This review contains spoilers
i have so many thoughts about this game, almost entirely negative or otherwise critical in some capacity, but i still walk away from this game going "i enjoyed this. this was a net positive to enter my life." this is probably one of the best examples of "greater than the sum of its parts" when it comes to video games, because i could very easily nitpick this to death. the experience i had with this game was more important to me than the technical and artistic failures that this game demonstrated, and while i understand the cult classic status that this game has, i truly could not blame anyone who got fucked off by the first hour of the game.
let's just get one thing clear: the gameplay is absolutely abysmal here. i feel as though no one argues it, and if i argue this point too much, i'll be preaching to the choir. i'll just touch on the big problems: combat is far too easy to steamroll (ESPECIALLY for a survival horror game), resource management is a nonissue (you start with an infinite ammo weapon and can very trivially get multiple), enemy variety is lacking, level design is aesthetically and mechanically dull, aiming the weapons just feels bad and unresponsive, and those interactions with the raincoat killer are gigantic wastes of time at best. i wouldn't even be so down on it if it was giving anything beyond obligation. i was able to beat thomas and both of george's forms without taking any damage, and all of forrest's forms only taking damage once. this wasn't because i was masterful at the game, but instead because the game is excruciatingly undemanding and will bend over backwards to make damage avoidable. and the addition of hunger and sleep meters does nothing to elevate the gameplay, and they're both laughably easy to circumvent (food regenerates near at least like two different easy to access places you can sleep, making managing either of those meters trivial)
i don't necessarily want the game to be harder, i just want gameplay to have a point. every time i had to do a combat section, it felt like it was just padding the game length out and making me do a giant pointless and germane shooting gallery between story beats. if you're going to make me do these sections, make them either meaningful or challenging. it's a survival horror game (or at least, it's attempting to be), surely there's nothing wrong with a little difficulty? i hate to be a pedant, but the worst part of this video game is when i actually have to play it, because it engages me on the least amount of levels in the most pedestrian ways possible.
and in the context of the story, it also sort of loses me with how much of these combat sections are meant to be interpreted literally. does everyone see that the town goes apeshit insane after midnight for 6 hours? if so, why do any of its residents not comment on it at all? when emily goes up the clock tower and has to kill shadows for the first time, why does she not react with some level of confusion or otherwise horror? these aren't the most important questions to answer, but considering i had been going through most of the game going "okay, york is the only person experiencing this shit", only for the game to yank the rug from under me later is. . . well it's just borderline plot hole-y, but whatever, i'm not that type of person. what i'm more bothered by is that so many considerations went in to making this world feel immersive and lived in, and yet basic story questions like this go completely unanswered.
beyond that, the story itself is. . . well i don't love it, but it's something. i might still be processing it, but so much of it apes the setting and characters of twin peaks, while largely failing to interpret them in unique ways that set itself apart from twin peaks fanfiction. i love dumb characters like sigourney or jack, but they feel like retreads of twin peaks characters that already exist. and then you have the game taking characters like thomas, who is obviously meant to be the game's andy, and giving them a trans woman reveal and it feels very. . . shocking for shock value's sake. at least they didn't do anything especially bad with a reveal like that, because i kept holding my breath waiting for some silence of the lambs-esque dialogue. but, at the same time, no one even utters the word "trans" and if you deleted all the aspects of femininity from thomas' character, the reveal of him being george's lover would function exactly the same. it's so pointless on a certain level, why introduce these sensitive issue topics and then utterly fail to comment on them? i don't hate it, i just don't get what they were going for.
and maybe i'm just not big brained enough, but this game suffers from the "it's a mystery you largely can't solve until the story wants to tell you who the culprit is" issue that a lot of video games tend to. there's a difference between "information is doled out as the setting is explored" and "the main character is now going to tell us in no uncertain terms who the killer is because of a handful of logical leaps". we're absolutely certain that george was thomas' lover because the G in his heart G tattoo could only refer to george, god forbid. and george himself has a borderline nonsensical motivation. i think the execution of these reveals is very poor, but the game at least manages to earn some points in that it's being very earnest and sincere in said execution. C- for the results, but A for effort.
i have been internally wondering to myself "should this game have been a different genre?" and not coming up with a successful answer. it feels like an actual misnomer to call this a survival horror, the third person shooting feels very bad as mentioned, and the open world, while lovingly crafted at points, is a nightmare to traverse until you get either the radio or car upgrades (not to mention how the game just does not handle driving up hills even competently). this game largely feels like it has gameplay because it has to have some type of engagement with the player, but it simultaneously feels very unfitting. in many ways, this is one of the worst games i've played, because it's such a step backwards for games as a medium. this is a video game that very desperately wants to be a TV series, a movie, or even a book. it squanders the unique presentational aspects that video games have over any other art form, and, as a result, feels reductive. i enjoyed my time with deadly premonition, but i don't think i could ever recommend this game to someone who actually values gameplay above all else in their games. i can look past the dogshitness of all of it, but i shouldn't have to.
beyond that, i don't have much to say. it's a bad port and genuinely should not even be listed on steam considering how unplayable it is. console versions are so poorly optimized it gives me a headache, which is saying something considering how rarely i pay attention to that sort of thing. another thing: director's cut added a framing device that i think adds absolutely nothing to the story and serves no purpose other than to be a cryptic framing device. lastly, the york/emily romance thing just didn't work at all for me and felt very "we're both young and attractive leads in the story, we're obligated to fall in love now". i will say i didn't see the resolution to that coming, but, then again, who on earth could?
