The conversations make it worth it to not use the fast travel device you can get. Pay more attention to the backgrounds, and text captions (signs, license plates, etc). Lots of funny little things, both intentional and not (a few good Engrish examples :D). I completely understand why someone wouldn't like this game, but things like that are why I love it. :D

Something the game doesn't tell you is that the time limit can be missed and will be there the next day. So don't feel rushed and explore all you want (cigarettes help pass time quickly btw). The more you dig into the non-main quest portions of the game the more detail you find was put into it. Before my 360 E74'd I was going through my second playthrough on hard, and noticed a lot more details as I did things a little different. :)

Have you gotten to the wall crawling enemies yet? (around chapter 10 I think) Easily the most frustrating part of the game for me. I'd recommend looking up some strategies online on how to more easily beat them (or email me) if you haven't figured them out. :)

[Shamous]

This blog is boring. Needs more posts, stat! Post stat. Poststat. Postat. Pasta?