Deadly Premonition 2 is another happy disaster. Eternal loading times, a ridiculous frame rate, bugs, crashes, a collection of mechanics and shooting dynamics that look like something out of a PSP game, a very uninspired open world design and animation glitches coexist with a wonderful protagonist , an interesting plot and many meta references.
Deadly Premonition, the first, is one of those games that will always create controversy. It happens like Demon’s Souls, Metal Gear Solid V, Nier or Final Fantasy XV, although playing in another league, of course . SWERY’s works have a soul, they have intention, they want to tell something and to be relevant. The Japanese director has declared on many occasions that he wants to renew development in his country with an international vision , his own stories and expressing himself with the language of the video game. But he always achieves it only half. Deadly Premonition was able to present a special way of speaking of a people, to make humor in a very particular way and to pose a not very common plot. But unfortunately, the video game presented serious problems when driving, shooting or talking; both performance, control and technical; there were even sound issues. In the Switch version, the music sometimes disappeared and didn’t come back for a while.
But there were many of us who, despite all this, knew how to see something more than its deficiencies. Having coffee with York, under the shade of the red trees, chatting about cinema with Zach or confronting the murderer with the ax, we discover a setting, a way of narrating and some very refreshing touches. From Deadly Premonition 2 we expected more of this and also that the game would be more solid technically. Unfortunately, the surprise of the original is diluted here with a more predictable story., less twisted and that does not reach the levels of great absurdity of the original. And technically the game is much worse. Switch is not a good ally in solving the problems we were already used to, rather the opposite. Deadly Premonition 2 has decided to bet on having very rich textures for all its elements, which seems to have affected the performance of the title. Walking the streets of Le Carré, the new city, is a suffering due to the very low frame rate , with continuous drops, an unsatisfactory drawing distance and empty stages. So much so that it is not advisable to play the title on a desktop, since all this is seen in a more exaggerated way: on a large and full screen.
The playable is also still at half throttle . Francis York Morgan not only explores, talks and makes decisions to solve a ghoulish new murder case, he also goes through dungeons, shoots and takes on final bosses. All these sections are not solved with imagination, finesse or mastery. They follow the line of the original without adding any new powerful ideas , staying with a poor playable scheme, with repetitive situations and that do not work. All this does not catch the fans or those who have heard talk about both the virtues and the defects of Deadly Premonition. Me neither. Therefore, I have to admit that I have had a good time with this sequel , but I have not gotten the same impression as with the original.
A trip to the deep south
We travel through one of the metaphysical dungeons of Deadly Premonition 2 in this gameplay
Deadly Premonition 2 works on two timelines. The first is in 2019. A group of FBI investigators are looking for Francis York Morgan to ask him about an old case, one that occurred in 2005 in the deep south of America , in a small town called Le Carré. In it there has been a murder that is inevitably reminiscent of the one that happened in Greenvale: a beautiful girl has been found dead in a macabre way .
When the FBI find him in his apartment, they chat with him. The ex-agent lights a cigarette and remembers what happened by mentally traveling back to 2005 and recalling everything that has happened since the beginning. Deadly Premonition 2 is developed in four chapters, having an approximate duration of twelve hours if we do not get too distracted neither with its secondary ones nor with all the useless tasks that we can perform . In addition to investigating the crime that concerns us, we can play throw and bounce the stone into a stream, do skate tricks, build charms to improve our skills, play bowling, practice water shooting, shave, sleep, eat and shower. .
And I’m not saying that they are useless activities to say. On the one hand, SWERY himself has purposely built the Deadly Premonition bilogy by resorting to small open worlds so that we can feel the day-to-day life of the town , and this implies being able to dedicate ourselves to wasting time at will. On the other hand, because even if we strive to obtain the prizes associated with these activities, or even if we get the talismans that improve our abilities, they are not necessary . The game is not difficult enough for you to need any help. With the only pistol the game offers you, and a bit of aim , you have more than enough.
York and Zach. We are here for them
The scheme with which the chapters of Deadly Premonition 2 are built is always the same. We first have a conversation in 2019 that serves as a prologue for what we will play in 2005. The game will propose two main missions to fulfill , being able to choose which one to do first. Once resolved, it will open the way to a kind of dungeon whose nature is key in the heritage of the franchise. We will fight a boss, watch a cinematic and move on to the next episode.
But the grace of the game we all know where it is: in Francis York Morgan and his other identity: Zach. What is interesting about Deadly Premonition 2, as in the first, is York‘s particular self-awareness of the reality that surrounds him. He is an FBI agent capable of seeing ‘beyond’, and that makes it easier for him to intuit that all of reality may not be more than a video game. That makes him different from other mortals ; more carefree, given over to gambling and chaos, to the passing of time and chance. He doesn’t follow clues, he lets himself be guided by oracles, by ancient gods that no one is able to hear, by stains on coffee and by other nice delusions.
