Review for Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 10/07/2020
The surprise we tried to see the announcement of Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise, inside another rather subdued Nintendo Direct is difficult to describe. The name Deadly Premonition pops up from time to time during video game discussions, but despite this being considered a "cult classic", not even the biggest fans of the game would have imagined a sequel: either because of the lack of success of the original, both at level of criticism and sales, either because after all there was no need for a Deadly Premonition 2, at least in terms of narrative. but yet in this summer, as scorching as the one that Francis York Morgan faces at La Carrè, the sequel to Deadly Premonition arrives exclusively on Nintendo Switch, bringing to the table an extremely complicated discussion on the quality of this title.
This Deadly Premonition 2 review is probably the most complex that this writer has ever faced. The return of York and Zach is exactly what one could expect from the premises: a title dedicated to fans of the first Deadly Premonition, with which it shares strengths and weaknesses. Due to this peculiarity, Deadly Premonition 2 is a difficult game to frame in the analysis; metaphorising the product as if it were a coin, on the one hand we have an annoying title, barely functional and with some game design choices that make you shiver from how old-fashioned even if analyzed through the lens of a fifth generation video game; on the other hand we have an irreverent, ingenious, exciting product, which makes every obvious defect an advantage towards its non-sense formula that dances on a thread in balance between Twin Peaks atmospheres and implications of Z series films . By cutting the head off, the end result is something you either love or hate.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise acts simultaneously as a prequel and sequel to the original, facing in parallel the La Carrè case dated 2005, which will take a good 85% of the game, and the life of Francis Zach Morgan in 2019, years from the Greenvale case that upset his life. The story is dealt with in the form of an interrogation, with young FBI agent Aaliyah Davis trying to extort information regarding the La Carrè murders from a retired Zach Morgan following the discovery of the body of one of the victims. Only the opening scene is emblematic of the two sides of the coin we talked about earlier: in terms of dialogue, irony and intrigue, Deadly Premonition 2 is second to very few in the industry and this is immediately evident from the very first dialogues between the two protagonists. However, even within the first scripted sections, the technical sector was at its worst.
The main, and in our opinion worst, problem is the frame-rate. The game has performance bordering on embarrassing, resulting unstable in closed spaces and stably below 20 fps in open spaces, where much of the game will take place. To this are added a plethora of bugs that could have their origin in these optimization problems, such as the fact that from time to time some commands stop working for several seconds, or the fact that some sound effects remain in constant loop until the restart of the game, even when they shouldn't even be present in certain situations. Fortunately in the open sections the combat is reduced to a minimum, and as you spend time outside the game gets to stabilize, however those few times when it will be necessary to shoot some squirrel or alligator in the streets of La Carrè and surroundings could be unpleasant to aim. in case the game has huge dips.
To this problem we must also add some problems at the graphic level, with an aesthetic sector rather dated even by the standards of Nintendo Switch: visible and annoying pop-ups and animations of very low quality level. Outside the technical sector, Deadly Premonition 2 also suffers from strange game design choices, with some rather frustrating missions not for difficulty, which is practically nothing, but for longevity.. For example, you will be asked to farm Squirrels to get their tails, with a rather low drop rate, or to check every single vendor in the city for a jar of spinach. We must also mention the limitations, probably due to the budget, that the title carries with it: very limited variety of enemies, few music tracks without particularly memorable pieces, or the strange dubbing that however we find goes well with the atmosphere of the game.
Yet, even with all these serious flaws, the game is an experience that, by the end of the credits, we loved. The missions do not improve as the adventure continues, the performances do not stabilize, and the characters continue to talk with a dubbing that almost suggests that the voice actors were holding back from laughing in front of certain lines of dialogue, but all these elements amalgamate in a exhilarating experience. As we understand Deadly Premonition 2 it seems that the game is making fun of us, yet it always manages to catch us off guard with a bad joke, a sudden plot twist or completely meaningless intuitions that however turn out to be fortuitously correct.
Hidetaka Swery does not ask to think too much about what you see, but to let yourself be carried away by his narrative, with the promise that eventually everything will make sense and, if it does not, at least you will have enjoyed following him in a world of madness. Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise, like its predecessor, recalls Twin Peaks, from which it takes full hands for characters and atmosphere, but interpreting events in its own way towards an original twist. Deadly Premonition gives its best just when it manages to break down the barrier that separates the mind of the player from that of Francis York Morgan, and leads the player to impersonate that mysterious "Zach" that York always talks to, that the players of the first chapter already they know well. The atmosphere of La Carrè is memorable thanks to its quirks: the characters are not particularly well written and explored, but they blend perfectly with the writing and help to characterize Le Carrè. The undisputed star of the game is obviously Francis York Morgan, who with his endless chatter about films that result in hilarious analyzes of the human soul, pulls the narrative of the game through the weaker parts.
However, on balance, one wonders if Deadly Premonition 2 really needs to be the kind of game it is. A graphic adventure more along the lines of The Missing, also by Swery, would have limited its many technical problems, without which today we would probably be enthusiastic about another incredible and unique game that joins the Nintendo line-up Switch. Instead, in general we are talking about a game that, objectively, deserves an insufficiency. During the credits, we were satisfied with the experience and we assure you that it will be among those that we will hardly be able to forget, but it is inevitable to think about how difficult it is to appreciate this title, how the good it has is buried by too many technical problems and not.
It is not easy to conclude an analysis on Deadly Premonition 2. It is worth living, but I foresee that few will make it to the end credits due to the amount of problems that prevent the new work of Swery, one of the most underrated directors in Japan , to finally be able to show herself to the world as Yoko Taro did thanks to Platinum Games' work with Nier: Automata. The title is highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed the first Deadly Premonition, and we'd like to tell those who appreciate the typical Japanese narrative weirdness - or those who love Twin Peaks - to give the series a chance; however anyone who has not been conquered by the first Deadly Premonition will not be able to endure this sequel, which in some features is even worse than the recent Switch port of the first title.
► Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is a game published by Rising Star Games for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 10/07/2020