ah well. for literally all the awful things i have said about this game, i enjoyed it, and i will likely be thinking about it for a lot of time to come. it's weird in a charming way that is almost impossible to hate, and as much as it feels like a video game that resents being a video game, it is unlike many games i've played. being unique in itself isn't always a good thing, but as a selling point? you really can't get much better than that.
let's just get one thing clear: the gameplay is absolutely abysmal here. i feel as though no one argues it, and if i argue this point too much, i'll be preaching to the choir. i'll just touch on the big problems: combat is far too easy to steamroll (ESPECIALLY for a survival horror game), resource management is a nonissue (you start with an infinite ammo weapon and can very trivially get multiple), enemy variety is lacking, level design is aesthetically and mechanically dull, aiming the weapons just feels bad and unresponsive, and those interactions with the raincoat killer are gigantic wastes of time at best. i wouldn't even be so down on it if it was giving anything beyond obligation. i was able to beat thomas and both of george's forms without taking any damage, and all of forrest's forms only taking damage once. this wasn't because i was masterful at the game, but instead because the game is excruciatingly undemanding and will bend over backwards to make damage avoidable. and the addition of hunger and sleep meters does nothing to elevate the gameplay, and they're both laughably easy to circumvent (food regenerates near at least like two different easy to access places you can sleep, making managing either of those meters trivial)
i don't necessarily want the game to be harder, i just want gameplay to have a point. every time i had to do a combat section, it felt like it was just padding the game length out and making me do a giant pointless and germane shooting gallery between story beats. if you're going to make me do these sections, make them either meaningful or challenging. it's a survival horror game (or at least, it's attempting to be), surely there's nothing wrong with a little difficulty? i hate to be a pedant, but the worst part of this video game is when i actually have to play it, because it engages me on the least amount of levels in the most pedestrian ways possible.
and in the context of the story, it also sort of loses me with how much of these combat sections are meant to be interpreted literally. does everyone see that the town goes apeshit insane after midnight for 6 hours? if so, why do any of its residents not comment on it at all? when emily goes up the clock tower and has to kill shadows for the first time, why does she not react with some level of confusion or otherwise horror? these aren't the most important questions to answer, but considering i had been going through most of the game going "okay, york is the only person experiencing this shit", only for the game to yank the rug from under me later is. . . well it's just borderline plot hole-y, but whatever, i'm not that type of person. what i'm more bothered by is that so many considerations went in to making this world feel immersive and lived in, and yet basic story questions like this go completely unanswered.
beyond that, the story itself is. . . well i don't love it, but it's something. i might still be processing it, but so much of it apes the setting and characters of twin peaks, while largely failing to interpret them in unique ways that set itself apart from twin peaks fanfiction. i love dumb characters like sigourney or jack, but they feel like retreads of twin peaks characters that already exist. and then you have the game taking characters like thomas, who is obviously meant to be the game's andy, and giving them a trans woman reveal and it feels very. . . shocking for shock value's sake. at least they didn't do anything especially bad with a reveal like that, because i kept holding my breath waiting for some silence of the lambs-esque dialogue. but, at the same time, no one even utters the word "trans" and if you deleted all the aspects of femininity from thomas' character, the reveal of him being george's lover would function exactly the same. it's so pointless on a certain level, why introduce these sensitive issue topics and then utterly fail to comment on them? i don't hate it, i just don't get what they were going for.
and maybe i'm just not big brained enough, but this game suffers from the "it's a mystery you largely can't solve until the story wants to tell you who the culprit is" issue that a lot of video games tend to. there's a difference between "information is doled out as the setting is explored" and "the main character is now going to tell us in no uncertain terms who the killer is because of a handful of logical leaps". we're absolutely certain that george was thomas' lover because the G in his heart G tattoo could only refer to george, god forbid. and george himself has a borderline nonsensical motivation. i think the execution of these reveals is very poor, but the game at least manages to earn some points in that it's being very earnest and sincere in said execution. C- for the results, but A for effort.
i have been internally wondering to myself "should this game have been a different genre?" and not coming up with a successful answer. it feels like an actual misnomer to call this a survival horror, the third person shooting feels very bad as mentioned, and the open world, while lovingly crafted at points, is a nightmare to traverse until you get either the radio or car upgrades (not to mention how the game just does not handle driving up hills even competently). this game largely feels like it has gameplay because it has to have some type of engagement with the player, but it simultaneously feels very unfitting. in many ways, this is one of the worst games i've played, because it's such a step backwards for games as a medium. this is a video game that very desperately wants to be a TV series, a movie, or even a book. it squanders the unique presentational aspects that video games have over any other art form, and, as a result, feels reductive. i enjoyed my time with deadly premonition, but i don't think i could ever recommend this game to someone who actually values gameplay above all else in their games. i can look past the dogshitness of all of it, but i shouldn't have to.
beyond that, i don't have much to say. it's a bad port and genuinely should not even be listed on steam considering how unplayable it is. console versions are so poorly optimized it gives me a headache, which is saying something considering how rarely i pay attention to that sort of thing. another thing: director's cut added a framing device that i think adds absolutely nothing to the story and serves no purpose other than to be a cryptic framing device. lastly, the york/emily romance thing just didn't work at all for me and felt very "we're both young and attractive leads in the story, we're obligated to fall in love now". i will say i didn't see the resolution to that coming, but, then again, who on earth could?
ah well. for literally all the awful things i have said about this game, i enjoyed it, and i will likely be thinking about it for a lot of time to come. it's weird in a charming way that is almost impossible to hate, and as much as it feels like a video game that resents being a video game, it is unlike many games i've played. being unique in itself isn't always a good thing, but as a selling point? you really can't get much better than that.