Deadly Premonition 2 is more direct, more obvious, and more eager to explain his condition than the first. The original played more of the distraction with the personality of York and Zach, which gave the game a special magic. But, in a sequel, that surprise effect wears off because you can’t replay a card you’ve already spent. That is why SWERY has preferred to abuse the oddities of his character to normalize them. This returns to give us very funny situations but without any surprise . In this episode, the director wants to offer more explanation to everything, more story and more sense of the whole until almost forgetting what made the first one special: being so Lynch in his own way. In fact, this game points more to the works of filmmaker David Cronenberg, exploring the physical and mental deformation of the individual, and leaving Twin Peaks and the surreal aside . If you do not know him, surely you remember his name from the sixth chapter of the first season of Rick and Morty: Rick’s Potion, in which The Cronenbergs appear.
A predictable but enjoyable story
Game performance is worse than originalNot only York and Zach work worse because of SWERY’s new approach to their universe, but also because Le Carré does not have a collection of secondary characters as fun as in the first. The reason is precisely because of the Western film director who is inspired on this occasion. The secondary Twin Peaks give much more game . The same thing happens to history. The big problem with it is that it is excessively obvious. It is easy to guess who the culprit is and how he managed to mislead the FBI agents shortly after meeting him.
But this is not to say that Deadly Premonition 2 has totally lost its essence, only that it has changed . York continues to do nonsense that we fall in love with, like comparing everything to movies and giving us his opinion, chasing dogs on a skateboard, scaring old women with voodoo figures or looking for the most exquisite toilet in all of Louisiana … But, again, it shows Swery has not been as comfortable or as inspired writing this new chapter as he was with the previous one. In fact, it seems that perhaps this continuation was not necessary .
Fortunately, and despite the performance and technical problems that we have already pointed out, Deadly Premonition 2 has several improvements in its interface and usability to make playing more comfortable. The secondary and main missions that we are getting appear ordered with instructions for action, there are markers to know where to go and return, and we can also put signs. There is a taxi service with fast travel to avoid having to always be up and down or spending gasoline, and the actions that we can take at all times are better marked and highlighted . However, the menus are still very cumbersome and without shortcuts to use the kits and other items, which makes the fighting even worse .
York is a better friend than a gunman
The best thing about Deadly Premonition 2 is the bullshit that its protagonist says and does and a couple of twists in his story. The worst part is having to endure repetitive, tedious and boring dungeon exploration, mixed with abominable combat. There are two dungeon layouts in the game. One is repeated up to three times and the other only once. The one that appears the most always has the same pattern: clear the area of enemies and continue advancing until you reach the final boss.
To break through we can shoot, punch and kick, but neither the mechanics are lovingly designed nor the dynamics associated with them. There are only three types of enemies that repeat themselves nonstop. That they are just these makes sense from the context , but it is still an excuse that does not work in practice. In a short time we will feel that we will be doing the same without stopping and praying that it ends quickly. Fortunately, during the exploration of these dungeons we will come to situations that are interesting . The construction of these places where we fight is based on the talent of York, they are that ‘more’ that he can see. By immersing yourself in them, you can develop your metaphysical criminal profiles, which helps yourebuild the crime scene to solve it .
Mechanically, these situations are limited to pressing buttons, but the way in which what has happened there is told does deliver pleasant moments, cool York reflections and script twists that work; But getting to them is torture because, clearly stated, fighting and shooting in Deadly Premonition 2 is more boring than in the original game. And with his zone chiefs it does not improve things. His routines are clumsy, predictable, and boring . When I already knew who the final monster was, I thought: because of how he has behaved in the video game so far, he is going to do these attacks. So it was.
SWERY, go back to Lynch
The plot is predictable and too flatI was looking forward to playing with Agent York again. Deadly Premonition seemed like a happy disaster to me, as inspiring as it is technically bad, but fascinating, original and with great value in the writing of its story and its characters. This sequel simply wants to continue with his story, talk more about his character and give us another gruesome murder story. That is, it is a much more conventional game sprinkled with details from the original; but it was those details that made us fall in love, and here they are only part of the props, not the soul of the game.
For all this, Deadly Premonition 2 is a video game that will entertain the fans of the first one but that will not leave them with the great taste of the previous one. There are not so many good things in the dialogue, in the secondary or in the situations that so many technical problems can be overlooked, again. Anyway, this is still a SWERY game and is enjoyed, but it has gone from great to just good enough.
“Loose”
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise
5.2
Readers
(2)
Deadly Premonition 2 is a pleasant return to the SWERY imaginary, but it has lost the surprise, the charm, the freshness and the unpredictability of the first. It will win over fans by the hair, but it doesn’t serve as a gateway for neophytes or reinforce your love for the franchise. For me, the real York is still in Greenvale, not Le Carré.
- The hotel concierge
- York and Zach are still among the best characters in the video game
- Some inspired conversations
- The open world rules are a mess
- Unforgivable technical problems
- A horrible and repetitive combat
- An overly predictable story
