Fleeting Obsessions

I finished playing Deadly Premonition several days ago. If you aren’t familiar with it is an open world horror game, something of a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil/Silent Hill type games. I’d call it survival horror, but since there is plenty of unlimited ammo weaponry that you can pick up, I think I’ll just stick with horror. It was great fun.  I had really meant to do a lot more of the side missions, but around episode 3 the game just starts to propel you forward so I did not end up doing nearly as many as I had intended to do. Thankfully, you can go back and replay chapters to do any side quests you missed the first time that are only available in certain chapters. And then after the game’s conclusion you can continue to wander the game world and so do more side missions then.

The interesting thing is that I find myself doing them now. Normally, when I finish a game’s main story, that’s it. I’m done. For example, when I finished up Mass Effect 2, there were still a ton of side missions that I could go and do, but I have zero interest in doing them and no interest at all in the DLC either.  Even Fallout 3, which is by far my favorite game, became less interesting to me once I had completed the final story-related quest (i.e. the Broken Steel DLC) But Deadly Premonition inhabits such a quirky wonderful place and I find the protagonist so charming that I just want to spend more time with him, so I’ve been wandering back into earlier chapters to play whatever side quests appeal to me. The Emily quests are a “MUST DO”.

Now a few thoughts for the End game. *SPOILERS BELOW*

SPOILERS

Reaction to the endgame:

I utterly loathed the final boss battles, but I am really horrible at Quicktime events. It’s like my fingers refuse to process what my mind is registering, so even though it clearly shows A on screen, I still hit X. This is very frustrating and it took me hours to get through those last few battles. My biggest issue, I think, is that I was panicking and therefore hitting the buttons too fast and too soon and so screwing up. Once I finally slowed down though, it was much better. That damn section that had you running down staircases though just about killed by left forearm. Ouch! That was so unnecessarily tedious.

That said, I can ignore all that because I found the rest of it really great. The whole situation with Emily and Zach/York teared me up a bit. I was verklempt!

I think this is one area in particular where Deadly Premonition really shines. The game is such a diamond in the rough, but I disagree completely with the idea that it is so bad it is good. No, it is just good. Unpolished in many ways, but like a diamond there is plenty of sparkling goodness to be revealed if it is cut just right. The relationship between Emily and York is really well done. Even more so, really, if you have done the Emily side missions beforehand. I actually was much more involved in this relationship than I was in the relationship I had to cultivate in Mass Effect 2 — where everything just seems to move ridiculously fast on the romance front. But with Deadly Premonition, it is handled with a light touch and we get most of information from the shared asides that York makes to Zach about his feelings for Emily. So when she dies, it is that much more gut-wrenching.

I gotta say, for a game that takes a very lighthearted approach to all the horror elements, the ending is an awful downer. When you stop and think about it, York didn’t save anyone at all. Sure, he killed the killers, but by that point the victims have piled up pretty high — he couldn’t even save Emily. It was quite the drag emotionally – and yet, oddly satisfying.

I haven’t really been playing video games for very long — maybe two years now — but so far, in all the games I’ve played, it is really clear that most video game developers have no idea how to conclude a story in a way that makes you feel good about the game being over. In fact, most game endings are total shit. But even though I feel that Deadly Premonition has quite a downbeat ending, it feels “right”. Although, frankly, I could do without the York/Emily afterlife thing — it makes no sense at all. She’s a ghost (I guess), but York isn’t actually REAL. I guess it is just really all a figment of Zach’s imagination, but I think they could have let it go.

PS : Two years since my last post! I figured I’d brush the dust off this journal and start posting again. Here’s to Zach for making me do it!